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You're out for an early morning of fishing while the water is still calm and the tourists have yet to wake from their stupor, when from around the bend of the island this crazy bugger comes racing past your skiff riding what appears to be a ten-speed bike... on the water. Doffing his cap and giving
a cheery, "Top of the morning t'ya" he zips across the lake.
It's ok.
There's no need to lighten the load of Irish in your coffee, he's just riding a Boatercycle.
The Boatercycle is a conversion kit which attaches a standard bicycle to a submerged inflatable or Styrofoam Archimedes screw. This screw itself is geared to the same ratio as the bike and hangs below the cycle because of a lower aquadynamic counterbalance with fins controlled by the riders weight displacement.
Just as a unicycle can ride a high-wire with a counterbalance, this Foaterbike will ride above the waves if the lift-to-weight ratio is correct.
[link] sketch to help visualize.
(?) Boatercycle
http://s68.photobuc...ps6950aa42.jpg.html
Just smile and wave... [2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jun 28 2013]
http://www.youtube....watch?v=yLboyOqi6R8
Video to help visualise [pocmloc, Jun 28 2013]
Amphibious Bicycle
http://www.halfbake...mphibious_20Bicycle
See links on this page [mitxela, Jun 28 2013]
Human Powered Hydrofoil
http://www.human-powered-hydrofoils.com/
As mentioned in an annotation [Vernon, Jun 28 2013]
Tall bicycles can be wieldly
http://www.metzbicy...um.com/Bike32a.html
[MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 29 2013]
Shuttle Bike
http://www.classicv...yclomer-the-shuttl/
Here's another interesting take on the technology, sans screw. [jurist, Jul 09 2013]
Boatercycle mark 2
http://s68.photobuc...ecent]=1&sort=1&o=0
[2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jul 12 2013]
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Although there are plenty of types of water bikes, yours is the coolest because one cannot see what keeps it afloat! [+]
(thanks for the great sketch) |
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I'll always bun a great drawing. [+] |
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Considering that unmodified motorcycles with a high
power:weight, and by theoretical extension bicycles as
well, can hydroplane across smooth water for several
hundred yards, I think this idea has a remarkably solid
premise and might actually work. |
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In other words, it has no business on this forum. Get the
hell out!
[+] |
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Not exactly a shallow draft vehicle. I imagine that one could launch a Boatercycle from a dock, but otherwise it looks like you're going to get pretty wet getting on and off the water (which is confirmed at the end of the youtube video provided in [pocmloc]'s link, now that I have seen it). |
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+ for loading up my Irish coffee too. |
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// you're going to get pretty wet getting on and off
the water// |
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Not necessarily. Simply attach an additional pair of
wheels fore and aft of the screw, so that the bicycle
can be ridden on land and into the water. |
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If it requires a lift-to-drag ratio, which depends on the speed through the water, then it will be a sunken device when the cyclist tries to start pedaling. |
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Now, with respect to the device being mostly out of the water (yeah, this reveals what keeps it up), such human-powered vessels do exist (link). |
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//If it requires a lift-to-drag ratio, which depends on
the speed through the water, then it will be a
sunken device when the cyclist tries to start
pedaling. // |
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The phrase //inflatable or Styrofoam Archimedes
screw// was cunningly concealed in the body of the
idea. |
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//Not necessarily. Simply attach an additional pair of wheels fore and aft of the screw, so that the bicycle can be ridden on land and into the water.// |
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Unfortunately the counterbalance stabilizer which [2fries] has depicted will make installation of additional wheels rather impractical. |
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In which case place the wheels below the level of
the screw, such that they act as both terrestrial
wheels and subaquatic counterbalances. |
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So, now you've got wheels of a size appropriate to a monster truck in order to provide stability and balance in both environments trying to be powered by a bicycle crank. That continues to seem impractical, Max. |
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//That continues to seem impractical, Max.// |
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I thought "impractical" was a design requirement on this
site... Now, someone work out a way so that I can still pop
a wheelie on this boaterbike and I'll buy two. |
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//That continues to seem impractical, Max.// |
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No. The wheels can be of normal size - you need
one pair with axles level with (or below) the screw,
for cycling on dry land; and another pair placed to
appear touching the water, for cosmetic effect only. |
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If you think such a tall bicycle would be unwieldly,
see link. |
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Cool links! I'd seen the bouncy hydrofoil before but not the others. |
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I figured that the mechanisms could fold up Transformer-style and if the screw is inflatable you could ride it off the end of a dock and come rocketing back to the surface. |
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Great minds think alike [2 fries]; completely different application, I just yesterday learned of/have been reading about the Archimedes Screw Conveyor. Coincidence in finding this [+] |
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I'm going to make this one I think.
