A few years ago, we purchased a four-wheel, two-person Rhoades Car bicycle, primarily to use as transportation at Burning Man. When the bike arrived, I was very impressed with its construction… this is one tough machine, and I’m sure it will serve us well in the coming years.But, there were a few things about the design that flat-out bugged me and I set out to solve them before taking it out on our first trip. Specifically,
- You need to use a wrench to adjust the seats (not very handy if you have different people using the bike).
- There is no chain guard, and the chain can be very close to your legs.
- The gear shift levers are in an absolutely horrible location and are very difficult to use.
- The bike is difficult to get onto a roof-mounted rack.
Before we get to work, I guess I should cover my own butt and state that any work you do on your bike is done at your own risk, and you might be voiding any warranty you have with Rhoades Car. So be careful and proceed with caution.
New! While at Burning Man 2007, we ran into Ken Montgomery, who built his own four-wheeler from scratch. His bike is based on the Rhoades design, but is several light-years ahead. Check out his site.
Adjusting the Seat
The seats are held in place by a simple nut and bolt combo. You need two wrenches to loosen the nut before you can slide the seat forward or back. There’s a very simple solution to this: replace the nut with a wingnut. You can also add a split washer to help hold everything tight. Total cost: about $0.30.
I also found that the seat didn’t go back far enough for me (and I’m only 5’11″… it must be quite a squeeze for anyone taller). To remedy this, I removed the seat and drilled a new hole in the frame about 3″ behind the original one. This gives me just the extra distance I need for comfortable peddling. Total cost: $0.
Creating a Chain Guard
I drew up plans for a chain guard and took them to a sheet metal shop. About one week later I picked them up and they looked perfect! I mounted them at the same time I did the gear lever brackets, so keep reading for more details. Total cost: $53.
Moving the Gear Shift Levers
In its default state, the Rhoades Car comes with the gear shift levers mounted on the steering shaft. This is a very poor design because 1) they are extremely difficult for both the driver and passenger to reach, and 2) there are so many bends in the gear cable that the levers are difficult to move once you do reach them. To be honest, I almost returned the bike because of this. But then I had an idea.
The goal was to put the levers in a better location and remove as many bends in the cables as possible. More than anything, it’s obvious that the passengers’ levers need to be on the passenger side of the bike! I couldn’t think of a way to mount them directly to the bike frame, so I drew up plans for a set of brackets that would do the trick. I also mounted the chain guards at the same time. Here are the gory details:
Create plans for the brackets and find someone to make them for you. The Yellow Pages are filled with listings for metal working shops, or maybe you know someone who can weld. Want to use my plans? Here’s the bracket and here’s the chain guard.- At right is what the brackets and guards looked like when I first got them back from the shops.
- You don’t have to paint the brackets and guards, but why not? I found a Rustoleum spray paint that is very close to the bike’s blue paint job.
From this point on, I found it helpful to put the bike up on a couple of benches to make everything more accessible.
Now you need to locate exactly where to drill the holes in the frame. I was mounting the chain guards at the same time, so I first used a cardboard template to located the hole positions in the guards. Then, I clamped the guards in place and drilled through the frame.
Mounting the brackets and guards is pretty straightforward. I used 1/4″ bolts with washers and a lock washer against the nut. Don’t crank down on these too hard when tightening or you might damage the bike frame!- If you have never worked with bike cabling before, you might want to grab a friend who knows how to do it, or maybe wheel it down to a bike shop. It’s not that difficult, but do you really want to experiment for the first time on your expensive new bike?
- Loosen all the gear cables from the derailleurs and pull the cables through the casings.
Remove the lever assemblies from the steering shaft. You might also need the white plastic mounting ring that’s beneath the levers. Cut it free with a utility knife and pry it off.- Remount the lever assemblies onto the brackets. If they’re too big, use the mounting ring that you took off the steering column.
I hope you didn’t put your drill away yet, because there’s one more thing you’ll probably want to do. Drill an oblong hole in the chain guard so the left cable can pass through it. You could probably run the cable along the top of the guard, but this is a bit cleaner.- Restring the cables, adjust the lengths, and tighten.
To test, prop the end of the bike up so that the rear wheels are off the ground. Get in, start peddling, and play with the shifting. You might need to go back and make some additional adjustments. But I guarantee that you will instantly notice an improvement in shifting.
Getting the Bike on Top of a Jeep
OK, now that we have this thing, how do we get it to where we want to ride it? Obviously you could just get in it and start peddling, but that’s not too efficient if you’re in Seattle and you want to ride it in the deserts of Nevada. For us, that meant figuring out a way to get the thing up on top of the Jeep.
We already had standard Yakima bike racks, but the Rhoades Car’s width and wheelbase exceeded the racks by a sizeable amount. Therefore, the very first thing to do is get larger racks! I bought 55″ crossbars and a pair of 78″ trays. Total cost: a little over $100.
Depending on the type of car you have, two people might be able to just lift the bike up to the racks. We quickly learned that the Jeep was too tall and wide to do this, so a different solution was needed. Hey, how about some ramps?
I built a pair of ramps out of two 10-foot 2x4s and a four-inch PVC sewer pipe split in half. The pipe keeps the wheels pointed straight while the bike is on the ramp.- The ramps attach to a piece of 2×6 that is notched to rest on the Jeep’s rack mounts. I routed out two rectangular areas to receive the ends of the ramps and each ramp is held in place with a single bolt.
With everything in place, it’s a pretty simple matter for two people to push the bike up on top of the vehicle. Lock it down with wheel clamps and you’re all set. If you need to take the ramp with you, just disassemble it and tie it to the rack.