Martina is awesome to be so supportive.

take me to lac megantic! :D TX for the video!! :D

Amazing

You need larger diameter and wider neoprene rollers for the ones riding on the track and also the for the sides . You'll probably realize a much safer and quiter ride. The rear out ringer needs to have a captive roller's on its edge's to almost hug the rail. You may easily d-rail with this present setup at higher speeds. Also think about extending out the front stabilizer. Nicely done.

respec to your helper, she's a trooper. not to mention she looks good doing it

Track gauge is 4 ft 8.5 in, inside of rail to inside of the other rail with a variation of minus 1/2 in to plus 1.5 in. With your arrangement, you could go over the 1.5 in. The rail head on most rail that you would probably ride on will be 2 in to 3 in.

I’m really curious about moving the outrigger to the front. I’m wondering if the drag from weeds and such, combined with the long lever arm, will force the front wheel to turn. If so it will battle the front guide. Either the front guide will pop off and the wheel will turn into the railway, or the guide wins and the tire slips outward and off the track. Or ideally your body mass will overcome the outrigger torque and nothing happens! Yea! This is my favorite video series. I just love problem solving and the evolution of ideas. And kudos to you for sharing the journey with us armchair team members.

This is really radical. The outrigger at the 90° angle from the rear wheel or in line with the rear axle I guess is what I'm trying to say I feel as though you could fight or eliminate some of the drag or catching if you had it go like the 30° angle towards the front and then from your down tube have another support bracket thus making it a triangle and more sturdy it looks as though it's wanting to drag and maybe causing unnecessary friction and this is all just speculation from a guy who is sitting on his ass in his garage and not making a bicycle that rides on the rails! :) maybe you've tried this and sturdyer outrigger binds up.... Those hand carts that they see saw back and forth down the track why are they not sitting in actual seats and using the gravity and not their muscles? The foreman was like I ain't spending money on a seat you can stand your asses up and or he just knew his workers would be stronger and harder if they weren't utilizing their body weight and having fun yeah we tried the whole seesaw thing far too many employees fall in love and run off into the sunset so we chopped seats off and made them pump it by hand where they still build a lot of camaraderie but not seesaw type of camaraderie

Here in India, trains have become unavoidable. Automobile industry is not competing with railroad. We have men who patrol the tracks on foot . They check each and every bolt and nut to ensure safe and fast movement of trains. I want to know if these cycle would be of any use.

It is great to keep track of your progress. I'm not so sure about those little side wheels. Small wheels find obstacles more easlily. Plus... they don't "float" since they are solidly mounted. The Bentley railbike has these wheels spring loaded on little arms. Google Bentley Railbike. Dick has plans. His guide is similar to this one of yours, and he and his wife have been using it for decades. Again, your front guide needs to be more forward, out front. Good luck in your endeavors... I'm curious to see your new outrigger. You may teach this old dog new tricks. isn't this fun, solving all these problems? When you ride 80 miles, you'll beat me. I'm not so sure even I could beat Richard Smart, Peter Hoffman, and Arne Nilsson... those guys have taken some epic rides.

I just discovered this video out of the blue. I’m an avid amateur cyclist and would love to watch you perfect this device in hopes that you would sell parts to people that would like to fail ride

Amazing I'll copy!

Nice light design. Could make front section longer to put more torque to get steering straight. Also then you could make guides wider to be more tolerant of track width variations. I dont get why cross bar has to be parallel to ground. Most of the designs have that as a diagonal. I like how its adaptable so you can drive "off rail" whener you want. Why not make a trailer hitch so you can tow more weight. Most people wjo make carts rather than railbikes put a guide on just the inside or the outside not both as im sure you know. Your design could get jammed up if theres a flaw in the track. Maybe an inherent disadvantage of rail bikes? I really like your light simple design thank you. One guy had a similar design with bull horns on front guide so it can ride over humps. I dont get why your design rode over a hump in track but i did see it do that.

You need like an angle brace coming off the outrigger back to the bike maybe off the seat neck so it clears pedals

Love the new idea. but if it were me i would still add the support brace from the out rigger wheel to the other axel on the bike which ever way from out rigger or back. then you can add a mesh in the middle and add carry on luggage for the longer rides. Al so it will be so robust with a tiny bar.

The railway track has not been serviced for many years. Rails can be of any thickness, as well as the distance between them can vary quite widely. The design of the bike should take this into account. I would recommend to make spring-loaded side restraints on all wheels only on the inside of the rails and to make the bicycle handlebar lock when moving along the rails

So ive done this but with a 6hp minibike and done about 40km on the tracks. That front guide wheel wont work for road crossings, found wheel barrow rims to be almost idea, just needs to be a thicker gauge or coated in rubber to increase life. Best of luck!

I believe you are causing some of the problems with front wheel torque. By holding the handlebar, you cause some of the issues with side to side torque which is wearing on the side guides. Let go of the bars. Install a bracket to the frame top tube that would allow you to remove the handle bars and place them on the new bracket. They would then be solid with the frame and remove all of your induced twisting motion to the front steer wheel. The slight bumping that will occur on the side guides will be much less than that which you impart. Good luck and have fun.

