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<\/a>What would have been the way to get to Burning Man this year ...<\/p><\/div>\n
Sometime in early 2010, I hatched a plan to build a vehicle that I would transport to Winnemucca, Nevada then pedal 100 miles to Burning Man. I knew time was too short to make it for that year, so I slated it for 2011. Well, I spent hundreds of hours on design toward the beginning of the year, a dollar amount I'm afraid to calculate on custom-designed parts as well as off-the-shelf parts, and another hundreds-of-hours on building. By Sunday, August 7, I did not yet have a pedal-able vehicle, and I had 11 days before I would need to ship it, so I put it off for another year.<\/p>\n
The more precise plan was to ship the trike to Winnemucca by UPS Ground. I have designed it so it folds up and can be shipped in a relatively small crate (which doubles as a trailer for extra gear). I would take the train to Winnemucca and it would hopefully be waiting at the hotel — probably Scott Shady Court Motel<\/a><\/strong> (400 1st St.<\/a>, Winnemucca, NV) which I stayed at and liked a lot before. Sunday, the day before Burning Man<\/a><\/strong> starts (on Monday), I'd get my water jugs filled, get packed up, and head for Jungo Road<\/a><\/strong> (a.k.a. Nevada SR 49). From there I'd pedal the 85 miles to 40\u00b0 46' 02.07\" N, 119\u00b0 07' 12.26\"W<\/a> where there is a microwave antenna access road that crosses the railroad tracks. I would hope to pass the active mine at Sulphur before nightfall as there's a bit of traffic supporting it (not so much on Sunday, but on the way back). I'd take a right and cross the tracks then head due west across the Black Rock Desert, north of the Burning Man event, until I reach the barely-marked West Playa Highway which I'd take south to the main gate. After the event, I'd just reverse the trip. I estimate about 100 miles each way which could take anywhere from 10 to 24 hours depending on how fast I could go — and since I haven't tested anything yet, I really have no idea what is practical.<\/p>\n The vehicle itself is called a \"tadpole trike\" because it has three wheels and kind of looks like a tadpole with 2 wheels in front for steering and one rear wheel for propulsion. The picture shows the frame as far as I had completed it, and nearest the photographer is the mount for the pedals. I used parts from the 1994 Honda Civic<\/a> I had taken off the road 2 years ago, parts from go-kart companies, bicycle parts, lots of scrap metal (mostly from bed frames), and the final drive is to use motorcycle chain for extra strength. I estimate that including the tires, it will weigh in slightly less than 200 pounds, so it's definitely not meant to win any hill-climbs.<\/p>\n But I did design it with a broad gearing range: a 2-speed custom shifter doubles the range of a continuous-variable Fallbrook NuVinci 360 internal hub shifter<\/a> from a stump-pulling 0.2-to-1 to a mountain-bike-high-gear 3.5-to-1. In terms of gear-inches (which, if you imagine a pennyfarthing big-front-wheel bike, it's the effective diameter of that wheel) it has a range of 5.2 gear-inches to 18.2 gear-inches in low and 22.9 to 80.0 gear-inches in high. So with a pedaling speed range of 15 rpm to 150 rpm, that translates, overall, to 0.23 mph to 35 mph. And assuming I can put a maximum of 300 pounds of force on the pedal at a standstill, the lowest gearing will yield a massive 800 pounds of forward-force at the drive wheel.<\/p>\n I figure my goal is to just attempt it.\u00a0 If I have to stop and go back, or haul the beast back broken, then so be it.\u00a0 The road itself is generally pretty obvious, but I do have USGS topographic maps of the whole area along with a compass and a GPS for good measure.\u00a0 I set up JayceLand to be able to accept picture-message posts like I did for the Big Dig … Verizon's map shows the last point of \"coverage\" to be around 40\u00b0 53' 21.534\" N, 118\u00b0 26' 15.342\" W<\/a> which is little more than halfway, and not quite to Sulphur.<\/p>\n But alas, the whole idea seems to be quite distant now. Funny how a week ago I was picturing it actually happening, and now I don't even know if I'll try it in 2012 — or ever for that matter. I think I will desire it again in the future. After all, part of the beauty of it is that I can potentially be someplace where it's more than 20 miles to the nearest person. The whole trike and its testing is a separately interesting matter, but I can get that accomplished with some camping trips around here, or even just using it as a main vehicle.<\/p>\n We shall see!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Wow: it's been quite a while — not since The Big Dig in July. Anyway, the reason I've been away is this: Sometime in early 2010, I hatched a plan to build a vehicle that I would transport to Winnemucca, … Continue reading