Quad Pedal Car - 2025 late Xmas/early Birthday present ?

So on with stuff after the half shaft scare .....
chain-protector-DSCF9580.jpg


So this lump is to help keep the chain on , the chain is very exposed till it gets under the seat and easy to snag with your feet when getting in and out. This will be made worse when the bodywork is added. The chain is currently on a 38T ring as can be seen there is also a 48T , however around where I live I am hoping to scale the hills with the 38T and think it might be a good idea to try the first race in it to rein in excessive speed. In a 6 hour race I can't afford to be burnt out after 4.5 hours :cry: 👎

pulleys-DSCF9581.jpg


Got pulleys slightly wrong , placing is much better no seat/chain interference now , however keeper is now far enough away to allow chain
to move under pulleys. So added a plate to stop that.

Easy to see now that pulleys could be considerably closer to seat and still work , meaning whole lot can be lower by maybe 2".
Something to pursue when I have done first race maybe.

Brakes now both cable Avids , new pads need some bedding in and then adjusted before first race which means I need to get some more miles
on it pronto...

So suns out and car is again ready for some shake down testing so off the drive we go.
Decided to go somewhere different and did approx 7.3 miles by going up the Rainworth bypass , nice wide tarmac pavement although it is a long hill !
rainworth-bypass.png

What a cheek !!!
rainworth-bypass-hill.png

Google classes a 80ft climb as Mostly flat , you try it in a pedal car :D;)

Seems to ride well nice and quite although it is very nervous steering wise it did traverse 2 slopes at right angles without deviating and any bumps & lumps were controllable we may at last be taming the beast ?

Mileage to date 85.1 miles
Snagging list Done stuff removed new stuff added in no particular order:-
Sort out why 10spd bar end can't get all gears - Shortened chain 2 links [ better now ] and tried adjusting cable length - Slightly better now pulleys moved and chain no longer drags on seat in some gears
Find out cause of sensitive steering - geometry ? reduce control leverage - Done
Find out cause of severe camber following - Better than it was after steering lever ratio changed
Make mounts for cable disc brakes - Left & Right brake now working - now have 2 levers with 2 brakes - brakes [ with new pads ] need bedding in and re-adjusting

Get bodywork out of shed and start fitting it - hurray !!

Nice to have
Speed computer - rob Python racer will have to go on rear wheel with magnet on disc - STILL awaiting Ebay purchase
 
I can see all the images in the last post and they look ok in the album to ?

So out for a social ride with a friend on a electric bike to Newstead Abbey , route was much worse than the last time I took it !

getting-2-newstead-DSCF9582.jpg

The hill behind him to the traffic lights has a pavement that overgrown with grass I had to actually get onto the road and ride from further up than
the yellow lorry to get to the lights , else risk hitting a lump in the vegetation and being pitched into he path of oncoming 60mph traffic.
NOT PLEASANT !
newstead-courtyard-DSCF9585.jpg


Parked up in the courtyard , we sat off to the left having coffee and toast , nice
newstead-abbey-front-DSCF9590.jpg


Tourist shot before the slog home , had to pull the car up one hill , so steep even the Python struggles and it has 2 more lower gears than the car.
In fact lowest is direct drive !

Car mainly behaved itself apart from gear change still ropey.

Mileage to date 101.1 miles
Snagging list Done stuff removed new stuff added in no particular order:-
Sort out why 10spd bar end can't get all gears - Shortened chain 2 links [ better now ] and tried adjusting cable length - Slightly better now pulleys moved and chain no longer drags on seat in some gears
Find out cause of sensitive steering - geometry ? reduce control leverage - Done
Find out cause of severe camber following - Better than it was after steering lever ratio changed
Make mounts for cable disc brakes - Left & Right brake now working - now have 2 levers with 2 brakes - brakes [ with new pads ] need bedding in and re-adjusting
Oil chain


Get bodywork out of shed and start fitting it - hurray !!

