"Yet another friction drive "inspired by Kepler

[kartopla]

Hello fellow alternative transportation addicts. I made the following trike and installed a simple friction drive on it. It's not super fast but then again riding in the streets of chicago on a trike as low as a go-cart to the ground, you don't want to go too fast. I road about 10 miles on it a few days ago down a busy street with a bike lane. I was almost squashed by a construction van. It was my fault. I was trying to follow traffic through a red light and a van on my right that was just getting a green started to go and didn't see that I was coming. Luckily I stopped and he looked down his side window at me. It's fun to ride a trike. It's very comfortable. I love the attention I get to from motorist in their big Lexus SUV's or whatever car their driving. I realize it's dangerous but the fun overcomes that. A cop was riding behind me yesterday and was trying to figure out WTF I was. He saw me peddaling but I was going pretty fast for such a slow cadence. I'm not sure if that's the right word. Well, he left me alone and turned off somewhere. What is cool about friction drive is a small part count, easy to acheive the correct ratio because the wheel is already so big. Off the line it really helps to have this drive because when I stop at a light and need to start up again I can cross the intersection pretty quick. Anyways here a link to a video of the trike.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geFoNeOeJY0

 

[evblazer]

Well I'm glad you that as your fault. The most dangerous part of riding ANY bicycle or scooter/moped/motorcycle is doing things that are on the edge that you could get away with in a car because your more easily seen as danger to other drivers therefor you actually get seen. Many recumbent two, three and even four wheelers find they get alot more room or seen more often then they do riding uprights so just be careful with what situation you put yourself in and you have a chance.

I gotta watch that video at home. I don't have sound here but it look pretty robust. How does it fair up the hills with that weight on there and are you finding it easy to balance pedaling and power or are you on one or the other? Just wondering how you were pedalling so slowly and going so fast since I don't have enough gearing for that. My legs without assist conk out at about a 130 cadence going just over 30mph or so which doesn't last too long on the flats but if I was pedalling at 50rpms i'd be going really really slow.

You know given where you put that drive I'm going to take another look at my quasilowracer and see if I can smoosh something like that in there. I know a topside gravity mount like kepler has has no chance but maybe your setup would fit in there if I can get it in there and avoid the hydrolics and chain.
Even though I already got a hub motor or two for other methods of attack the friction/roller drive seems to more easily go on/off the bike with minimal chance for damaging the bike.

 

[kartopla]

How does it fair up the hills with that weight on there and are you finding it easy to balance pedaling and power or are you on one or the other? Just wondering how you were pedalling so slowly and going so fast since I don't have enough gearing for that. My legs without assist conk out at about a 130 cadence going just over 30mph or so which doesn't last too long on the flats but if I was pedalling at 50rpms i'd be going really really slow.

You know given where you put that drive I'm going to take another look at my quasilowracer and see if I can smoosh something like that in there. I know a topside gravity mount like kepler has has no chance but maybe your setup would fit in there if I can get it in there and avoid the hydrolics and chain.
Even though I already got a hub motor or two for other methods of attack the friction/roller drive seems to more easily go on/off the bike with minimal chance for damaging the bike.

It fairs up hills fine if I'm peddaling to. I really just need to pedal from a stop to about 6mph because the friction drive will slip a little. My ratio is about 13:1 but the motor still gets quite hot. This 350 watt drive is balanced pretty well with pedalling. They compliment each other. An answer to the pedalling so slowly question is I was fake pedalling below the freewheel even engaging. I can't keep up with the motor at top end speed. Well, I hope that was helpful.

 

[Kepler]

Thanks for posting the video kartopla, I am always interested to see how people takle these projects. I can see this is a Mk1 version. Imagine how it would drive will 1000W on tap and variable contact pressure geometry.

Intersting the knurl wore off so quickly. Obvously slipping accelerates this. Contact pressure is a balancing act and its much better if you can get the laws of physics to do it for you.