Motorized Bike BOAT

M

mineomartinez

New Member
Hey All.

I made my motorized bike a few months ago. Its a huasheng 4 stroke with a SPB shift kit.

I was at the beach on Monday and was thinking, heck, I want to get my bike in the water.

So I spent a few hours drawing up diagrams and doing some thinking, went to home depot, spent about 100$ on supplies, and got to work.
I use 5 gallon buckets as floats. I have 12 buckets which makes 60 gallons of floatation. Since each gallon weighs about 8.35 lb, thats 514 lbs of floatation.

I then cut out some steal sheet, and wedged them into the rear spokes as paddles.

I used pipe hanger 3/8 threaded rod and pipe holders for the frame, and a 1 1/2 inch PVC for support of the buckets.

In the picture you can see the buckets are held together with duct tape... bad idea. you can see the stress break in the second picture with my wife in it. NO she isn't too heavy... just my bike weighs about 100 lbs plus so thats just too much for duct tape. I came back home and am now using S hooks and mason line. 6 hooks to a bucket makes it pretty sturdy.

It got dark out too fast to test it again, but I'll have more pictures up later!

Oh ya, also, I'm going to fashion a tin shield to protect the engine/ air intake and to keep the water isolated to the rear wheel.

I realize I need to rinse down everything with fresh water as soon as I get out of the ocean, and then re-oil everything too. Anyone got any suggestions for a good grease? or does it matter?
 

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Now that is ingenuity at it's best. Dan always wanted to build one of those and make it fly. Thanks for posting pics.....
 
That's great! Can't wait to show my buddy, he's talked about this before. Something similar.

I'm sure some kind of marine grade grease couldn't hurt. Maybe see what kind of stuff local boat mechanics recommend?
 
post video of it and i will be be fishing like that in no time. so if you got pulled over would you need a motorcycle endorsement or a vessel endorsement on your licence?
 
now we just have to find a way for the back wheel to act as a propeller and your golden .

super cool always thought of it never seen anyone actualy do it .
 
In the pics you can see the buckets are really close to the bike, thats because I didn't secure them well enough to the PVC. I tried to make them about 15 inches away so incase the engine gives up I can still peddle.

RE: silverbear: I placed a small fin ( just sheet metal) on the inside part of the front spokes, and I think that should give me enough force to steer.

RE: NunyaBidness: Marine grade grease is a great idea! I'll visit my local shop today.

Thanks for the support you guys, I'll have some more pics soon.
Heres a video from the first day out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMoWcysY-Vw&feature=youtu.be
 
Your core ideas are golden. Now that you know it will work you can make refinements. I was just thinking about a kind of cradle to hold the buckets together in alignment, like out of PCV pipe or 2X2's... or if you could find it left over from a construction site the really big sized pcv pipe. I've seen it in what looks like sewer size. Capped at each end you have your flotation pontoons. Off of a rear cross-member joining each side of the flotation devices you could rig a simple rudder controlled from where you sit.

And I'm thinking that your idea of metal fitted between the spokes to act as paddles is a good one. If the paddles were aluminum and fixed to the spokes (could even be with zip ties) they could be of a larger size and really grab some water.

If the exhaust pipe exited under water like an outboard motor does then it would be pretty quiet I would think.

Great, now I have another danged project floating around in my head to think about in the middle of the night instead of sleeping. I live next to a lake. I can just see the neighbors scratching their heads at old Silverbear and Aaniimoosh The Wonder Dog (behind in a floating trailer). And I don't think the DNR would want to deal with it. "Is it a bike or a boat? Does the old fart need to wear a helmet or a life jacket or both? Let's pretend we didn't see it!"

You sir, are contributing to the delinquency of a geezer...
SB
 
lol SB, he's definitely planted a seed in my head too, lots of rivers around here. Rudder off a cross bar is a great idea.

Looks like a ton of fun martinez! Thanks for sharing. So is retractable pontoons on the list? :) Pull a lever to raise them for road riding, then ride into the drink and lower... To the 'gasps' and wtf's of onlookers, lol :D
 
Great ideas silverbear.
One of the things I want as a requirement for this project is that I am able to drive it on land to the water, then at the water adjust some bolts or ties to get the buckets close to the ground, then into the water. So far that is possible, and I'll have pics up of what I add on later, but I made the buckets a lot more stable last night by hooking them to eachother end to end, and they've got no more play so they wont buckle under pressure I think.

The rudamentary rudder right now is the front tire. I went out and bought some extra aluminum sheet so I can make one big rudder covering the entire front spoke area.

The problem with paddles being bigger, is they would hit against the side of the frame. Right now, the best I could do was make the paddles each 2 inches wide, and still have some space between those paddles and the frame. Any bigger and they would hit up against it.

My initial idea was to use PVC pipe as pontoons. Great minds think alike :). I calculated the size and everything. At home depot they sell only 4 inch diameter, so I calculated I would need at least about 50 feet of it. Divided by 2 thats 25 feet on each side. 25 divided by two is 12.5 so if I double up it wouldn't be too bad. The only thing tho is PVC is so damn heavy actually. Buckets are BIG, 12 inch diameter, and they are light! Also, I didn't want to make the mistake of the Titanic so each bucket is isolated from the others. So if one breaks, the others still have a chance at floating. New buckets at homedepot are only 3 bucks, and they are water proof with the leak proof lid.

Haha, ya, I was thinking, would this be classified as a power assisted bicycle or a boat? maybe an amphibious power assisted bicycle. At the park close to my house motorcycles arent allowed, so anyway I have no idea if this would be. So far i've been fine.

I can't wait to go fishing lol
 
Heres some updated pictures. I took off one side of buckets to reinforce them. The pontoons are retractable.

Now I gotta get back to studying... I got a big test at the end of the summer I need to prepare for, and this bike should take second priority (at least thats what I tell myself....)
 

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more pictures
 

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another idea.. just get a row boat and use a treadmill set up and a bottom of a mini boat motor drive shaft and propeller.. you could mount the bike back tire on the tread mill and that would be connected to turn the boat propeller.. you just gotta figure out the steering. then you could just disconnect your bike and dock the boat and be able to ride around very easily ...
 
I love the concept. That would certainly turn some heads wherever you take it.

One question and a suggestion:

How do you steer it?

Give some thought to styrofoam floatation instead of the plastic buckets. It's easy to work with, can be fiberglassed over after fabricating attach points and will never leak and fill with water. It can be purchased in various size blocks.

Tom
 
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