Cyclekartist??
A Cyclekartist is what anyone becomes who even attempts to build a cyclekart!
At the moment this site and the kart I intend to build (an Austin7 ‘tincan’ – twincam! – replica) are in their infancy. Please give me a few weeks – or years! – to get things on the move. Ahead of the site proper, I can say that it will appear as a blog with separate blogs for each stage and will start off with some documentation, a spec-sheet, my shopping-list, some pictures and drawings as I progress to and then through the actual build. I hope you enjoy the process and occasional discussions you will find here. Peter for Armstrong, to whom this build and site are dedicated to and who will join in later, when the time is ripe (which HE will decide!).
The picture above is the look that we are aiming at – still a lot of work to get the drawings right and then an attempt at some 3D drawings to get the project sorted and tried out. THEN comes CAD (Card Aided Design) to finally sort the bodywork and final fitting out!
Wheels are still a problem inasmuch as I have not yet decided which hubs and rims to use. The front axle is the main conundrum at the moment, so I will be updating on that as time goes on. Still looking for a reasonable program (sorry, ‘App’) that will simulate the movement of linked chains of moving parts efficiently, easily and cheaply!
The aim is to build and design everything myself with a minimum of bought-in parts, so plenty of things to figure out and try out, too! No idea where I’ll be able to do the latter, but time will tell…
Our first Cyclekart idea…
Above is the badge that will adorn the top of the ‘radiator’ cowling on the Austin7 ‘tincan’ Special
And below the drawings of the original idea of which one to build… That has changed a bit, but nice drawings and so I include them here. I’m working on a new set for the new bodywork, which is higher at the front to better accommodate the height of the JAP 250cc OHV engine, since it is a lot higher than the side-vave 200 that was originally envisaged.
What is a cyclekart?
Whatever is ‘laid down as law’ in the various countries, clubs and groups, a cyclekart is first of all a fun machine. So, whatever ‘regulations’ apply, the primary intention is to have fun – building it yourself and then running it (and of course showing it off!). There are, of course, ‘guidelines’ in place to set a framework of how and what to build and to set out where the limits in size etc. lie, but these are well intended not as limits to your creativity, but to stop advantage being taken by the unscrupulous, which , let’s face it, spoils everyone’s fun.
Definitions decide whether a vehicle is a motorcycle or a motorcar, for example and no one is going to argue a car into a motorcycle and vice-versa. The dividing lines there are self explanatory unless you happen to work at the tax-office, of course!
Sooooo, what actually IS a cyclekart and what sets it apart from other vehicles?