One of my other projects

[SP-Electronics]

I built a pedal car, called the Sidekick, which is constructed of PVC pipe, with a couple of metal and wood poles inserted inside a couple of the rails for added strength. It uses bicycle wheels and tires, and a 6 speed rear sprocket and derailleur so you can change gears. I am planning to add an electric motor to it as well, for those areas it is difficult to pedal through, or for when you're just too darn tired to pedal.

I'm debating whether to pull an electric motor and sprocket from a small electric scooter, or if I'll just use a spare golf cart motor running at only about 24v (but maybe 36v but with small 12v batteries). I'm leaning towards the cart motor, and 3 small 12v garden tractor batteries or something of that nature, but the weight that motor will add to the project may be too much. They sell electric wheel kits, but they are very expensive, and I'm not sure they're really worth the money, so I think the other options will be better in the end. I already have an electric scooter I can gut, but not sure I want to destroy a perfectly good scooter to do it... lol

Anyone have ideas, suggestions, etc.? All thoughts and ideas are welcomed. :)

A few pics of the project can be seen below. It's only missing the fabric top that I still need to make, and the seats, which originally were going to be a spare club car seat I have here, but it turns out that it's a little too thick so it makes it hard for me to pedal, so I am going to switch to a pair of smaller boat seats.

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[tonyton]

That's different for sure. As it sits, it can't weigh much. I'm not familiar with propelling a cycle without legs. A small gas motor would keep it rolling. A weedeater or leaf blower may work, A little noisy. Youll need to consider how long you want the motor to be in service and go from there. 1 hour? 2 hours?. Then consider the fuel/ electricity to operate for that length of time. How many batteries? size?
An automobile starter might work w/ HD 12v battery. Just throwing out ideas....Good Luck.

[SP-Electronics]

tonyton, you are right, it doesn't weigh too much at all. I haven't weighed it, but I can pick it up and move it around by myself without any problem. I'd say maybe 50 lbs or so.

I had considered using a starter motor (I have one laying around here in the parts bin), and a couple 12v's in parallel just to extend the run time. Mostly the electric would be for hills that are too difficult to pedal up, or for times after riding a while, or if we take it in the grass, etc.. I don't need huge run times, or even a lot of speed, since I don't think I'd want to go too fast on this thing. Maybe 10-15mph tops. Torque to move my 270lb butt, plus the kids and/or the wife at the same time, would be best. The scooter I have will run me down the street at 25mph, but not sure for how long, since I have never really ridden it more than around the block (it's scary to ride due to its small size). I think it is a 36v system (can't remember off hand), with a twist throttle, which would be perfect to mount on the pedal car handlebar really. I was thinking of pulling the throttle and mating it to a golf cart controller and motor and trying that out. I picked up a brand new Advanced DC Motor for an EZ GO a week ago for a good price, and was thinking about using that one in one of my other carts, and taking the "old" motor from the cart and using it on the pedal car project.

I considered a small gas engine, but I prefer to keep it electric just so it remains silent. I also considered gutting a treadmill to rob it of a smaller electric motor, rather than using the big heavy golf cart motor. Adding 50lbs of golf cart motor to the pedal car seems a bit much, unless I were going to run it totally off of that instead of using the pedals some of the time. That defeats the purpose then... lol

I tried to get my hands on one of the older bike motors that slips over the tire/wheel and then when you want to use it, it presses down tightly against the tire and turns it for you, but they are hard to come by, and the few I saw on ebay ended up selling for way more than I ever expected.

The nice thing about this pedal car setup is, both rear wheels are the rears off of bicycles, so they have a threaded hub to put a sprocket/cassette on. The left rear has the current 6 speed cassette (6 sprockets), the right rear is blank right now, but can get a single speed "free spin" or a multi speed cassette. I would probably put another 6 speed cassette on it, so I can change gearing by just moving the chain to another sprocket, and using a tensioner or moving the motor a little to tighten it up. OR I could add another derailleur and actually have a lot of versatility for speed and longevity in one package. LOL

Anyone have a stock ezgo controller they want to get rid of real cheap for a project? :)

Oh, I forgot to mention, I was going to build a small trailer to pull behind it eventually, maybe with a pair of additional seats, for the kids, or just to haul stuff like groceries, or a cooler full of tasty beverages, etc., or both. So I definitely need enough power/torque to pull two adults and two kids, and/or a full cooler.