A few years ago i decided biking with my friends would be more fun than biking alone, and what better way to bike with friends than for everyone to be on the same bicycle!
Thus the Bus Bike was born.
I used nine bicycles, cutting and welding them into three single-speed triple bikes, then welding bars accross them, and finally connecting the three handle bars in an english steering setup.
It was pretty straight forward and turned and rode surprisingly well. With nine riders it was akin to a train. Very fast, very powerful and very difficult to stop.
i hand built six wheels for it, using double gauge spokes, rims, and hubs, and put single speed bmx freewheels on the back.
I ended up taking this to burning man and all of the wheels eventually taco'd.
Foreseeing this possibility i brought innumerable extras and thanks to the rugedness and universality of the design was able to throw random wheels on where ever they were needed. I did find however that single speed coaster brakes should not be attached because of the riders desire to back-pedal constantly.
I used a standard 110 mig for this project, be careful to grind away all paint when making the connections.
Materials included, bikes (9+ extras for donor parts), around 40' 1.5" steel tubing, lots of wire feed, lots of grinding disks, saws-all blades, paint.
I found a saws-all really came in handy for chopping up the bikes and rounding out the connection points, pre-weld.
Thus the Bus Bike was born.
I used nine bicycles, cutting and welding them into three single-speed triple bikes, then welding bars accross them, and finally connecting the three handle bars in an english steering setup.
It was pretty straight forward and turned and rode surprisingly well. With nine riders it was akin to a train. Very fast, very powerful and very difficult to stop.
i hand built six wheels for it, using double gauge spokes, rims, and hubs, and put single speed bmx freewheels on the back.
I ended up taking this to burning man and all of the wheels eventually taco'd.
Foreseeing this possibility i brought innumerable extras and thanks to the rugedness and universality of the design was able to throw random wheels on where ever they were needed. I did find however that single speed coaster brakes should not be attached because of the riders desire to back-pedal constantly.
I used a standard 110 mig for this project, be careful to grind away all paint when making the connections.
Materials included, bikes (9+ extras for donor parts), around 40' 1.5" steel tubing, lots of wire feed, lots of grinding disks, saws-all blades, paint.
I found a saws-all really came in handy for chopping up the bikes and rounding out the connection points, pre-weld.
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your going to need a lot of bikes.
not just the obvious nine, but a least half again more for scavenging parts.
i used all new chains, and built all new wheels, but you definitely don't need to do that. The wheels ended up breaking anyway, and the chains were just so that they were all the same kind and saved time.
your going to need a bunch of steel tubing.
your going to need a lot of disposables, ie: grinding wheels, saws-all blades, and wire feed.
thats really about it.
not just the obvious nine, but a least half again more for scavenging parts.
i used all new chains, and built all new wheels, but you definitely don't need to do that. The wheels ended up breaking anyway, and the chains were just so that they were all the same kind and saved time.
your going to need a bunch of steel tubing.
your going to need a lot of disposables, ie: grinding wheels, saws-all blades, and wire feed.
thats really about it.
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The easiest solution would be to use double suspension forks and frames, followed by a 6-pointed star (2 triangle) articulated frame geometry.
when full, the bike weighed over 1800 lbs so, i think that probably had something to do with the taco'ing. If i made it over again, i wouldn't use existing bikes, and id probably use four motorcycle wheels. or maybe custom giant wheels?
in the interest of simplicity the six wheels and the three triple bikes was the most reliable, easiest way to get everyone pedaling i could think of.
it actually did have a pretty good amount of flex, there was only three steel tubes welded across holding it together widthwise, which allowed it to flex around a bit at burning man, but yeah, there was no way it was going off a curb!
But in all honesty, this is one of the greatest bike projects I have ever seen. Good job!!!
That is so cool.
The next one im working on is a 2X2 on abandoned rails. Made with a custom frame and just welding the bottom brackets etc. i think using the existing bikes added a lot of extra weight etc. On rails the steering would be unimportant and the rolling resistance much lower. look for it in the Appalachian mountains this summer!
Good job!
all three people in front could steer,(they were all connected together) though most of the time people were content to just ride, especially if they were in the back two rows.
Also the brake levers were placed semi-randomly around the bike, so there was a lot of communication involved.
just trying to start and stop the thing used a lot of team work.
At times the heading (especially at burning man where you could literally go in any direction) had to be reached by consensus, but that was part of the fun.
compare it to nine people on separate bikes, and i think you'd find that you actually have a much better chance of "staying together" and going in the same direction!
One braking lever, linked to all the brakes on the back of the bike.
Or regenerative braking, putting generators on ALL the wheels, and using wire to make them contact, hard, on the wheel, and using the braking power to charge a small battery (or a big capacitor, for that matter) which you could power a small motor, or lights. This is instructables! Use the imagination to full capacity!
remember:
power to weight,
cost,
time,
simplicity,
and reliability.
1. In order to keep the busbike as light as possible the lateral bars that hold the three triple bikes together were as small as possible allowing a lot of flex in the frames. So basically if you removed the two wheels in the middle, the middle bike would sag quite a bit, and put extra force on the outside wheels.
2. The middle rear wheel was extremely crucial. Each triple bike powers the wheel directly behind it. As you can see from the the pictures and step three, the drive train is pretty simple. In order to avoid axles and complicated drive train systems, just using existing bikes architecture worked very well.
If I removed the rear middle wheel i would be cutting the power by a third, and since the bus bike weights upwards of 1800 lbs fully loaded, i really needed that power. The bus bike wouldn't really work if everyone didn't "pull their own weight".
For the next busbike i intend on building the frame separately where it would be easier to incorporate an axle and a way of changing the drive trains direction, so people wouldn't have to sit directly in front of the wheels.