The Sail Bike a Two Person Sailing Bicycle

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The Sail Bike a two person sailing bicycleby Cleveland Motley on September 17 2013

Table of Contents

The Sail Bike a two person sailing bicycle

Intro The Sail Bike a two person sailing bicycle

Step 1 Material list and design philosophy

Step 2 Welding the frame

Step 3 Mast step

Step 4 Cut the sail

Step 5 Steering and working at burning man

Step 6 Sail control 1

Step 7 Furling 1

Step 8 Disaster De-masting and happy coincidences 1

Step 9 Wrap up 1

Related Instructables 1

Advertisements 1




Intro The Sail Bike a two person sailing bicycleHello Instuctables

This is the story of the Sail Bike a tandem sailing bicycle Built with limited resources and time it actually worked pretty well and gave me a few ideas on how to imprit next time It was a lot of fun to sail and also a lot of fun to bike Got a lot of great feed back from interested people at burning man Sailing it by myself at dusk acrosthe open playa was like being on a martian desert and one of the most incredible experiences of my life

Note I have included hotlinks to definitions to words the layman might not know if you see a highlighted wordlink

What was the sail bikeTwo cheap beach cruisers bolted to a custom metal frame Steering linked with ackerman steering A rotating windsurfing mast mounted between them A dinghy jib cut down and used as the loose footed roller furling main sail

Why make the sail bike

For years i had been to burning man and wanted to sail across the desert As an avid sailor the freedom and expansiveness of the playa as well as the constant windmade for great conditions At one point last year i sat down and drew a sketchup of what i thought it might look like and actually pretty much stuck with that vision I ha much bigger much more time consuming project going this last year for the burn and built the sail bike as almost an after thought so i didnt put as much time or eneor resources as i would have liked but it turned out pretty well regardless I actually built a good percentage of the project actually on the playa in the dark with an anggrinder and a little 110 mig

How did it workPretty wellMy goals were to be able to sail on a broad reach and bike anywhere I wanted if it could go upwind that would be awesome but I wasnt holding my breath Mostly I hoping for any sort of sail assist In the end it would go to weather pretty well could fly a hull both upwind and down and generally hauled ass Flying a hull downwind was incredible as i could go lower and faster the more the apparent wind came forwardWith two people I had to reef the sail half way so my friends could keep up on regular bikes on a reach I was very happy with the performance The brakes built into tbikes as well as just general boat handling kept it safe and it actually felt very stable while flying a hull If youre familiar with catamaran sailing then you know the feeof playing the main and tiller to keep it flying I would absolutely build another and improve on this design it was so much fun

A note on Burning man regulations regarding sail craftSome people might be wondering about Burning man regulations regarding sail vehicles and how mine fit in to those rules Lets just say that I saw and talked tohundreds of police and Black Rock Rangers and interested burners and not a single person even hinted that they thought it might not be safe or allowed at the burn

did my utmost to sail it safely and took the responsibility of being an ambassador of sailing very seriously I would love to see more sailing vehicles on the playa and think as long as they are piloted safely and responsibly it would be a match made in heaven

Ok on to the tech

Image Notes1 Flying a hull upwind

Image Notes1 early sketch up ended up being close but hadnt thought about the traveler ye




Image Notes1 ackerman steering2 traveler bar3 roller furling mast

4 step through beach cruisers

Image Notes1 traveler bar2 compound main sheet block with sliding carabiner and traveler sheet3 main sheet cleat

Image Notes1 sail furled

Image Notes1 bag in the foot2 traveler bar




Step 1Material list and design philosophy2x beach cruiser (step through for easy access)60x 34 steel square tube20x 34 steel round tube

20x 58 line for main sheet20x 14 line for down haul and travelerjam cleat for down haulcorresponding misc blocks and cleats for main sheet and traveler

Wind surfing mast and universal mast step

old sail (i used the jib from an I14 and cut it down)

hose clamps for mast step and hardware for bolting cleats to frame34 closed cell insulation foam strips for protecting the frame and reducing vibrationoptional piece of pvc for mast stepbolts and nylock nuts for steering arm

Ubolts for attaching the frame to the bike frames

I chose to use traditional bicycles because I wanted to have the normal bike experience in hindsight a recumbent bike probably would have been a better choice aswould have lowered the center of gravity and gained clearance for the sail but I think the recognition factor for normal bikes was little higher and more fun looking Isimply prefer to ride a normal bike as wellAnother reason i used normal bikes instead was i wanted to try and reduce the material cost and welding time by keeping the bikes intact and making the frameremovable Well i ended up welding a relatively elaborate frame anyway and while the bikes were indeed removable i Think a custom recumbent frame would havebeen just as easy to do Oh well you live and you learn

