"Going Green" Bicycle Electric Sidecar

I call this bike "Going Green." This is the electric side hack my wife's dad and I built for my wife's and my trip to Burning Man this year. The frame was wielded out of 1" square stock wielded to L frame stock and then attached to a Dyno stretched beach cruiser with U bolts. I used a matching beach cruiser rear tire for the side hack drive wheel to which I attached a 44 tooth sprocket to the original 12 tooth drive sprocket with small screws. I found an old ten speed bike and we cut the crank assembly off and wielded this to the side hack. We then attached an 11 tooth D-bore sprocket to the opposite end. The 11 tooth sprockets we used were from TNC scooters, item # 106022. I then attached a 750Watt motor to the side hack by notching ¾" wood that was already attached to the side hack so I could adjust the motor as necessary. The motor was also bought from TNC scoters, item # 106155 (MY1020-B). I used an 11 tooth sprocket for the motor, same as the one attaché to the opposite end to the crank assembly. This let me use ½" x 1/8" bicycle chain for strength and to limit stretching. I added the two chains giving me a 16:1 gear reduction for my bicycle. 11 tooth motor sprocket turning a 44 tooth ten speed sprocket attached to another 11 tooth sprocket turning a 44 tooth sprocket on the drive tire. This was needed since with the motor, batteries, side hack, bicycle and both passengers weighed in at about 500lbs.

For batteries I used two Sears Diehard deep cycle batteries wired in series. I needed really big batteries since the bike was so heavy and I planned on riding around ten miles a day. In order to make the motor work, I used a 24-60Volt scooter type twist wrist throttle controller also purchased from TNC scooters, item # 101217. The green "wire" you see attached to the bike and the "red" wire you see in the tires is Electroluminescent Wire (EL). They light up bright with an inverter, used for being seen at nigh since the desert get so dark.

I recharged the batteries every time I got back to camp by plugging a battery charger into my RV which in turn was constantly recharged by two 65Watt solar panels, thanks Kevin, which gave me 130Watts, 18Volt and around 8Amps. I never had to turn on a generator to recharge this bike, but I did need to clean the panels everyday because of dust buildup. I was at the Burn early Saturday and did not leave until after the temple burn the next Monday. I would say I averaged around seven to ten miles a day so I would say I put about 75 to 85 miles on this bike in total. Not bad considering the terrain of Block Rock City, lots of deep sand.

The bike itself handled extremely well. Very torquey with a top speed of about eight miles an hour with my girl and I both on it. I am not sure how far it will go on one charge but my test for distance before we left I put about 13 miles on it along the board walk from Huntington Beach to Sunset Beach and back and it still had a lot more juice left. I want to say think you to my wife's father Pete for wielding this thing together and to Chris from TNC Scooters for putting up with a barrage of non standard questions from me. If anyone has any questions please let me know.

This video is a collage of pictures and video both from Burning Man and testing at my house. The videos and pictures show the conditions and good times this bike had to handle for eight days in the desert.

Видео "Going Green" Bicycle Electric Sidecar канала Mike Robertson