Quadcycles

[RegionalChaos]

Howdy Folks,

I recently went out for a bike ride in the park with the kids and cousins, etc.. We rented some quadcycles that had motor assists. The assists would kick on automatically when you would petal. It was a relatively fun time. They had versions with 2 seats, or 2 seats in the front and a bench seat in the back. It made me think that a nice bike like that would work very well out at Burning Man. Burning Man takes place on a nice, completely flat, dry lake bed. A basic quadcycle seems like it would provide a great frame for building neat outer shell that could be very fun and artistic. There is a tremendous amount of Sun out at Burning Man, and the option of charging via solar power seems relatively viable.

Since then I've been thinking about what it would take to build one. I have been working with metal for a while now, so I think I have most of the tools I would need. I ordered the 'atomic zombie' bike building book, since it sounded like it covered a lot of the basics.

What I am left wondering about are mainly engineering questions. How strong of material do I need to use to make the frame out of? How heavy can the frame be while still allowing me to petal around, unassisted? How much weight can I support on the frame? What is a good frame design for a 2 (side-by-side) or 4 (2 in the front row, 2 in the back) seater bike?

I've been doing some research online (which is how I found this wonderful site), but have not been able to find too much. Any info about resources I should look at would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Ypedal]

http://www.chopperbicycle.net/forums/

You might want to try the forum above. these guys chop and weld all sorts of contraptions..

Depends alot on the total weight of the riders in question ? a team of sumo wrestlers vs a team of Horse Jockeys would require very different setups ! :lol:

 

[RegionalChaos]

Well, I weight in at about 210, my SO weighs a lot less. So I was thinking a 2 person max weight of 400 and 4 person max of 800.

Thanks for the link, I'll check it out. I had not seen it before.

Much appreciated!

 

[Lessss]

Quads are not legal most places. Bicycle definition usualy says not more than 3 wheels.

 

[TylerDurden]

http://www.tricolour.net/cycle.html

 

[RegionalChaos]

Quads are not legal most places. Bicycle definition usualy says not more than 3 wheels.

I'm not to worried about that out on the playa

 

[Geebee]

Did you check out the Kyoto cruiser at Atomic Zombie?
Only 3 wheels but it is a side by side tandem and they have full plans for a very low cost.
It will be lighter than a quad as the frame does not suffer the same torsional stressses.

 

[RegionalChaos]

Geebee, yea, that is very similar to what I have been thinking about. Thanks! I actually hadn't seen it before. I had found the atomic zombie book, but not the website.

Thanks!

 

[RegionalChaos]

I like this one a lot:

 

[numberonekiwi]

What about something like this from solarbbq web site?
not sure about price thou

http://www.users.bigpond.com/solarbbq/newproducts.htm

it is not quite what you want with only one front seat but it is a start

 

[Geebee]

The E-taxi maybe registerable in Australia with a bit of work as the requirements for trikes are much lower than for cars.
Anyone have any more info on them?

 

[CGameProgrammer]

Quadcycles *are* legal but they're not street-legal. But he's not riding it on public roads so there's no problem.

 

[xyster]

Quadcycles *are* legal but they're not street-legal. But he's not riding it on public roads so there's no problem.

If he's planning to ride in Eugene, he can just hide amongst the throngs of drunk UofO college students and rotting, saturday-fair hippies.

 

[RegionalChaos]

If he's planning to ride in Eugene, he can just hide amongst the throngs of drunk UofO college students and rotting, saturday-fair hippies.

Pretty much

We do have some lovely bike paths here though. Many, many miles run along the river.

 

[xyster]

If he's planning to ride in Eugene, he can just hide amongst the throngs of drunk UofO college students and rotting, saturday-fair hippies.

Pretty much

We do have some lovely bike paths here though. Many, many miles run along the river.

Yep. I used to live in Eugene. A beautiful, unique, eclectic eccentric town.

 

[Dalecv]

RegionalChaos, you could check out the Center for Alternate Transportation, CAT, at 1st and Washington. They build some pretty unique bikes and could probably give you some information.

Oregon traffic laws apply to any place that is open to the public so the bike path would have the same rules as the roads.

