hey bruton, why don't you make a video on how you are able to make all these projects so consistently, your producivity is crazy, it doesn't seem like you have a team like the hacksmith yet your projects are technically more advanced and your video release is faster than theirs, it would be a great one, and a tour of the workshop
I think self centering could be achieved simply, following the likes of ripsticks, by mounting the wheel on an inclined plane/spaced between the deck and the caster.
Couple of things 1) when reinforcing bends or welded joints, use gussets. They're way stronger 2) when bending pipe, fill the pipe with a fine sand first. It will prevent the pipe from being crushed as easily.
If you mount the rear wheel at an angle (maybe a 30 or 45 degree angle, acute with where you place your feet), lock or limit the front steering (locking would be more controllable but may really impact turn radius), you might have a fairly controllable vehicle. It probably wouldn't be incredibly hard to design a mount for the rear wheel that allows you to adjust the angle as needed, same with front steering limits.
So more a tilt to steer kind of bike? I think the tilting makes the compound angle of back wheeel harder to predict, which is why I think 30 degree or more like you said would make sure to keep it more straight. Like a crazy cart has back wheel tiltet, but without the leaning complexity 🧐🤓
Push scooters with rear caster wheels were a huge trend in my neighborhood. They were cool because you could drive sideways with it and "drift". From what I saw they mostly had the caster wheels at an angle, so they would turn the rear wheel if you tilted the scooter. So you should try putting it on a slight angle, like 15-20 degrees, limiting the rear wheel tilt helps a lot too, just so it doesn't turn around the wrong way. Hope that helps and please give this concept a second try. I could send the pics of how my old drift scooter looked like for inspiration.
I just saw the video. That is just what y wanted to advice give. I think if you play with the angel of the caster wheel to find the sweet spot between steering and stability. I always like to think in extremes. Al lot of angel eg 70 degrees, is almost no steering but stable vs 0 degrees a lot of steering and really instable.
On the pipe bender for smoother corners you may want to like pack your pipes full of sand and plug them off or heat the pipes up or do a bit of both to get better bends
Back in the states in the early 2000s the company Razor came out with something similar called the ripstik which was essentially 2 casters with footpads connected with a rotating bar. It was a pretty cool alternative skateboard
This reminds me of waveboards that we used as kids. Its basically a board with two castor wheels. You had to do a waving motion on the back half to control it. Maybe this would be a solution for driving this thing in a controlled way. Would like to see you having another try on this one.
One thing I love about this channel is sometimes the item is just so cool and has very little chance of being functional but yet he finds a way to make it work!
Looks like the caster wheel needs a spring or something that always pushes it back to center position. Would love to see if that makes it work much better.
I had the same thought about a spring. I see the other comments now about putting it at an angle, but it's actually already at a slight angle and that doesn't seem to be doing much. I still think a spring might be a better way to go, but I'll admit I can't visualize the mechanics of how to mount it.
Hey James! Regarding the regen, you might be able to enable it by shorting some configuration jumpers inside of the controller. In my case, there was a pad labelled "ABS" that I just had to short to ground. I'd search it up but it should hopefully be possible for you also
@jamesbruton I'm not sure if you'll see this but I think the biggest reason you were able to attain control of it before it broke was because the surface that the caster was attached to began to angle forward and provide greater stability. This principle can be seen in caster boards.
I concur with everyone mentioning the ripstick design, you need a way to independently redirect the rear caster wheel. Your frame bent because your weight distribution was off. A longer tail will allow you to lean back so your center of mass isn't over the fork.
Cool idea! I feel like it might be more stable if the front wheel didn't steer and it was just the caster. Similar to a shopping cart there's only one end with casters, but its like pushing it backwards where the steering will be much more sensitive. Either way, I hope to see a follow-up video!
Would increasing the rake angle, fix the problem? It'll naturally have a forward bias, from the lean angle. When applied weight on either side, it'll steer towards that direction. Like a skateboard. Start with limiter for the rear steering, or something to dampen the speed of the change of direction(Tighter bearing?)
This totally needs to be a trike with constrained rotation of the casters. I'd love to know if a much smaller arc would be better than locked for drifting.
I think it has potential, with the caster wheel mounted at an angle maybe and/or a type of spring arrangement that functions as a skateboard truck bushing thing
hey James I don't know if you've already tried this before but for bending thin metal pipes you can fill them with sand first to stop them from crimping. of note though is you have temporarily cap off both ends to keep the sand from coming out.
I learned how to drive in a car that was built like this. They had modified it so that the back wheels were effectively casters, which could be locked so that they weren't always spinning freely. They called it the "skid monster," and it was meant to teach you how to control the vehicle when you suddenly lose traction (for example, on ice.)
Should make another version with the angled rear caster as mentioned elsewhere like a ripstik and also let the foot platform tilt independently of the tilt of the steering column so you can actually decide how to control the rear wheel. Maybe also lower the standing deck and step it back up for the caster to lower the center of gravity relative to the rear caster.
You should look at Caster/Wave Boards, they are very controllable and even drive by just swinging/pumping them. The trick is the angle of the caster axles not being upright. Also the boards twist. I think this project would work much better this way, basically a caster board with a big front wheel.
There's almost always one wheel off the ground on shopping carts and it starts to oscillate with the cadence ow walking. I guess when the cart has some stuff in it, it will touch the floor again.
Brave experiment. Respect. Couple of ideas to consider: 1. Trike (two wheels at the back) would provide more opportunities to learn controls because of less falling-restarting. 2. Back wheel(s) somehow should be encouraged to get back to center. Springs or gravity or other methods. This would allow side drifting, but aid in controllability.
You can cap weld the end of the pipe 5:35 fill it with sand, tapping it to settle, then cap weld the other end. Then when bending the sand will help keep the tube from collapsing at the bends. Try adding water to take up space as well.
