YikeBike

[trikeman]

This is pretty cool, but it looks like if you hit a curb or rock you may go face down. About $4,900 - ouch!

http://www.yikebike.com/

[SirJoey]

Being able to fold it up & carry it around like that is pretty kool, but not 5 large worth of kool.
Anybody that'd pay that much for that thing is even dumber than me paying 3 large for a Rhoades car... :rolleyes:


http://img384.imageshack.us/img384/7131/sirjoeysigmedij1.gif

[cncman333]

Yes very pricey, but the engineering that went into that thing is amazing.

[badcheese]

It looks like a fun little ride. It has me thinking about building a miniature USS penny farthing with a 26" wheel in front and a 16" wheel in back (or smaller?). I can imagine two fun ways to do it:

1) Put a hub motor and foot pegs in front. It would be a poor man's Yikebike. The thing I like about it (besides being unusual) is that it's probably the smallest electric bike you could build that would still put you at eye level with other bikes and pedestrians, and give you the speed of a 26" wheel.

2) Put a crank on it, like a traditional penny farthing or unicycle, but driving a geared hub instead of driving the wheel directly (which always was the limiting factor of a penny farthing). Then it might actually be a really practical alternative to a folding bike for getting around in the city.

As for hitting a curb or rock, it looks much safer than a traditional bike, because you are more upright and don't have handlebars in front, so you'd probably land on your feet running instead of diving over the bars and landing on your face.

[Locutus]

Speaking of folding bikes...

Hey Brad, any folding bike plans on the horizon?

[badcheese]

Apparently they licensed the basic design from Mini-Farthing, which is meant to be pedal-powered:
http://www.minifarthing.com/site/

[Lunas'Harold]

On the last post by BadCheese :

Re: YikeBike

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apparently they licensed the basic design from Mini-Farthing, which is meant to be pedal-powered:
http://www.minifarthing.com/site/

This web site had conseptual renderings that I think should be of interest to inner city planners. That would be elevated bikeways.

I like the idea of this personal people mover but as SirJoey points out :

Re: YikeBike

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Being able to fold it up & carry it around like that is pretty kool, but not 5 large worth of kool.
Anybody that'd pay that much for that thing is even dumber than me paying 3 large for a Rhoades car...


I too went that way once. So way am glad that I found the "Atomic Zombie Zone".

Now to figure out what to get first and where to start so that I can become a "Lunas'Harold Zombie". Also any thoughts on the type of welding that I should learn ie: electric or gas?

Where do I find a dealer for 2" tubular steel is the southeastern U.S.ofA. preferably in florida to cut down on shipping costs?

My questions are many, my horizion looks Zombiefied!

Thank you for listening to my humble opinons, and thanks also for any responses to my quiers.

Lunas'Harold :sunny:

The :sunny: needs to be a luna for me but will sufice since I live in Florida.

[trikeman]

What type of welding you should learn (first?) is a question that will get you as many answers as there are welders. I have an old Miller AC/DC Thunderbolt stick welder ($200 off Craigslist), a Lincoln 175 MIG ($350 off Craigslist), and five oxy-acetylene torches (also Craigslist and eBay finds, but about $500 if you include the tanks). At least a few of our members here also have TIG welders.

My favorite type of welding is the oxy-acetylene torch. You can see the weld puddle quite well and its a very civilized and calm process. http://www.airbum.com/articles/ArticleZenWelding.html You can weld almost any metal with a torch, and you can braze with it should you want to create ultra-light chomoly frames. You can also bend forks and such with it. The downside is its a bit harder to learn than MIG and the tanks are expensive and can kill ya if you get careless or stupid. Antique torch collecting can be as addictive as bike collecting, so be forewarned.

TIG is similar to oxy-acetylene welding, without the need for explosive gases, cleaner, but not quite as versatile (IMO), and a bit more expensive. If you enjoy sitting under a flourescent light with a badly humming ballast, you will love TIG (ROFL and only kidding OMO).

Stick welding is the cheapest, but probably the most difficult to master. I recomend that if you go that route you find yourself a good used Miller, Lincoln, or other name brand AC/DC stick off Craigslist for $150-$200. Others prefer the $100 Harbor Freight stick route. I do like the Harbor Freight 7014 1/16" welding rods, and they are very easy to use. Brad uses an AC stick welder exclusively (A Miller with 6013 rods I believe). The little Harbor Freight Inverter stick welder for $119 is cute as a button and only weighs 8 pounds.

