Monotrack bike driven by an electric motor. Uses three go-kart rear wheels to guide the track which avoids lathe work making rollers from old gas cylinders etc. The build was achieved with regular tools, box section steel mainly and a budget MIG welder. I used some 90 degree pre-bent tubes for the seat mount.
source.image: John’s Projects
By keeping weight of the rider over the driven inner rearmost wheel, this grips the track OK without having to use any kind of interlocking sprocket drive with the track.Track is cut down from a large car tyre/tire. The is shown near end of the video. Small tracks from diggers and snowmobiles for example are quite expensive so for a fun project a cut-down car tyre (not my original idea) works really well at around US$45 part-worn.Video by John’s Projects:
I found tin snips to be much better than the oscillating multi-tool I assumed would do the job. Why electric?You tend to get a lot less hassle testing in public places if your machine does not have a noisy 2-stroke engine and is practically silent in operation. You can claim moral high ground by stating with a completely straight face that this is the future i.e. an EV, whereupon most people relax, become curious and ask more about it.
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Why call it the Vector? Because it likes to go in straight lines (think vector graphics). I have some ideas for steering mechanism experiments. One would be to make it self balance on a smaller contact point such as the middle or rear wheel when you press a button, then steer it by leaning as you would do with a unicycle. People are asking me how you steer it, you don’t! You stop and adjust your direction, maybe I should have a compass mounted on the front.Inspired by: MakeItExtreme monotrack bike with petrol moped drive system.
