Rhoades Hacks
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 2×4s 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.
10 Responses to “Rhoades Hacks”
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November 3rd, 2006 at 8:00 am
I’ve got a 4-wheel 4 person. Same things bug me. Thanks for the plans. If you have any other hacks to improve the design, let me know. I’d sure like to improve the steering linkage. Lots of tire friction on turns.
November 10th, 2006 at 5:06 am
The guys at the Bicycle Forest recently did a Rhoades Car modification of their own: http://www.bikeforest.com/rhoades_car.php
August 31st, 2007 at 10:28 am
Just wondering if anyone has a bike like this or similar to donate to a family with a child with special needs. Maybe someone who uses it for Burning Man (which is such a phantastamorphic event) could let “Lily Daymaker” use is the rest of the year. A share bike project…cool. Lily needs someone else to steer but the pedaling would be great for her. Then she could go bicycling with her family! Peace, love and faith,
Suzanne
November 10th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
The Elks and Lions Clubs might help Lily purchase a bike. What state does Lily live in? There are programs in every state for children with special health care needs. Make A Wish might even help with the purchase of a bike for Lily.
December 16th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
hi to all !
we are from monterrey, mexico and we are trying to contact to the person than build the quadracycle in this page: http://www.time-traveler.org/quadracycle/
this is because we are an organization without aims of profit, focused in ecological enviroment and promote the adventure sports.
we want to make a prototype of 2 person – 4 wheels but very lightweight, and the basical desing is taken from their web page.
we want to contact him for make a union and other technical things.
very thanks to all and if any know the contact of this person, pplease tell about us.
thanks a lot again.
Delta Team
info(at)deltateam(dot)biz
March 28th, 2008 at 2:46 am
I am really interested in this topic, I studied about this address: http://www.time-traveler.org/quadracycle/quad-build.htm
I will try to build very soon for my kids and my environment.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
I am also really interested in this topic. I would like to have plans like the ken montgomery design. why do you think they are so much better than the rhoades car design. thank you and good luck to you all.
June 6th, 2008 at 1:33 am
This bike info on your webpage is so helpful, & amazing you thought of those things to do to your bike. & that half of pvc pipe on the ramps was just so clever !! It still looked like a challenge to get it up on top of your SUV though, for sure it would take 2 people, I’m sure. I bet you got a lot of looks when driving around with that bike on your roof ! I am considering buying a 4 seater for me, my disabled husband, & back seat area to put his wheelchair & a cooler, other stuff. However, I’m wondering if anybody has any ideas about how my husband could sit up front with me but not have his legs dangling? Does Rhoades make one with a platform in front? Thank you for the helpful info.
October 28th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Wow, what a nice site! I was checking my site statistics and just found out about this list from the links to my site listed above. I’m sorry I didn’t know about it sooner.
First off, a big THANK YOU to Carol and David Peterman. They were the inspiration for my own quadracycle creation. Perhaps we’ll meet up again at Burning Man some time in the future. Actually, this was a good year to miss because the playa conditions were so full of drifts it made using the quad quite a chore. I rode my bike a lot more this year. This winter I’ll update my site to include the 2008 event. I did a bunch of upgrades to the quad and it did great despite the conditions.
For those who are looking to build your own quad, I really can’t recommend it without access to advanced equipment that can deal with the hardened metals needed. It’s a heavy device (143 lbs in my case) and you’ll want to call on it to carry several hundred pounds of people and cargo. Normal soft metal in the drive components will fatigue quickly. I used tool grade steel and stainless steel everywhere there could be high stresses. Also, they’re really not good for uses other than flat smooth ground. I wrote to the people in Mexico who wanted to manufacture my quad and their idea was to use these as transports in poor undeveloped areas. Without power assist, this would be an unworkable idea.
Thanks again for the kind words about my handywork!
Ken
July 21st, 2009 at 9:42 am
i have a 7 year old rhoades car. the rhoades car has such a ridged frame that it keeps the front wheels at the same plane as when one runs up on a curb the other one goes in the air. i removed and reinstalled the front axle with a rearward twist of 1/4 to 1/2 inch to facilitate the steer and reduce scuffing when turning, and helped greatly, but still not happy with it. what is your feeling about removing the two front wheels and installing one in the center using a heavy duty fork making a trike, to which you could add a rim brake? i would think a shorter turn could be accomplished. no more scuffing of the front wheels on turns, and with one less tire on the road, one less tire friction would make pedaling easier.