A Rickshaw Trike: Part 3

Today was Saturday and I had a chance to work on the Cyclo cycle-rickshaw. The aim was to get the trike going with a retro-direct 2 -speed drive. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retro-Direct) I'd already mounted an extra clutch on the rear sprocket and the cycle already had a place to mount the pulley and I had a ball bearing mounted pulley in the shed. So it didn't take all that long to put it together.

Christine was ready for a ride in the trike by the time I'd fitted up the chain and pulley, so the first ride wasn't a blockey but a "real ride" up to a cafe / nursery and bike shop. The gears worked quite well and it was relatively easy to get used to pedalling backwards to go forwards. The trike has an inbuilt park-brake: just park it pointed up a hill and it won't go anywhere as it can't roll backwards.

I made a short, fairly crap video of the mechanism. The sound effects include the guy next door putting out the rubbish bins and I am decapitated for much of the video. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO8HTsOLHCE . That's Showbiz or at least my version of it!

Before I put this drive on our rickshaw I searched the internet for "retro-direct rickshaw" and came up with this site which links to a video of a delta trike rickshaw in Bangladesh with retro-direct drive . I had a brief internet conversation with the site's author. http://char1es.net/2010/04/30/retro-direct-vangari/

Well I'll go on improving this trike. The bracket holding the pulley needs to be a bit more secure and be constrained from moving sideways but major improvements will only come when I increase the number of teeth on the chainwheel and clutches (reducing the forces in the chain) and get the driving ratios a bit better. For this I need to remove the several screw on clutches from bike wheels which is "difficult", so I'll see how it goes.

Regards

Steve Nurse