• Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!

Bicycle Trainer Mk 4

AndyP

AndyP

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First clean up some old window frame timber
IMG_20200328_121836922.jpg

Then work out how to use this which last saw the light of day over 13 years ago

IMG_20200328_145304466.jpg

Dry fit. Not to shabby so far

IMG_20200329_111211010.jpg

Can't do anymore until the pegs arrive. When attached to the rear wheel they will sit in a couple of cutouts in the top of the verticals.
I will try and add some resistance by placing the white wooden pole inside the chrome rod close to an under inflated tyre. The more air I put in the tyre the greater the resistance.

If it proves to be top heavy and unstable I'll fit to a quarter sheet of MDF.

I hope the front wheel will just rest on the ground.

Comments welcome.
 
Looking good mate. You’ll want a block under the front wheel equivalent to the lift of the rear otherwise she’ll be leaning forwards which isn’t comfortable (talking from experience...).
 
TrimTheKing":2bxhum3o said:
Looking good mate. You’ll want a block under the front wheel equivalent to the lift of the rear otherwise she’ll be leaning forwards which isn’t comfortable (talking from experience...).
Click to expand...

:text-+1: I've fitted up the turbo trainer and her bike in the garage, and yes, it's uncomfortable leaning forward like that.. You can get a plastic one from Halfods for a couple of quid.

Coming along nicely.
 
I was hoping to keep this as simple as possible so that the bike can just be lifted off and used as normal.

I see your point though. If I get it right the rear wheel will only be just clear of the floor. If it is uncomfortable maybe a wheel size groove in a lump of wood would suffice for the front.
 
Clearly it works

[youtube]nBYlY858jX0 [/youtube]

But I have a problem

IMG_20200404_123909971.jpg

Clearly a softwood roller in hardwood blocks (LV) is a no no.

I tried a metal tube over a fixed wood roller but the racket was worse than above. I think from the weld inside the tube which I was unable to remove.

I have another roller in glue up with LV collars on each end. Hope that will be both quieter and wont catch fire. Mk 2 will appear at a later date.
 
Maybe have to mock something up that uses roller bearings, 2 at the bottom and one at the top, that would hold the rod and stop the friction.
 
Bearings may be the way to go.
I know LV was used in the rigging pulleys on the old sailing ships so I am interested to see how that works. If it doesn’t than I have just discovered pillow block bearings which would be ideal.
 
Pulley bearings on a ship are not used for any length of time, unlike on your bike trainer. They probably do get very warm when the sails are raised but then have a long time to cool off.
Did you add any extra lub? A smear of grease would significantly reduce the friction.
 
Superb! You know what to do if you run out of matches for the woodburner!!
 
Here is Mk 3

Oak roller with LV sleeves
IMG_20200405_095623738.jpg

[youtube]wn92zPL2wjI [/youtube]

It started to smoke a little when started hence the black rings on the sleeves but after these high spots were smoothed out it runs without smoke or too much heat. Still makes far to much noise though.

Note this is only designed to replicate the 10 mins warm exercise 3 or 4 times a week that my daughter would get at physio sessions before she does her stretching routines

As I said earlier I am looking at pillow block bearings which I think would be much quieter.
 
Making your roller much bigger will help in two ways. Reducing the rotational speed and increasing the bearing surface so it has more time to cool before coming back to the area under load.

Proper bearings will be the real way to go. look for self aligning pillow blocks for eas of construction and tolerance to mis-alignment

Bob
 
Thanks Bob, I see your point about a larger roller. It would be nice to make this from stuff I have. Self aligning bearings put the cost up a bit and getting them delivered at the moment is another issue.

I'll try and work out what size housings and sleeves I can make from the LV that I have.
 
Andyp":5jzhqeoq said:
Thanks Bob, I see your point about a larger roller. It would be nice to make this from stuff I have. Self aligning bearings put the cost up a bit and getting them delivered at the moment is another issue.

I'll try and work out what size housings and sleeves I can make from the LV that I have.
Click to expand...

Easy enough to glue up blanks from what timber you have to hand to make a bigger roller?

