cargocycling.org » Tech Talk

Grocery Cart Bicycle

admin — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:58:52 +0000

This is a great idea. Not sure how well it works, but you’ve got to give Ryan McFarland kudos for coming up with this idea and for recycling. He’s got tons of other interesting projects he’s built on instructables.com and his blog which is worth checking out.

The Perils of Hybrid Design - Triobike Redux

admin — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:25:58 +0000

Triobike is a Danish company that makes a family tricycle with a nifty “Multi-purpose Design” which can be converted from a tricycle to a bicycle to a stroller. On paper it has many of the design features that families are looking for such as 5 point harnesses for kids, front & rear lights, disk brakes, etc. It’s sleek minimalist European industrial design will send hearts aflutter anywhere. Who wouldn’t want a tricycle you could drive the kids to daycare with, convert into a bicycle, and then ride to work with.

However in the case of Triobike, it’s Achilles Heal may be that it does neither of it’s intended purposes very well. As a tricycle, reviewers are beginning to talk about it’s dangerously unstable ride. As a bicycle, it’s sporty design doesn’t lend itself well for city riding (no fenders, uncomfortable forward leaning style, men’s style swing over frame) Finally as a stroller it’s unwieldy bulk makes it impractical. Imagine a parent struggling to load it into a car or better yet trying to get it through the doorway of a local store with a sleeping toddler on board.

Hybrid designs in and of themselves are a neat idea. They take up less space but serve multiple purposes. However, history has been marked with endless hybrid designs that try to do too many things and fail to do any well. Airplanes that convert into a car, cars that convert into a boat, and so on.

In the case of Triobike, it’s a great idea with flawed execution. Like any groundbreaking innovative design there will be growing pains and hopefully an evolution to an ideal form. If the makers of Triobike continue to refine and iterate the design, then it has a great future. Otherwise, it’ll remain another industrial design study where style has won out over function, with the added bonus of a $3000 USD price tag.

Triobike Links:
www.triobike.com
Triobike photos by Carteco
Triobike Video

Other Luxury Cargo Tricycle Makers:
Winther Kangaroo
Nihola
MyZigo (US manufacturer)

Dual Pull Brake Lever

admin — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:13:56 +0000

I thought I’d re-post about these really cool dual pull brake levers I installed on my front load cargo tricycle (2 wheels up front 1 wheel in back). I’ve had them on the trike for about 6 months and they work great! Basically, you can run two brake cables from two different brake sets into one lever and the lever balances the pull going to both sets of brakes.

Inside the lever there is a little mechanism that balances the pull between the two brake lines. That way you have equal pressure going to both front brakes on the trike when you pull the lever. What this means for cargo tricycles is that you can have one lever that actuates both front wheels equally without any brake steering effect. Brake steering is when one wheel brakes harder than the other, which pulls the tricycle violently to the left or right when braking.

In practice, you still need to make sure that your brakes are tuned similarly. Meaning that you can’t have one brake cable totally loose with the other one completely tight and still hope that the dual pull brake lever will work it’s magic. However, if you spend the time to at least adjust your brake cables reasonably, these things work great!

If you do a Google search for “dual pull brake lever” there are a lot of companies selling these. I think I got mine for about $12 USD.

Ghetto Engineering

admin — Sat, 30 May 2009 13:36:48 +0000

Bicycle crank repaired with welded on construction rebar

Here’s a picture I took in Korea of a repaired delivery bike. Rather than throw away the bike or broken part, the owner just welded construction rebar to fix a broken crank. I love seeing old bicycles evolve and take on a life of their own. I guess when you have to use your bicycle everyday for work, it’s a completely different mindset from people using bicycles for sport. Things aren’t perfect, but they’re useful.

Aileron Trike: Tilting Three Wheeler

admin — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 00:13:38 +0000

Inventor Wayne Soohoo has been working years on a system that allows a tricycle to lean into turns. The leaning allows tricycles to go into turns at higher speeds with stability. Although it looks like there haven’t been many updates to his site for years, there is a treasure full of great information for anyone thinking of building their own leaning tricycle. Hopefully, someday we’ll see a mainstream leaning tricycle based on his designs. Keep up the great work Wayne!

Link: http://www.maxmatic.com/soohoo.htm

Atomic Zombie Bicycle Builder’s Bonanza

admin — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 01:55:14 +0000

Brad Graham and Kathy McGowan have written an amazing book called Atomic Zombie Bicycle Builder’s Bonanza. This book is a “must have” for anyone that loves to tinker and make things. Inside the book are detailed instructions and over 200 photos that teach you how to hack, modify, and build bicycles using minimal tools.

The book is written in a clear and easy to understand style that walks you through real projects ranging from playful to surreal. Anyone who loves DIY projects will love this book. After reading it, you’ll be ready for any Franken-Bike creation.

I found the book on Amazon for about $17 and they even had an electronic version available for an additional $5. It won’t compare to the two week frame building course at the United Bicycle Institute. But if you think of the cost of tuition and room & board, this book is a real bargain. Also checkout Brad Graham’s website, which is definitely worth a visit.

Amazon: Atomic Zombie’s Bicycle Builder’s Bonanza
Brad Graham’s: Atomic Zombie Website

Types of Steering

admin — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 03:36:58 +0000

A front load (tadpole) cargo trike has two wheels in front and one wheel in the rear. There are three main types of steering for front load cargo trikes:

• Axle-pivot
• Articulating frame
• Ackerman linkage

Axle-pivot steering is the most common kind of steering on a front-load trike as well as the simplest to manufacture & maintain. Axle pivot steering is great at low speeds, because it has a much tighter turning radius than Ackerman steering. Also, for the same size tricycle frame, Axle pivot steering trikes can fit a much larger cargo box.

