Has anyone tried to build a bidwell bike pusher from plans?

[kitcarguy]

I was just curious. I have seen this bike pusher plans around that use a currie electric scooter for the drive train. Anyone purchase these plans and build one?

 

[matthew]

just starting

Got the plans, and ordered a Curry scooter to cannibalize.

 

[matthew]

no freewheel

first thing I noticed was no freewheel on the scooter. have to fix that.

 

[matthew]

question about freewheel

Is there any mechanical reason that favors installing the freewheel on the motor vs the wheel?

 

[matthew]

I'll just put it on the wheel

that way the chain won't be going round when I'm just pedaling. Can't find a 90-tooth that bolts on a freewheel, but there's an 80-tooth, which should be close enough.

 

[matthew]

meanwhile

while waiting for the new sprocket and freewheel to arrive, I took apart the scooter and spent some time figuring out how the controller connects to the motor, throttle, on/off switch, and battery pack.

I started building the trailer. Pretty basic stuff, which is good because I'm not very handy. Today I made a 27.75" X 17" frame out of 3/4" EMT; bending and cutting the EMT into a couple U-shape pieces and joining them together into a rectangle with a couple of 10.75" pieces of 1" steel L-bracket, bolted on.

I'm trying to figure out how to make the 4 axle brackets, specifically how to make the slot that the axle fits into. I guess I'll drill an axle-size hole for the top of the slot, then hacksaw from the edge to the hole. I should have taken shop in high school instead of Latin.

As soon as I figure out how to work this little camera I'll take some pictures.

 

[matthew]

frame (cont)

the 4 axle brackets done;

a couple of 15.5" pieces of EMT cut and drilled, with the ends filed concave; these will connect the front and back rails of the frame, and the inner axle brackets will be bolted to them;

a piece of 16"x17" diamond plate aluminum is cut, clamped to the frame, and drilled.

diamond plate is bolted to the EMT frame, leaving an open space on each side, between the inner, front-to-back rail, and the outside rail of the frame; the left space is wider than the right, to accommodate the wider drive wheel assembly.

4 axle brackets are bolted on to the bottoms of their respective rails.

battery box from scooter is drilled and bolted on to the bottom of the frame, offset to the right to balance the weight of the left side drive wheel assembly.

just occurred to me, that when I modify the drive wheel assembly so it freewheels (the parts aren't here yet) it might alter the width of the drive-wheel assembly, so I may have to cut a bit off the left side of the diamond plate. may have to adjust the offset of the battery box, too.

I think I will cut an opening in the diamond plate over the battery box and make a hinged door, so I can take the batteries out and take them inside for charging. Later.

So what I'm looking at is a platform with 4 axle brackets, and a battery box underneath. Pretty simple so far. Now I'm going to disassemble it and use some weatherstripping tape to soundproof it so it doesn't rattle.

 

[matthew]

revision

I looked at this for a couple days, something I didn't like, but couldn't tell what. Then I realized, the plans call for a lockable 8-gallon cargo box bolted through the platform and through the flange of the battery box underneath. Why not just put the batteries in the bottom of the cargo box (plenty of room for a second battery pack to extend range), and forget the battery box underneath.