Treadmill motor push trailer

[REdiculous]

Didn't get it on the road today. I think I finally got the chain alignment issue mostly sorted but at really high speed it'll still throw the chain. I was gonna get a video of it but my Flip Ultra decided to die. WTF. Tried new batteries and holding the power button for 10 seconds and all that BS and it's still not working. I guess I'm taking it back tomorrow. I paid $99 for the 4GB Flip UltraHD and I just found the Flip MinoHD 8GB is $99. If I can get my money back I'll order a MinoHD.

I wanted to get a vid of it on the bench and see if I could work out the wheel rpm so I could figure the speed at which the chain flies. It seemed insanely fast but I was looking mostly at the motor-side.

I did move the charger forward so it's away from the chain and I shortened its wires. I cleaned up the rest of the wire mess too. But, now that the extension is on top the battery cables aren't protected so they may scrape if I'm not careful. I dunno if I wanna try to route them over the top or not. Maybe I can make a little skid plate.

Oh, I welded the inverter to the metal strip that holds the front battery and charger down. Just a few tack welds so I could get rid of the bungees that were holding the inverter before. More soliderer and looks cleanerer.

And I sliced my thumb open so was bleeding pretty much all day...I kept re-opening it. Ugh.

 

[REdiculous]

Returned the dead 4GB Flip UltraHD and got my $100 back. Ordered the 8GB Flip MinoHD with AC charger and carrying case for $80. Hopefully the Mino lasts more than 4 days. :lol:

edit..

Today's ride went well enough. My back tire was a little low so I didn't push it too fast. There's a bunch more bounce compared to the first version. I've got an idea to reinforce the forks to eliminate the bounce. I can stick a gooseneck in the pink part, upside down from normal, and run from that to at least mid-way on the silver forks with something. Also, I think if I bend the forks toward the ground at the dropouts that'll lift the trailer a little which would be nice...obviously I'd do that before adding the extra supports.

 

[REdiculous]

Couldn't bend the forks but I did add the gooseneck and supports. Even though I burnt the shit out of my hand, I gotta say it looks good. Hopefully the neck has enough ground clearance because I didn't really check it. Now I gotta think about how I can stiffen the rest of the frame.

I took a bunch of ibuprofen, my hand has been in ice water for about 3hrs and it's still killin' me....damn.

 

[amberwolf]

I took a bunch of ibuprofen, my hand has been in ice water for about 3hrs and it's still killin' me....damn.

Aloe Vera. Use some of the raw plant, not the cream stuff that has maybe a zillionth of a percent of a molecule in there. :lol:

Take a leaf from the plant, cut or broken off at the wide base of the leaf, right at the plant. Slice the leaf open along one edge, and peel it open like opening a book.

Rub the whole thing, gooey side on your hand, all over the burns. If possible, take multiple leaves and wrap your entire hand up in them, bandaging them around it to keep the gooey gel in contact with your skin.

After an hour or so, take them off, then squish up all the gel that's on the leaves with your fingers, and smear it all around your burns. Wet the bandages, then reapply them loosely to keep the gel moist, as it works better when it isn't dried out.

It'll stink after a while, but just leave it on for a few hours, at least. Repeat the whole procedure for a day or two, and those burns will heal much better and faster, and be less painful while they are doing so.

 

[REdiculous]

I left it in ice water for about 4 hrs and when I ran out of ice I switched to sunburn gel. The gel has lidocaine, tea tree oil and aloe - I added rubbing alcohol. Blowing on the gel evaporates the alcohol and keeps it cool. About 20mins later it was calmed enough to go to sleep. The trick with the alcohol only works after soaking the burn because otherwise it'll dry the skin too much.

It hurt a lot worse than it really is...no major blister or fluid buildup. As long as I don't tear it open it should be healed in a few days.


I might make new dropouts for the fork and there's just a couple more welds to touch up. New dropouts would make the connection more solid and I could increase ground clearance a bit too.

 

[REdiculous]

My Flip MinoHD is still in transit so you'll have to excuse the pic quality, but this is where it's at now....



The gooseneck is about 2" off the ground and since it'll drag before anything else I kept the wiring running underneath. I used the red angle iron to run the extension in-line with the original 2x4". I put the slightly lighter 18ah battery up front laying down and the 20ah in the back standing up. The supports I added to the silver fork make that part really rigid. The inverter doubles as the bracket that holds the battery and charger down.

I'm still thinking about doing something to the dropouts so it's a little more securely mounted. It works the way it is, but it's nowhere near as secure as the old hitch....I didn't even have to tighten up the old hitch for it to be secure.

I'm also thinking about redoing the motor mount and I wanna tie into the yellow forks to stiffen the frame up. I dunno if the black polycarb top is gonna find its way back on but it's a possibility. I also have a small plastic box I might add.

Yup yup.

 

[REdiculous]

My 8GB MinoHD came in the other day. The free holster thing is a little too big but the free charger is nice. I paid $80 at BuyDig.com and went with the free shipping. They called to confirm the shipping address and they sent it the day I ordered - nice. The MinoHD is slightly smaller than a 100s pack of smokes in every way and feels robust/weighty for the size. It'll shoot up to 120mins of 720p in h.264.


I can't remember if I mentioned it but I was considering ditching the SLAs. I'm probably gonna have to put that off until spring but that's fine. First it's lookin' like I'm gonna get a 4:1 reduction from Matt. That should be quieter, more efficient, smaller and way more robust than the bike sprockets/chain I've been using. I should have that paid for early next month.

Oh, I did end up adding the plastic box for a little cargo space - a big lunch for 2 should fit no prob. Also where I added supports to the chrome forks I can carry a 1 liter and a 20oz bottle so that's cool. I'll probably do a little walk-around video in the next few days but it hopefully it'll be a different beast by the end of next month.

 

[REdiculous]

I don't exactly recommend copying this, but it has been working pretty well for me when I can keep the chains on. I only tried it because I got the motor for pennies, otherwise it's got to make more sense to get a kit.

This is where it stands now...


I'm trying to get enough money together to get a more reliable reduction setup and I'll be increasing the overall ratio from 9.975:1 to 13.25:1 so it should run a little better. I just got some tubing so I'll probably totally redo the rear part of the trailer too.

Even though it isn't exactly sexy, it gets positive comments every time it's out so I can't complain too much.

 

[REdiculous]

The push-trailer project is officially dead - the electricals have been transplanted.

When I get the new bike "finished" I'll post a thread on it. I just need to order a couple sprockets and a chain so I can put the motor on.

edit; couldn't wait - new thread here.