Shimano Automatic Transmission

admin — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 02:17:36 +0000

Shimano makes an attempt at attracting technophobic new riders to casual cyling by eliminating the gear shifter. The system relies on a front hub dynamo that powers both a headlamp and plus the computer chip that makes the gear selection. The rear hub is a three speed internal with coaster brakes.

Open Source Design: Jetrike

admin — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 02:22:00 +0000

I ran across this website while doing research on leaning tricycles. The inventor of Jetrike has put all of his notes, working drawings, and research onto his webpage in hopes of fostering innovation in the field. His work is amazingly detailed and useful for anyone trying to develop a leaning trike with popular appeal.

We’d like to applaud his generosity and willingness to share. Keep up the great work!

Family cycling

admin — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 02:48:02 +0000

Here is another great article on Sheldon Brown’s page about family cycling,
covering tandems, trailer cycles, and teaching kids how to ride a bike.

To the right is the popular Adam Trail-A-Bike.

Types of Tricycles

admin — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 07:56:08 +0000

When riding around with my son in the front of my cargo tricycle around town, onlookers often ask me “What’s that?” I think the main reason is that most people are used to seeing tricycles with two wheels in the back and one wheel up front, rather than the other way around. Well, for those of you who are new to cargocycling here’s a quick summary of the main types of tricycles.

Tricycles are generally defined by their wheel arrangement. The three most common are:

• Delta Tricycle: 1 wheel in front and 2 wheels in the rear
• Tadpole Tricycle: 2 wheels in front and 1 wheel in the rear
• Sidecar: 2 wheels in line with each other and 1 wheel parallel and offset

Delta Tricycle:
A delta trike has 1 wheel in front & 2 wheels in the back. It is sometimes refered to as a traditional tricycle or rear load tricycle (meaning the cargo is behind the driver). A lot of times you’ll see older people using these bicycles because it is stable at slow speeds and uses standard bicycle steering.

Tadpole Tricycle:
A tadpole trike has 2 wheels in front & 1 wheel in the back. It is sometimes refered to as a front load tricycle because the cargo is in front of the driver. These tricycles are useful for drivers that need to keep a close eye on their cargo or need quick access to it without having to get off of their trike. This makes them ideal for use by food vendors or pedi-cab drivers who have frequent interaction with customers.

Sidecar Tricycle:
In the side car arrangement, two wheels are in line with each other like a bicycle. The third wheel is parallel to the other two wheels but is offset from the center line of the two wheels.

In future posts, I’ll try to include information on other aspects of cargo tricycles for those of you who are interested in picking up a cargo tricycle.

Apax Leaning Tricycle

admin — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 11:44:40 +0000

A start-up company called Apax Vehicle Dynamics is developing an interesting leaning tricycle. They’ve got some great video footage of their tricycle in action going down stairs, offroad, etc. The design has a lot of potential for other applications.

Hopefully as they develop their design, they’ll be able to improve the aesthetics, reduce weight, and simplify the design.

Keep up the great work!

Leaning Tricycle

admin — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 11:28:03 +0000

In many situations tricycles have advantages over traditional bicycles. Tricycles don’t fall over when sitting at a full stop, they are stable at low speed, they can carry tremedous loads, and you can take a rest any time.

However one of the most difficult things for riders to get used to is the fact that most trikes do not allow you to lean into a turn like on a bicycle. There are many people who are developing designs for leaning tricycles and we’ll start to post links to some of those.

One of the cooler designs we’ve seen so far is from Apax Vehicle Developments in Canada. Their website is barebones, but they’ve got some cool videos that shows their trike in action.

Internally Geared Hubs

admin — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 07:04:31 +0000

Internal-gear hubs offer the advantage of less maintenance compare to a standard derailleur based drivetrain, great for wet weather riding. You can change gear when at a stop, a plus in traffic. The disadvantage is the extra weight and increase in drivetrain friction.

Shimano Nexus (3/7/8)
SRAM/Sachs (3/9)
Sturmey Archer (3/5/7/8)
Rohloff (14)
Nuvinci (CVT)

Check out Sheldon Brown’s page on internal-gear hubs.

John Forester & Effective Cycling

admin — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 03:48:12 +0000

Anyone interested in cycling in traffic should take a look at John Forrester’s website.

He is a Cycling Transportation Engineer who wrote ‘Effective Cycling’ and ‘Bicycle Transportation: A Handbook for Cycling Transportation Engineers’.

He promotes the idea that "cyclists fare best when they act and are treated as drivers
of vehicles".

He also offers a traffic-cycling course for riders of all ages. Check out the ‘Effective Cycling’ dvd.

Bicycle Maintenance Book Recommendations

admin — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 17:29:25 +0000

Barnett’s Manual: Analysis and Procedures for Bicycle Mechanics (4 Vol. Set)

• Comprehensive reference on all makes of bicycles and components
• Tons of great diagrams that walk you through each step
• Expensive - $115 for the manual and $85 for the optional CD-ROM from the BBI website (OUCH!)
• Worth the money for any professional or serious home mechanic

The Bicycle Book (Haynes Automotive Repair Manual Series)
• Book for general bicycle maintenance
• Good book for the average home mechanic
• In-expensive (around $16 at Amazon)