ID:115733
Jul 11 2011, 12:49 pm (Edited on Feb 4 2012, 3:01 am)
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Finally had a chance to get the windscreen and top installed, and not a moment too soon - local weather turned wet the following day.
Found some Coraplast panels in black for the sides, so now I'm all set for the winter...as soon as I figure out which headlights to use! :) Several people in Copenhagen have already commented that it reminds them of Japanese Bullet Trains:  | |||||||
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Jul 11 2011, 1:49 pm
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Yusuke13
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Ride on little mouse! Ride on..
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Gotta admit, looks pretty cool. I'm curious as to how it handles.
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Won't you still get pretty wet from water splashing up the front tires? Or are there little mudflaps or something not visible from that side profile?
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Fugsnarf wrote:
Gotta admit, looks pretty cool. I'm curious as to how it handles. Because of the extra weight on the nose now, it does tend to understeer at speeds above 15 kph (~10 mph). This appears to go away when I have more weight in the back, for example when doing the weekly food shopping and loaded with bottled water and liters of orange juice. It goes around corners like a go-kart on rails during those rides. A more balanced trike is a happy trike! :) I have independent disc-brakes on the front wheels, so when unloaded I just use more of the inside brake when turning, to help 'swing' the trike around the corner. I am considering adding a rear brake for even more control, and for a bit of drifting fun, like i used to have on my old Anthrotech trike: https://picasaweb.google.com/jimm.pratt/LeitraTech which is now retired as a cycle-taxi: https://picasaweb.google.com/jimm.pratt/ RecumbentCycleTaxiImages :) Another solution to the understeering is to make the fairing out of carbon-fibre, making it half the weight - which is on the list for next year I think. This version is all glass-fibre with extra strips of carbon-fibre and glass-fibre embedded at stress-points. In straight-line runs above 25 kph, the nose settles the whole trike down, making it very stable. Unfortunately the current gear-tooth size in the front limits me to about 40 kph @ 100 rpm (pedal speed), so I haven't really been able to find out *my* personal max speed. On the downhill, however, I did record 74.6 kph just outside Greenwich, UK in May, using the prototype fairing (wheels exposed). I bet I could break 80 kph easily with this new fairing, and get 50 kph on the flats with some taller gearing. | |
Xioden wrote:
Won't you still get pretty wet from water splashing up the front tires? Or are there little mudflaps or something not visible from that side profile? yeah you probably can't see them unless you zoom in, but there are mud/splash guards on all the wheels. the fronts have an extra 'flap' on the backside (like what truckers use), but i think in those photos i've shown, the flaps were removed for maintenance. | |
gah- the blogs are dead? can't seem to find a way to post a new blog entry. :/
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doh! just noticed that my blog is now filtered into 'Off-Topic'. nevermind! :D
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^ thought you never left lol :) also do you still have the bike?
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yep! can be seen here: https://picasaweb.google.com/103124336912395863201/ NomadWildcat
and converted the old recumbent trike into a 4-wheeled cycle taxi: https://picasaweb.google.com/103124336912395863201/ 2012CycleTaxi people love riding in it - have been making about $100-$150 a day, on average, in ride fares. | |
A.T.H.K wrote:
^ thought you never left lol :) Lurking off-n-on does not mean i keep up with *everything* :P | |
Hehe
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digitalmouse wrote:
people love riding in it - have been making about $100-$150 a day, on average, in ride fares. Wow, that's pretty cool! How much do you charge? Also, you must be in really good shape. | |
Digi has the body that rocks the party.
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Complex Robot wrote:
How much do you charge? in US money, $5 to start, then 5 cents per minute. sometimes a fixed amount can be agreed on before starting. Also, you must be in really good shape. i guess the lower body is the direction of Lance Armstrong (but i have all my testicles), although the tummy still suffers from sit-in-front-of-the-computer-all-winter-bear syndrome. still working on that. i tip the scales at 95kg (about 209 lbs) - i'm guessing 1/3 of that is probably leg muscle. | |
