bike stabilizer for the old and infirmed

im out working on the stabilized bike. Moving the engine to the front and trying to get the training wheels stable. They want to drift. My welding is so poor I have no idea whether they will stay in place of not. If they drift again I'm going to drill a hole and weld a pin in place.
 
Last edited:
Why dont you get a large thick piece of angle(1/4" maybe) drill a hole for the bike axle and one of the threaded lugs that the drop out always has, that will keep it stable. Get some long 5/8 bolts and cut off the heads to make an axle, they got em up to 8" at Ace. Then drill the bolt for a cotter pin to retain the wheel in the unthreaded bolt end, double nut the axle to the angle and add two of the 4.10x4 wheels from TSC(used to be $10 ea) like the front wheels on a Snapper rider. Would have a substantial set up with no welding.
 
Aside from the welding :-), what happens in a turning movement is that principal contact goes from the main rear wheel to one or other of the outriggers and the turning radius effectively changes instantly to a tighter turn...
Also, traction is lost, which further complicates things.

SO, most kiddies, when they operate a bike w/training wheels tend to lean off to one side or the other... every set of training wheels I've pulled off little bikes has almost always had one wheel with much more wear than the other.

Good to hear you are moving the power to the front wheel... kinda like the solex bikes?

Glad you're having fun, Deacon!
Best
rc
 
yeah the training wheels are a lot more complicated than it would seem. What I'm afraid of now is that the trike won't be any different, Much harder to maneuver without the weight shift.

I really wish i could get this thing out on the test track.
 
Yes, until you get to some of the really technical trikes that lean into turns and such, a trike must be forcefully steered, unlike an inline solo bike.

Deacon, I'm really the wrong person to be pitching you on the neato trikes they are building for ht level power... I have never seen one in person, and the only trike I've been on beside the honda atv's was an old harley 45 servi-car.

It would be best, and give you plenty of ideas, if you looked at some of the recumbent tadpole trikes on youtube. The part of the forum here should give you ez direction to them.

That one turn you mention there at the casa IS going to be a sticky wicket... I've never seen any trike that was not at least twice as wide as a MAB. But that is what gives them the stability that is desired.

More bad news?
I can't see any way practical a tadpole styled trike could be fabricated without hi-quality welding for the structural framework.

However, there are plans out there, and you could pre-cut many things and even make jigs in advance of engaging a welder there in the carolinas...

With a solo rear wheel drive, everything at the tail end can be along the lines of your experiments... then you get a stable seat, with a two wheel steering axle out in front of you!

I'll track down some of the tags I've got on 'em, and post 'em if you wish...
Best
rc
 
There is a lot to consider about any of this is it really worth it for me. I don't know where that answer is. I might just have to consider a different means of transport for my limited desires all together. Actually I have been thinking along those lines. Since I can't ride for a while maybe I need to rethink all of this."
 
Since I need to make some room in the shop, the first stabilized bike is out of here. However I learned a lot from it. I was trying to make the bike run on three wheels all the time. I think it should run on just the one wheel all the time with the other two wheels to stop the bike from tipping more than a half inch. It will make the bike harder to steer but more stable I believe.

I am going to remove everything clean it up and move it to the long frame 26" I converted to twenty inch and give that a try. If nothing else I am learning a lot about mounting bikes and front engines. I had done it before but with light weight engine frames which caused the vibration problems I think.

So tomorrow it's junk out and clean up the welding mess I made. Save everything that can be reused from the bike and junk the basic frame. I'm going to redo the stabilized bike again but it might take a few days to finish it this time.
 
Well my wheels are the same size, My mount is different. but I think the idea is the same,
 
I saw a pic I cant find now of these mounted. They Ubolt to the frames, upper and lower that go to the the rear drop outs also instead of just one point at the axle. Maybe you are already doing it like that. Just a thought. I am VERY glad you canned the smaller bike. I wondered why I have never see you with a LWB frame, like a cruiser, with 20" wheels F&R. That would me much more stable than such a short wheel base. With the heavier engine, and the seat so high, the CG versus the wheel base had to be very unstable especially at higher speeds. Correct me if Im wrong, but your practice of the front wheel being bigger loads the rear wheel more? Great form a drive stand point, but I dont thing all the weight aft is a good idea. And then a question, you said the engine may have spun you when you dropped it at nearly 30mph. If that fast why was it disengaged? Always leave it down, except right before a stop. If you pull the throttle to idle, you have engine braking, much need on hills. Dont worry about the engine over speeding until you begin to exceed its top cruise speed, then brake, If it will go 30mph on the level it will do it at idle down hill too. I just let mine wind up to top speed the add spurts of brake to keep it around that speed. I cant see your set up doing 30 unless down hill. Dropping an engine at a less than matched rpm/speed at that speed was like jamming the rear wheel. Not trying to lecture, just trying to help you maybe figure what might have happend so it never happens again.
 
Yeah I learned about the engine. I did have it lifted because I was going down a steep hill. remember the engine was new to me. I wanted to see how it would coast down a big hill with the weight of the engine on the side, but not pulling. Just in case I had to pedal it home one day. The mistake I made if that had anything to do with it was not waiting until the bike slowed down to drop the engine. Yes it was at idle I think. I know now that I will never disengage that engine unless it is almost stalled.

