Pedal Powered Boats

Spidennis,

That's pretty cool.

I hope you're happy, that's a lot of money.

 

Scheny:

My advice is available FWIW.

Is there any lubrication on the driveleg you design? I have seen other nylon bevel gear drives out of China many years ago that were open in design. Good for proto typing and light use, but not for heavy use/racing, because of nylon gear flexing/distortion/tension required. But might be better with deeper cut gear teeth/helical, etc. Submerged ball bearings would need to be sealed with pressurized grease seal like in troll motor shafts in my feeling, because of fine debris that works its way into the race in marine conditions.

Hope this helps.

Porta

 

It is a chunk of coin(s), but I don't have to build anything .....
just the floats alone would cost a good bit if obtained separately.
Now if I can build this cheap enough, light enough, in a short enough time .....
Any thoughts on that?

 

Spidennis,

Go for it. Only thing is, do you have the time available to prove it's reliability.

Perhaps the pre-made purchase is worth the money, provided it truly is a good, reliable product.

 

Dennis:

Is this for traversing the water sections on your bike ride the length of SPI? I believe the pictured unit is meant for protected waters only. Seems like a carefully chosen inflatable raft or pontoons with oars might work better? Easier set up/take down, more stable/lower wind resistance, no weed interference, less weight/complexity, etc... Unless pedalling across water is a requirement, but even then, something more stable could be rigged up?

Porta

 

Porta, you're close, I'm doing the entire texas coast, but where I can take a boat ride I will. Galveston I'll take the ferry, maybe at port A to st.joe's island if it's running, and I'll take any fishermen's boat when offered. I just can't depend on that kind of help though.

I've considered a raft and a paddle/oars but I'd have to lay down the bike and somehow store my gear. As you know I've already done all kinds of long distance paddling, including the entire texas coast thru out the bays and ICW so I know what kind of waters I'm up against and it's not all that bad where I'd be making my crossings. Where it is bad I'm taking the ferry ride!

Once I've done this route a time or two I might make this into an adventure race, and then it might be purely a pedal/paddle event. but that's looking way far away at the moment!

Yeah, I'd love to come up with my own design but the time could be against me. This will be a winter/early spring trip.

I'm still looking around for inflatable floats but they are not cheap! And it can't be so heavy and big that they don't fit on the bike. That's why I'm thinking the cargo bike over a regular fat bike (mountain bike with fat tires).

so ideas are still welcome! pics, links, etc are appreciated! btw, it's such a pretty day here on south padre island, texas!

 

The newest, lightest, and most compact floats are being made out of the material used for heart valves by NFO.

http://northforkoutdoors.com/2012catalog/page1c.html

Expensive though.

Creek company pontoons which are made only of nylon fabric and bladders are also quite lightweight/compact. I have one of their float tubes which weighs 7# and can be packed on remote hiking trips anywhere. They sell replacement parts at lower cost which might be of interest.

http://creekcompany.com/home.php?cat=256&sort=orderby&sort_direction=0&page=3

Late Fall, Early Spring and most Winter days are the best at SPI!


Porta

 

thanks for the links porta!

Here is the raft I was thinking about, they have a whole range of sizes.
http://www.alpackaraft.com/
I got other trips where this type of raft is gonna be necessary!
But I don't know if I can fit the bike and gear, along with 4 gallons of drinking water in this type of raft. 6 pounds is pretty nice though!
edit: I've seemed to have drifted out of the channel, sorry! we were on pedal power there for awhile!

 

Yes, I forgot about the Alpackas. But they are limited to one basic design. If you look around on the sites I sent, you can see a great variety of craft designs and sizes. Maybe one will adapt.

I was thinking a traditional/slightly modified bike rack, something like is used on the back of cars, working in conjunction with a motor mount on the raft...

P.

 

I looked thru those sites, interesting stuff, but again it's all gonna cost .....

I wonder how a trimaran configuration would work out?
It could still be pedal powered but have the center hull take most of the load,
and the outrigger floats could be much smaller.

edit: ok, maybe not. I'd have more weight up higher where the cat configuration could keep it much lower?

 

http://creekcompany.com/product.php?productid=16239&cat=256&page=1
yup, this is an interesting way to go! a couple replacement bladders, hummmm.......

 

If you can wait until black Friday, they run 50% off+ super specials + free shipping on their bigger boats and sometimes overstocked parts. Buy a whole pontoon boat for less than what the floats sell for, and throw away the frame if can't be adapted...

P.

 

Nice idea! but I'd need a frame of some sort anyway ......

 

No frame needed with Voyager 2. Bike in back seat area, put in a net floor for supplies and take out unneeded back seat?

http://creekcompany.com/product.php?productid=16322

P.

 

3D-printed prop

I'm working on a stainless steel folding prop - need to build the hub for it. The hub is axisymmetric, 2" diameter and 9.5" long. I was planning on using a lathe to build the hub. How much would it cost to print instead? What do you need as an input file?

Thanks, Dave