IS IT A BIKE OR A CRANE
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WHY WHY WHY
This is a good question but a simple answer in that i wanted to break another record and i wanted to do something with motorbikes but speed records are all far to expensive so while searching the guinness site i came across this one and thought here we go some big long useless thing thats right up my street. To start with i made the front and back first and fitted them to a "small" 4m long frame just to see if we had any problems that we could sort before the big stretch . This was worth doing as we are using a moped the only control going from front to back is the throttle and just a 4m long cable gave us problems with sticking etc , we tried putting bigger springs in carb and splitting the outer so just bare cable ran through the frame and these things did help but were not the final answer. In the end i came up with a very simple but effective system , each end of the bike had the throttle pre wired and tensioned to a lever and the levers were simply joined with ail mig wire and as this was so light and could have a little slack in it but the throttle stay tight at each ends it was perfect and even at 46ft felt like a normal throttle.
MORE FRAME NEEDED
The frame i was using was just scaffolding as at the time was the best solution as i had no ail welding equipment and could not really afford any either so this was my only option but if done now id make the whole thing from scratch and it would probably be better but never mind its done now. The beams were 8m and 4m in length and the bike had one of each down each side , they where held a clamped together with a series of bolts and threaded bar. The bike was surprisingly strong and you could walk along its length and there was minimal flex.
RIDING THE BIKE
Riding the bike was very strange, you could not turn the bars more than 45* as the weight of the frame would just want to pull it over on its side so small steering movements was all you had but it was the way it moved that took the getting used to as on a normal bike you lean into a corner and go round but this just sort of tracked to the side gently so good balance was required but as with most things once up to speed felt fine. The last adjustment came from a roll of lead as once going more than 10mph the frame got abit of a wobble on so 20kg of lead stuffed in middle cured that lol.
RIDING THE BIKE
Riding the bike was very strange, you could not turn the bars more than 45* as the weight of the frame would just want to pull it over on its side so small steering movements was all you had but it was the way it moved that took the getting used to as on a normal bike you lean into a corner and go round but this just sort of tracked to the side gently so good balance was required but as with most things once up to speed felt fine. The last adjustment came from a roll of lead as once going more than 10mph the frame got abit of a wobble on so 20kg of lead stuffed in middle cured that lol.
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THEN I MADE A LONGER ONE
HAHA yes it didn't end there as after i,d been in papers a scooter company called direct bikes contacted me n said "CAN YOU MAKE A LONGER ONE USING OUR BIKES" so i thought yes free bikes free ail and just go as long as possible which turned out to be 72ft. With going the extra length came a few more problems as expected , the weight increased to a level that i was expecting to forks to snap at any point and the roll of lead now did nothing but i put 2 of the 8m beams on the under side to stop snaking and this in turn lowered the centre of gravity and restablized the bike. The steering was a joke you just got lucky if you could kept it upright n straight but it was just about rideable. Could you go longer maybe but i,ve been there n done it now and the most fun was had on the 4m framed one as you could have a passenger and still ride. Although there are pics of the long one with around 25 people on it you could not ride it and the frame would just be sat on ground hence the brick in the middle.
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