Making a Rickshaw

[Alma]

My fiance and I are getting married in La Playa this year, we want to make a rickshaw to get around after the wedding (as well as before and after, of course).

Anyone has any knowledge, experience on how to build one? Any thoughts that may help us in the process.

Thanks everyone.

Cheers,

[robotland]

You can knock together a frame pretty easily from 2x4"s, and connect bike wheels with sections of angle iron notched to accept the wheelhubs. Having just recently built one, let me tell you that using full-sized, good-condition wheels is important. Use something strong for the "forks", remembering that even 3/4" EMT will bend over time. Experiment with the balance, since it's basically a wheelie-popping machine and personal experience is that falling over backwards can ruin your day pretty quickly. A canopy-frame can be as simple as two bent pieces of PVC with a sheet over top.

[unjonharley]

Am building one but it wont be ready until o7. So far I have built a sub frame bicycle to power it. With ajustable frame so I don't go over backward. The trick is to cover the bicycle framing. To start with I have a wicker chair for the seat. Then I looked up the history of ric-shaw to get and idea of the size. China seems better that Japan. Japan was the first to use them. China fanced them up with paint and other. Good stuff on the net. Last year I made a ric shaw with a BM-man pedeling a bike frame from the back. With the rider in a front seat. Put a Rascal wheel chair for a drive unit hiden under. Fried the controls the first day.

[uncle sticky]

First off, you can buy them on ebay pretty cheap, but if you do, you must have legs of iron to pedal them since the gearing is horrendous. We used the rickshaw portion last year, used plumbing pipe and fittings to attach it to a geared mountain bike, and offered rides to anybody on the playa who wanted them. They didn't always go where they thought they wanted to, but we felt that we were able to take them where they needed to go. Shoot me an email if you like, and I'll send pics. This year, we're cutting off the front portion of the pedi-cab, and welding on a geared bike, so we can have shifting. Come and check it out at Fimbulvinter.