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How did all your trikes and four-wheelers do in the soft playa dunes this year?
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North Carolina
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Re: Soft playa dunes
Fri, October 3, 2008 - 9:13 AM--Lousy for a standard mountain bike. I left mine at camp and made all my forays in my powered buggy; it's got offroadiness but a small engine (150cc) and it still had to struggle in places where the dust was particularly deep. -
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Re: Soft playa dunes
Fri, October 3, 2008 - 12:12 PMtrike never really left the esplanade. I did a lot of walking, even the mtb was difficult in places.
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Re: Soft playa dunes
Fri, October 3, 2008 - 6:11 PMi got a little girl's bike from walmart [im fairly tiny so it fit fine], and i had no problem with it going through the dunes.
my only issue was the seat wasn't too comfy. :/ but thats easily remedied.
what i had more of an issue with, was avoiding the people who would insanely swerve away from the dunes at last minute, and straight into my path. none of them ever stopped or tried avoiding who was in front of them, they all expected others to jump out of their way.
once going, the dunes are fine.
i wouldn't recommend trying to start biking in the middle of a dune though.
bad idea.
you dont really get anywhere. -
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Re: Soft playa dunes
Sat, October 4, 2008 - 8:50 AMThe surrey was very hard or impossible to ride in the soft spots. Mostly stuck to the city with it.
The beach cruiser was balloon tires was hard in the soft spots as well. One night I tried to ride directly between 10:00 and 2:00 and ended up pushing it at least half of the time.
The soft playa pretty much sucked. -
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Unsu...
Re: Soft playa dunes
Sat, October 4, 2008 - 12:28 PMMy moster trike was a bitch to move through that soup. I managed, but my legs were destroyed by the time I got home.
I already have the electric motor for next year :)
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Re: Soft playa dunes
Sun, October 5, 2008 - 3:51 PMBought a new 3 speed adult trike and it sheared a pin in the tranny/axel the first time out. Thank goodness our bike store fixed it for $15 and some beer. I had an old beach cruiser as a back up that worked pretty well until you got to the deep dust. Lesson learned..
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Re: Soft playa dunes
Sun, October 5, 2008 - 7:05 PMOur surrey was from the International Surrey Co., and the materials were so horrible that the thing was basically shaking itself to pieces on the bumps. It sucked!
Even regular big-tire bikes were kinda miserable.... man, I hope that it's more hard-packed next year. It was shocking to realize how much I took a hard-packed, smooth playa for granted in years past!
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Re: Soft playa dunes
Mon, October 6, 2008 - 5:11 AMThe Ackermann Trike did okay -- with momentum, I could go through up to about a 3-inch dune, but I did get stopped dead in a 6-incher. Since it was front-wheel drive with 9-inch rear tires, it was impossible to start in anything deeper than about 1" of Playa dust without at least kicking off a little. Of course, as it was direct-drive, it was pretty slow but with lots of available torque. But it was the roughness of the open Playa that annoyed me the most.
Fuck you, I love you,
---Jason Olshefsky
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Re: Soft playa dunes
Wed, October 15, 2008 - 11:39 PMI had a standard BMX style bike, and if you watched for the tracks of bigger vehicles (which plowed the larger dunes), and kept in those tracks, I found it easy to ride the playa.
I wondered if there were any vehicles that effectively plowed dunes out of the way? Much like the big snow plows I remember from my days of living in Minnesota. -
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Re: Soft playa dunes
Thu, October 16, 2008 - 5:26 AMthe pugsley frame from surly is prolly overkill, but its designed for snow riding.
surlybikes.com/pugsley.html
If you knew where to look, there were 'social trails' all overthe place, usu going from DPW and center camp to the bigger installations and the man. There was a diagonal going directly from 3 oclock keyhole to DMV as an example. DPW has been there for months and packed down those routes just by driving out and back the whole time.
I did not have too much trouble navigating the dunes on my mountain bike, but I ride my bike daily and have thousands of miles of all sorts of riding on my legs- urban/fixed gear, singletrack on a singlespeed, glorious 2 hour descents at downieville, etc. Some of you describe conditions that include quicksand and Dune monsters. The dunes made the riding slower. If you looked for the trails it was faster. -
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Re: Soft playa dunes
Thu, October 16, 2008 - 3:49 PMI had a standard mtn bike. If I was going out with a group I used it but it was def rough in places. If i was going out solo I just walked. It was easier to check out more stuff that way, and as an added bonus my ass didnt hurt as much LOL. -
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Re: Soft playa dunes
Mon, October 20, 2008 - 12:27 PMMy trike did pretty well...it was good for about 20 feet of dunes before you'd run out of gas...so it made it through almost everything...though there were a couple of pushes. I will say that it was a joy on the roads...the 26" MB tires, frame flex and office desk seats really helped with the potholes so much so that we didn't want to ride our regular mountain bikes. I must admit though...the road and playa conditions sucked for getting around...I really don't think expanding the playa size was a good idea given the conditions.... -
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Re: Soft playa dunes
Tue, October 21, 2008 - 4:12 PMWOW, someone extended the PLAYA????????????
i dont think that had anything to do with it. it did not get wet enough to solidify the dust.