Razor scooters made a caster wheel scooter called the razor siege caster scooter. Was a lot of fun riding that as a kid. The two main elements that made it work: 1. The rear caster wheel was at an angle, allowing it to snap back to center when weight was on the board. 2. The board itself had the ability to twist a bit. As you're riding at speed, you could use your rear foot to sway the back end of the scooter side to side. This is making me want to get another one of those scooters
Here's a couple of ways I think you could make the bike more controllable. You could lower the the standing platform down, and have it raise up to fit the caster, lengthen the wheel base, and have a stovetop type coil to keep the caster wanting to stay straight, as well as turn the castor around. Of course, if you turn the castor around, it would have to be a strong spring.
Maybe it would ride like a drift scooter if you make the trail of the caster wheel a lot longer. So the stabilosation is more at lower speeds. A spring that returns the back wheel to normal could also help
hi james! if you have ever ridden a ripstick they are a double caster wheel design, but very strongly canted in the direction of travel. I think this would put enough alignment force onto the rear wheel to keep it tracking but still allow some crabbing motion at slow speeds!
This idea could probably work better if you tilt the caster wheel forward on it's attachment point like a Caster Board or Ripstik. They only have two casters that are tilted forward under the board so that they only allow for forward motion and it also limits how far out the back of the board can go. Because of the tilt, you also create your own momentum using a side to side sweeping motion.
3 ideas for the scooter: 1.brakes on the back wheel, 2.Cam/spring to encourage the wheel to straight orientation, 3. Smart rear-wheel positioning using servos
It looks like adding some friction to the rear wheel would make it more ridable. Possibly a little more friction on the rear rotational bearing too so it won't be quite so fidilly! Great video!
I'm pretty late to the party here, but this actually made me think of Ripstiks something I got quite good at riding as a kid, which was basically 2 caster wheels as a skateboard (hence their other name casterboards) and also Fliker scooters which were a scooter with a fixed steerable wheel at the front and 2 caster wheels in a V shape at the back. I believe both achieved a favourable forward orientation by angling the caster wheels, and this is also why they can generate speed by wiggling.
The self centering could be accieved by setting the caster wheel at a angle to the ground. So the mount would be at like a 25-30 degree agle to the straight frame. Hope it helps
I made something very similar as a kid. It was a razor scooter with the back wheel removed, and there was the board from a long board bolted to the scooter deck. I put a rip stick wheel on the back of the longboard, not tilted like it was on the ripstick. It was a lot of fun, and quite controllable. I think yours doesn’t respond to leaning as well because your back caster is so big.
something that could make this actually interesting to ride would be a rear "pedal/brake" attached to the caster, so you can a) control which direction the caster tracks by pivoting your rear heel to one side or the other and B) have a brake that engages when you take pressure OFF the pedal. The braking function should also force the caster to track straight, probably with some kind of cam system. The rear brake would need to be limited to a set amount of friction, otherwise it could entirely bind the caster and cause a crash. Controlling the caster angle would also allow for limits to be set on the caster angle, so it can't get TOO out of control. Would just let you do some really tight u-turns or lateral shifts.
if you angle the deck downward in the front for a slight rake, the rear wheel will stay more inline because of balancing, look at the way ripstiks have their wheels, those are double castered with an agressive rake for the wheels (the head of the caster is angled forward which aids in stability for a forward trailing lead
JAMES! Angle the castor like 20° back, it'll bias the rear wheel towards the center and add "weight" to the steering. Razor nailed it with their Ripstik. A circular profile on the castor wheel would also even out the banking. Might need better wheel bearings at those speeds. Excited for 2.0!!
As a trike, two casters on the back of it would be a fantastic drift scooter. The deck would have to be wider at the back to accommodate the two wheels. Loving this channel 👍
Ned to install the caster with a forward angle so that the swivel of the caster does not sit level with the ground. You want the part of the caster towards the front of the .... scooter? lower then the back of the caster so there is a natural highspot that the caster naturally wants to sit at. Im a little rusty on the math but i believe as long as the caster angle is greater then the angle you lean on the scooter then the caster will at least try to stop you from spinning in circles. This is how they keep taildragger planes facing the right way (as well as some other mechanisms that let the pilot steer and such) the caster will have a natural tendency to remain straight (ish) while still allowing you to drift and spin if you really want to.
I'm sure I may be misunderstanding but it sounds like steering goes bad because the caster wheel turns when you lean so what if you split the platform you're standing on and connect the two pieces with an axel in parallel with the platform (like a hover board or your bike with the self leveling omni directional wheels); then you could maybe lean one way with your body on the front half and use your back leg (or maybe some kind of interconnected counter lean?) to keep the back platform level or maybe counter leaning (if either would keep the caster oriented straight)
You should convert the rear wheel to a scooter hub motor, and have it in continual regen mode. That way, it has 'drag' to give it some way to straighten out. And since it's regen, you're not just converting it to heat. You could adjust the amount of regen dependent on the speed; more regen at slower speeds, less at higher.
I would add a motor to the castor that acts as an e-brake. The added drag should "wind-sock" the castor and also put some energy back into the battery. It would also prevent the rear coming around when breaking as the force would be from the back.
at 5:10 what you have there is a pipe kinker. the material being bent needs to be really tight in the die to prevent it from getting wider and forcing it to hold its shape. Usally they are so tight in the die that they dont touch the bottom of the die till it start bending
the thing that is i think overlooked is that the bicycle front forks are tilted backwards to create the self centering affect. you actually have the front wheel self centering while the back wheel is free, until you kept riding it and introduced an angle to the caster via the frame bending while also gaining skill. you just need to make it a bit more similar to those krazy karts that are just trikes with adjustable self centering on the rear casters.
i made this as a kid, except it was self propelled by angleing the rear castor mount like a ripstick does. allows you to wiggle the rear to gain speed and also would self correct straight better. I dubbed it the spin scooter, i later saw a instructables guide to make it just like I had. my inspiration was those wacky self propelled carts that you turned back and forth to gain speed, they used to have at the six gun city amusement park. once i out grew that ride i was forever in search of making something nearly as fun. the spin scooter was damn close.
