Originally Posted by
tidykiwi
or maybe you could get a nuvinci hub and you won't have to gear down before you stop.
cool machine
, does the pvc flex much?
The PVC frame works surprisingly well. It is reinforced with 1 3/8" aluminum pipe in the bottom frame members (the plans call for steel fence rail pipe, but I have a local salvage yard that had aluminum for a bargain price). It flexes enough to soften the bumps out fine - no shocks needed! When going over rough, uneven pavement you can occasionally see one wheel in the air for a moment. Seems to be strong enough, but it does make creaking noises sometimes. How long will it last? We'll find out.... We have a little over 200 miles on it and are extremely happy. We're traveling for about a month at the moment, so it's parked right now. We've had a little problem with the aluminum steering arms bending so that the front wheels get out of alignment easily, causing drag and wear on the tires. Not sure why this is happening - I'll take a good look at the geometry when we get back, may need to just swap out the aluminum arms for stiffer steel ones. Also, when going up hills (not steep at all, but long continuous) with 2 people if you go too fast and don't gear down and throttle back a bit the motor will get hot and cut out. After a couple of minutes it'll run fine again. It feels like it has more than enough power to climb hills, but I think that running 36V in a 24V motor is what's causing it to get too hot. May try to add cooling fins like a previous poster.
Still need to do a little work like adding cup holders, a radio, I tested the water mister system but haven't installed it yet.
That Nuvinci hub looks cool - never seen it before. maybe for the next build...
Wayne