Rowingbike info

Update, switching to a long wheel base.
Decided against the rowingbike configuration, since several
hills are considered.
Anybody currently building a recumbent?

Michael Baugh said:

I'm building a SWB/ASS. Interested to know if anybody here
has personal experience with a rowingbike with its cable
drive instead of chain drive. Are the Shimano parts pretty
expensive, considering that the bike can run $2,100 or so?
The snek unit is the part I am considering. Anybody built
a recumbent with rowingbike-style drive?

"Michael Baugh" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm building a SWB/ASS. Interested to know if anybody here
has personal experience with a rowingbike with its cable
drive instead of chain drive. Are the Shimano parts pretty
expensive, considering that the bike can run $2,100 or so?
The snek unit is the part I am considering. Anybody built
a recumbent with rowingbike-style drive?

I saw my first rowbike yesterday, while it may be good in some instances it
looked cumbersome and slow on something like a jogging trail.

Michael Baugh said:

Update, switching to a long wheel base.
Decided against the rowingbike configuration, since several
hills are considered.
Anybody currently building a recumbent?

I'm getting ready to build a wooden one for the hell of it following
http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~talizmar/xntrick/2x4.htm

Someone else who has just put down the molten metal glue gun is:
http://www.hoovesofdestiny.co.uk/version2.html

Otherwise this looks an easy starter way to build your own
http://www.dutchbikes.nl/

--
Tony

"The best way I know of to win an argument is to start by being in the
right."
- Lord Hailsham

SWEET! The wooden one looks like it would be lightweight and easy
to add on things like lights and brackets for bike computer, GPS, etc.
The metal one looks very involved, and that last one looks like an easy
retrofit (upgrade!) project, leaving a shorter wheelbase that can still fit
onto bus bike racks.

"Tony Raven" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Michael Baugh said:

Update, switching to a long wheel base.
Decided against the rowingbike configuration, since several
hills are considered.
Anybody currently building a recumbent?

I'm getting ready to build a wooden one for the hell of it following
http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~talizmar/xntrick/2x4.htm

Someone else who has just put down the molten metal glue gun is:
http://www.hoovesofdestiny.co.uk/version2.html

Otherwise this looks an easy starter way to build your own
http://www.dutchbikes.nl/

--
Tony

"The best way I know of to win an argument is to start by being in the
right."
- Lord Hailsham

On Sun, 13 Nov 2005 15:56:56 +0000, Tony Raven <[email hidden]>
said in <[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

Someone else who has just put down the molten metal glue gun is:
http://www.hoovesofdestiny.co.uk/version2.html

Hooves 2 looks quite pro, doesn't it?

Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

"To every complex problem there is a solution which is
simple, neat and wrong" - HL Mencken

Just zis Guy said:

On Sun, 13 Nov 2005 15:56:56 +0000, Tony Raven <[email hidden]>
said in <[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

Someone else who has just put down the molten metal glue gun is:
http://www.hoovesofdestiny.co.uk/version2.html

Hooves 2 looks quite pro, doesn't it?

Yep, Jon's done a great job with it. I'm no good with a metal glue gun
which is why I'm going to try the wooden one. But I'm going to try to
build the mainframe in one piece from bent laminations.

--
Tony

"The best way I know of to win an argument is to start by being in the
right."
- Lord Hailsham

I built a full suspension SWB with USS using carbon fiber this summer.
I used CF because I didn't want to do any welding - too much equipment
and skill required, and limited choice of materials. I've put about
500 miles on the bike so far, mostly commuting to and from school
carrying 10-25 lbs of books, and to my delight/surprise, it has been
completely reliable.

CF is pretty easy, and you can make the frame any shape you want,
limited only by your ability to shape a styrofoam core, which is
pretty easy to do, and cheap, so that you can make several mistakes (I
mean design changes...) without it costing an arm and a leg.

This was my first ever bike build, and my first ever composite
project. It took about 6 weeks of a several hours per day of work,
but now I could duplicate the whole thing in about 2 weeks, I think,
and get cosmetically better results.

I think the overall cost was about $1000, but I bought a lot of parts
instead of scrounging them or taking them from another bike. In
particular I paid $100 for a set of used wheels (20"😉, about $100 for
a suspension fork (new), and $150 for a CF seat and cushion (used),
$75 for the rear shock (new), and $90 for the crankset (new).
Materials for the frame, including about 6 yards of CF cloth and 1/2
gal. of epoxy and hardener, cost maybe $200-250. Along the way I
picked up a vacuum pump ($50) for vacuum bagging the frame, and
various other items. Other parts I picked up at bike swapmeets, for
very low prices. A little of the money was recovered by selling my
old bike. Looking back, I could have made out better by using parts
from the old bike instead of selling it, but I have a bunch of new(er)
parts on the bike now instead of a bunch of much older parts.

