Building Motorized Railbike For Abandoned Tracks

[@Ccscenario]

Awesome! I’m 15 and you inspire me to build these contraptions :)

[@dagmarsuarez3033]

Police siren at about the 8:50 mark. Got my hopes up for an extra interesting video!

[@saveitforparts]

Nah, just city life. In one of the prior videos the park cops stopped to see what I was doing, but they couldn't think of anything wrong with it.

[@joshuabessire9169]

Good start, but what would be really cool would be a sidecar for an outrigger.

[@saveitforparts]

The original one I had (the antique one) had a little sidecar seat. I might set this one up to tow a train of other cars :-)

[@joshuabessire9169]

@@saveitforparts Vista Dome car? Or find some bike trailers and make a caravan train like Top Gear.

[@AaronzDad]

Great Idea! Or even better get one of those recumbent bikes and make the sidecar a powered unit - the passenger doesn't get to ride for free! =)

[@northeden8661]

Pretty good use of junk. You must get a kick out of all the people staring at you like you are crazy or something. That's the best part imo.

[@DetroitMicroSound]

"Just a regular bike" 😄

[@bencotton3050]

Build montage rules. Guitar was a welcome surprise.

[@M.TTT.]

Pretty good so far, a little more stability, a comfy seat, and you're set.

[@jtc1947]

Hope that You can get things sorted out and find a long stretch of rails to try out!

[@B-rad-and-LBs-adventures]

Great Build!!

[@LeadDennis]

Still one of my favorite channels.

[@mmmasterscross7915]

Thanks for sharing this video

[@mokomothman5713]

Is it weird I can imagine a post-apoc story where people use these sorts of things to haul materials or travel from one settlement to another? It's really neat.

[@saveitforparts]

I think SM Stirling has a bit of that in one of his "technology suddenly stops working" series.

[@markbaker3639]

Amazing how it works 💪

[@rjc0234]

Could be worth something, but I am into miniature railways / grand scale railroads. There is a simple train called a "SCAMP" By Colin Edmondson. It uses a petrol water pump engine to drive an electric motor (used as a generator) and then that electricity is put through a power controller and back out to an identical electric motor. A bit of a noisy solution, but might help with power issues from batteries?

[@steverudder3321]

Good to see you back at it again!👏👏👏👏👏 I'm a little surprised however, that you don't already have a set of tracks in your yard, that you bought cheap from a yard sale?🤔 Anyway, carry on. 😁👍

[@saveitforparts]

Someone once offered me a fixer-upper narrow gauge steam locomotive, but I couldn't figure out where to put it :-P

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

​@@saveitforparts>>> A fixer-upper loco?! WOW!!

[@keplergso8369]

Very good stuff, but I think that you need counterweight on the opposite side. Or build a more solid structure from something else than a bicycle, like a speeder ? Alright, a real speeder is heavy, but to build a light speedy is, maybe, possible... I understand your initiative, I am a lover of abandoned tracks, and it is so sad to see them forgotten and unused ! Regards, Jacques from France.

[@saveitforparts]

I still have the electric speeder, I need to mess with it some more. Or I might just make it into a trailer.

[@keplergso8369]

@@saveitforparts 👍

[@K1ZEK]

Now carry a ham radio and you can go rail mobile .In 50+ of being a ham i never worked such a station. 73 Leo

[@AaronzDad]

I suspect if you move the rear guide up to the front tire as a trailing guide there and connect the front and rear guides it would be much more stable and hold the tire in the proper alignment better. If the axle were six or eight inches longer you'd have better leverage for control too but that would create more problems than it would solve. It'll be interesting to see if the rear tire guide is needed or not.

[@ERR0RR]

You should add a me mechanical weedwhacker to the railbike, to clear the tracks

[@pappysproductions]

Hey! I'm 90 seconds in and already know that you're pretty damn awesome!!!

[@itwasrightthere]

I’ve been searching around my area for abandoned rails, but all that I know of have been pulled and mare trails now.

[@saveitforparts]

They can be hard to find! I tried joining a Facebook group of abandoned rail photography enthusiasts, but even that hobby has so much drama :-P

[@M.TTT.]

@@saveitforparts lol so true, the drama stuff

[@henrysara7716]

Keep it up master

[@mike97525]

Looks like a lot of fun😎

[@DetroitMicroSound]

I gotta see this!!!!! Comment before watch.... Yea!

[@papafrank8900]

Me too

[@ScotlandsGold]

Loved it✌️🍻🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@The-Hooligan69420]

Is it ever relaxing when riding the rails on your electric rail speeder?

[@saveitforparts]

I don't know if I've come up with a relaxing rail vehicle yet! The electric one goes slow but bumps over all the track joints, so it's a little rough :-P This one is too loud and scary to be relaxing!

[@coleysnark9812]

It is beautiful

[@alden1132]

Why not center the bike, with an A-frame type rig that can open and close to wider or narrower angle, with each 'leg' of the 'A' terminating with a wheel assembly. In this configuration, the wheel assembly could be L-shaped, with only 1 vertical and 1 horizontal wheel set. The 'joint' or 'top' of the A-frames could attach above the forks in front and back, and be articulated so as to widen nominally as weight settles onto the wheel assemblies, creating a natural outward horizontal pressure against the inside of the rail (against the 'vertical' leg of the inverted L of the wheel assembly), with the bulk of the weight of vehicle and rider on the top surface of the rail. The "crossbar" of the A-frame could take the form of 2 "axles" passing through the hub of the bike wheels, which would allow direct engagement with the axles for propulsion, whether it's from a chain or direct drive. Also, in this configuration, your center of mass stays between the rails, with a higher clearance above the ground (and the brush), and the overall design can be simpler, especially in regard to the wheels. You could ALSO incorporate a separate "drive wheel," perhaps below or behind the bike, that could make contact with the ground, for propulsion. I imagine a sort of 'chopper' fork, with a separate drive wheel, that pivots up or down to engage with the ground, which would give you another means of "throttling" power. It's a lot more simple than it sounds, and I believe would be therefore be more reliable. Just some ideas.

[@chrisstromberg6527]

Just curious, why not go with the train wheels with flanges, like on your electric cart version you made? You could set them at the three contact points, instead of the guide that you currently have over the rail. The design would be similar to a railroad "High Rail" vehicle. Looking forward to more rail riding videos!

[@saveitforparts]

I thought about that, but the antique railbike I had was set up that way and it kept derailing. I figured the guides might keep it on the track better (and be a little easier to build and keep weight down).

[@ryanhenry9826]

Don't know if anyone said it or if you did it but what if the front guide was on the back of the wheel but connected to the front wheel so it is a different angle and the rubber tire hits stuff first

[@asn413]

i bet you have a gold member card with ax man. Hi from the range n.n

[@saveitforparts]

Occasionally I get a tiny axe keychain for buying over $100 worth of junk at once :-D

[@Kineth1]

9:08 Would you look at that, you set your camera up right next to an abandoned tripod on the abandoned rail.

[@TheQerqqerq]

OK I've made my mark 2 railbike and it's a great success...but where are the abandoned tracks??? How about a list, folks. Especially on the East Coast.!!!

[@saveitforparts]

I spent way too much time scrolling through Google and state freight rail maps looking for the abandoned ones. There are some online maps, but the level of maintenance and overgrowth on abandoned tracks varies so much that you really have to do your own research for a particular area!

[@mattparker9726]

or just a nerd nerd. Me TOO!

[@yma9197]

can you call it RBM3 please

[@bobrenda1618]

That would be fun to listen to for miles and miles….ugh. Nah. Just pedal.