So i went with 2x beach cruisers I got them from target they were about 100$ which is a little expensive but they were nice reliable and it made it easier when bothbike are identical

The wind surfing mast was because I wanted the mast to rotate and the sail to furl If i had used a fixed mast i would have had to have a jib or asymmetrical spinnakerrotating on a forestay like a traditional boat but i thought that would put the center of effort too far forward and make it difficult to go upwind So I opted for the main saand the rotating non-stayed mast The windsurfing gear was the cheapest (free) and easiest solution I could find and ended up being pretty strong

On to construction

Image Notes1 rotates AND bends




Image Notes

1 welded the washer to end of beams then bolted to bike

Step 2Welding the frameLike ive said during the lead up to burning man i was working pretty hard on a separate project that took the majority of my t ime and resources so i wasnt even able finish this project at home but had to take as much material as i had with me to the playa to finish out there That said i was able to get the basic frame constructed atstudio which certainly made it easier to finish on the playa

First thing i did was get my lady to sit on the bike so i could get an idea of where the mast would start and how much clearence was needed for the sail and how far ato put the bikes I figured that the sail should start 3 feet up from the stem to mostly clear the riders head and that 4 feet apart was good enough to not be to wide butprovide good righting moment

Next i decided i wanted the bikes to be removable from the frame as much to save space in transportation and storage as incase it failed miserably and wanted to usthe bikes separately

The riders legs and pedaling action dictated where the cross beams would go so i put them at the top of the steerer tube just down and back on the down tube at theseat post and eventually on the chain stay This gave the bike lots of lateral support something i was very thankful for when i started to fly a hull

So the first thing i did was cut a piece of the square tubing to about 4 and then welded the flat washers from the ubolts to the outsides of the tubingThen i bolted the single beam to both bikes made sure the bikes were straight and vertical measured another place and repeated the process By working as fast as could and just eyeballing it it actually came out pretty straight

Then i sort of willy nilly reinforced by eyeballing and compound cutting more tubing to stick between the beams taking care not to obstruct the riders legs

Next mast step




Image Notes

1 Welded Ubolt washer and bolted to bike2 cross support

Image Notes1 welded the washer to end of beams then bolted to bike




Step 3Mast stepI had a wind surfing mast and universal step givem to me so I wanted to work around what i had I sort of just measured to the center of the beams then down aboutwhere i wanted the mast to start so that there was enough clearance for riders heads then started welding something on for the step to bolt to

I figured since the mast step could rotate and bend i would bolt it down at the bottom but them also need some way of keeping it pointed upright I resolved to fix thisproblem by welding a vertical bar above the mast step and deciding to use a pvc tube to fit the mast through I figured id hose clamp the tube to the frame More on thlater

Image Notes1 side ways mast step


Image Notes1 vertical bar and eventual pvc-less mast step system




Image Notes1 mast step bolted to frame2 vertical bar to hold up mast with pvc tube not working so well3 down haul and jam cleat

Step 4Cut the sailI have an old I14 sail boat which has some old sails so i fugured id cut down one of them for this project i went with the jib becasue it was almost the right size anywaand that way i could still use the built in clew etc

I didnt really know how i was going to hold the sail out yet but i didnt have time to worry about that stuff )

I did know how much space i had to have from the bottom of the mast to the top of the riders head by measuring f rom the base of the mast step so i used that by unrolling the sail and physically putting the mast on it to mark where to cut and sew

I ended up having a huge bag in the foot more on that later

Basically i thought 5 feet back from the mast would be plenty of sail so combined with the max mast height i could work with i pretty much just cut and folded the sail sewed it over into a sleeve in such a way that i thought i would have a flat sail

Next steering and working at burning man




Step 5Steering and working at burning man

That was all i could get done at home and i had to bring what id done so far as well as any material i had to the burn with the hope that i could find a welder and finishoff

I eventually did find a welder and I had an angle grinder I used to cut and made it happen it was certainly not idea conditions and made the compound cuts prettydifficult but it worked out

The steering was pretty straight forward just Ackerman steering system Basically you draw a line from the stem back to the center of the rear axle and extend that ouforward then connect them Ive attached a diagram i made from an earlier instructable that had six wheels but the same principal applies here

