This page and bike are still under construction ,I am still working
on the valve assembly on the bike ,this was supposed to be
opened by a brake lever but I have found that whatever I do with
cables and pulleys there is not enough power to open it. To
day I have been out getting some pneumatic valves and cylinders
and will be putting things together over the next few weeks.
Here is the new set-up
How it works...!
A...The compressed air is held in this tank @ 1500-3000
psi
B...Is the throttle valve, this is used in hydraulics
and is rated to 5000 psi
C...Is the pneumatic cylinder that
opens the ball valve
D...Holds the air to operate the
pneumatic cylinder (100-psi)
E...Is the start button
F...Are the tubes that take the air to the cylinder
When you press the button (E) on the handlebars it allows
air to flow from the low-pressure air tank (D) to the pneumatic
cylinder (C) this then opens the ball valve (B). This
allows the high pressure in the tank (A) to escape pushing the bike forward.
When you remove your finger from the button (E), the
air is feed to the other end of the pneumatic cylinder closing the valve.
This operation takes about .25 of a second.
This is a picture of the bike on a test run.
The bike was loaded with 1500 psi. I found that the air
was escaping from the tank too fast
and was taking the bike from under the rider.
It was now time to make a smaller exit hole and a nozzle to add some thrust.
I never did any more work on this bike.