Unproven Design for a Pedal Car

[jonovid]

2007 unproven design for a pedal car / e-city tricycle
 self stabilizing tricycle geometry. head rest with roll bar.
reverse gear lever. plus 15 - 16 speeds going forward.
the basic reciprocating gearing geometry has been tested in a mock-up.
 self centering steering geometry, with 2 Meter turning cycle.
because of the design of clam shell steering wheel fairings.
pistol grip handle bars. low profile nose cone.

3 years of research went into this odd design that still can be improved upon today.
the rear steering geometry has been tested in a mock-up.
uses linear rowing technique for its twin heel supporting pedals. no toe clips needed.
can have the dull appearance tarted up for mass production.
or made as electric e-tricycle. the fiberglass body design has front and rear baggage compartments.

design background
my research into bicycle aerodynamics and HPV human powered vehicle design
as well as recumbent tricycles
problems I have seen in other designs was a poor turning cycle and steering geometry with no reverse gear.
a high centre of gravity and so the need for a wide wheel track on most recumbent tricycles.
this made them  less maneuverable than a basic bicycle and in doing so any aerodynamic advantage
of a recumbent tricycle was less appealing.
I set out to redesign the recumbent tricycle into a compact human powered vehicle the size of a bicycle
with the maneuverability of a bicycle but the aerodynamics of a recumbent tricycle.

Im now to old to complete this as a one off bespoke mechanical engineering project.
all mock-up's for this project including photography, was lost back in 2013
the only remaining art and design image was posted online -photobucket  so here it is one more time.
make for school science project idea.  see image-

[Overspeed]

Interesting design

The steer links looks fragile when you plan to use any vehicle in urban area , things shall be '' bomb proof '' to avoid vandalism or even the effect of unwanted collision , why not try a cable drive with a sector gear on the head ? something similar to drive control on outboard engine boat ?

Regards
OS

[Benta]

Unnecessarily complex (=heavy and expensive).
Why does it need extra wheels for parking/reversing? Could be fixed with a little gearbox, the hub gears known for decades are small and light weight.
Rear-wheel steering is notoriously unstable and not self-correcting.
And so on.
A "solution" looking for a problem that's already been solved in better ways.

[Overspeed]

Hello

Four wheel 90 degres for parking



but for contact design a set of roller as a supermarket kart fit on jack can do the job too

Regards
OS

[Benta]

If the thing is so heavy that you can't just lift it into a slot, who's going to ride/drive it? An orang-utan?

[Overspeed]

Hello

the bicycle car is not heavy at all and mechanical jack can easily lift 100 kg with problem for light model , so 4x100 = 400 kg with 50% margin that 200 kg fa enough to park a bicycle cart

The video was just an example of 4 wheel steering

Regards
OS

[Benta]

Hello

the bicycle car is not heavy at all and mechanical jack can easily lift 100 kg with problem for light model , so 4x100 = 400 kg with 50% margin that 200 kg fa enough to park a bicycle cart

A 200 kg tricycle? You need two orang-utans. 

[Overspeed]

Hello

If to provide engineering examples to try to illustrate the subject is a problem I can't  accept to turn all my posts in ridiculous joke

BYE

Regards
OS

[jonovid]

before you criticize the art, please, build it in your best mechanical CAD software .

[Overspeed]

@Jonovid

There is two type of criticism :

- The negative one which is not useful at all and more if that without any real solution proposal
- The positive criticism with the aim to provide help and improvements or idea to use other solutions or at least an other vision of the design which nothing more than nothing less than a open mind attitude .

Second point : Even if CAD software are very powerful , the crucial step is the prototype making with a linked BOM ( BOM = supplier / process / cost / tooling ) or a scale 1 mock-up which allow to validate a lot of technical factors as for example the ergonomic as that a human driven system .

Regards
OS

[jonovid]

ok
got it

I found some of the 2007 mockup photography and more mechanical schematic design diagrams or art.
of the human powered vehicle design, if anyone is interested this image is open source.

update- 
I still believe that the steering geometry may have some value for more experimentation.
as for the rest of it, a collage of 11 to 15 diagrams, mechanical art doodles shoved together to fit on single images. 
do whatever you like with it. that's all I have to say about this images.   

the end!