I used some rubber sheeting strips in between the steering posts and beam and bolts which worked really well the steering was right on the money and felt great

I also used nylock washers through-out the build to minimize loss through vibration

Next was sail control

Image Notes1 this particular graphic i made for an earlier instructable that had six wheels butthe same principal applies here

Image Notes1 rubber sheeting and nylock nuts2 steering beam3 steering post welded to the bicycle stem




Step 6Sail controlI knew if this thing had any chance of sailing it was on a broad reach the most powerful point of sail Because my mast rotated and the sail furled i couldnt have a booTraditionally the boom does a great job giving sail shape but because it furled and i dint want extra stuff to hit riders in the head i forwent the boom and neededsomething else to pull the sail outSo i was going to need a relatively wide angle for the sail If i had a single point in the middle the sail would have to twist out to work and it wouldnt be as effective Sorealized i needed a traveler to pull the sail out to the side

I ended up welding these long arms reaching out backwards and a fixed circular tube between them to act as the traveler The clew would have a block on it and anocompound block on a carabiner would slide along the traveler bar Then id have a line that would let me manually move the traveler from side to side or set it at themiddle for upwind wen you want a flat sail

This was absolutely necessary to the success of the craft regrettably i didnt do a great job thinking it out and yet it still worked really well What happened was i wasquickly running out of material welding flux and energy and without stepping the mast and actually checking against the sail i decided that i had designed the sail to bpulled 5 feet out and a certain height above the riders head So I figured i could just mount the bar where that point was and id be fine

Well it turned out that the bar was too far forward and too low so when it pulled the sail out going upwind there was a large bag in the foot Meaning it pulled tighteralong the leech then the foot so the top of the sail was relatively flat but the bottom wasnt this isnt the best sail shape for going upwind but for a broad reach it was f

Since the traveler bar was straight as well when i pulled the sail out to the edge of the traveler it actually pulled it a little flatter since it had more distance to go

Good things that worked were the continuous traveler kept the lines clean and nothing in the wheels also worked really well on the fly so i could position the travelernicely The main sheet cleat was really nice as well i tied the end of the main sheet into a basket and let the tail fall into there which kept the only two lines clean and of the wheels

As the week went on I ended up fixing the sail shape which really improved upwind performance more on that later

Next Furling

Image Notes

1 bag in the foot2 traveler bar

Image Notes

1 main sheet cleat2 basket for main sheet tail and gear3 continuos traveler didnt have enough line to cross it but still worked pretty wel


Image Notes1 tennis ball eye ball gouger protectors2 main sheet block and traveler slider and sheet3 traveler block




Step 7Furling

I was really excited about the rotating mast and furling sail I wasnt sure how much power i was going to have but as a safety feature and for ease of use in just bicycas well as going for sail assist furling was going to be key I also didnt want to be taking the sail down and dealing with that every time i stopped

I also hadnt given the system a whole lot of thought but figured id make it up as i went a long which is pretty much what happened

I figured Id mount a pvc tube to the fram to keep the mast upright and let it rotate but unfortunately in my last min search for material I could only find a tube that wasthe exact same size as the mast at the bottom (since it tapered) so i was a little SOL as there are no hardware stores on the playa

So i ended up cutting the pvc pipe to try and just protect the mast from the frame and using hose clamps to keep it upright against the vertical part of the frame

I then mounted a jam cleat to the mast and attached a downhaul line to the tack in order not only hold the sail down but to give it some purchase to rotate aroundThere ended up being really the perfect amount of friction in the system to let me rotate the sail with one hand while riding letting me furl and unfurl easily yet also itwould hold in its postion and not rotate on its own So no line was ever needed to secure the rotation

Later as the PVC started to get out of position then actually fell off while night sailing i just put some rubber against the frame and used hose claps alone which alsoworked pretty well

Next Disaster De-masting and happy coincidences









Step 8Disaster De-masting and happy coincidencesAs i was sailing the craft in a pretty nasty dust storm riding on the leward side upwind in order to fly the windward hull i pushed it a little hard and the mast camecrashing down It had broken about a foot from the bottom somewhere along the vertical part of the frame probably as a result of the inadequate hose clamping and solution id come up with

This turned out to be a good thing though

I remounted the mast now a little shorter moved the down haul jam cleat on to the frame (which meant i had to remove the down haul to furl oh well) and immediatesaw that the clew was in a much better position relative to the traveler bar It let me pull it flatter which gave me much better sail shape and allowed me to go upwindmuch better as well Good stuff