Here are my suggestions to make it more controllable AND keep it challenging: - limit the casterwheel to 45° to each side; it will still be relatively random, but at least it won't set itself at 90° to the board and throw you off - put a handbrake on the fork bearing so that you can stop the fork from turning relatively to the frame; not sure how this will affect operation, I guess it would help for slowing down
For some reason youtube is always recommending me some crazy motorized scooter videos. So I feel it would attract more views if you had scooter instead of bike on the title.
The shortest fix to this idea would be to put the caster closer to the front wheel and allowing you to shift your center of gravity behind it to gain control over the drift. While it would turn it dangerous to bank, it would be much more managable compared to the current version. The next idea would be to put the back end of the caster on a joint, while the front end should have an adjustable spacer and you would be able to change how much drift you allow by changing the caster's vertical angle to the base plate. The overcomplicated idea would be to change the base plate to a drop deck, add a joint to the back part of the caster and pneumatic springs on the font end. This way you could change how much drift you allow by moving your center of gravity towards or away from the caster.
My guess is it depends on the ratio of friction of the wheel surface, to the resistance to directional change. If it's hard to change the direction of the wheel and the surface is very slick, I think the wheel will tend to drag on, at whatever random direction. It the wheel has a lot of grip, it'll follow along nicely.
James It'll be hard to balance the way it is as a level mounted caster is designed to be mounted flat and skate all over the place and help keep the mass moving in the same direction as its usually on things with more than 2 wheels, that makes it a challenge on a fairly precise steerable object like a scooter, but I'd say the rear needs a few degree's of trail to help keep it more in line,stick say a 5mm shim in between the casters mount plate bolts nearest the front. Also one other thing you may need to consider is reshaping the rear casters tyre profile, with having to add trail it means its going to want to roll over on its edge more, if it rolls onto a sharp corner like a caster designed to work on a flat plane it;ll introduce wobble and all sorts of unpredictable characteristics, in layman's terms think of a motorcycle with a square-ish profile car tyre on it, would be fine in a straight line and ring-piece clenching-ly horrible the minute you leaned into a corner
Ripsticks/caster boards more or less solved this problem by setting the caster wheels as at an angle. You get the fluidity of the wheel being on a swivel vs hard mounted, but it also constantly corrects back to forward trajectory.
Razor made a scooter in the 2000s caled the Siege which was a basically a kids scooter version of this and from what i remmeber it worked really well and you could get good control and balance. Id assume it was so much easier because the caster wheel was so much smaller so much lower center of gravity?
I think to solve the issue of the rear castor not steering in the direction you want would be to put a pivot in the centre of the board, similar to a wave board, so you can use your back foot to control the direction the back wheel takes you.
if you put a second caster on the back and a build a little flexing-stability gimble attached between the two inner caster bolts; you might be able to make it more stable to ride and maybe even turn better.
Bicycle mechanic here.. Regarding your brake mounts, undo those screws, put that plastic spacer IN THE BIN, and fit your disc rotor using those same screws. Your rotor and caliper will fit, because that hub almost certainly wouldn't be made outside of the necessary disc brake standards if they actually wanted to sell any. The plastic spacer is merely to stop the screws fowling up on the planetary gearing inside the hub. If the screws were any shorter they'd be useless for mounting a disc rotor however.
at 1:01 when you are showing the brake rotor mounts, it looks to me like the bolts are actually holding on a spacer, if you take out the bolts you might find that a rotor would fit with your fork. Also you should really set the bearing preload on the fork using a top cap and star nut/expander plug instead of just relying on the stem bolts
I'm impressed you could ride it. My first look told me "maybe...until you let off the throttle" I was close. If the angle of the deck forced the rear caster to go toward the front it would ride easier (not easily). If the front wheel did not turn at all and the forks were nearly straight up, you *might* be able to rear steer slowly, but not so sure. Looking forward to new geometry and gussets on the inside of the bends at 90 degrees.
just like a scooter tracing your ankles :D. Great Video and great idea. Maybe an idea for the next version, put some springs on the backwheel for centering like on a Casterboard or tilt the plane the wheel is mountet so it centers itself.
I think you need to use your back foot to control the castor's angle to the bike. If it could pitch up and down, you could control its stability. That or maybe make some way to apply brake to the rear. That would straighten you out quick too.
You should make it so the caster wheel is at an angle so it returns to center while going in a straight line. Your weight pressing down on it will want to keep it in line (like the front of the bike.) So, angle the back of the bike upward at about 15-20 degrees and then mount the caster wheel on it.
you should take some measurements from a ripstick to see what angle they mount their wheels at, and try to replicate that on your contraption, i have a feeling it will improve performance considerably.
I suppose depending on the rake or caster angle, the rear wheel would be less free to pivot and end up behaving more like a skateboard truck. In which case it should be ride-able. (Apparently it's also ride-able without much of that, but it's very impractical since anything that messes with the tracking of the wheel makes it highly unstable. Tilting how that rear wheel mounts would still make it less loosey-goosey.)
The locking mechanism you angle grinded off that caster performs 2 braking functions at the same time, it brakes the rotation of the caster bearings as well as the spinning of its wheel. Instead of a caliper brake on the front wheel, what if you utilized the caster breaking to hold the back wheel still in both directions at once?
