Rhoades Car problems
11-25-20, 08:37 PM
#26
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Djashaw
i am actually interested in the Rhodes Car but will be building it myself.
After reading all these comments I have a question.
What would you do to design this to be used daily?
I am building a 4 seat version but with a bench back seat.
I have already been planning to add suspension to the bike and have bee trying to figure out the best way to set up the rear axle. I was thinking of using go kart parts for most of the build and also building the frame out of aluminum and using mountain bike style tires .
I read along here the placement of the rear axle is too far forward, please elaborate if you don't mind.
My reason for this car is that I am visually disabled, just enough I can not legally drive. This will be my transportation.
Your thoughts and opinions are greatly appreciated.
After reading all these comments I have a question.
What would you do to design this to be used daily?
I am building a 4 seat version but with a bench back seat.
I have already been planning to add suspension to the bike and have bee trying to figure out the best way to set up the rear axle. I was thinking of using go kart parts for most of the build and also building the frame out of aluminum and using mountain bike style tires .
I read along here the placement of the rear axle is too far forward, please elaborate if you don't mind.
My reason for this car is that I am visually disabled, just enough I can not legally drive. This will be my transportation.
Your thoughts and opinions are greatly appreciated.
11-28-20, 04:24 PM
#27
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I don't know ... I moved to Portland, OR 12 years ago to build bikes and be part of the (as perceived from across the country) vibrant cycling community there (here). I rented a house with a detached 3 car garage/shop. Long story short, my vision took a major turn for the worse. I don't know about anyone else with vision issues but bike building as a career (or hobby!) was out after that. Welding is extremely hazardous to vision in the best of circumstances. Measuring angles and dimensions to the tolerances necessary to make a frame/chassis that will be true and run straight ... ... recent posts do not seem to take the difficulties ahead into consideration.
A Rhoades Car, at the end of the day is a tandem. A sociable tandem, if you will. That implies at least some of the time the craft will have two souls on board. That's a heck of a lot of responsibility for a fully sighted Captain to take on ... .... I don't know, if it was me, the last thing I would want to do is have a very unwieldy, very low performance and extremely heavy roadgoing conveyance on my hands with a visual deficit to boot. I take my share of risks and my (blind) Stoker trusts me to keep us both safe on conventional and recumbent tandems but at least I am working with proven designs built by well known manufacturing firms.
IF, as I suspect the original Rhoades Cars were meant to be used, if the sociable quad tandem will only operate on closed, off-road but paved situations, like senior communities and resort complexes then, maybe. Otherwise, there are tandem recumbent trikes OR Delta recumbent trikes that can be linked to form tandem (and triplet) trains offer much better price/performance metrics than a sociable quad. If they aren't affordable used, then building a practical Rhoades Car clone would have been likewise out of reach financially. It takes a fair amount of tooling and equipment to build safe, reasonable looking human powered vehicles.
Two new Greenspeed Anura recumbent trikes linked together would cost slightly LESS than a new Rhoades Car and would flat out rip the throat out of the monstrosity, from what I am reading about how poorly designed and built these Rhoades Car things are. Anura's turn up used with some frequency. I imagine that two used Anura's wouldn't cost more than 1/2 (and possibly less) of a new Rhoades Car. FWIW.
A Rhoades Car, at the end of the day is a tandem. A sociable tandem, if you will. That implies at least some of the time the craft will have two souls on board. That's a heck of a lot of responsibility for a fully sighted Captain to take on ... .... I don't know, if it was me, the last thing I would want to do is have a very unwieldy, very low performance and extremely heavy roadgoing conveyance on my hands with a visual deficit to boot. I take my share of risks and my (blind) Stoker trusts me to keep us both safe on conventional and recumbent tandems but at least I am working with proven designs built by well known manufacturing firms.
IF, as I suspect the original Rhoades Cars were meant to be used, if the sociable quad tandem will only operate on closed, off-road but paved situations, like senior communities and resort complexes then, maybe. Otherwise, there are tandem recumbent trikes OR Delta recumbent trikes that can be linked to form tandem (and triplet) trains offer much better price/performance metrics than a sociable quad. If they aren't affordable used, then building a practical Rhoades Car clone would have been likewise out of reach financially. It takes a fair amount of tooling and equipment to build safe, reasonable looking human powered vehicles.
Two new Greenspeed Anura recumbent trikes linked together would cost slightly LESS than a new Rhoades Car and would flat out rip the throat out of the monstrosity, from what I am reading about how poorly designed and built these Rhoades Car things are. Anura's turn up used with some frequency. I imagine that two used Anura's wouldn't cost more than 1/2 (and possibly less) of a new Rhoades Car. FWIW.
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