Beer Bike Build Questions

[Trouble-Brewing]

I am in the beginning stages of making a tricycle jockey box for 3 1/2 bbls. I work at a brewery who serves beer at the local farmers market once a week and they are looking for a cool way to transport and serve. I am planing on cutting a cruiser off about 6" behind the seat post then adding a angle iron frame for a plywood box. I am thinking 4' long, 32" wide and 32" tall. That gives me room for 3 staggered 1/2 bbls and a co2 tank. After reading about coils and plates for cooling I am thinking 100' of 5/16" stainless coil for each tap. I am hoping someone on here could point me in the right direction for bulk stainless flexible tube. I have found premade jockey box coils but am looking something I can make to fit. I am also wondering if anyone has any advise on a rear axle, with three full kegs, the box, coils, co2 and a rider its going to need to hold about 800lbs. I am thinking 20" wheels to keep it low for loading kegs. Any advice on where to find something like that? Or other advice on the whole idea?

 

[arturo7]

check here

http://www.rideyourbike.com/cargo.html

 

[kmat123]

Maybe the hopworks bike will give you some inspiration!

 

[HexKrak]

I like the ground effects!

 

[brewingmeister]

You want something that you are actually able to ride right? Have you thought about attaching a utility trailer/cart to the bike? Splitting up some of the weight is going to make this much more usable. If you are looking to build something maybe scavenge the connection from one of those baby hauling carts and build a custom trailer. Good luck and post your results.

-cheers

 

[Gunfighter04]

Here, copy this.

 

[cc407]

Seems you are wanting to build, and that sounds like the fun part. I only suggest looking at Dutch cargo bikes for some inspiration. Try a google search and you'll find some neat examples.

 

[Trouble-Brewing]

Thanks for all the replies. The plan is to have something we can ride the mile and a half to the market then pack it up and ride it home. Its pretty darn flat in Davis only hill between the brewery and the market is the slight rise for the railroad tracks so that makes things a little easier. After doing a little research on some of the links above I think a trailer might be the way to go. 800lbs is quite a bit for three wheels especially if I want to keep the costs reasonable. I will run the trailer idea by the boss when I talk to him Thursday. It might come out cheaper then a trike so it might not be hard to sell. We already have an old school tandem at the brewery thats seen better days, might make a pretty cool tow bike with some work. Thanks for the help, I will post when I get the project going.

I am still striking out with the cooling so any leads for stainless flexible tube would still be a big help.

 

[audger]

"flexible" and "stainless steel tube" are kind of opposites.... did you mean like braided ss hose? im not exactly sure how you are going to use 100' of stainless coil for cooling, could you explain more? is it going thru a jockey box or...? (if so, 100 feet per tap is probably considerable overkill)

since you need it to be portable, you might want to look into dry ice or liquid nitrogen (obviously not in direct contact with the beer or lines, but they are cold, cheap, portable, expendable, require no pumps, etc.). with a little inventiveness you could get something working...

 

[brianj434]

If your kegs from the brewery are going to be cold, that is alot of thermal mass. Just build a simple insulated box and throw a few bags of ice in. You would probably get negligable warming over a several hour period.

For the bike:

If you go the trailer route you will need to instal brakes on the trailer itself. Most tow behind bike trailers are not made for that kind of load. You definetly do not want to stop at the RR crossing , watch your trailer pass you and then get pulled in. Im not sure if there are trailers with integrated braking systems that can hook up to a tow bike's normal controls.

Make sure your tow bike has good stopping power, disk brakes would be best.

a quick google lead to this...
http://www.bikesatwork.com/bike-trailers/
Looks like it would provide a workable skeleton to build upon.

This project sounds awesome. I am excited to see what you coome up with

 

[Wakadaka]

I saw a thread I think on a mountain biking forum about a guy who built a trailer. He worked at a liquor store in Tokyo and needed a way to transport bottles. It looked pretty cool, I'll try to see if I can find it

 

[Trouble-Brewing]

I plan on running a jockey box section inside the box with 3 100' coils, 1 for each tap. We run 120 in the jockey boxes we have now and they hold about 3 pints in the coil. You can pretty much pour a room temp keg constant and get a cold beer every time. Usually the kegs are right out of the cold box but if its a slow night they can warm up pretty quick when its 100+ out. I know flexible and stainless don't go hand in hand, not looking fox braided just the stuff that comes in a roll like the copper used for wort chillers. I know I have seen it somewhere just not really sure what to put into google to find it. I havent really thought about the brake situation, might be able to figure out a quick release brake lever, especially if we use the tandem to tow. Let the rear guy deal with the trailer brakes. Though with no hills a trike with disk brakes could probably handle the load.

The weightt issue makes everything complicated.

 

[arturo7]

One brake lever for the front wheel, one brake lever for the trailer.

 

[Trouble-Brewing]

I guess with all that weight in the back there is no risk of going over the handlebars from the front brake

 

[clay9_24]

My roommate rode one of these around Berlin when he was there for work.



He said it was a absolute blast and as two beer drinking engineers we wanted to build one for riding around the tailgate at football games.

Since the driver doesn't drink and is sober we wondered if it might actually fly here in the states. Most likely it is just another thing to add to the list of cool stuff you can do in Europe but not here like smoking, prostitution, and fistfights.

 

[FDillon00]

It's legal. Here's the one for my hometown.

http://www.pedalhopper.com/index_lawrence.php

There are several more around the country.
The Pedal-Party of Houston, TX
The Pedal Tavern of Milwaukee, WI
The PubCrawler of Austin, TX
The Pedal Tavern of Nashville, TN
The Pedal Hopper of Lawrence, KS
The Pedal Hoper of Denver, CO
My Handlebar of Boulder/Ft.Collins, CO

 

[JohnTheBrewist]

I'd build a separate trailer for each keg. That way you won't have the weight issues to deal with. I know a guy who built one for riding around a campround with his keg. It is basically a big tub on wheels. He puts a keg in the tub and fills it with ice.

 

[Trouble-Brewing]

Sierra Nevada has one of those bike bars too. We are just looking to make something to serve out of. We dont have anywhere near the funds to do one of those, would be pretty sweet though