Next wrap up

Image Notes1 new shorter mast and moved downhaul jam cleat to frame

Step 9Wrap upThe sail bike was everything i wanted it to be fast fun easy For being a learning experience with not a lot of time or resources im actually very proud of how well itpreformed I met so many people at the burn who loved the idea and wanted to build something so this is my effort to help you guys

Sailing it out on the desert at dust across the empty open playa was l ife changing Sailing at night with my lady and friends in tow from party to party was incredibleBiking with out the sail was also really fun and it made a great ice hauler

I highly recommend building one

Hoep you enjoyed my instruct able see you on the playa

video coming soon




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Intro The Sail Bike a two person sailing bicycleHello Instuctables

This is the story of the Sail Bike a tandem sailing bicycle Built with limited resources and time it actually worked pretty well and gave me a few ideas on how to imprit next time It was a lot of fun to sail and also a lot of fun to bike Got a lot of great feed back from interested people at burning man Sailing it by myself at dusk acrosthe open playa was like being on a martian desert and one of the most incredible experiences of my life

Note I have included hotlinks to definitions to words the layman might not know if you see a highlighted wordlink

What was the sail bikeTwo cheap beach cruisers bolted to a custom metal frame Steering linked with ackerman steering A rotating windsurfing mast mounted between them A dinghy jib cut down and used as the loose footed roller furling main sail

Why make the sail bike

For years i had been to burning man and wanted to sail across the desert As an avid sailor the freedom and expansiveness of the playa as well as the constant windmade for great conditions At one point last year i sat down and drew a sketchup of what i thought it might look like and actually pretty much stuck with that vision I ha much bigger much more time consuming project going this last year for the burn and built the sail bike as almost an after thought so i didnt put as much time or eneor resources as i would have liked but it turned out pretty well regardless I actually built a good percentage of the project actually on the playa in the dark with an anggrinder and a little 110 mig

How did it workPretty wellMy goals were to be able to sail on a broad reach and bike anywhere I wanted if it could go upwind that would be awesome but I wasnt holding my breath Mostly I hoping for any sort of sail assist In the end it would go to weather pretty well could fly a hull both upwind and down and generally hauled ass Flying a hull downwind was incredible as i could go lower and faster the more the apparent wind came forwardWith two people I had to reef the sail half way so my friends could keep up on regular bikes on a reach I was very happy with the performance The brakes built into tbikes as well as just general boat handling kept it safe and it actually felt very stable while flying a hull If youre familiar with catamaran sailing then you know the feeof playing the main and tiller to keep it flying I would absolutely build another and improve on this design it was so much fun

A note on Burning man regulations regarding sail craftSome people might be wondering about Burning man regulations regarding sail vehicles and how mine fit in to those rules Lets just say that I saw and talked tohundreds of police and Black Rock Rangers and interested burners and not a single person even hinted that they thought it might not be safe or allowed at the burn

did my utmost to sail it safely and took the responsibility of being an ambassador of sailing very seriously I would love to see more sailing vehicles on the playa and think as long as they are piloted safely and responsibly it would be a match made in heaven

Ok on to the tech


Image Notes1 early sketch up ended up being close but hadnt thought about the traveler ye





















On to construction





Image Notes








Next mast step




Image Notes











































Next Furling

Image Notes


Image Notes







Step 7Furling



















Next wrap up






video coming soon





repairing a


Windsurfer by

TimAnderson

Sunfish Land

Yacht by

TimAnderson

Make a Dacron

Sail by

plasticvicar


by TimAnderson


(video) by

stangtime

Advertisements





















On to construction





Image Notes








Next mast step




Image Notes











































Next Furling

Image Notes


Image Notes







Step 7Furling



















Next wrap up






video coming soon





repairing a


Windsurfer by

TimAnderson

Sunfish Land

Yacht by

TimAnderson

Make a Dacron

Sail by

plasticvicar


by TimAnderson


(video) by

stangtime

Advertisements




Image Notes








Next mast step




Image Notes











































Next Furling

Image Notes


Image Notes







Step 7Furling



















Next wrap up






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Windsurfer by

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Image Notes











































Next Furling

Image Notes


Image Notes







Step 7Furling



















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Next Furling

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Image Notes







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Step 7Furling



















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Next wrap up






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The Sail Bike a Two Person Sailing Bicycle

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