So xyster, you moved out of Eugene to where men are men and sheep run scared? :lol:

 

[xyster]

So xyster, you moved out of Eugene to where men are men and sheep run scared? :lol:

Something like that. I went to UO for a couple terms and delivered pizza for TrackTown Pizza. I once delivered pizzas to Rep. Peter DeFazio (D). Though tipping the pizza dude was customary, and my service was (of course) prompt and courteous, DeFazio didn't tip me -- thus began my disillusionment with politicians. :wink:
While on risky Eugene special-ops pizza delivery missions, my personal car was wrecked by an uninsured drunk driver (who wasn't me), and I hit a hippie on a bicycle who pedaled out in front of me -- he was high-as-a-kite, refused help, and pedaled off on his pretzeled bicycle.
And those are just the boring stories from my time in Eugene -- the exciting stories I don't remember so well.

 

[Dalecv]

Good pizza I am going to have some delivered this afternoon while watching Oregon play Fresno State in football.

DeFazio is cheap but principled, for years he has donated to charity every pay raise that congress has passed for themselves citing conflict of interest or something. He still drives his old 1960s Plymouth when he is home.

 

[xyster]

Getting back to quadcycles, might want to take a look at this:
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2007/09/charles-greenwo.html

 

[RegionalChaos]

I've been to CAT before. I agree, they are great. I was figuring I would hit them up for parts, but they would likely be a good info resource to. You are right!

I'm a big fan of DeFazio. He works hard. Sorry to hear he didn't tip too well though!

That human powered car deal was great. Very creative. I like the rowing machine style propulsion. It had some good clear shots of the frame too, which was a plus for me.

 

[flip_normal]

Hi RegionalChaos,

I actually bought one of these on uk ebay a couple of years ago. http://www.zem.ch/en/

It was a bit of an impulse buy, I picked it up real cheap and it's virtually as new! The chains arn't even dirty! I had the idea of putting electric assist on it till I checked out the law and that says it can't be over 80kgs and it already weighs that. Soooo, it's been stored in my brother's workshop/shed (I can't keep it here in London as I haven't got a garage and I'm worried it'll get stripped if I leave it on the street) so i've only used it a few times, to go to his local village pub on. Always end up taking people from the pub on trips around the village, great fun, get comments like how many miles to the pint do you get. :wink: Sorry to rabbit on but I'm at a bit of a loss what else to do with it. Anywho there's some good pics where you can see the chassis on their site. Hope this helps, good luck with the build. Post some pics when you get something together.

 

[moggy]

I have added a motor to a quad see photos http://s161.photobucket.com/albums/t209/wwmoggy/

I used the motor and controls from my spare mobility scooter

 

[RegionalChaos]

Dang Moggy, That looks great! How long did it take to assemble? Did you use EMT for the tubing?

So does yours flip! I like thinking about miles per pint, at least when dealing with a bike and the open playa

Well I went down to CAT and started poking around. Then found out they toss out bikes on a regular basis. Now I just check their can once every few days or so. I've picked up 4 or 5 bikes / frames / wheels etc... So I'm ready to start chopping and building.

I decided to do a couple recumbents that are outlined in the zombie book as practice. I also picked up some 16 gauge square tubing to practice welding with the material I will use.

The first recumbent is a basic chop and modify. The second has you build the frame from tubing (I'll use the 16 gauge 2"x2" square tubing, one of the local scrap yards has some at 40 cents a pound or something..). By then I figure I should have the practice assembling to build the quad.. After building the quad I'll drop the motor on it. Pheww! Sounds like work

Should be good fun. I'll try to post pics when I do something productive.

 

[moggy]

I did not build it .
about 4 years ago I saw it being unloaded off a truck . as the news owners where moving in to the house the road. and then never saw it again .
. as was I was passing the house back in september the owner came and asked about the bike. he said his wife died in the spring and he no longer
wanted the bike when I asked the price for it .the reply is its mine just take it
it had been in a shed for 4 years and had 4 flats the ti rod for the front wheels was missing aslo the back rest & the surrey top cover is also missing.
the seat was falling apart. ( the plywood had delaminated ) and the vinal was torn . and rust was spreading over the chrome and frame .
from what I have been told the bike bought used in 1988 for $250 from center Island toronto where it had been used as a rental bike .

the label on the bike is Victor quadricycle Inc willowdale ontario . I have had no luck finding any info on this company .

[/img]

 

[Desertprep]

Quadcycles are more of a nuisance or danger. Nuisance because they are too wide to use on most bikepaths - they will block traffic in both directions, and dangerous because they are too slow to use on public streets - cars will be beeping at you, trying to pass you...but...they are fun