4-wheel 6 person Electric Shifting Surry

This should be an interesting build when I get to it...

It is a Surry pedal car, pretty much two 7-speed internal shifting tandem bikes pieced together to make a dual tandem 4 wheeler in need of some electric motor help to compensate for the lazy riders that don't feel like pedaling ;-}



The middle spot on each bench seat has no pedals so it is pretty much a 4 person 'pedal car' and each side has 2 sets of freewheeling pedal cranks.





It has the dual 7-speed shifters mounted in a funky vertical way on each side for of the front bench seat so each tandem pedal side has it's own gearing. The drive side will have the electric help and throttle.



How I'm going to attach the electric motor and yet another control remains to be seen but one thing is for sure, we will have some 4 person fun on it before it's tested and ready for customer delivery ;-}

CTripps said:

That looks like a fun challenge KC. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

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me too after these other 4 new builds are out the door but man a challenge just to store because it's frigg'n huge and has a worse turning radius that say a PT Cruiser that needs 2 full road lane to do a U turn in, this thing is like 3 lanes and has no reverse.

It reminds me of something like this from 1899...



Materials and engineering have made a lot of progress since then and the goal of the customer is to use it as a paid ride at venues or whatever here in the metro Phoenix area, a 'pedi-cab' riders get some exercise on while seeing sights or rides but don't have to pedal, hence the motor help so the driver does not have to human leg power a huge load of people that don't help pedal.

His idea but I like it and think he will make money from it year round here because well, what can I say, it's hard to argue with weather like today's 10 day forecast in November.



Sure it gets 'too hot' in the summer but I don't have to shovel snow in the winter and we can ride year round ;-}

Intrepid Wheelwoman said:

That's definitely going to be interesting to motorise.

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Easier than this I would think...



I love the chair seats but really had to laugh at the dual driver required independent front wheels... 'No honey, turn to your other left!'

This pedi-car has far better steering but at 230 pounds not something you want to pedal around alone, Cole (my main wrench turner) and I took it for a short spin yesterday and I emphasize short, we were tuckered out 8 houses down the street and panting just getting it back.

Granted Cole is not a small guy but the geometry is all wrong for anyone tall to get the best use of leg strength and it's not like you can stand up and pedal it.



Adding an electric drive shouldn't be that hard though, I have done shifting trikes and this already has 4 freewheel crank sets.

The rears have dual sprockets already...



The fronts have the same freewheel but just one sprocket mounted.



Oddly the font cranks have the sprocket on the wrong side of the freewheel to line up with the matching rear sprocket but that's OK as it works so I can just add a sprocket to the inside and tie the electric to it.

The rear will get the same battery box I use on my trikes, more on that when this build is up but at least I know my options so I can quote the guy.

You take a car lane on these things and it may have been fun to do but not likely now.

With over 3 decades being self employed doing custom work I can spot a wanna be customer I don't want all too well.

Suffice it to say the machine is gone and I am not interested in talking to that potential customer again unless he has a handful of $100 bills in his hand.

Lets just say I am far to savvy to not get paid in advance, but to endure...

To not burn bridges let me put it this way...
A customer wanting to talk for hours multiple times during a work day about cup holders and fix the pedal only problems first (all for free mind you) with no talk of money for motorizing in 2 days was enough for me.

I know what he wants.
I know what I can do to make it happen.
I simply don't want to deal the hassle and as sad it or mean it sounds I simply don't need or want jobs like that.