Hey bud. Stick some resistance springs between the forks and the frame that allow movement but offer tension against the loose play between the frame and the front wheel assembly.
I'm sure it's been mentioned, but mount the caster not on the flat surface of the deck, but on an angle to the deck that gives the caster an inherent stability when weight is applied. You may need to play with the angle until you get it where you like it, but the jist of it is when the caster is forced to be unaligned with the deck (like if you take a hard turn and drift a bit) it will apply a "turning" force on the caster that will want to correct the direction. Maybe you should make a mechanism that allows for the quick adjustment of caster angle so you can calibrate it in the field.
I believe if you add some caster to the back wheel it would be a very interesting bike since as you lean it would steer in one direction but if you made a system that would allow the caster to be changed on the fly like a ripsaw or whatever the drift kart thing was it would be quite a bit of fun
This is basically a scaled up and beefier version of the Razor Siege Caster Scooter (and the like). It's pretty big over here in the US. The rider actually wiggles back and forth to make the scooter move forward, and they can get some pretty fast speed too. I like James' version a lot better, tho. 😎👍 One thing that would probably help out to make it easier to ride is to not stand so far back on the platform. It's putting too much weight on the caster and making it go all wobbly. In the Caster Scooters, the kids are standing closer to the front of the platform. The only big difference between the Caster Scooter and this one is the added electric wheel on the front. So this should be ridable.
You could make the platform a triangular shape and put two caster wheels on the back side by side so the bike can't flip out from under you, as well as add brakes to the casters somehow to force it to trail behind the front wheel if neccessary.
My suggestion? Don't try to steer with the front wheel (lock the front wheel so you CAN'T steer). Super counter-intuitive (and may not work) The theory would be that you steer by leaning, the lean makes the caster turn, when you pull it upright again, the castor should* then straighten out, as the force of your body is now directly down, and the front wheel drives it to the neutral position.
I'm thinking, much like on a normal bike, where you lean left and the front wheel goes left, you need to add, or increase the geometry. Basically, you want to make the caster turn opposite to how it moves now. I think this could be done by playing with three angles: the front wheel/handle bar; the angle that the caster wheel is mounted (you have it parallel to the ground, maybe a wedge between the deck and the caster); and last, the caster mechanism itself. I haven't worked it out myself, but it seems like there should be a permutation where you achieve at least neutral stability, or positive stability of the caster compared to the negative you have now.
James, i love you channel... I grew up in the 80s and we were riding skateboards off two story houses onto old mattress' at 12yrs old and other crazy watch this crap, i'm afraid you're headed that way. Come on HELMET... same as i tell my kids.
Cut a circular hole through the scooter top and put a bearing between it. You can use your foot to hold the castor in place or even put both feet on and change the rear tire direction independently from the front.
I think it would probably have the same effect as mounting the caster as an angle but you could also try welding studs to it to limit the rotation of the caster.
If you angle the whole caster slightly forward this should become rideable as there will be a slight self centering effect, which should allow you to drift it.
if you could put a bit of resistance on that rear wheel i think this would work even with it rotating around freely if the wheel itself has a bit of resistance it'll make a bit of drag and straighten itself out as the front wheel pulls it along like the brakes on a semi trailer.
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hey bruton, why don't you make a video on how you are able to make all these projects so consistently, your producivity is crazy, it doesn't seem like you have a team like the hacksmith yet your projects are technically more advanced and your video release is faster than theirs, it would be a great one, and a tour of the workshop
The steel tube you used had to thin a wall, if you used the same O/D Tube , but with a smaller bore, you should have a stonger frame.
wait a second there James... @ 0:31 - a THOUSAND KILOWATTS???!!? You built a MEGAWATT e-BIKE?!?!? lmao :P jk :D
Is a electric assisted rip stick a thing. sound dope
could you collab whit some bmx/skateboarders. a UK version of "Braille Skateboarding weird things"
I think self centering could be achieved simply, following the likes of ripsticks, by mounting the wheel on an inclined plane/spaced between the deck and the caster.
was gonna say this. like the opposite of the front wheel which is a castor with an angle
.. by simply replacing the wheel with a ridge one 😂
I think James knows this idea but he did it this way on purpose for some reason
Maybe adding a pivot point to the floorboard so you can control the angle with your feet independent of the handlebars, so you’re almost surfing
ah but what angle would be best? something adjustable would be interesting
Couple of things
1) when reinforcing bends or welded joints, use gussets. They're way stronger
2) when bending pipe, fill the pipe with a fine sand first. It will prevent the pipe from being crushed as easily.
They also make springs that wrap around pipes and help evenly distribute pressure while bending.
Didn't know about the sand thing, cool tnx! 😃
@@Akanoyoru Plumbers use springs that go inside copper pipes. They're hard to get out if you make the bend too tight.
2.1) Or water, since it's noncompressible
there are also pipe rollers, which may have a much higher radius but will bend the pipe more reliably and evenly
If you mount the rear wheel at an angle (maybe a 30 or 45 degree angle, acute with where you place your feet), lock or limit the front steering (locking would be more controllable but may really impact turn radius), you might have a fairly controllable vehicle. It probably wouldn't be incredibly hard to design a mount for the rear wheel that allows you to adjust the angle as needed, same with front steering limits.
So more a tilt to steer kind of bike? I think the tilting makes the compound angle of back wheeel harder to predict, which is why I think 30 degree or more like you said would make sure to keep it more straight. Like a crazy cart has back wheel tiltet, but without the leaning complexity 🧐🤓
^- This and give it to Sam Pilgrim.
Front steering limits was my thought also
You beat me to it and said it in a much more eloquent way.
My kid's bike has a bungee that keeps the front wheel from going 360. Something like that for front and back might give you more control.
