DIY scooter/kick bike

Hi, I'm dreaming about taking up the sport in a very amateur fashion, and wondered if anyone had actually tried converting an old bike into a kickbike themselves? Any advice would be much appreciated.

I'm from Tassie and as yet there's no club here. I don't know how I'd get the contraption (once built) and my dog in the back of the car to take her anywhere to use it, and I don't know how long the fad will last with me so I'm not going to go to any great expense. I just know she'd love it!

Thanks
Felicity

My husband chopped up a a bike we bought for 20- at a garage sale,and with some scrap, built my fav scooter... you can also use a kids scooter... (not the little razor ones tho, trust me that hurts to fall off)

We carry our scooters on a standard bike rack, upside down, with a hole through the deck of the scooter to put the ?spike? thingy through to keep it on the rack.

Hi Felicity,

there are plans here

http://www.adskisamoyeds.com/scooter.html

That is awesome! Thank you so much!

Good for you Felicity, Tassie certainly has the temps for sledding. We all start out amateurs and many of us get hooked, mainly because the dogs just love it, why else would you get up before dawn in mid winter at minus degrees? What sort of dog/s do you have? Is there any more information you would like/need? As a veteran 1 or 2 dog team I am happy to help you out, if you have aspirations to run bigger teams then I will handball you on to one of the other mentors.
cheers
Jennie

Dear Jennie, thank you very much. I've just managed to put a photo of Piper as my avatar, so you can have a look. We got her from the RSPCA. They called her a shepherd cross but I'm not convinced. I like to think she has a bit of Lab or retreiver in her, but that's mainly because I think they're lovely dogs! I think she looks most like a Rhodesian Ridgeback, but she doesn't have a ridge, so its anyones guess. But she is strong and loves to pull, and I know she'd love dog sledding. I'm still waiting on my new scooter/bike purchase to get here from Melbourne. Then I'll give her a try off road. Currently I run her on the road next to my bike, which I know some of you out there think is horrible, but the vet didn't advise me against it, and I'm afraid at the moment its that or nothing.

I might take this opportunity to ask you a really basic question. When you are doing your dog sledding, how do you attach your ganglines to your scooters?

Thanks again
Felicity

Hi Felicity

You have a few choices re attaching the line - most people wrap the line around the headstem and pull the snaps through the loop end and drag through so it is secure around the stem.

hope that helps. have a squizz at vids on youtube and see if you can get some help.

Andrew

Hi Felicity,

You will need to fasten your gangline to the headstem of your rig [scooter] with a short length of ski rope 8-10mm thick with a loop at both ends and feed one loop through the other. Some people weld a half chain link to the head stem and use a caribeener [climbers fastener]. If you choose to do this you must do it as cool as possible so as not to distort the head stem with heat and not with the internal workings in place which means pulling the bearings and working bits out first.
Make sure your tugline has a shock cord or bungie in it usually at the scooter end to take the shock out so your dog can tension the load placed on it gradually without causing injury. If you dont have this you can get a length of it [about 40cm] from the hardware store and feed it into the ski rope tugline and fasten it at both ends with a maspro clip [wire netting clip] with enough slack in the ski rope to take up the stretch, or just loop the bungie on itself several times to make a multiple loop about 20-30cm long and just tie the free ends together. Fix your tugline to one end and the other end to a caribeener or your tie off point on your rig. Confused still? Sorry its much harder trying to explain it than to show it. Maybe somebody has a photo or diagram they can send if you get stuck. All the best with your great lookin' pup.

Thanks guys. Rob, on first read that did go right over my head, but on reading it over I think I get the gist.
I really appreciate everyone's advice.

If I'm not pushing my luck I'll try for question number two. I've seen some posts where people are asking for advice to get their dog(s) to go faster, I worry mine is going too fast. She's been up to 30km/h down hill, and stays above 20km/h most of the time until she gets really puffed out. I'm already under brakes much of that time. I worry she'll go so fast that she'll fall over, or that she'll have a heart attach when we get home because she puffs so hard and fast. But there's no pressure from me for her to go so fast, so she must be doing it because she wants to. And part two of this question, how far are your one dog races?

