Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2003 4:27 am
Hello everyone.
Here at CMU there exists a race called Buggy. You can see pics of buggies at
http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/~fringe/buggy
The pics are big and I dont want to sap bandwidth here, so I wont post them. Let me explain how the race works-
The buggy fits one person inside (a very short girl) who steers and brakes. 2 runners push the cart up the first hill, then the buggy speeds down through a park, and the speed peaks at about 35. Then, it's a sharp righthand turn and 3 more runners push it back uphill to the finish. Total race time- 2 min. 9 seconds. The race is equally pusher strength and downhill speed.
Buggy's are built with carbon fiber, fibreglass and aramid honeycomb for the shell, and metal and delrin for many fixtures. The suspension on the two front wheels is this insane wishbone linkage which i can't talk about.
Now we get to the part I'm interested in... wheels. Currently, our buggies are using some big, thin profile scooter wheels from the Sharper Image. They're urethane and quite resiliant. But, they are heavy. The newest wheels that we have gotten (X2's) are grams heavier but worse the thane sucks. It's so dead I thought it was rubber, but, appearantly it's urethane.
On the bearing side of things, the axles are, I beleive, 3/8" (or so i was told.) They're bigger than skateboard bearings and are very slow.
So how would 101mm flywheels work in this application? Does anyone know of any fast bearings we could use? The best bearing lube for a 100 pound buggy? Can Geezer make titanium axles for us? Many questions. Give a look to the site (www.andrew.cmu.edu/~fringe/buggy) and tell me your ideas.
Henry
Fringe Mechanic
Here at CMU there exists a race called Buggy. You can see pics of buggies at
http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/~fringe/buggy
The pics are big and I dont want to sap bandwidth here, so I wont post them. Let me explain how the race works-
The buggy fits one person inside (a very short girl) who steers and brakes. 2 runners push the cart up the first hill, then the buggy speeds down through a park, and the speed peaks at about 35. Then, it's a sharp righthand turn and 3 more runners push it back uphill to the finish. Total race time- 2 min. 9 seconds. The race is equally pusher strength and downhill speed.
Buggy's are built with carbon fiber, fibreglass and aramid honeycomb for the shell, and metal and delrin for many fixtures. The suspension on the two front wheels is this insane wishbone linkage which i can't talk about.
Now we get to the part I'm interested in... wheels. Currently, our buggies are using some big, thin profile scooter wheels from the Sharper Image. They're urethane and quite resiliant. But, they are heavy. The newest wheels that we have gotten (X2's) are grams heavier but worse the thane sucks. It's so dead I thought it was rubber, but, appearantly it's urethane.
On the bearing side of things, the axles are, I beleive, 3/8" (or so i was told.) They're bigger than skateboard bearings and are very slow.
So how would 101mm flywheels work in this application? Does anyone know of any fast bearings we could use? The best bearing lube for a 100 pound buggy? Can Geezer make titanium axles for us? Many questions. Give a look to the site (www.andrew.cmu.edu/~fringe/buggy) and tell me your ideas.
Henry
Fringe Mechanic