We have the technology, we can pre-build it... |
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Got something off-the-shelf in mind for that inflatable Archimedean screw? To me, that kinda seems like the tough component to conjure up without a major fabrication commitment to a HongKong supplier of pool toys. (Yes, I know that steel screws from power post-hole diggers are readily available, but inflatable ones aren't common.) I'm interested to know how you work through this process. |
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ever heard of a snowplow or "auger"? Not exactly inflatable, but with hydraulic linkage like a forklift to lower into water would be 100% implementable. |
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With the auger raised and in front of the bike, would also serve as collision safety mechanism/pedestrian deterrent. |
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//Got something off-the-shelf in mind for that inflatable Archimedean screw?// |
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I'm working on it. I don't need inflatable for the prototype. Simple shapes are the way to go I think.
The initial Styrofoam tube can be carved into a hydrodynamic shape using a jury-rigged heat-wire lathe. The block of carved Styrofoam can also be substantially larger than needed to counter my weight for the prototype. Offsetting the extra buoyancy will be as easy as adding more counterweight until a balance is achieved at which point I'll have a basis for tackling the math involved.
The screw section can be cut from a single circular sheet of plastic. Stretching the, now-coiled, plastic strip vertically around the styrofoam torpedo will cause it to assume a natural curvature on its own.
I'm going to approach local bicycle modification and maintenance companies until I find an interested party and try to retrofit my own bike if they don't have one they are willing to spare for testing. |
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My son is into skateboarding (of course) and his friends into mountain biking that have seen the sketch are hyped on seeing it made, so I figure what the heck, I'll take another kick at the cat. |
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I've got one year to file for patent now that I've publically disclosed right? So I guess that's how long I have to find an investor. |
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Interesting. If the counter balance weighs more than the rider and the cycle, how could it not remain upright? It's basically a weeble. My only concern is how to keep the two Styrofoam sections from bending upwards in a U shape. I'd thought to anchor the counter balance to the fore and aft of the screw as well as in the middle to compensate and force it to remain straight and perpendicular. |
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If you want the screw to be fully submerged (for full dramatic effect) you'll need some other mechanism(s) to keep the depth constant so your wheels are just skimming the surface. The shaft suporting the part above the water displaces very little water, so the slightest change in weight (getting splashed for example), could cause the neutrally boyant position to move a lot. |
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One nice solution would be to have it positively boyant so the flat is visible while stationarry, but have small trim planes that pull the whole thing under water to the right level when moving a normal speed. |
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Also, the pole comming up in the middle of the bike (and the chain) give away more than you need to about what is under the surface. If you have the power transfered by a submerged roller bearing under the rear tire, and you support the cycle with a front and rear fork that attach to the front and rear axle bolts, it might even be possible to make this an attachment that you can hook to an unmodified bike. |
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[2 fries], if you're in the US, you no longer have a year; those laws recently passed nullifying the year grace period with proof of prior art. Another reason why I wish the bakery were https for a select few. |
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Good thing our friend [fries] is a Canadiot then, eh? |
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Thanks [scad mientist] I was thinking about trim tabs today. If they could be controlled by the weight displacement of the rider I think it will be a very ergonomic design. More anchor points will certainly increase stability as well. |
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//if you're in the US, you no longer have a year; those laws recently passed nullifying the year grace period with proof of prior art.// |
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Really?!
Well, dang, that's edging up on that last straw then isn't it?
That there's just not right.
When exactly did the right to make decisions as a population become reduced to a popularity contest again?... |
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I don't think that being Canidiots will spare us much longer [Alterother]. When ideas become currency, babes pay with their candy... |
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So true. Still, even if society is going to hell, there's always
next year's Cup to look forward to. |
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Ah, but will next years' Cup be half full or half empty? |
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On a side note; I may have found a bike shop owner hyped on seeing this gizmo built and I've lined up an appointment with the fellow here in town with a CNC foam cutter on Monday to see if I can get him to contribute his talents toward creating a much more efficient Archimedian screw than I would have cobbled together in my garage. |
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<fingers, toes, eyes crossed> Oh buoy! |
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[2 fries] I would have to agree with you on the "edging the last straw" note; it has unfortunately prevented me from posting many of what I consider to be interesting ideas recently. |
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I suppose on the other hand it is unsurprising; the upside is that (in theory at least) there will be greater incentive for those so inclined to fund new ideas and actually bake them. Credit and glory aside, a good idea left idle is just that. After all, we know by now that social networking sites make your info accessible to all; only logical the same would be true of invention-based social networking sites like our beloved 'Bakery. |
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I know. The only sanity seems to be open source sharing, but it's so open to abuse that it can not even be considered let alone seriously discussed lest it be tagged communist... I don't know... rest of the world is crazy. |
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I just want to do what I do well and live comfortably... is it really so much to ask that we all receive the same opportunities? |
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I don't think so.
Dude... some of my notions would get me shot. |
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