microcar with chinagirl motor?

Re: microcar with chinagirl?

With not being well I haven't done much with my projects, but now that the warmer weather is here I will be getting back into building a Velomobile/Velocar once more. From my own research (I live in New Zealand) it's plainly best to stick with three wheels and pedal power in tandem with either an electric motor or an IC engine. For a very long time I've been riding about the country township where I live on delta style trikes of traditional appearance that are powered by a 24volt hubmotor. The local Police guys and girls see me riding all the time and just smile and wave. My trikes have never been officially stopped and they legally don't need to be registered or carry a numberplate; - though my latest trike does carry a plainly well out of date motorcycle plate from the 1930's just for fun.
If I was to add another wheel and take away the pedals I would be immediately into Limited Production Vehicle (LPV) certification territory needing to have my project vehicle officially inspected and approved ($$$$) in order to obtain the now required registration and numberplate.
To change out the electric motor for an IC engine I would need to register my creation as a moped/motorised bicycle; - which is completely cheap, straight forward and simple (praise be!) so long as I don't have any more than three wheels and still have functioning pedals. BUT if I was to start fitting up clutches and multispeed gearboxes as well as plainly trying it on with an engine that's not 50cc the local Police guys and girls will stop smiling and I will be ticketed for not having full motorcycle registration. AND to get that I would need to do the LPV certification thing....... :-||

All of which means that I know very well which side my bread is buttered on and I'm going to stay inside the proper guidelines and continue to have low cost fun.
 
Re: microcar with chinagirl?

And hello dear lady. I have often wondered how you were. I had pictured you touring the back roads in your newly constructed velo complete with scarf drifting in the breeze.

Do you have a body style picked out yet? Looking forward to hearing more of your plans.

Steve.
 
Re: microcar with chinagirl?

fasteddy said:
And hello dear lady. I have often wondered how you were. I had pictured you touring the back roads in your newly constructed velo complete with scarf drifting in the breeze.

Do you have a body style picked out yet? Looking forward to hearing more of your plans.

Steve.
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Hello Steve. Not much has been done on my velocar project as I've been very busy with organising care for Mum, then my daughter was ill and then I had a long stretch of illness myself. If nothing else I had plenty of time in which to plot and plan and now I have a very good idea of what I want to build. I've always been a delta trike girl and I like French cyclecars so after discovering some old magazine pictures of a 'Colombe' cyclecar I knew I was onto a winner.
Pedal power will still feature, but since I have a 24 volt, 300 watt geared motor going spare I'll be using that to provide some of the necessary oomph. After reading about the success some folk on the forum have had with hybrid IC electric powering schemes I may just put either a China Girl or Villiers engine into the mix as well.
Anyway that's enough thread hi-jacking from me .blady
 

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Re: microcar with chinagirl?

Welcome back and glad to hear you are feeling better. I keep forgetting that one of us is upside down. Autumn here with snow in a month and spring there with things budding out all over... including velocar schemes. I like the Colombe Cyclecar very much.
SB
 
Re: microcar with chinagirl?

So Steve... if your were to build a 3 wheeled velocar in Canada using a scooter or light motorcycle (like what Ricksrides is doing) it could be legal there? My thought is that where I am I would want to be able to use it for three seasons anyway and have it be enclosed like a cockpit or at least some sort of folding top. Still have that golf cart front axle sitting out in the shed... still have half of a Grumman canoe... can still picture the canoe body upside down with cutout for the cockpit, looking something like the old three wheeled Morgan.
You guys are a bad influence as I had pretty well gotten that out of my mind, but an actual velocar I could use for real transportation has a lot of appeal. So does 75 or 85 mpg. Fun to think about.
SB
 
Re: microcar with chinagirl?

silverbear said:
Welcome back and glad to hear you are feeling better. I keep forgetting that one of us is upside down. Autumn here with snow in a month and spring there with things budding out all over... including velocar schemes. I like the Colombe Cyclecar very much.
SB
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Thanks Silverbear. Yes it's odd to think that it's Spring here while you're expecting snow in a month. Our Winter was cold, wet and stormy and even for a day or two the flood protection gates were up on the river flood banks which I hadn't seen before in all the time I've been living in the Hauraki District. After that it's really nice to see some sunshine again!

Building a Colombe semi-replica should be a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to it. The original cyclecars were fairly small so I don't think I'll have to scale my version down all that much.
 

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Re: microcar with chinagirl?

I've built several small cars but my latest is the only one an adult will fit in.









 
Re: microcar with chinagirl?

I think you got me addicted to these funny things, Lex.
Here is the Flintstone version. Most could build it themselves.
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Jet Canopy
Canopy_Trike.jpg

Commuter. It has a floor
velo_r1.jpg

Competition
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Re: microcar with chinagirl?

Lex asked if you could power a micro car with a China girl. I once saw a post (on a different forum, I believe) where a guy rack mounted a China girl motor that powered the rear wheel through the kit chain. I wish I could find a pic. However, the engine had to be mounted with the exhaust port facing the sky, allowing the chain to exit the engine toward the rear wheel (down).
The carb float bowl must be level, so the builder had to fab an intake with a 90 deg bend to accomplish that. That was before we had pull start and centrifugal clutch kits available for the China girl. With the pull start and auto clutch installed, I thing you could power a reverse trike and possibly base a microcar on it.
 
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