Well, it is that time of the year again where a shit load of work that I have put in to building a trike gets thrown into a field of teenagers full of adreniline to race for 24 hours.

 

If anyone is bored this weekend, it is worth the trip to Maryborough for a look at the event. 90+ human powered vehicles (some pushing to 60km/h or more) 30 odd "hybrids", where I will be running a team, involving at least one motor and capable of doing 80km/h +

 

So if you are in the area, come and say g'day. I'll be in pitbay number 7 on the Holden track.

Sweet, unfortunately I will be busy this weekend so can't make it down.

At High School I built little model solar cars and in 2003 the national competition was in Adelaide. The competetion co-incided with both the

finish of the full-scale Darwin-Adelaide race and the solar bikes/hybrids you speak of. We saw a number of cool machines and

got enthused to give it a go, but the school did not have the estimated $10K we would have needed to build one and start a team.

I will go there one day, any chance of posting some pics of the weekend?

will try if I get time while running the pit for the team.

 

$10000 for a trike - bloody hell. Never spent more than $3500 for a human powered trike and that was with top of the range mechanicals.

wooot passed scruitineering :y: :y: Now to qualify

will try if I get time while running the pit for the team.

 

$10000 for a trike - bloody hell. Never spent more than $3500 for a human powered trike and that was with top of the range mechanicals.

 

$10,000!? what are it's specs? pics?

will try if I get time while running the pit for the team.

 

$10000 for a trike - bloody hell. Never spent more than $3500 for a human powered trike and that was with top of the range mechanicals.

 

Yeah, the bloke wanting to get it started at school had some pretty crazy plans ! lol

want to share

well we survived qualifying (held in the dark) to end up 21st out of 70 odd trikes. Not bad as it basically the first time it had been tested, about 30 sec off the fastest :hmm:

 

Started the race well to jump up to 12th and 5th in class after a couple of hours. Then it went to shit. The flywheel of our engine decided to let go, jamming the motor. Back to base and grab another motor, which the other school trike discarded as it was stuffed, down on power, using oil and blowing smoke; so I could grab the flywheel.

 

Unfortunately, this flywheel needed to be machined to suit my drive system. This was a prick of a job!!!!!!!! Back at the track, fitted new flywheel to our motor, only to find the crank was also bent :) ;) Back to stuffed worn out motor, fit it up with flywheel and the bits off our motor and go to mount it. Mounting holes are stripped....... Get some longer bolts, loctite fitted it up and hope it would hold. It didn't. Trike was back in two laps missing three out of four bolts, including the special spacers made up to suit :yes:

 

Motor back out and back to the work shop to drill and tap for bigger bolts. Back to the track, refit the engine for the second time and hope nothing else went wrong. Fire her up and sent her off in a trail of blue smoke. It kept on going until the race was called the next day due to weather. The only issue was it lack of grip on the wet tyre for our friction drive.

 

So four hours stationary or approx 100 laps lost. Still 16th outright wasn't too bad.

far out what a drama, what sorta engine is this? and what are the rules on the engine?

 

and once again pics!

A little honda 4 stroke (31cc). No rules really on engines, some use 2 strokes & I think some have tried diesel, but you only get 3 litres of fuel to do 24 hours. If you use it up then you will be pedaling in my case.

A little honda 4 stroke (31cc). No rules really on engines, some use 2 strokes & I think some have tried diesel, but you only get 3 litres of fuel to do 24 hours. If you use it up then you will be pedaling in my case.

 

ok let me guess, the catch is once your 3L is up you have to cart the dead weight of the engine around right? You know if you where really keen you could make a cylinder head for the engine to boost the economay considerably. Heaps of tricks you can do there but I doubt thats something you would want to do.

ok let me guess, the catch is once your 3L is up you have to cart the dead weight of the engine around right? You know if you where really keen you could make a cylinder head for the engine to boost the economay considerably. Heaps of tricks you can do there but I doubt thats something you would want to do.

 

Dunno - whats involved if you wish to pass the info on :wink:

a serious amount of machining. I would have to talk to the guy directly. Feel free to PM me if you want me to call them

as promised here are a couple of pics