New Rhino Drive

[deacon]

I have built all my rhino drives using a ten inch schwinn type rear wheel assembly. Today I am going to build one with an eight inch izip rear wheel assembly. I am going shopping for parts in a while. I have most everything I need laying about.

The major item on my list today is a foot of 1 1/4 inch heater hose. The wheel had a solid tire on the rear, but alas I could only scrounge a tire with tube. So it is drill the wheel, not something I want to do, or buy a piece of heater hose to fill the tire. A drive wheel tire has no real downward pressure so the heater hose should keep it from collapsing. I have no idea if it will work or not no one I know has ever done it.

I want to do a few things different with this build. I am going to cut a groove in the frame of the drive for the wheel like the dropouts in a bike frame. The reason is so that I can weld as well as bolt the frame together this time. If it works okay I will probably retrofit the other drives that way.

Otherwise it will be just a matter of matching the sprocket on th rear wheel for max efficiency. The motor is way, way over powered for the rear wheel. I think it is at least twice the wattage before i jack the voltage. With that the bike should run three times the power of the original scooter.

 

[deacon]

It was a bit of a nightmare but I got the smaller wheel rhino assembled. Except that I need to build some kind of trailer hitch.On this bike everything is in the way of any of my usual hitches. However I am going to try to move somethings so that I can build a traditional hitch. The first step is to add a couple of links to the chain so that the wheel will sit a little farther back in the dropouts. At leas the thing runs, I managed to bench test it.

I hope I can make some photos of it tomorrow.

 

[deacon]

Between the rain showers I managed to pedal test this configuration. As usual the chain fell off so I had to go back and brace the motor mount. I pedal tested it again and it works now.

I can't wait to get to the power test. I sure wish the weather would cooperate.

 

[deacon]

My first evaluation of the new drive with the somewhat smaller wheel. it is acceptable but the performance is not quite as good as the larger wheel. It does look better though. Still the looks may or may not be worth the reduced efficiency. I will have to give it a few more tests but not today.

 

[deacon]

It's sunny today and the roads are dry. It is the ideal day to test the new drive. I need to determine if I want to scrap it and build a chain drive. it looks as though I can get a motor and wheel for about fifty bucks. I have everything else that I would need to convert it. I really like friction drive so if the bike is at least 80% as good as the big wheels, I'm going to find it hard to change it. I have never had good luck with chain drive bikes. So we shall see.

I really should save my money for better batteries.

 

[deacon]

result on a dry road is barely acceptable. It will pull but is way worse than the other rhino drives. I don't have much in the drive wheel, so I will probably just drop it and move to something else..

I am lusting for the rear wheel and motor of the guy whose parts I usually buy. Still I don't have any need for it. Unless I can convince myself that I want a bike I can ride on a damp road.

It's that or save up for a better battery system. Oh well.

 

[deacon]

this drive isn't very good. Actually its awful. It is most likely because I have a flat tire for a drive so it won't skip along over the bike wheel as it should.

However I made a monumental decision today. I refitted a bike so that I can just have one working bike at a time. I am going to change my experimenting back to photography. I have a 48v friction drive bike now, so I think I can keep it running and be happy.

I have three trailers one of which has 16 inch bike wheels and the other two have scooter wheels. I am going to be deciding which of those to rig to the bike and make it permenant. I plan to store the other bikes in the shop so that if I need to rob them for parts to keep my bike going I can do that.

Now if only I can stick to this resolve,

 

[deacon]

I rode the bike about three miles for the first time since I scaled it back to 24v and I was surprised how well I did with it. It is noticeably slower of course, but after a few yards it becomes quite satisfactory.

I pedaled on some of the moderate hills and really pedaled on one tough hill so that was new but not a bad thing. It felt good to get a little movement going. Especially since it is cold out there today. Well under forty degrees.

As someone else said about long hills. This bike pedals more like I am on flat ground than a hill. I have the tension gentle enough so that I can use it to help me start without blowing a fuse. All in all it isn't a bad ride. I expect that being able to double up on my batteries will give me pretty decent range now.

I have the motor so that I could mount it one a full suspension bike without having to lose the gearing or the brakes. I need to work out a trailer hitch to use then I might just spring for a full suspension but then again maybe not. What I have now seems to do the trick just fine.

The only real advantage to the rear suspension would be the potholes but they are so bad nothing would help I expect.