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Re: Soft playa dunes
Thu, October 30, 2008 - 2:24 PM""WOW, someone extended the PLAYA???????????? ""
Yes, the city was a larger diameter this year. That may have made the surface seem worse than it was if you crossed from one side to the other -- if you measured by how out of breath you were, compared with last year.
Me? What loose dust?
All right, I noticed it, but it sure helps to have tires about two feet wide. Bahwawawawah!
;-)
Elliot -
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Re: Soft playa dunes
Fri, October 31, 2008 - 1:49 PM""WOW, someone extended the PLAYA???????????? ""
Yes, the city was a larger diameter this year.
I know about that.....i was poking fun at you.....i know the CITY was bigger the playa infers the land, not the city. ;)
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Re: Soft playa dunes
Tue, October 21, 2008 - 8:14 PMStirling, Your trike looks great. The front pipe is really cool, and I like the gussets you added between the rear triangles and the chassis. And your experience getting 20 ft through the dunes is about what I expected. I was concerned about trikes, knowing how hard I had to work to power through the dunes on my two-wheel MTB.
Since I still want to build a trike, I am wondering about power assist. I spoke to one guy who built a tall art bike with a helper engine using a weedwhacker and 1:20 tiller transmission. He said it worked great and made all the difference getting around.
So, ignoring the noise, mess, environmental issues, and general hassle, does anyone have thoughts on the simplest and most reliable way to add power assist?
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Re: Soft playa dunes
Sun, November 2, 2008 - 9:46 AMStirling, great use for an office chair. God, after a day or two out there I woulda loved to sit in something like that whilst pedaling.
Sail Man
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Re: Soft playa dunes
Tue, November 4, 2008 - 12:49 AMhow did you attach the desk seat to you bike??? i am sooo jealous!!
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Re: Soft playa dunes
Wed, October 29, 2008 - 9:56 AMMy Surrey did rather poorly in the dunes even when I had four people pedaling. I think that the fact that I had an extra couple hundred pounds of propane and a flame effect device mounted on it made for some rough travel. With two people pedaling it was near impossible to make headway on anything other than solid ground so I found myself pushing the darned thing from time to time.
I might add some sort of motor assist to both my Surrey and my oversize trike if playa conditions are similar. The downside to adding a motor of any kind is that you are asked to register it with DMV and you become subject to all their rules. -
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Re: Soft playa dunes
Sat, November 29, 2008 - 3:30 PMOur Worksman team dual has always been such a great ride out there but this year it was brutal !
May look into a motor in the future!?
~Wendell~
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Re: Soft playa dunes
Fri, July 3, 2009 - 8:47 AMWe had a traditional style tandem, and it was horrible. We're excited to bring out our new Rhoades Car this year:
www.rhoadescar.com/e-twop2.htm
and it comes with an electric assist motor. But now that's got me concerned. Widget mentioned that a motor of any kind subjects you to the scrutiny of the DMV. Could a 750 watt electric motor be cause enough for our Rhoades to be turned away from the playa? -
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Re: Soft playa dunes
Fri, July 3, 2009 - 3:34 PMif you sit down on/in the vehicle, and it's powered by anything but humans, dmv approval is required. -
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Re: Soft playa dunes
Sat, July 4, 2009 - 8:42 AMWell, poopy. Looks like I'll just have to remove the motor before heading out. In regard to the dunes, we'll be putting the fattest tires we can fit on this thing, in the hopes that it'll help in some of the patches of loose scariness. -
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Re: Soft playa dunes
Wed, July 8, 2009 - 1:47 AMand just so you know...
sand dune fanatics know that bare treads are better than aggressive treads. wider, even better.
Slicks are best and allow for the best "flotation" above the sand as opposed to mud tires which cut into the sand and will get you bogged down more quickly.
We use sand paddle tires at Pismo beach. Basically a bald tire with sand paddles for forward motion.
How many days to go??? Not many! Buahahahahaaaa.
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Re: Soft playa dunes
Tue, July 28, 2009 - 5:21 PMOur pedal car sucked, and we had even geared it down in preparation. We were basically unable to go off the street, so we didn't see much art last year. On the other hand, we enjoyed getting to know our neighborhood better, so it's all good. We are taking a break from the lorax-mobile this year, and hope to morph the pedal car into a more impressive beast for next year.
