new guy here! Please help

[powercycle]

Hey,
During the summer holidays which are coming up, my friends and I are planning to make a go kart. We have seen loads of go kart plans on the internet but they all look like they would cost a lot to make.
We are planning to use three old (but not rusty) bikes for our project. We can get access to welding equipment and can buy a motor. My question is:

Will the frames of the bikes capable of being used in a DIY go kart??

Thankyou for reading my question, please answer or point me to a previous post about this. Thankyou.

 

[kendelrk]

look on the main page of diy, youll see plans there

 

[gokart14]

sure can check this out
just use a motor instead
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R34XA_LpxgY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwg_xzrbiZc&feature=related

 

[landuse]

It might be easier for you guys to buy a beat up frame off craigslist and fix that up. You will have pretty much all the parts on it you might need (hopefully). Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[CaptCanadia]

Frames are pretty cheap all you need to know is how to build it and were to get it cheap. My friend made his frame for 80 bucks out of sq tubing and a little round tubing. And a lot of the stuff you can just improvise, like the steering wheel. You can probably use the break handles as a break and accelerator and make it a go kart with hand control instead of peddles. As for the engine you can get a nice 5.5-6.5 HP clone for 100-150 bucks, or just find an old hor. shaft engine and fix it up. There are a lot of possibilities you just have to use ur imagination!

 

[Doc Sprocket]

Welcome to the forum, sounds like an interesting project. I should caution you, though- spoked bicycle wheels tend not to respond well to the rigors of karting. On a bicycle, you lean into the turns, so no matter how fast you're going or how hard you're turning, the forces are being transmitted up the spokes at 90* to the axle. The spoked rim can handle this flawlessly. However- on a 3 or 4 wheeled vehicle that does NOT lean into the turns, this is a problem. The spokes are not strong enough to handle the shear loads- the sideloading that occurs when force is being applied at 180* (or 0* depending on your perspective) to the axle. In English, turning hard on bike wheels will cause the wheels to fold over. Not good at speed. Consider-

1)Making it a low-speed vehicle only, or

2)building an elaborate design that allows the tires to lean into a turn*, or

3)not using bike wheels.

*see here for a beautiful example of this> http://www.diygokarts.com/vb/showthread.php?t=11666