Push scooters with rear caster wheels were a huge trend in my neighborhood. They were cool because you could drive sideways with it and "drift". From what I saw they mostly had the caster wheels at an angle, so they would turn the rear wheel if you tilted the scooter. So you should try putting it on a slight angle, like 15-20 degrees, limiting the rear wheel tilt helps a lot too, just so it doesn't turn around the wrong way. Hope that helps and please give this concept a second try. I could send the pics of how my old drift scooter looked like for inspiration.
He said he's making a part 2 at the end 😉
@@Eduardo_Espinoza And that is exactly why I wanted to give advice.
I just saw the video. That is just what y wanted to advice give. I think if you play with the angel of the caster wheel to find the sweet spot between steering and stability. I always like to think in extremes. Al lot of angel eg 70 degrees, is almost no steering but stable vs 0 degrees a lot of steering and really instable.
@@albert-janoolhorst8130
It started to do that on its own, no? When it began to bend to the floor. 💭
If you put a normal fixed wheel in the back, this could be a pretty cool scooter. Much more stable than a normal scooter.
On the pipe bender for smoother corners you may want to like pack your pipes full of sand and plug them off or heat the pipes up or do a bit of both to get better bends
or slide a bigger pipe segment over the bending area
Or coil 👍🏻
Back in the states in the early 2000s the company Razor came out with something similar called the ripstik which was essentially 2 casters with footpads connected with a rotating bar. It was a pretty cool alternative skateboard
They also made a ripstick scooter
oh that brings back memories, I used to love mine!
I was looking for this comment, I had one and it was really fun to ride after you got used to it.
I know them as "waveboards", they got popular again for some time few years ago.
@@ProTimax That's a German term, they are pretty popular here
It looks kind of fun and kind of scary. You wouldn't get me on that thing without a HELMET
A 1000kW, that would be one hell of a powerful bike ;)
lol
casual 1400hp bike
This reminds me of waveboards that we used as kids.
Its basically a board with two castor wheels.
You had to do a waving motion on the back half to control it.
Maybe this would be a solution for driving this thing in a controlled way.
Would like to see you having another try on this one.
One thing I love about this channel is sometimes the item is just so cool and has very little chance of being functional but yet he finds a way to make it work!
I like that he's learning as he goes! 😃
I think it would be little bit easier to control if you can add brakes to the caster wheel.
Looks like the caster wheel needs a spring or something that always pushes it back to center position. Would love to see if that makes it work much better.
You can just tilt the mount for it and it will center by itself.
@@jetison333 Very good point! @JamesBruton, did you read that? Can we please have a brief followup later with that modification?
Just using a wedge to tip the pivot point forwards would do that.
I had the same thought about a spring. I see the other comments now about putting it at an angle, but it's actually already at a slight angle and that doesn't seem to be doing much. I still think a spring might be a better way to go, but I'll admit I can't visualize the mechanics of how to mount it.
@@Raytenecks Tbh, I do not see an angle. To me the vertical rotation axis looks perpendicular.
Hey James! Regarding the regen, you might be able to enable it by shorting some configuration jumpers inside of the controller.
In my case, there was a pad labelled "ABS" that I just had to short to ground. I'd search it up but it should hopefully be possible for you also
Great video, but the music killed it for me this time :(
@jamesbruton I'm not sure if you'll see this but I think the biggest reason you were able to attain control of it before it broke was because the surface that the caster was attached to began to angle forward and provide greater stability. This principle can be seen in caster boards.
"It works perfectly, provided you only want to go forward at maximum speed and never stop or adjust your heading."
Spot on, going around corners is overrated... the Romans got it right with straight roads, never compromise 😀👍
I concur with everyone mentioning the ripstick design, you need a way to independently redirect the rear caster wheel. Your frame bent because your weight distribution was off. A longer tail will allow you to lean back so your center of mass isn't over the fork.
Cool idea! I feel like it might be more stable if the front wheel didn't steer and it was just the caster. Similar to a shopping cart there's only one end with casters, but its like pushing it backwards where the steering will be much more sensitive.
Either way, I hope to see a follow-up video!
Would increasing the rake angle, fix the problem?
It'll naturally have a forward bias, from the lean angle.
When applied weight on either side, it'll steer towards that direction. Like a skateboard.
Start with limiter for the rear steering, or something to dampen the speed of the change of direction(Tighter bearing?)
my exact thoughts
This totally needs to be a trike with constrained rotation of the casters. I'd love to know if a much smaller arc would be better than locked for drifting.
I think a trike design would make this so much better
There is a razor drift trike like that
I'm thinking if you ditch the castor and put in a back axle with a couple air filled tires this could be a pretty sweet adult scooter!
I think it has potential, with the caster wheel mounted at an angle maybe and/or a type of spring arrangement that functions as a skateboard truck bushing thing
hey James I don't know if you've already tried this before but for bending thin metal pipes you can fill them with sand first to stop them from crimping. of note though is you have temporarily cap off both ends to keep the sand from coming out.
I enjoy how this channel has become a personal vehicle building and testing channel!
Maybe you could try to limit the angle of the caster to like 45° and -45°, so it doesnt spin out as easily. Then you can drift it around corners
I learned how to drive in a car that was built like this. They had modified it so that the back wheels were effectively casters, which could be locked so that they weren't always spinning freely. They called it the "skid monster," and it was meant to teach you how to control the vehicle when you suddenly lose traction (for example, on ice.)
What can I do to get you to invest in a good helmet? 😯Oh man, looked like a few close calls there! Thanks for the fun vids! Stay safe! 😊
Should make another version with the angled rear caster as mentioned elsewhere like a ripstik and also let the foot platform tilt independently of the tilt of the steering column so you can actually decide how to control the rear wheel. Maybe also lower the standing deck and step it back up for the caster to lower the center of gravity relative to the rear caster.
