It's slow. It's Sunday. I thought someone might be amused by this idea I've been having since I moved out to the farm in Hawaii.....
The farm:
approximately 38 acres of rainforest on the Big Island.
About 3-5 acres are mowed and have buildings, coffee trees and paved driveways.
Property is on the slopes of Mauna Kea and is fairly steeply sloped in places.
Lots of rain (200-300 inches/year) which means lots of fast growing invasive plants want to take over the mowed sections and generally grow taller, obscure the view and then fall onto the driveway, electrical lines, buildings, etc.
My job:
farm manager (aka lawnmower boy and brush control monkey).
The problem:
the main house is uphill and 100-150 yards from the garage/tool barn + I'm lazy, but not so lazy that I want to get in the SUV just to go down and fetch the chainsaw, gas can, chain oil, etc.
The solution:
build a 4-wheel recumbent "bike/golf cart" with low gearing and a platform or similar for carrying tools, water bottles, rain jacket, etc
Me:
no welding skills
no bike building skills
a lot of hours spent farting around with cars (two engine rebuilds)
I possess decent mechanical ability and can generally figure out a solution to most engineering problems.
So I'm wondering if anyone out there in ridemonkey-land has seen (or has in their posession) plans for building a 4-wheel bike-beast? If not i'll just start messing around. And of course I'll post pictures when I have anything to show for my efforts.
-pigboy
ps. yes i'm cutting a trail into the rainforest so that I can go chase the feral pigs around. Any monkeys who make it to the Big Island should give me a holler. We have great riding around here.
The farm:
approximately 38 acres of rainforest on the Big Island.
About 3-5 acres are mowed and have buildings, coffee trees and paved driveways.
Property is on the slopes of Mauna Kea and is fairly steeply sloped in places.
Lots of rain (200-300 inches/year) which means lots of fast growing invasive plants want to take over the mowed sections and generally grow taller, obscure the view and then fall onto the driveway, electrical lines, buildings, etc.
My job:
farm manager (aka lawnmower boy and brush control monkey).
The problem:
the main house is uphill and 100-150 yards from the garage/tool barn + I'm lazy, but not so lazy that I want to get in the SUV just to go down and fetch the chainsaw, gas can, chain oil, etc.
The solution:
build a 4-wheel recumbent "bike/golf cart" with low gearing and a platform or similar for carrying tools, water bottles, rain jacket, etc
Me:
no welding skills
no bike building skills
a lot of hours spent farting around with cars (two engine rebuilds)
I possess decent mechanical ability and can generally figure out a solution to most engineering problems.
So I'm wondering if anyone out there in ridemonkey-land has seen (or has in their posession) plans for building a 4-wheel bike-beast? If not i'll just start messing around. And of course I'll post pictures when I have anything to show for my efforts.
-pigboy
ps. yes i'm cutting a trail into the rainforest so that I can go chase the feral pigs around. Any monkeys who make it to the Big Island should give me a holler. We have great riding around here.
