6/1/06  Mobile Art Observation Screen or MAOS

One of my current projects is a three wheeled human powered conveyance.  The original idea was to have a two wheeled leading part that you could hook a regular bike to in place of the front wheel.            

I found this to be to difficult for my level of engineering and fabricated a rear section just for this unit.  I took a 24” girls bike, removed the fork and tire, then cut off and flipped over the front tubes and used the headset as the mounting point. 

The leading part has wheelchair wheels, and is designed to carry one passenger facing forward.  During the first stages of it completion I found that is did not want to track straight and was hard to control.  This is due to my placement of the steering hinge point, it is too far rear of the front wheels axel line.  Correcting this issue would require a complete rebuild and design of the leading frame and I felt it possible could be overcome with some springs to assist it.  This idea was not used after I lost 1/2 of the springs...

Slight adjustments to the camber of the leading wheels helped greatly and after reinforcing the frame and adding wide handlebars I found it was much easier to handle.  Also with the weight of a passenger it seemed to perform better. 

I found that the frame had a considerable amount of flex in it so I used the front forks to move the seat back and stiffen the frame.         The results were satisfactory enough to take it out to Singularity for a test drive.  I padded the seat and Bill Lambertson donated some EL-Wire to light it for night.   

 

We then took some turns riding each other around and it was quite a crowd pleaser.  I enjoyed transporting random event attendees around in it and letting people barrow it for their own tours. 

 An unintended bonus is when its not in use it makes a good chair, it is stable when the frame gets turned sideways.

 

Its end goal is use as a Mobile Art Observation Screen or MAOS, (got a better name?) with a enclosed area to discreetly view art from.  This way you can observe art in its natural setting with out the possibility of your presents affecting it.  It bike will be coved in a playa toned skirting to blend in with the environment and a tent like structure will cover the front seat concealing the passenger.   The driver will have to where a burka or something to cover and hide themselves, or I will have to figure out how to cover the entire vehicle.

I will also print “this is not art” on it so people do not think its art, and thereby do not notice it..    

Unfortunately one of the front wheels has blown its hub and cannot be fixed.  I have another set of wheels, I will just have to changer the axles to fit them..