Last night Jeffrey came over and we pulled an all-nighter (along with numerous trips to the shed, which is really scary at night!) to ready the cartbike Mk. 1 for road tests. It was incredibly intense, think every shop montage you've ever seen, we were using arc welders, and hammers, and circle saws, and scroll saws, and forklifts, and cranes, and jackhammers. We used none of those things. Some plaid duct tape on the seat, some zebra print rim (duct) tape, threw the tire on, then hose clamped the fork to the cart. In our case, the more you tightened the fork, the more the rear wheels of the shopping cart rose off the ground. Right now I've got it tightened so that the rear wheels aren't touching the ground, but with the added weight of a person (or two) they touch, and the connection to the bike is pretty stiff.
There is also a bit of bad news, the bolt that clamped the stem onto the handlebars was so rusty that I accidently stripped it. It's attached to the cart well, but it's kind of stuck that way...
On the topic of handlebars, eight zip ties and the Mountain Bike's old handlebars make a very secure place for the passenger to hold on to.
Snazzy!
Another, less pretty angle.
Duct Tape worked as a rim tape substitute. Please note I am in no way recommending that you do this. If you can do anything on this blog better than I can, by all means, do. This is just on a No Dollar Budget.
The wheel inflated and ready to Roll. I'm sorry.
Jeffrey tightening the fork's hose clamps. Tight now there are only two, but eventually we'll have more, and more secure connections.
Passenger's bars/grips. I hadn't imagined how terrifying it would be to ride in the cart until after testing.
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