Bob
 
Indeed Bob. I have the timber to turn a 3” diameter roller no problem. Ideally a 3” LV sleeve on the end and a 3” hole in a LV housing would be the way to go.

Thanks Mike. I’ve seen videos using rolling pins. I might be able to get two self aligning pillow blocks for that price.
 
Nice idea Andy. Also looks well made.

(we have an Italian one which both of us used - $$'s)

I would also go for a much bigger roller and bearings.
 
Here is Mk 4 with proper bearings. The noise is just from the rather thick tread on the tyres. I don't have an alternative to try. It is in fact quiet enough to have in the house.

[youtube]BpgdNVR8eUM [/youtube]

I am currently investigating cadence sensors for the pedals which can be bluetoothed to an app and perhaps broadcast to the TV so scenery can be viewed at the same speed as the bike.
 
Thats running much better now Andy.
Looks like it could do with some sort of flywheel to make it more comfortable to pedal - you can see pedals moving in jerks every half revolution.
Best but not ideal solution, I've thought of is to fill the back tyre with water and just a little bit of air to presurise and give a bit of give. Whether it will give enough mass for a flywheel, I'm not sure.

Bob
 
Thanks.

The jerkiness is due to the the operator. Because one leg is much stronger and more flexible than the other which is why the physio is so important.
Note the bearings arrived on the same day that we received a certificate to allow my daughter (due to her disability) to cycle more than 1km from the house accompanied by one parent. Which is not allowed under the confinement. At least we now have a wet weather alternative.
 
Andyp":2801nig3 said:
Thanks.

The jerkiness is due to the the operator. Because one leg is much stronger and more flexible than the other which is why the physio is so important.
Click to expand...

That is one factor but in normal cycling there is inertia from the body movong at speed which helps smooth out the power strokes for a fully able rider. We had an exercise bike that drove a very similar low mass roller and it was quite uncomfortable to use having no flywheel. I think ones in gyms have quite a massive wheel driven wheel - not that I've even been in one :lol:

In your daughter's case having a flywheel could well be undesirable allowing the stronger leg to do all the work so you might have the best set up as it is.

Bob
 
Andyp":38du8otv said:
Here is Mk 4 with proper bearings. The noise is just from the rather thick tread on the tyres. I don't have an alternative to try. It is in fact quiet enough to have in the house.

[youtube]BpgdNVR8eUM [/youtube]

I am currently investigating cadence sensors for the pedals which can be bluetoothed to an app and perhaps broadcast to the TV so scenery can be viewed at the same speed as the bike.
Click to expand...

Andy you’re describing Zwift there...

I have all that kit so if you want any tips just give me a shout.
 
Zwift, in common with most trainer apps, seems to be a subscription service which is not really on. I stumbled across iGrupetto which appears to be free and will work with only a strap to the pedals type cadence sensor.

I’ll see if I can get a sensor first.
 
Ah okay I didn’t realise there was something that worked purely from cadence. So you have to download the scenery video files I guess?

Mine is used for training rather than leisure so I’m usually bleeding from the eyes and unable to see much anyway! [emoji6]
 
Brilliant project, Andy ...I like the way you've risen to any adversity ! :eusa-clap:
 
Thanks Roger,
necessity is the mother of invention and all that :)

Hardly complicated and as usual functionality wins out over aesthetics but it does the job intended. Made easier as usual by the hints and tips offered here. I would have been floundering around with more trials and errors otherwise.

A quick shout out for the supplier of those bearings https://shop.hpceurope.com/an/. Based over here and still open. Seem to have a good selection of engineering stuff. Bi-lingual website too.
 
Andyp":2wdzxcve said:
A quick shout out for the supplier of those bearings https://shop.hpceurope.com/an/. Based over here and still open. Seem to have a good selection of engineering stuff. Bi-lingual website too.
Click to expand...

I wonder if they are related to https://www.hpcgears.com/ a company I've used on and off for years and seem to have a number of common products.

Bob
 
Possibly Bob,
On the French website they list Ondrives Ltd as part of the HPC Europe group. Ondrive share the same address in Chesterfield as HPS gears.
 
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