Someone's been spending too much time playing with royalty-free-music.
You should look at Caster/Wave Boards, they are very controllable and even drive by just swinging/pumping them. The trick is the angle of the caster axles not being upright. Also the boards twist. I think this project would work much better this way, basically a caster board with a big front wheel.
I hope it won’t end up like shopping carts with a bad wheel
thanks for that laugh ! directly got the image of that darn wheel doing nuts left n right n left n right ^^
There's almost always one wheel off the ground on shopping carts and it starts to oscillate with the cadence ow walking. I guess when the cart has some stuff in it, it will touch the floor again.
Brave experiment. Respect. Couple of ideas to consider:
1. Trike (two wheels at the back) would provide more opportunities to learn controls because of less falling-restarting.
2. Back wheel(s) somehow should be encouraged to get back to center. Springs or gravity or other methods. This would allow side drifting, but aid in controllability.
You can cap weld the end of the pipe 5:35 fill it with sand, tapping it to settle, then cap weld the other end. Then when bending the sand will help keep the tube from collapsing at the bends. Try adding water to take up space as well.
Razor scooters made a caster wheel scooter called the razor siege caster scooter. Was a lot of fun riding that as a kid. The two main elements that made it work:
1. The rear caster wheel was at an angle, allowing it to snap back to center when weight was on the board.
2. The board itself had the ability to twist a bit. As you're riding at speed, you could use your rear foot to sway the back end of the scooter side to side.
This is making me want to get another one of those scooters
Here's a couple of ways I think you could make the bike more controllable. You could lower the the standing platform down, and have it raise up to fit the caster, lengthen the wheel base, and have a stovetop type coil to keep the caster wanting to stay straight, as well as turn the castor around. Of course, if you turn the castor around, it would have to be a strong spring.
Maybe it would ride like a drift scooter if you make the trail of the caster wheel a lot longer. So the stabilosation is more at lower speeds.
A spring that returns the back wheel to normal could also help
00:32 1000kW definitely is terrifying, yes. Jokes aside, funny project!
hi james! if you have ever ridden a ripstick they are a double caster wheel design, but very strongly canted in the direction of travel. I think this would put enough alignment force onto the rear wheel to keep it tracking but still allow some crabbing motion at slow speeds!
This idea could probably work better if you tilt the caster wheel forward on it's attachment point like a Caster Board or Ripstik. They only have two casters that are tilted forward under the board so that they only allow for forward motion and it also limits how far out the back of the board can go. Because of the tilt, you also create your own momentum using a side to side sweeping motion.
3 ideas for the scooter: 1.brakes on the back wheel, 2.Cam/spring to encourage the wheel to straight orientation, 3. Smart rear-wheel positioning using servos
It looks like adding some friction to the rear wheel would make it more ridable. Possibly a little more friction on the rear rotational bearing too so it won't be quite so fidilly! Great video!
I'm pretty late to the party here, but this actually made me think of Ripstiks something I got quite good at riding as a kid, which was basically 2 caster wheels as a skateboard (hence their other name casterboards) and also Fliker scooters which were a scooter with a fixed steerable wheel at the front and 2 caster wheels in a V shape at the back. I believe both achieved a favourable forward orientation by angling the caster wheels, and this is also why they can generate speed by wiggling.
The self centering could be accieved by setting the caster wheel at a angle to the ground. So the mount would be at like a 25-30 degree agle to the straight frame. Hope it helps
I made something very similar as a kid. It was a razor scooter with the back wheel removed, and there was the board from a long board bolted to the scooter deck. I put a rip stick wheel on the back of the longboard, not tilted like it was on the ripstick. It was a lot of fun, and quite controllable. I think yours doesn’t respond to leaning as well because your back caster is so big.
something that could make this actually interesting to ride would be a rear "pedal/brake" attached to the caster, so you can a) control which direction the caster tracks by pivoting your rear heel to one side or the other and B) have a brake that engages when you take pressure OFF the pedal. The braking function should also force the caster to track straight, probably with some kind of cam system. The rear brake would need to be limited to a set amount of friction, otherwise it could entirely bind the caster and cause a crash. Controlling the caster angle would also allow for limits to be set on the caster angle, so it can't get TOO out of control. Would just let you do some really tight u-turns or lateral shifts.
This seems like a great way to get scooter-ankled without even picking it up off the ground
I thought you will install caster wheel slantly like you will see in a snakeboard, as long as bike moving forward it will stay forward too.
if you angle the deck downward in the front for a slight rake, the rear wheel will stay more inline because of balancing, look at the way ripstiks have their wheels, those are double castered with an agressive rake for the wheels (the head of the caster is angled forward which aids in stability for a forward trailing lead
JAMES! Angle the castor like 20° back, it'll bias the rear wheel towards the center and add "weight" to the steering. Razor nailed it with their Ripstik. A circular profile on the castor wheel would also even out the banking. Might need better wheel bearings at those speeds. Excited for 2.0!!
As a trike, two casters on the back of it would be a fantastic drift scooter. The deck would have to be wider at the back to accommodate the two wheels. Loving this channel 👍
Ned to install the caster with a forward angle so that the swivel of the caster does not sit level with the ground. You want the part of the caster towards the front of the .... scooter? lower then the back of the caster so there is a natural highspot that the caster naturally wants to sit at. Im a little rusty on the math but i believe as long as the caster angle is greater then the angle you lean on the scooter then the caster will at least try to stop you from spinning in circles. This is how they keep taildragger planes facing the right way (as well as some other mechanisms that let the pilot steer and such) the caster will have a natural tendency to remain straight (ish) while still allowing you to drift and spin if you really want to.