Wire welders are the easiest to master IMO. You can chose to go with flux core only, but is messier with lots of smoke. You can weld outside with flux core, however. I started with a new Hobart 140 MIG using flux core only and was quite happy with it. I paid $375 for it a few years ago from Tractor Supply, but the have gone up some in price since then. I later added a CO2 tank and regulator to it to I could use solid core wire inside and get prettier welds. I think you can get a pretty good Craigslist deal ($250) on a name brand MIG, sans tank, if you shop.

I have enjoyed trying all the welding processes.

So, in case that hasn't confused you enough, what would I do if I had it all to do over again today? If money were no object, I would probably to oxy-acetylene or TIG, just because I enjoy the clean easy to see process. If I were looking to do get the easiest to learn, I would go with a MIG or flux core wire feeder, and I would buy used off Craigslist. If I just wanted to get in cheap, I would buy either a cheap Harbor Freight invertor stick, or a used name brand stick off Craigslist. Most any welder can handle the 16 ga metal we mostly deal with here.

Most large or medium sized towns have steel suppliers. Either look in your phone book or Google it. The better source is to ask on either the Hobart Weldtalk or MillerWelds forum, since there are probably people there that weld all the time and know your town. Its helpful if you put your location in your profile (hint). That is how I found these guys here in Atlanta:

http://www.imsgasteel.com/

Enjoy.

[badcheese]

I can't get the mini farthing idea out of my head now. I found a company that makes geared hubs for unicycles, which is exactly what you would need to make a practical mini farthing. Surprise: They're Swiss! Problem is the hubs cost about US$1000.
http://www.schlumpf.ch/schlumpf_engl.htm

I would love to figure out how to adapt an ordinary hub gear for this.

They also make planetary geared cranks, which would be great for recumbents with a small drive wheel, which tend to run out of gears for the top end.

Interesting but expensive.

[likebikes]

A lot of money just to do a face plant in front of a bunch of onlookers!:rolleyes4:
A man might land on his feet BC but I wouldn't bet my fron t teeth on it!:cheesy:

[Odd Man Out]

I found a company that makes geared hubs for unicycles, which is exactly what you would need to make a practical mini farthing. Surprise: They're Swiss! Problem is the hubs cost about US$1000.

Interesting but expensive.

Actually they are bottom bracket cartridges for bikes that change your pedalling ratio with the push of a button. You can get them for as "low" as $600. If I was independantly wealthy I would build a DW with a Schlumpf on the front and a Rohloff on the back -- non derailer bliss!

[PeterT]

I have the rohloff hub, (AU$2000.oo) but am waiting for the pocket money for the Schlumpf!

Then my next Streetfighter won't have any derailuer setup problems

PeterT

[badcheese]

This is pretty cool, but it looks like if you hit a curb or rock you may go face down.

A lot of money just to do a face plant in front of a bunch of onlookers!:rolleyes4:
A man might land on his feet BC but I wouldn't bet my fron t teeth on it!:cheesy:

If I go around ramming into curbs on ANY bike, I'm probably going to crash. It happens so infrequently that I can't even remember the last time I crashed into a curb on a bike unintentionally. But with a DF bike I would be in more danger than on a mini farthing, because I would get tangled in the handlebars, so I couldn't land on my feet, and the riding position would have me already leaning forward to hold the handlebars. Ordinary penny farthings are even more dangerous than that because in addition to the handlebar problem, the rider is high above the ground. A mini farthing doesn't suffer from these problems. The rider is at standing height, and the handlebars are behind them. The only thing I can see to be concerned about is that the front wheel is not very far ahead of your center of mass, so if you brake hard (or crash into curbs, if that's how you get your kicks) you're going to come off the bike. To me that means that it's not safe to ride it faster than running speed, because if you come off and your legs can't move fast enough to stay underneath you, you're going to fall.

A good comparison would be to a skateboard. A skateboard puts the rider in an upright position, roughly standing height above the ground, no handlebars in the way, and if the front wheels hit a curb or rock, the skateboard stops and the rider lands on their feet running. If their legs can't keep up because they were moving too fast, they fall. One difference is that a skateboard has tiny hard wheels that can get caught by sidewalk cracks or little pieces of gravel. A 26" bicycle wheel would be able to roll over such small bumps.

