Dan's Chariot #8 - Almost ready for a Maiden Voyage!

Man, this artsy fartsy crap sure tears up the time... Made some patterns for the leg pan sides.



Traced 'em on, cut 'em out, and made some edges. Really getting to love the edge forming machine- Being able to roll hems onto curves is great.



It'll sit something like this.



Made the other side too, and here it is sorta sitting in place.



Still need to put a hole in them for bungee cord attachment and I'll do some "racing stripes" like I did on the fenders.

Leg tie down hole and some decorations / stiffener added to the side pieces.



Think it blends with the fender pretty well. Hope I got the lines straight so everything matches!

A trip to the store for longer rivets, and lotsa holes later, its "done".



Going to sit something like this. I like it!



Drilled a few more holes and bolted it down.



Also picked up a few of these bushings at the hardware store and a bunch of nyloc nuts. Re-installed all of the seat belt hangers like this.



Put the seat, axle, wheels, and fenders back on to get an idea of how its shaping up.







I give it 2 thumbs up!



Obviously, it's a little short for me...

The fenders are just sitting there loose. Still trying to decide on the best way to extend them back just a bit more to be totally safe. Have an idea just having a hard time finding the material I want to make it out of. Soon as I get the new axle threaded for the nuts, I'm going to hook it up to a bike and see how it pulls. Maybe strap 3 or 4 50 lb bags of flour to it and see if I can break anything.

Getting closer! We even get a couple days off next week so hopefully more to follow soon. 

Dan's Chariot #6 - Test fitting.

Dan came down for a test fit!



They are impressed so far, but I'll be making some changes.

We got the leg pan figured out, came up with a plan for fenders, and worked out a way to shorten the tongue up substantially. In addition, they decided to make the tongue detachable from the rest of the trailer for ease of storage and also possibly in the future make it easy to convert to a stroller. Will be adding some blocks to the back also, so we can build a stroller handle for it later if we want to. When I cut the tongue, I'm also going to stand the seat up a little straighter as well.

Started on the fenders one evening after school. Did some measurin, and drew this up.



Traced it on to some aluminum and added room for attaching it to things / strengthening with hems,



and cut 'em out.



I'm really starting to love my edge forming machine. Picked up some new Harbor freight tools that really compliment it as well. Here's one fender with one edge rolled so I can rivet it to the top:



Curled it up pretty badly. No problem- take it over to the shrinker/stretcher and straighten it out!



Way better! Time for a test fit.



The top piece was just a test- it will be longer to match the side cover and I still havent decided if I'm going to do the little rooster tail on the end. The front curve will blend in to the side piece, and the beads in the top will change- have to leave room for the rivets.



I will make a straighter version for the back side, and they will get holes punched so they fit over the axle. Will have to add a bracket and some support to the back side but with the bends its already pretty stout!






Punchin holes the old fashioned way!









Still have to rivet the top on to the other side and make both inside pieces.

Road Bike Love.

Been riding my ST1100 for a couple of weeks now, and finally had some time to test out an idear I've had for side covers.

Cardboard mock ups.



Cutting and bending. I love working with aluminum- soooo eassssyyy to bend. Now if only I was good at it.





Test fit. Not quite what I had pictured, but it will work. I think on this side I'll have to make an "inner" cover to hide just a bit more, probably paint it flat black.





Little more pounding and shaping done. Man, I wish I had an english wheel..





The hard part is going to be mounting them.   My poor old beater has a titch over 54,000 miles on it, so I set an arbitrary goal to put 6,000 miles on it this summer, putting it up to 60,000.  Thats quite a stretch for me- seems like I usually average 2,500 to 3,000 miles a year on bikes.  Have a few trips in mind for this summer but summer break is already starting to get jam packed with stuff. 

On the project roster of things that need to be done BEFORE summer gets here- the Suburban pop top, Dan's Chariot (the handicapped bicycle trailer), and about 5 small engine / mower / atv projects for various people.  Ug.  Almost have to say I can't wait for school to start next year. 

On the bright side, spring is in the air and its nice enough outside to GET THINGS DONE!

Future Project, help wanted!

Alright, so some friends of mine approached me and asked me to build the a bicycle trailer that they can carry their son, Dan in.  Dan is about 35 years old and mentally handicapped.  The trailer is going to have to be strong enough to carry him, light enough to be towed, and safe.

I've been kicking several ideas around for the last week and playing around on Sketchup.  Here's what I've come up with.  Remember, these are JUST ideas at this point, I really don't know much about bicycle trailers but I'm learning a lot along the way, and would love to hear it if anyone has any suggestions.

First sketches:













Real rough.  As you can see from the next few sketches, a lot has changed.  Kicked around a few more ideas, and discarded a few others.

Small tires, with a stroller version. Will be using bike tires, so this is moot.



Seat suspension. Probably won't be doing this.



Extended frame for adding a basket or carrying stuff.



Rollbar / pushbar for stroller.



Stroller, with detachable tongue / attachable caster wheel. Tongue stows under trailer.



Other pics.





Keep in mind these are just design ideas... The trailer will likely be skinnier (this model has a 3' wide frame, will probably cut that down to 2') and change a bunch while building. Sounds like they really want me to build it, so I will, but there are a few other projects on the table and a few other things to iron out here first. May start on it over spring break, we'll just have to wait and see. 


Current things we have decided on: 

Bicycle wheels for sure.  Probably 16", as I've read the smaller tires handle cornering forces better?

Low side mount tongue.

Some type of platform off the back to mount a basket or case of some sorts.

Fenders for the pull bicycles- Store bought.

Fenders for the trailer- going to try hand making them out of aluminum sheet, but no cover on the outside.

Rotomolded racing seat from JEGS, with a 5 pt harness.

Leg board most likely also hand made by me out of aluminum sheet.


Things they seem to maybe want:

Seat suspension

Stroller castor / removable tongue

Powedercoated frame.



There you have it.  I want to try and keep very little weight on the tongue, so the seat position will likely move back.  The axles will be 5/8" rod welded to the top of the frame crossbar to lower the center of gravity more.  I will probably have to build some type of bracket behind the seat to mount the safety harness too as well.

Anything I'm missing?  Or, I know I'm missing about thirteen hundred things, wanna enlighten me on a few?!