Thanks again everyone for your advice.

Felicity

one dog are approx 2 km, and the dogs travel at approx 20km steady, fred has topped out at 35 in the start chute, and he is a slow dog... I wouldn't worry, and I wouldn't ride the brakes... as long as you are safe...

and she'll probably start to slow down when you start running her regularly... not a lot tho... watch for injury if you are running on the roads..

G'day Felicity,

Sounds like your "pound mutt" is really enjoying his second chance. Good on you. My oldest Mally was a rescue - in fact I'm her fourth owner!

If you are confused about ganglines, bungee sections etc, take a look at www.windchill.com.au which is owned by some very good friends of mine, Ralph and Sandy Koch (they are also very well known out in the sledding world).

Most of the private club races and Sibe club 1 dog races are between 2-2.5 klms. At the Mal Club here in Victoria we run anywhere from 3 to 4.5klm in 1 dog.

Dont be so concerned about speed. One of the most important things is to ensure that the line is tight and that the dog(s) is feeling the harness - this will give him the confidence to pull, and pull hard. If the line keeps going slack, they can lose the confidence to lean into the harness as they start to feel they may "fall over". So, the tight line becomes a bit of security.

Good on you for getting out there. Giving a dog a second chance. And above all, having fun.

Regards,

Justin Celentane
Snowpaw Alaskan Malamutes
St Andrews Vic 3761

Thanks Heidi and Justin. I've been looking on windchill, and they have a little special going on, and I have a birthday soon, so guess what's top of my list! Now I just have to get Piper to stand still and straight so I can measure her!

Please tell me that which scooter is better for a 8 year old kid, I have to gift my cousin a one but i am confused between kick and simple manual scooter.This would be really appreciated.

kids scooters

willgluck, asuming you are talking about a scooter for sledding, you can walk into any toy store/bike store and buy a 16 inch childs scooter, approx $300- from what I remember, I believe the difference between a scooter and a kick bike, is a kick bike has a smaller deck, and a larger front wheel, to a smaller back wheel. the people I know who have bought american kick bikes.. are not happy with them. If you are after a larger scooter, look up windchill for examples, then you will know what you are looking for.

So the veteran turned 10 at the beginning of this season just finished and for seven previous seasons I raced with her on a Torker scooter with it's little sticker on it that said this scooter is not suitable for 'off road' terrain. We did fire trails, dirt tracks, toured single tracks that slalomed through trees and down water channels and over tree roots, we landed in the bog on bog bypass and skidded in the gravel, bounced over rocks and belted along with the kangaroos hopping trackside, and I ran mostly one dog and occasionally two dog teams. It didn't miss a beat but it was heavy and did not freewheel like the big scooters so I was forever scooting too, even down hill, and smaller wheels and no suspension meant my ageing body also felt every lump and bump we hit. What might appear to be a mere stone to a bigger scooter had to be treated as a boulder on my little Torker. I watched the kids in the club grow every season and Nick and Emily both had Torkers as their 'first scooters' when they were each about 6 and they 'grew' out of them in a couple of seasons as they got serious with their training. I was serious with my training too but just too darn stingey to see the benefit of finally investing in a decent bike for both me and the old girl. Once we hit veteran class I borrowed kickbikes for our races in '09 and '10 and we placed both years. So for her eighth season I finally bit the bullet and got us a kickbike which with 20:20 hindsight I should have done after our first season when we knew we were going to keep training and racing even if I wasn't going to venture off to too many 'away' races. We both love it, it's easier on both of us, we placed again in 2011, shoulda done it years ago.
PS. Anyone interested in a very well used Torker that is still in one piece (but maybe has a flat tyre) is welcome to it, provided you agree to "move up" when you know you have been bitten by the sledding bug. Other sledders might laugh and point at you but as a gotta-do-something-to-stop-borrowing-other-people's-gear scenario it's an OK start for your first season.