brakes

Chris Loader, fellow West Countryman, gave me lots of advice about brakes at Sywell - showing me his system, which has a reservoir, making it much easier to bleed, as you have a head of fluid to help push air out. On his advice I ordered a master cylinder and caliper with flexible pipework already filled with fluid, ready to go without bleeding - and all for £24! Incredible. I also ordered a 25mm carrier and 4mm brake disc from Gemini Karts. 

Chris's brake

My own system is going to be slightly different as it will be mounted in the cockpit (not at my feet) and will be operated with a hand lever or paddle on the steering wheel, connected with Bowden cable and a bell crank or similar. Basically, the cable system on mine needs to pull the piston in or pull a crank which pushes it in - rather than the convention of a foot-operated pedal pushing the piston in.

Why? Because the controls on the Bedelia were, initially, hand controls. Also, because my foot-well is so damned tight.

All for £24, and we know it works because it is what Chris has in his kart

Here are some possibilities:

An easily copied lever, fitted to the back of the piston

Diagram of integrated lever and master cylinder - but I want my master cylinder to be further back in the cockpit, remotely mounted.

A master cylinder with lever integrated for remote mounting and mechanical or cable operation- pulling away from the cylinder

This one is designed specifically for hiding the master cylinder somewhere on a bike, then operating it with a cable, which pulls the piston from behind - pulling towards the cylinder

I could easily make a mount with a lever pivoting on it and with my master cylinder bolted to it, possibly assisted with a spring. I can make it in angle-iron, with a flat as a base, with the upright surface providing mounting for the cylinder and a pivot point for the lever cylinder 

Bedelia's first outing - Sywell 2022

 

My work-in-progress kart appeared on the "Cyclekart GB" stand at the Sywell Piston and Props show at the weekend. Lucy and I had great fun with Jim Rawnsley, whose gorgeous kart, a BSA 3-wheeler, "Slippery Jim"  had its own debut, and his wife Becky; Ian, whose shiny Austin was an absolutely delicious build, also getting its first public outing, and which rightly got a lot of attention, and his wife Gilly; also Jim Tanner, who welded my front axle's stubs a few weeks ago, and who was responsible for organising our club's appearance, Andy Boulton, who kept us laughing with his lewd innuendos, and Chris Loader, who always makes me think of home because he, too, is from the West Country. We all camped together and shared a good deal of wine and beer around a campfire - well, a butane fishing heater, anyway.

People were very complimentary about the Bédélia build - all very encouraging! Shame I couldn't drive with the other guys. But my time will come. 

Jim Tanner and Ian both very kindly gave me drives in their cars. Fantastic, both of them. Trust me, you get jaw ache driving them - you just can't stop smiling.

M. Bourbeau made friends too!

Finally on four wheels!

The kart finally got on its own wheels for the first time at the start of the weekend - when finally assembled in the trailer, having been trundled up the garden path from the shed without axles attached, as there just wasn't any way of getting it out with wheels on!

All surprisingly easy, though I needed Lucy's help with lifting the cockpit into the trailer.

Fuselage on custom-built path trolley, passing though side gate

On four wheels at last!

almost an engineer

This week I have been cutting, centering, drilling and tapping - making uprights for supporting my rear axle, fitting bushes and bearings, assembling axles, fitting circlips, etc.

Big thanks to my old mate and former teaching colleague, John, for turning some "top-hats" which reduce the 16mm holes in my bearing castings to M10s. I then used them to find my centres in two steel uprights I prepared earlier (after I'd welded them together so that they could be drilled and tapped together for consistency).

My live axle will have its bearings fitted, and then the axle can be dropped in and bolted whenever needed. This enables me to transport the kart with wheels off, as it won't go through our gate with them fitted!

My workshop floor is very uneven, so I have been levelling the kart (on piles of paper), then standing the wheels over it, making sure that they are inflated equally, lifting one wheel until it is level, then endlessly re-levelling and measuring. Tomorrow morning I am welding the supports into place, then un-bolting the bearings.

bending wood

Having watched a load of YouTube videos which made wood bending look intimidatingly difficult, I decided not to do it "that way" and instead to find an improbably simple way and try that instead. And it worked. I stuck the strip wood in a water butt overnight, then bent it round one the two jigs that I made - cut-outs with clamp-holes cut in them - and allow the wood to dry out over about 24 hours.

When the water wasn't deep enough to soak a longer piece, I constructed a soaker using some old plastic downpipe, setting it at an angle, sliding the wood into it and filling it with a hose.

The process worked a treat, and by scoring a v-cut into one end I was able to bend the wood around a scarily tight corner, with only a little tear-out, which was easily sanded smooth.

Faux man

 The original Bédélia was driven from the back. In my case, I shall be driving from the front "passenger" seat, with a faux driver in the back. Lucy has made him!

M. Bourbeau was one of the original  Bédélia's designers.

 

still having formatting issues! :(

Path wagon.

Chuffed with my 25mm bearings. They will be fixed on my rear axle so that the axle can be dropped into the car's mounts and the chain drive then connected. That is because we don't have a gate wide enough to get our kart through with the wheels on! I have designed my kart to be transported with the axles removed. I shall trundle the main fuselage up the garden on my path-wagon.

Path-wagon

great new bearings

Rear axle mount

Copying Bill

 This is where we came in. The mock-up

                                                            

 

I wish this system would stop mucking about with my page arrangements! 

In the editor this page looks great.

 

 

 

Bent wood top rails

 

I did fair bit of research about this, then decided that everyone else was over-complicating the process, and tried something simple. I tied a scrap metal weight to the end of a length of 6mm x 46mm strip-wood and plunged it into a water butt and left it to soak overnight. The following day I took the wood out, used a triangular file to score the fibres and put in a groove on the inside angle, where the bend would be tightest, then gently bent and clamped the wood. It was very pliant.

The first one came out absolutely fine, and very largely held its shape. The second is now in the jig, but because of the milder, wet weather, will doubtless take a lot longer to dry. But there is no rush. In fact, a gentler drying may be a good idea anyway