Water Bicycle On Pontoons. Design Challenge.

Here's a short motivational video.

This made me cry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rDgE9d3GXE

This would be funny if you didn't know anything about brain damage from concussions. This guy just permanently damaged his brain.

One can only hope that the damage was severe enough to keep him from reproducing.

I don't think a friction drive will work, it's too wet. I see a chain driving some paddles.

I suspect that may have happened beforehand.

A brick would probably have worked better for this demo.

I think it was funny as hell. The brain damage probably occurred way before he made the video. He should run away and join the circus.

To keep it simple, I would use the original bike configuration. Fashion a paddle wheel, (or two) coming off the rear sprocket and power with existing pedals and chain, (maybe convert to belt drive to prevent rust). A rudder could come straight off the front forks for steering, using existing handle bars.

Got distracted and ran out of time, anyway.......

PVC makes great pontoons. On the front, rather than capping, heat and fold into a V shape, use glue to seal. Rather than worrying too much about a low center of gravity, space the pontoons about 8' apart, give or take. These could be mounted with locking hinges. When transporting or not in use, just fold them up.

I saw something online about a year ago, where a guy was making really big catamarans, using PVC pontoons. I'll see if I can find it.

This may be it. It does give a floatation chart for PVC, which will be helpful.

http://rebelcat.com/Flotation-Chart.html

Very helpful suggestions. Thanks. I never thought of heat forming pvc. That would be a great idea. I guess I could practice with lightweight pvc and work my way up. Seems like it would take a lot of heat though.

It takes a little practice to perfect, but a regular heat gun will do the trick. Not hair dryer, the ones for stripping paint.

Think of the shapes you could make at the bonfire (:

But who says you need floats?

I'll have to give that a try. He must have a lot of air in those tires.

If it's not photo-shopped, I would suspect hydrofoils.

Gordie.

or you could trade-in the bike for a trike, with blow up tyres

There is not a chance in the world that this guy smacking himself on his head with a flimsy piece of plywood gave himself any brain damage.

If that were the case.. I think most of us would be a vegetable by now

I wish I had that in 1983 when I joined Amway...

pmsl.

This might be a better "overview" link than the one I added to the pick above, which is probably better for pictures of how they work etc.

Here's an interesting / fun one - well I thought so;

That's definitely hydrofoils!

Great picture! Where did you find it?

Speaking of multiple tubes...

I saw a design with two tubes, one above the other, dynamically ballasted to keep the meeting point (line) right at the water level, making it less susceptible to waves.

I don't know how effective it was, but it seemed a clever strategy.

Gordie.

Isn't plywood wonderfully resilient stuff?

foam pontoons

Front rudder is the sux. Think about it. Use handlebars to control rudder (makes it intuitavly obvious but remember that rudder direction mirrors actual direction. (again, think about it). Look at commercial designs, too. I can't find any using props. They take too much power (human can generate 1/2 HP for maybe 5 minutes, check Wiki Human Power). C of G use recumbent formfactor. That just means a longer chain.

I have a 14' bass boat with a 25HP 4 stroke yamaha on the back end. I'm quite happy with it. Of course, if the easy way out presents itself, I will take it.

I thought about it and don't see what's wrong with a front rudder. Please enlighten me.

Gordie.

Hello, I have a small business helping people with designs such as what you are looking for. One thought I had is a system where you could remove the bike and ride it on land, this would make the bike more adaptable and give greater versatility. Possibly using a friction wheel to drive a wheel or propeller and have the front wheel clamped to a pivot which could drive a rudder, either front or rear via linkage. Send me a message through my contact page at www.gallowaytechconsulting.com and I will see what I can do for you.

Best Regards,

Shawn

I think putting spur gear teeth on the circumference of the rear disc would be more logical and direct drive is prefered too.

Thank you for the offer. There is an Italian company on Youtube that makes a very elegant solution with inflatable pontoons. The whole rig fits into a backpack. It even inflates with a bike attachment. Do a search on Shuttle Bike Kit on Youtube. I just need the components. Several people have already mastered the engineering. I hadn't done searches before I started this subject. These are all fairly fast compared to kayaks or canoes. I will contact you in the future. Thanks again.

Ron

It has been done before. I remember reading an article in the paper in the 60's or 70's about a man pedalling through London on the Thames with pontoons that could fold up for road use.

Thanks. The foldable idea is great. The Shuttle Bike group keeps certain parts attached firmly to the bike, so that it can be quickly attached to the pontoon frame. The rest comes in small pieces that fit in a backpack. I have not gotten a reply from them, so they may be out of business. They are in Italy. The You Tube videos are impressive. I would love to see some people open source these, and also adapt bicycle parts to kayaks and catamarans. There is a fair amount of interest. The only problem seems to be parts for the drive train. Ron

Chain drive a centrifugal pump and use the handle bars to steer the exhaust jet(s).

Think about brakes.

I think a Voith Schneider drive would be a bit too complicated for a kid or somebody who is "not an engineer" like yourself.

Gordie.