Rail bike conversion finally finished w/pics

Well the revised parts work 95% of the time. I went about 6 miles on the track and it was awesome. Going around the bends is not a problem just have to slightly bias you're weight as they are slightly banked. The new outrigger roller works and never leaves the track. Had to continue the taper on the "guiding roller" deeper as the heavy wear on one part of the track produced a large radius that reduced the width of contact on the tapered sides of aforementioned roller. It was an easy fix as I had a thick wall thickness and cut the taper deeper as the track narrowed beyond the initial minimum taper. I did bore out the ends of the swingarm and press in bushings as the roller/swingarm must be able to pivot up and down to maintain contact with the rail sides.The shaft that connects the front swingarm was increased in diameter and now has adjustable spring preoload and worked flawlessly. The only bad part was the rear tire slipped off gently in one place. May have to put a small roller off the back axle to prevent this in the future. Sorry got no pics as i spent my time riding and checking to make sure i was safe but you can see the updated parts I posted previously. I will try and get back on the rails once more asap and if everything is 100% I definitely will go on a day trip. Will post as soon as I ahve the results.
 
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M80

Sounds Good. It Is Like Buying A New Car Year`s Ago! They Said; Buy One A Yr Old After The Bug`s Are Worked Out Of It. Ron .cvlt1
 
Thats pretty much it in a nutshell. It was a lot of work and several trials but I am almost complete. It is definitely rewarding to see the progress come along finally. hope to give it one more try in a month so will post the next test ride, hoping to do major miles and see the scenery i hav been waiting for!!
 
M80

The Rail Bike Idea Passed Thru My Mind Last Year. But With My Bad Hearing Loss, From My Ex-wife Holloring At Me All The Time, I`d Probably Get Run Over By A Train Sneaking Up Behind Me!!

I Think You Have The Ideal Wilderness RR Tracks To Ride. Later, Ron
 
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Really is an incredible MB and concept MT. Great job and congrats on a successful and way, way out of the box project. (Made me wanna go sit an' stare at my flying MB project that keeps getting back burnered. always cash or time. Seldom enough of either and never at the same time)



LOL Ron. Ya crazy bugger
 
Last run of the season. Remachined the "centering roller" after last run, shooting for 100% this time and their are friendly sidebets of beer saying I may or may not make the 5 miles to the pub on the track and then riding the last few hundred yards with the rail system folded up!!
 
Well it finally works 100%. Went to the next town that was 7 miles away, stopped at the crosssing and folded the railsystem up and packed away the outrigger with bungie cords. Rode home from there. What an amazing way to see the country. Never took anymore pics or video but I have the initial video on the rails when i first started I will work on posting that on youtube or something simialar.. Next year I will do a 24 mile run to another town that the rail runs along a lake.
 
Hi,

Would you please post more photos of your rail bike!

I've been looking at this website for a while and I've really got the rail bike bug.

We have a rail road that is scheduled to re-open, but I doubt it will be up and running years from now. I want a way to ride the old tracks and see what shape they are in.

I have a 32cc 2-stroke motor from a broken weed wacker.
I'm thinking of getting a BMP kit, build the rail bike parts and start riding the rails.

Thank you in advance.
 
Kev

hello, and welcome to the forum. The rail bike is super cool for sure. Would be cool cruising along the tracks.

Have a couple of bmp kits. Very happy with them. Amazing low prices.
You will have proplems with a weed wacker motor. Most of them have a 54mm clutch and different bolt pattern for mounting the motor to the mount. they are short on power imho.

Am fairly sure all motors that have a 76mm clutch will fit the bmp kit. The throttle and kill switch price with kit is a good deal. The motors are often hard to stop with out a kill switch.

There are some post or/and threads with nice build`s (friction drive) using wacker motors. Not sure what problems when trying to fit bmp drive shaft to wacker clutch drum.

I have all 49cc motors on my mab`s.

Good luck, have fun!

Ron .cvlt1
 
Kev XR I will look for more pics but I think that is pretty much all the tech pics the rest are just action pics and I STILL have to get my butt in gear and post a video soon. As it is now winter I will find time.
 
The key photos are of how the front guide fits on a rail.
Do you have a source for those two wheel you use?
Also, a source for the outrigger pole.
It looks like it extends, which would be a good feature.
I like the idea of using two poles or guide wires as you have done.
 
Ron,
I know before I do any ordering, I will pull out the caliper and measure everything.
Thanks for the warning
 
Kev, goto page 8 of this post and you will see I no longer use the 2 wheels that are actually snowmobile bogey wheels as the variation of the railhead width was up to 1 3/8'' hence the required use of the v roller. The outrigger pole is 1 and 1 1/4'' aluminum that slides into each other. If I could mention a couple of things though: this project took me 10 months on and off to design and build, alot of googling and my own design and research and many hours measuring designing and machining as I am a licensed machinist. I had to remachine several parts several times till it worked out.
 
I'm still in the research phase.

Now, I'm looking for clamps that can fasten tubes to the bicycle frame.

I need something like this design, but for 1" diameter.
(I believe this clamp is for heavy fence pipes)

aat2.jpg


Elgate Pipe Connectors & Clamps
Adjustable 3 Way Tees
 
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