A few of my friends were laughing at the idea of a bicycle
without a handle bar, so I thought I'd better put two on them
;-p
Just kidding of course...
My Python already had a handle bar for steering and the trike
has the same front. The other handle bar is for controling the
leaning, because I read on Henry's website that he was unable to
stop without falling to a side. The other reason was that I was
unsure about the forces that the trailer would carry over to the
trike and I thought a handle bar could aid in staying in
control. But after some test drives, I am quite sure that the
handle bar for leaning is not needed. The loaded trailer doesn't
seem to push me to the outside of a corner. And driving on an
uneven (chambered?) road doesn't make it a nasty trip, although
that does depend a bit on the linkage settings.
The handle bar for steering is not at all needed for steering
(unless for very tight turns), because the trike handles so much
easier than the two wheeled Python. Cycling hands free is dead
easy. But I do like this handle bar for a different reason now:
to apply force on the pedals. It is the same as with my
underseat handle bars of my RWD recumbent; when I push hard on
the pedals my body goes up in the seat, but I can counter this
with pulling the handle bars with my arms. The trike in the
current setup seems to have some wobble at a certain cadence
when riding hands free, so then I use the bars as well.
The initial idea was to test both handle bars seperately and
later combine them into one (for the next bike project). I was
planning to make one handle bar that controled steering when
turned left/right and control leaning when turned up/down. Nice
idea, but not needed anymore.
I will have to wait for new rod ends, since my installed ones
did have some play after testing. I did some calculations, but
there is a considerably force going from the swing arm to the
rocker arm. I did realize that the arm lenght difference
multiplies the forces like 5 times, but probably the rod ends of
this strenght/size can't cope when the rear wheel hits a bump at
higher speeds. Probably I will also make a new rocker arm and
remove the handle bar.
Henry, again an interesting design! Good luck with
testing/tweaking the prototype.
Patrick
From:
whpthomas@xxxxxxxxx
To:
python@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [python] Re: Pythonjetrike
Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2011 07:31:43 +1000
Well done Patrick!
I love the way you have resolved the trike design with
the two handle bars. It seems like you will get the best of
both worlds. Being able to lean and being able to control
the lean at low speeds. I am really looking forward to
hearing your ride report - and maybe a video on Youtube of
you riding it ;)
These days I have been working on something completely
different. A bike you can run on - here is a glimpse of my
first prototype.
-h
On 04/09/2011, at 5:34 AM, Patrick van Gompel wrote:
Recently I have finished my Python
and Jetrike combination. See
http://cycle.free-creativity.com for
pictures.
The trike handles rather well and will do duty as
a utility vehicle to pull a big trailer. I still
want to redesign the front part to get a better
strenght/weight ratio and add mountings for a
fairing. But that will be a next project. Adding
rear brakes will be first priority.
Many thanks to Jürgen and Henry for sharing their
ideas! It really helps when you don't have to
start from the bottom.
Patrick