Nice to have
Speed computer - rob Python racer will have to go on rear wheel with magnet on disc - STILL awaiting Ebay purchase

Paul
 
So onto bodywork
stripping-front-DSCF9593.jpg

Stripping old identity
font-new-look-DSCF9595.jpg

new look , eventually all the blue will be removed and replaced by red.

front-on-again-DSCF9596.jpg

Black bolts by red strip now pins to make front easier to remove , on the left side of the car you can see the side propped up to see
how it will look.
body-3-upright-DSCF9598.jpg


Post labelled 3 will be changed to be vertical and front/sides will be made into a single part , there will be no floor
The car will initially have a racing rear end added to the front/side meeting at post 3

Paul
 
So to get the body back together , how I found it , I marked the inside across 2 of the uprights and only cut through the tape and did not remove it
left-side-inside-DSCF9602.jpg


So what I need to do next is drill 4 holes 2 in each upright and bolt the side on temp like.

then I can remove the frame from the body and get inside it to add some double sided tape and tape the side to the uprights when I have moved number 3 as below

body-3-upright-DSCF9598.jpg


It has dropped a bit in the picture , however I need to make a new one with a different bend at the top so it stands vertical then cut the side off to suit .

left-side-outside-DSCF9606.jpg


Currently the whole side is to big , mainly by the thickness of the blue tape so once bolted to the frame the vertical lip [ as below ]
can be cut off as can any remaining blue tape and the side sealed with some red tape.
front-side-lip-DSCF9608.jpg


This lip extends all the way around the car , except for under the front where i have rubbed it off coming on and off my drive :cry:

I do hope I fit as the seat is a bit higher that when I bought it !

Paul
 
Hats off that is a major renovation ( rebuild ? ) project nearly completed !

Would be interesting to know how much improvement you get with the fairing, the shape being simplified vs a fancy velomobile but maybe good enough to bring aerodynamic advantage while remaining accessible to a home builder ?
 
Trickytrike said:
Hats off that is a major renovation ( rebuild ? ) project nearly completed !
Click to expand...
Thanks however the last 10% takes 90% of the time , and time is slipping through my fingers !
Trickytrike said:
Would be interesting to know how much improvement you get with the fairing, the shape being simplified vs a fancy velomobile but maybe good enough to bring aerodynamic advantage while remaining accessible to a home builder ?
Click to expand...
i have tried to do roll down tests here with it to set toe in/out
slope-1-DSCF9511.jpg


First time I took the car I achieved a 28ft improvement [ or so I though ] by adjusting the connecting rod between the steering arms.
next time i though try the Python trike , it went quite a bit further.
back with the car and it got within 3ft of the Pythons distance !

However since then I have taken the car AND the Python down here and never come anywhere near the best run each of them did.
So what is that all about ?
Obviously IF it was consistent it may show the improvement the body work has made ? [ if any ]

Paul
 
Thanks the roll down test is interesting

As you said repetability error is greater than the measurement accuracy needed...

Still relative measurements in the same conditions, like you did for the toe in adjustment, seem meaningful.

Aerodynamic resistance may become strongly dominant over rolling resistance for speeds in the order of 25mph and above, for a recumbent vehicule/bike I think.

So one may need a long slope of a good few % to reach such speed, and reveal the advantage ( or not ) of the fairing.

Or you can just be happy with the fairing's cool look and weather protection, and not bother with questionnable tests...
 
Interesting, that the photos in post #326, which I could see fine when Paul posted it, have now gone blue - Go figure.
Guess they must be past their "best by" date.
But I can see everything in posts #332 and #334, no problem.
 
I just looked at two of my "Galleries" on Postimg and every one of the several hundred images is there with no blue placeholders.
 
stormbird said:
So what is that all about?
Click to expand...
I'm sure there are a lot of subliminal variables - Surface condition (drier / wetter), atmospheric pressure (breeze?), temperature (wheel grease thicker / thinner), clothing worn on a specific day, your body weight changing by a 1/2 lb +/- on a given day, etc, etc, ......
But I still think you need to change that left front to correct rotation direction ;)
 
Paul and I discussed the "Toe-in/out" conundrum this morning.
The fact that the cross link is so far forward it does mean that it takes complete rotations of the cross-link to effect any substantive change in the toe-in/out unlike a normal tadpole where the steering is typically dual-link on very short (75mm) actuating arms and very highly geared where 1/4-turn of the link gives a large result.
Similarly we discussed the "roll-down testing and observed that no real repeatable baseline had been established and there were too many conflicting factors (lump in the track, hitting a grassy tussock, wet/dry etc. etc. The roll-down track has too may variables along its path for it to be a truly valid test. Better to use a gently sloping empty car park if you can find one.
 
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