have had some very fun excursions on rail trails , disused railways turned into pedestrian/bike paths. The trails typically go through very beautiful areas and rarely do you have to concern yourself with motorized traffic of any kind. Reader Will appears to be interested in rails as well, but he wants to ride on them - literally. Check it out - Will included the following text - A rail-bike is a bicycle that has been modified to be able to ride on the rails of a railroad. The front wheel has a device attached to it so that the bike won’t steer off the rail while an outrigger is used to support the bike using the other rail. I used conduit, cut up “razor” scooters parts, one bike fork two bits of steel and numerous nuts, bolts, washers and retaining pins. Nothing is welded. The hardest part is getting the spacing right so that friction and play are minimized. A lot of person hours certainly went in to this working model and the details are pretty amazing. [Keep re
Clever. Drive on the front wheel to pull you through would be great, though adding weight and complexity.
ReplyDeleteI did not see how the front-drive was connected on the video or site (http://www.kateleeming.com/).
I found a link to the drive system through the brochure on her site:
http://www.christini.com/awd-technology/about-the-technology
http://www.kateleeming.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/BTC-Sponsor-Pitch-Generic-2013-04-18_No-BBC_CvP-Rev-C.pdf
Ahh... Power for the front comes from the left-side of the rear wheel, through a drive-shaft through the frame, to "counter rotating bevel gears located within the head tube", to rotating stanchions down the fork. Clever, and the builder certainly knows much I do not, but I am left with nagging questions:
ReplyDelete- complex much?
- field maintenance?
- why is the front driven off the rear wheel and not the left-side of the crank? It's closer, so there should be less power loss, no?
Thanks for the links! I couldn't tell if those were studded tires or not.
ReplyDelete