Sunday, October 25, 2009

My life is easy !

Well after a quick visit to the Orange 20 bike shop in Hollywood the other day, I noticed Jim ( the owner ) working with a gentleman that was very small and was an amputee of both legs. The project of the day was to develop a bicycle that he could ride pedaling by hand; with all the bells and whistle of a full sized city bike.
After the bicycle was complete with the fresh powder coat of Yeti turquoise, the dude was ready to try it out for the first time. Seeing Jim work with him made me realize the ease I have for simple things and daily functions. The design needed some tweaking on of which training wheels would be added for the learning process of riding the bike.
The bike uses a Shimano Nexus 7 speed coaster brake hub on the front and has some trick parts around it, like the super nice Intense tires. 20 inch front wheel and 16 inch rear wheel.

The problem -

1. Design and build an adjustable stem/bottom bracket system with more adjustment and lighter weight then the existing one that was custom fabricated for the bike.
2. Reinforce the training wheels for an adult to ride, strong enough not to bend.

Check out the photos - 5 hours build time

Notes - I would love to build a project like this one, more as a concept project but adjust the geometry a ton and make it very close to a recumbent position with a normal bicycle seat. The rake and trail of the front end needs to be really far out there to slow down the response of the cranks wanting to turn the front of the bike as its being pedaled. I would also include a steering dampener to even further reduce the side to side sudden movements that may cause instability issues at higher speeds.

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