I'm sure I may be misunderstanding but it sounds like steering goes bad because the caster wheel turns when you lean so what if you split the platform you're standing on and connect the two pieces with an axel in parallel with the platform (like a hover board or your bike with the self leveling omni directional wheels); then you could maybe lean one way with your body on the front half and use your back leg (or maybe some kind of interconnected counter lean?) to keep the back platform level or maybe counter leaning (if either would keep the caster oriented straight)
You should convert the rear wheel to a scooter hub motor, and have it in continual regen mode. That way, it has 'drag' to give it some way to straighten out. And since it's regen, you're not just converting it to heat. You could adjust the amount of regen dependent on the speed; more regen at slower speeds, less at higher.
I would add a motor to the castor that acts as an e-brake. The added drag should "wind-sock" the castor and also put some energy back into the battery. It would also prevent the rear coming around when breaking as the force would be from the back.
at 5:10 what you have there is a pipe kinker. the material being bent needs to be really tight in the die to prevent it from getting wider and forcing it to hold its shape.
Usally they are so tight in the die that they dont touch the bottom of the die till it start bending
the thing that is i think overlooked is that the bicycle front forks are tilted backwards to create the self centering affect. you actually have the front wheel self centering while the back wheel is free, until you kept riding it and introduced an angle to the caster via the frame bending while also gaining skill. you just need to make it a bit more similar to those krazy karts that are just trikes with adjustable self centering on the rear casters.
Ohhh love this
My kids and I stuck a 500W e bike motor on the front of 2 drift trike castors. Wicked fun. The spin out is crazy
i made this as a kid, except it was self propelled by angleing the rear castor mount like a ripstick does. allows you to wiggle the rear to gain speed and also would self correct straight better. I dubbed it the spin scooter, i later saw a instructables guide to make it just like I had. my inspiration was those wacky self propelled carts that you turned back and forth to gain speed, they used to have at the six gun city amusement park. once i out grew that ride i was forever in search of making something nearly as fun. the spin scooter was damn close.
Here are my suggestions to make it more controllable AND keep it challenging:
- limit the casterwheel to 45° to each side; it will still be relatively random, but at least it won't set itself at 90° to the board and throw you off
- put a handbrake on the fork bearing so that you can stop the fork from turning relatively to the frame; not sure how this will affect operation, I guess it would help for slowing down
This video looks like a lot of fun and the physics make it even cooler!
For some reason youtube is always recommending me some crazy motorized scooter videos. So I feel it would attract more views if you had scooter instead of bike on the title.
The shortest fix to this idea would be to put the caster closer to the front wheel and allowing you to shift your center of gravity behind it to gain control over the drift. While it would turn it dangerous to bank, it would be much more managable compared to the current version.
The next idea would be to put the back end of the caster on a joint, while the front end should have an adjustable spacer and you would be able to change how much drift you allow by changing the caster's vertical angle to the base plate.
The overcomplicated idea would be to change the base plate to a drop deck, add a joint to the back part of the caster and pneumatic springs on the font end. This way you could change how much drift you allow by moving your center of gravity towards or away from the caster.
My guess is it depends on the ratio of friction of the wheel surface, to the resistance to directional change. If it's hard to change the direction of the wheel and the surface is very slick, I think the wheel will tend to drag on, at whatever random direction. It the wheel has a lot of grip, it'll follow along nicely.
Maybe a strong spring return for the castor would mean you can lean it out and drift but if you straighten up or speed up, it'd straighten up again?
This worked far better than I thought it would. Good on you James for getting on this thing and making it work as well as it did. Excited for v2.
James It'll be hard to balance the way it is as a level mounted caster is designed to be mounted flat and skate all over the place and help keep the mass moving in the same direction as its usually on things with more than 2 wheels, that makes it a challenge on a fairly precise steerable object like a scooter, but I'd say the rear needs a few degree's of trail to help keep it more in line,stick say a 5mm shim in between the casters mount plate bolts nearest the front.
Also one other thing you may need to consider is reshaping the rear casters tyre profile, with having to add trail it means its going to want to roll over on its edge more, if it rolls onto a sharp corner like a caster designed to work on a flat plane it;ll introduce wobble and all sorts of unpredictable characteristics, in layman's terms think of a motorcycle with a square-ish profile car tyre on it, would be fine in a straight line and ring-piece clenching-ly horrible the minute you leaned into a corner
Ripsticks/caster boards more or less solved this problem by setting the caster wheels as at an angle. You get the fluidity of the wheel being on a swivel vs hard mounted, but it also constantly corrects back to forward trajectory.
Adventurous choices of music in this video! Some of the tunes put me to mind of the Schmenge Brothers! Happy Wanderers ride again!!
Razor made a scooter in the 2000s caled the Siege which was a basically a kids scooter version of this and from what i remmeber it worked really well and you could get good control and balance. Id assume it was so much easier because the caster wheel was so much smaller so much lower center of gravity?
Thank you for the effort working on toning down the tone.
James Bruton. The man answering questions nobody asked.
I think to solve the issue of the rear castor not steering in the direction you want would be to put a pivot in the centre of the board, similar to a wave board, so you can use your back foot to control the direction the back wheel takes you.
adding a pivot between the front wheel and the castor like a castorboard/ripstik would probably do the trick and make it super easy to control too
if you put a second caster on the back and a build a little flexing-stability gimble attached between the two inner caster bolts; you might be able to make it more stable to ride and maybe even turn better.
We need some slide whistle sound effects when the bike/scooter slide out from under you
Bicycle mechanic here..
Regarding your brake mounts, undo those screws, put that plastic spacer IN THE BIN, and fit your disc rotor using those same screws. Your rotor and caliper will fit, because that hub almost certainly wouldn't be made outside of the necessary disc brake standards if they actually wanted to sell any.