As long as you don't ride faster than running speed, you may not even need brakes. If you have to stop fast, just dismount.

[Odd Man Out]

Ah but you forget one thing -- most of us are not in the same "condition" as your average skateboard rider; young and fit with the reflexes of a gazelle and the balance of a ballerina...

[trikeman]

I don't know if its more or less dangerous than a skateboard, but I agree that many of us here are now at an age where we wisely stay off skateboards.

As badcheese discusses, what I see when I look at that thing is a large mass (your upper body) moving at a pretty high rate of speed sitting directly above a large pivot, which is the front wheel. Do anything to slow that front wheel quickly and you will create a large torque (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torque) (moment) that wants to plant your face on the concrete as it rotates about the front wheel. Maybe you can jump off quickly enough, and maybe not. I'd at least wear a full face helmet with it.

On a normal bicycle, you have a lot of weight sufficiently behind the front wheel to create a counter-moment opposing the rotation. You may still go over the bars, or rotate the back wheel off the ground, but its less likely due to simple physics.

Someone has put a lot of money into development and advertising on it though. I wonder what they had to pay to insure the manufacturer? If I were an ambulance chaser (lawyer) I would get a list of customers who have bought one.

[badcheese]

As badcheese discusses, what I see when I look at that thing is a large mass (your upper body) moving at a pretty high rate of speed sitting directly above a large pivot, which is the front wheel. Do anything to slow that front wheel quickly and you will create a large torque (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torque) (moment) that wants to plant your face on the concrete as it rotates about the front wheel.

But your mass is not connected to the pivot. The rest of the bike will pivot around the front wheel, but your body is just perched on top of it, so as the bike stops and pivots around its front wheel, your momentum will simply carry your body straight forward in your direction of travel. If the bike had handlebars in front to catch you at the waist, it would be a different story.

[trikeman]

But your mass is not connected to the pivot. The rest of the bike will pivot around the front wheel, but your body is just perched on top of it, so as the bike stops and pivots around its front wheel, your momentum will simply carry your body straight forward in your direction of travel. If the bike had handlebars in front to catch you at the waist, it would be a different story.

A valid point, unless a panicked rider has a death grip on the bars. Maybe that is why they didn't put a horn on the saddle.

[Odd Man Out]

Come on guys

The only way to resolve this is for each of you to build one and test it by running full speed into a curb...

With video of course :devil::punk::jester:

[ken will]

The only way to resolve this is for each of you to build one and test it by running full speed into a curb...

And be sure to tighten your toe clips.. you don't want your feet to accidentally come off the pedals...

[PeterT]

and install a safety belt as well, you can't be too safe you know! :jester:

[Radical Brad]

The safest bike I have ever built was the 12 foot tall SkyWalker.
I know that sounds like a joke, but I mean it.

Brad

[badcheese]

And be sure to tighten your toe clips.. you don't want your feet to accidentally come off the pedals...

Call me old fashioned, but I don't trust toe clips. I was planning to duct tape my feet to the pedals.

[badcheese]

The safest bike I have ever built was the 12 foot tall SkyWalker.
I know that sounds like a joke, but I mean it.

Brad

I feel pretty safe on stilts (as long as I'm strapped in with duct tape, and that's really not a joke), and I don't doubt that Skywalker is safe. I've been planning to build a 10-foot+ tall bike for about a year or so, but I have no place to store it. I have some lengths of steel tube gathering dust until I can figure that out.

I do have space to store a mini farthing, and I have every intention of building one. I just need a spare weekend and a few odd parts. It will take me a couple months to get around to it. I think I've even figured out how to pedal it through a hub gear. If I'm lucky I'll find a thrift store bike with an old Sturmey Archer 3-speed to experiment with. I'm aiming to use a 27" wheel on the front, and it looks like I can order a 12" wheel for the rear.

Having a bike with multiple gears but no chain at all would be pretty cool. A similar setup could be used for a front wheel drive recumbent. You'd still have pedal steer, but I really like the simplicity of having the entire drivetrain, cranks and all, In the front wheel.