Dec 7
Stephen Cameron, a commenter on this site and who has been making good progress on his cycle kart, had a video walk through of his build posted on makezine.com. Check it out at : http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/12/sweet-cyclekart-works-as-a-go-kart-for-adults.html. It’s good to see another cycle kart nearing completion and some good recognition from MAKE.
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/12/sweet-cyclekart-works-as-a-go-kart-for-adults.html
Aug 13
I added a second clutch to the winch and can now use it for wake boarding (or in our first test, creek body boarding.)
Jun 9
CycleKarting.com turns 2 years old today. To celebrate, I finally put some sweat and time into my build. In a messy garage and with a little help from my 4 year, I built my box. The front and sides are attached and actually feel very sturdy. When I set out to build a Cycle Kart, I imagined racing around by now, but despite the set backs it still felt really good to work on it.
Box Progress
As far as the site goes, we’ve had 50,000 page views in the last two years, so it is nice to see some people interested in Cycle Karting. There has even been a lot of traffic from several motor cycle sites, including caferacer.net, so I’d encourage anyone working on a cafe racer to build a Cycle Kart next, as this years winter project.
Mar 10
I created a page dedicated to the winch where I will resume all future updates. Check it out for a video of the winch in action.
Aug 9
I have had the pleasure of emailing with Virgil Exner, Jr., a man with much automotive design experience and a recent Cycle Karting enthusiast. He has provided a set of drawings he recently authored for two Cycle Karts that he would like some feed back on. Please take a moment to enjoy his work and comment as usual.
Cycle Kart Drawings
Click the here to view the full size pdf file. I am particularly fond of the Novi.
Jul 12
I have made several lame excuses for my lack of progress. I decided I need to post a better excuse this time, so here it is:
Not A Cycle Kart
Anyone want to guess what this might be?
What started as an innocent “I have an engine lying around” and turned into a neat and time consuming project. What we have here is a wake boarding winch. We thought it would be fun to build one and I happened to have my Cycle Kart engine with no Cycle Kart built. I will now use my cycle kart engine twice as often as I would if it were just in a Cycle Kart in my garage as the engine will swap in and out of both machines. The CVT (driven pulley shown) it a monster with a final drive ratio of 30:1 (low gear) to 4.7:1 (high gear) after the triple axle. Imagine a cycle kart with that sort of range!
When this is done I promise to get back to Cycle Kart building with occasional wake boarding sessions.
Jun 9
CycleKarting.com turns 1 year old today. June 9th, 2009 I wrote the first blog post about Cycle Karts, shortly after discovering them for myself. Originally I thought I would have finished my Cycle Kart by now, then I thought I would at least have an interesting post or picture for this day. Unfortunately, all I can say is that I’m still working on my kart and I hope to start construction soon.
Now that this site is 1 year old, it has been interesting to look back at site traffic (10,000+ page views this year), which is getter better every month, and I have each of you to thank. If any of you are making progress on your Cycle Kart builds and want to send pictures, I would love to post them, simply post a comment to get started.
Be safe and happy Cycle Karting!
May 24
I have posted previously that I am going to try an independent swing arm suspension with a single transverse half elliptical leaf spring. Basically, two swing arms are attached to mini axles that are mounted in flange bearings. They leaf spring will then rest atop the swing arms in shackles.
Front Cycle Kart Suspension
I have yet to weld the swing arms to the axles as I will likely redo the swing arm on the left as it is too far off center. I was going to use through fastened bolts with a steel box in the middle, however after seeing the amount of play in the piece, I decided I will weld the central box (not pictured) to the two frame pieces and use shorter bolts to attach the bearings.
I recently posted that I was considering using the v-belt pulleys that were already installed on my axle for the final drive on the Cycle Kart. I got some interesting feedback from the Cycle Karting community on the Yahoo Cycle Kart group. They community seemed to agree that the v-belt would work until I ran the Cycle Kart in dirt or water. I suppose I could try to encase the belt and pulley, but inevitably water or dust would get in and reduce performance. That said, I have begun preparing to attach a 60 tooth sprocket where the pulley is currently.
May 3
Cycle Kart Axle
Here it is. This axle is the rear axle to a commercial zero-radius turn lawn mower. The axle features a heavy duty differential, dual drum brakes and v-belt drive pulleys. The issues with this axle start stacking up, but I am still going to give it a shot.
First, it is too short so I will be adding a larger hub to each of the rear wheels to achieve my overall width.
Second, I am actually going to try using the v-belt pulleys. I wont nearly have the range of a sprocket set up, but with the extra power in the 8hp, I hope to break even. In any capacity, it will be fun to try.
Third, I will be using the lawn mower mounting brackets to hang the axle. They are bearing action, however this will set the attachment toward the center of the Cycle Kart. I suspect it will eventually twist or rock and will require a proper installation.
In any capacity, I actually purchased the entire unit for less than the old Northern Tool differential axles, so even if I strip everything off and build a proper axle off of the differential, it will pay off. I also think all the new twists will be a nice challenge.