The plastic spacer is merely to stop the screws fowling up on the planetary gearing inside the hub. If the screws were any shorter they'd be useless for mounting a disc rotor however.
at 1:01 when you are showing the brake rotor mounts, it looks to me like the bolts are actually holding on a spacer, if you take out the bolts you might find that a rotor would fit with your fork.
Also you should really set the bearing preload on the fork using a top cap and star nut/expander plug instead of just relying on the stem bolts
I'm impressed you could ride it. My first look told me "maybe...until you let off the throttle" I was close.
If the angle of the deck forced the rear caster to go toward the front it would ride easier (not easily). If the front wheel did not turn at all and the forks were nearly straight up, you *might* be able to rear steer slowly, but not so sure.
Looking forward to new geometry and gussets on the inside of the bends at 90 degrees.
just like a scooter tracing your ankles :D. Great Video and great idea. Maybe an idea for the next version, put some springs on the backwheel for centering like on a Casterboard or tilt the plane the wheel is mountet so it centers itself.
I think you need to use your back foot to control the castor's angle to the bike. If it could pitch up and down, you could control its stability. That or maybe make some way to apply brake to the rear. That would straighten you out quick too.
You should make it so the caster wheel is at an angle so it returns to center while going in a straight line. Your weight pressing down on it will want to keep it in line (like the front of the bike.) So, angle the back of the bike upward at about 15-20 degrees and then mount the caster wheel on it.
A chukutu in essense is the basis for bike geometry, a single plank (no bends) and much longer wheelbase, no front steering steering by leaning
Cool project James.
I wonder if you put some spring tension on the back wheel may provide enough stability for you to ride. Just a thought...
you should take some measurements from a ripstick to see what angle they mount their wheels at, and try to replicate that on your contraption, i have a feeling it will improve performance considerably.
Yeah that probably needs some dampening or a more angled mount for the rear wheel.
Mount the caster wheel at an angle towards the back. It will help stabilize it while keeping the caster properties
I suppose depending on the rake or caster angle, the rear wheel would be less free to pivot and end up behaving more like a skateboard truck. In which case it should be ride-able. (Apparently it's also ride-able without much of that, but it's very impractical since anything that messes with the tracking of the wheel makes it highly unstable. Tilting how that rear wheel mounts would still make it less loosey-goosey.)
The locking mechanism you angle grinded off that caster performs 2 braking functions at the same time, it brakes the rotation of the caster bearings as well as the spinning of its wheel. Instead of a caliper brake on the front wheel, what if you utilized the caster breaking to hold the back wheel still in both directions at once?
Hey bud. Stick some resistance springs between the forks and the frame that allow movement but offer tension against the loose play between the frame and the front wheel assembly.
I'm sure it's been mentioned, but mount the caster not on the flat surface of the deck, but on an angle to the deck that gives the caster an inherent stability when weight is applied. You may need to play with the angle until you get it where you like it, but the jist of it is when the caster is forced to be unaligned with the deck (like if you take a hard turn and drift a bit) it will apply a "turning" force on the caster that will want to correct the direction. Maybe you should make a mechanism that allows for the quick adjustment of caster angle so you can calibrate it in the field.
I believe if you add some caster to the back wheel it would be a very interesting bike since as you lean it would steer in one direction but if you made a system that would allow the caster to be changed on the fly like a ripsaw or whatever the drift kart thing was it would be quite a bit of fun
This is basically a scaled up and beefier version of the Razor Siege Caster Scooter (and the like). It's pretty big over here in the US. The rider actually wiggles back and forth to make the scooter move forward, and they can get some pretty fast speed too.
I like James' version a lot better, tho. 😎👍
One thing that would probably help out to make it easier to ride is to not stand so far back on the platform. It's putting too much weight on the caster and making it go all wobbly. In the Caster Scooters, the kids are standing closer to the front of the platform. The only big difference between the Caster Scooter and this one is the added electric wheel on the front. So this should be ridable.
You could make the platform a triangular shape and put two caster wheels on the back side by side so the bike can't flip out from under you, as well as add brakes to the casters somehow to force it to trail behind the front wheel if neccessary.
My suggestion? Don't try to steer with the front wheel (lock the front wheel so you CAN'T steer). Super counter-intuitive (and may not work) The theory would be that you steer by leaning, the lean makes the caster turn, when you pull it upright again, the castor should* then straighten out, as the force of your body is now directly down, and the front wheel drives it to the neutral position.
I'm thinking, much like on a normal bike, where you lean left and the front wheel goes left, you need to add, or increase the geometry. Basically, you want to make the caster turn opposite to how it moves now. I think this could be done by playing with three angles: the front wheel/handle bar; the angle that the caster wheel is mounted (you have it parallel to the ground, maybe a wedge between the deck and the caster); and last, the caster mechanism itself.
I haven't worked it out myself, but it seems like there should be a permutation where you achieve at least neutral stability, or positive stability of the caster compared to the negative you have now.
James, i love you channel... I grew up in the 80s and we were riding skateboards off two story houses onto old mattress' at 12yrs old and other crazy watch this crap, i'm afraid you're headed that way. Come on HELMET... same as i tell my kids.
Cut a circular hole through the scooter top and put a bearing between it. You can use your foot to hold the castor in place or even put both feet on and change the rear tire direction independently from the front.
I think it would probably have the same effect as mounting the caster as an angle but you could also try welding studs to it to limit the rotation of the caster.
If you angle the whole caster slightly forward this should become rideable as there will be a slight self centering effect, which should allow you to drift it.
if you could put a bit of resistance on that rear wheel i think this would work even with it rotating around freely if the wheel itself has a bit of resistance it'll make a bit of drag and straighten itself out as the front wheel pulls it along like the brakes on a semi trailer.