I was looking at the blue wheel, and wondering if it would track better and be more likely to stay on the rail if the center is about 1/4" less diameter than the outside part, so it will "Float" to the center. It might help to watch other video's, like Cam Engineering who is also riding the rails with a totally different set up, where the forward wheel is a little farther ahead than your set up, and the rear wheel is on a tri pod type of mount, so it can not swing left and right (if looking down at the arm) or up and down, due to a arm attached about 15" above the center of the rear axle mount of the main arm. Cam Engineering now has a electric bike, with a 5 KW battery pack, good for about 200 miles! Keep making You Tube video's and you can pay for that too! Cam uses a front wheel about 3" diameter, with a flange on each side, about 4" apart, that is about 4" to 5" diameter, so it does not hit the bolt together mounts on the outside of the rails, and also does not get stuck in the cement of the city road crossings. I think if I build one, it will use 2 bikes, and spread them the 54" apart. Make a way to attach both bikes to the rails, and maybe a platform in between to carry stuff. At least one of the bikes will be electric drive!

Been awhile glad to see an update

A thin wire from the frame at the top tube to your cross piece at the far rail would eliminate any far rail axle deflection. All you need is a gossamer filiment with strength. Off shore braided steel fishing line would do well in that application. Be well and enjoy!

Do more testing in hot weather w/Martina !!

cooool, I'd really like to try it

The ride looks to be smoothing out. Haven't seen you try this with your touring gear. That might change everything.

I just now remember emailing or writing to Greenspeed in about the year 2000, when they were still in Australia only, when I suggested their recumbent be made for railway tracks. They didn't reply. Maybe my inbox still has a copy of my message.

Nice Build !

have you tried a trailing front wheel guide ?

Have you tried without the outrigger? I'm curious if you just add another guide like you have on the front to the back, and no outrigger can you just balance? Even if takes a little practice, this would be sweet.

Impressive development. It seems to me, as if you have improved the Bentley-design. 👍 Does this also work, when there is a rail-inclination (I mean: each railhead is tilted by an inclined railchair slightly to the center, approximatley 2,5% to 5%)? I experimented also a bit some years ago on a closed railway (with inclined rails), at the end using a design with some similarities to one of the railbikes used during Dick Smarts Patagonia ride - in order to avoid leaving the tilted railhead. I stopped those experiments (made only 2 versions, but with approximatly 100 km of railbiking in total) as fortunately now regular trains are running again on the "test" track.

I wonder about where the rail tracks are in Australia. I think some are being pulled up and replaced with paths.

The simplicity of this design is great. Do you have any kind of plans or notes available?

Any closer to a product for sale yet? :)

remembered the tape measure!!!!

Do you make those for sale ? I would love to experience the pleasure of traveling here in California and be able to do do with your help.

Is the goal a rail bike or something that converts quickly?

Would going fast over the track connections then bounce the front guide wheels too high?

There are many different sizes of rail heads. You run up on a comp joint and you could wind up on the ground.

I made a functioning railbike with two horizontal guide wheels in front...but changed them to 45 degrees because they couldn't get over obstacles alongside the rails. BUT my important question is WHERE ARE RAILBIKERS RIDING?? Is there a site listing "legal" rails? If not, this is needed!!!!

Hi I am new to this I have tried two 20inch wheeled folding bike mounted together, didnt work. I like the idea of a front outrigger, i can use same 20inch wheel. All my connection is done through bmx foot pegs, so along the lines you are talking about, outrigger on the front coming from front axle, and maybe guides only on the insides of the two front wheels?. Regards Kim

triangulation to the front wheel from the rear out rigger will help

I still don't like that vibration in your outrigger. A wide structure could make it both lighter and stiffer, but how do you get that space on your bike with your pedals? Have you considered using a long tail bike?

👍👍👏👏😊😊

What exactly prevents the bike from tipping over away from the outrigger?

...check outy version on KZfaq. "TrainRail Bike Cycle". Spring loaded side wheels. A concept design by Dick Bentley. His was hard wood. Mine was made out of old parts. I like your design.

Rail width should be standard, thankfully, unless you go on some pretty old tracks. Historically, there have been tiny variations over time.

The small, solidly mounted, wheels on the front rail guide are problematic. What I think may be an improvement would be, instead of the small solid mount wheels, wheels the same as the ones on top of the rail but at a 45 degree angle to the rail. Having them above the rail at an angle would prevent them from catching on those plates that join the rail sections together.

where can I buy one

Outrigger allows cyclists to explore Mother Nature

How do you find rails to ride on?

selling these?

Wanda buy one

This was soo boring, I watched it twice! ;) Agree outrigger on front, easier to keep an eye on what it's doing.

How how can a person buy one Kentucky a lot of abandon coatracks

side guide supposed to be triangle

Por que não saí dos trilhos?

Where can I order one?

924 or 944?

how sales these

Front outrigger will be a disaster!

is it possible if the rigging is on the front wheel and back of the rear wheel? Do away with the long pipe balancer?