The longer bike is more stable but when I was installing the motor it was so tempting to just raise the seat insfead of moving parts around. I was thinking more about ease of building for other people. I always have in mind someone else repeating the build. The short bike is not lower or higher really but it does lack the length of the wheel base. I know now that it isn't all that stable.

I like the larger front wheel for the ease of build. I don't need to rig a custom mount for a hand brake on the front.. It was never a problem before but with the larger heavier and more torque ilfan it might be a totally different dynamic if I decide to use the larger motor on the rear again. My thinking is that I will save it for a trike and front mount it now.

Frankly I thought the 20" small frame just looked cool with that big ole honkin motor back there. I had no idea that it was a death trap. I wish I could remember that last second or so when and if the motor came down. It would make a lot of difference. I had been having seizures recently so it could have been that as well. Most people think of a seizure like a grand moll epileptic event. Mine are just brain farts that last a few seconds. At that time I am totally disconnected from time and space. So if that happened the bike would have wobbled and fell over. If the bike fishtailed then it would have been the motor drop but unfortunately I couldn't see it.

On this next attachment. what I plan to do is put the training wheel mount behind the axle nut. then drill a hole in the training wheel mount through the drop out and put a pin in it to prevent it 'walking' on me.

That is the one that was most successful on the other bike. My probalem with the small red bike is that I welded the training wheel on and now to get the rear wheel Off i will need to break the chain to get some slack. The no weld way will make it much easier to do.

If I missed anything in answering let me know and I'll try to explain my poor thinking. I have to admit a lot of things that make sense at the moment, don't always look too bright in retrospect.
 
Last edited:
Great explanation Deacon! Easy brake bridge for lowering brakes of you dont want to weld is a piece of 3/16" bar stock drilled to use 2 u bolts. Is asjustable to a degree and easy to make.
 
Deacon, there are master links you can use so breaking the chain is no problem, but there is something else more prominent on my mind.

I am not in the same exact situation, but I am building or rather once done with an off road type motor bike... pedal crank removed ... motor bike I am finishing up building, I should want to modify it to go slower than 5 mph.

Besides getting a bigger gearing down, so as not to burn out a centrifugal clutch, I will need something so that if sometimes un-even ground it won’t have a tipping problem.

Going slow there is less gyro force to keep you stable on a two wheeler. Additionally I will have a fair amount of artistic work assembled to the bike, which will add weight and mess with the close in center of gravity I want something to help out so I can retain stability.

Since it was mentioned about the turning radius…. Something which on 4 wheel vehicle with fixed rear wheels, the tires just scrape away. The reasons that you rotate the tires to get more time before you throw away the tires with un-even wear pattern when otherwise they would have lasted longer before low spots made them prone to flats or worse.

Now not that this is specific to needing the front wheels off a trashed wheel chair, but I save on my parts bill by looking around the dumpsters and I got the two front wheels off a wheel chair. They have a way of swiveling. I thought if they were assemble onto the rear of the frame, but a little aft of the rear wheel, they would track as they desire and leaning not be needed for whatever that radius stuff had do with a fixed addition two rear wheels.

In addition I would want to have suspension on these outrigger type wheels so that the un-even ground would not have the rear drive wheel affected adversely and also the frame given excessive stresses.

I know this is a lot to do when I yet have not finished what I am building right now, but those are my thoughts. Comments?

PS
The video with the motorcycles with the stabilizers, are they manually raised once the rider feels they should come up, or automated by speed or something else? I cannot see them being useful in the down position if in a turn banking at a fair rate of speed, for if they make the bike pivot if they gouge the ground… even if there is that small wheel on the end.

I have purchase flip up foot pegs for the case where something otherwise my make my OHV get caught in the ground or hit a root or rock or whatever and have a spill

Measure Twice

PS again, stupid me! Yea hope to see you get better real quick!
 
Last edited:
Thanks for all the good thoughts guys. This is one of those just manage the pain and put in the time accidents. I get a little better every day, but not nearly fast enough it seems.
 
This morning I found a weed whacker sitting in a dumpster. While I was looking it over and wondering what to do with it, I remembered this thread and thought I'd take a pic for you guys to ponder. :D

3cc4I.jpg
 
well today was a painful day. I think I figured out that the pain is actually less but the range of movement has increased which actually causes more pain even thought it is less. I know, it's like Bill Clinton and the what the definition of is, is.

Anyway I got the wheels off the red bike even though I had to take the cutoff wheel to the chain to do it. i got it installed on the 26" bike frame. I got the chain connected. The front wheel went into storage.

I removed the handle bars motor and front fork form the 20" little red bike. Then I pulled the crank set since it has a big chain ring, I will probably put it on the 26" frame. The big chain ring makes it possible to pedal assist the motor on hills much sooner keeping the speed up.


Finally I removed the outrigger wheels as I like to thing of them now. I still need to drill the pen holes in them. I got the new motor mount hardware attached to the bike. Now I need to build a new frame for the motor. The motor itself will just bolt onto the frame since it has a mount independent of the bike mount frame.

Maybe that's why the pain is there tonight lol. but I feel better when I do something positive.

P{S I read a review of the walmart stabilizer and it is one of those if you fall it will catch you not a trike type thing. But then that is what I'm building this time. One where the wheels are a half inch off the ground just as a safety catch in case I have a medical problem. It might have worked even with the stupid factor.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top