I had to fabricate dropouts (and other parts) from 1/4" aluminum
plate, which turned out to be pretty easy to do, even with the minimal
tools I have available. The rear swingarm is set up so that I can
switch to a 26" wheel simply by moving the brake attachment point on
the frame. I can also alter the steerer tube angle (and so the trail)
by moving the rear shock attachment point.

I have an overall gearing range of 32-192 gear-inches divided among 32
gears. I used a mid-drive to allow wide range gearing with "normal"
drive train parts and eliminate chain idlers. The "front" derailleur
is controlled by an S-RAM X-9 front shifter. The micro-adjust stops
on the shifter correspond exactly to the gear positions on the
modified 8 speed cassette at the mid drive, when pulling a Shimano
rear derailleur. The top-end is much too high, so this winter I will
shift the whole range down a bit- maybe to 25-150 gear-inches.

The mid-drive is a rear wheel hub embedded in the frame. It also
serves as the suspension pivot. I used an 8-speed cassette which I
modified by removing the pawls from the freehub body and restacked the
gears to suit my needs. The 30 tooth gear is used to drive the rear
wheel. I discovered that cassette cogs are not designed to be drive
gears, so I had to flip that one over in order to keep the chain from
jumping on it.

You will find out just how many little problems there are to solve whe
you undertake a project like this. You will also find out a lot about
yourself in the process.

Photo here:
http://tinyurl.com/7wvns

Do LWBs and hills go together? As I understand it, the lightly loaded
front wheel may have a tendency to lift or at least slide around if it
goes onto sand/gravel, especially when going up hill.

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Do LWBs and hills go together? As I understand it, the lightly loaded
front wheel may have a tendency to lift or at least slide around if it
goes onto sand/gravel, especially when going up hill.

I haven't seen a recument yet that didn't slide around in sand and gravel

Quoted message said:

This was my first ever bike build, and my first ever composite
project.

Very cool project.

Where'd you get the instructions/info on working with composites? At
teh very least I'd be insterested in reading about how.

Rich

Quoted message said:

Very cool project.

Where'd you get the instructions/info on working with composites? At
teh very least I'd be insterested in reading about how.

Lots of web searches. There are plenty of web sites that tell about
how to do it. Several bicycle specific sites (Jim Scozzifava's site,
for example, is very inspirational, even though I used a different
method of frame construction). West System epoxy sites have lots of
how-tos, and the model rocket guys have been using CF and glass fiber
for years.

Here are some sites:

http://www.jjscozzi.com/
http://www.info-central.org/construction_vacuumbagging.shtml
http://www.westsystem.com/
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/rinard/howibuil.htm
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/rinard/carbonqa.htm
http://www.kreuzotter.de/english/elenk.htm
http://users.skynet.be/benoit.dery/
http://www.wisil.recumbents.com/wisil/whatsup.htm
http://www.ihpva.org/people/tstrike/building/index.htm
http://www.fairing.com/BicycleFrameDepot-cover.htm
http://mnhpva.org/index.htm
http://www.xcelco.on.ca/~stevbike/

Those should get you started...

Look here http://www.rowingbike.com/main.php?sNewDept=GB-Home
that is the real rowingbike

Grtx
Adj

"Mark Leuck" <[email hidden]> skrev i en meddelelse
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Michael Baugh" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm building a SWB/ASS. Interested to know if anybody here
has personal experience with a rowingbike with its cable
drive instead of chain drive. Are the Shimano parts pretty
expensive, considering that the bike can run $2,100 or so?
The snek unit is the part I am considering. Anybody built
a recumbent with rowingbike-style drive?

I saw my first rowbike yesterday, while it may be good in some instances

it

Quoted message said:

looked cumbersome and slow on something like a jogging trail.

A rowingbike, as I see it, can manage a hill but with
considerable difficulty. Because it's an intermittant
power stroke. So on a substantial hill, it can potentially
come down to a very unstable speed before the next power
stroke. Great for a level course, though.
And being able to use aviation cable instead of chain
would be nice, too.
But the snek is likely to be so pricey.

arjan de jong said:

Look here http://www.rowingbike.com/main.php?sNewDept=GB-Home
that is the real rowingbike

Grtx
Adj

"Mark Leuck" <[email hidden]> skrev i en meddelelse
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Michael Baugh" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm building a SWB/ASS. Interested to know if anybody here
has personal experience with a rowingbike with its cable
drive instead of chain drive. Are the Shimano parts pretty
expensive, considering that the bike can run $2,100 or so?
The snek unit is the part I am considering. Anybody built
a recumbent with rowingbike-style drive?

I saw my first rowbike yesterday, while it may be good in some
instances

it

Quoted message said:

looked cumbersome and slow on something like a jogging trail.

[quote="Mark Leuck"]<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Do LWBs and hills go together? As I understand it, the lightly loaded
front wheel may have a tendency to lift or at least slide around if it
goes onto sand/gravel, especially when going up hill.