Anyone ever mess around with one of these things? The steering is backwards for something that's not a forklift, but I'm wondering what kind of quality this thing is and I imagine I can probably find a used one for real cheap.
Boring story leading to an idea: One of my sisters found a thing called a Ponycycle, which is a rather clever riding pony that is propelled forward by the kid hopping up and down in the saddle (looks like rollerblade wheels at the ends of the hooves must have freewheels so that on the downstroke when the fore and aft pairs of legs move apart, the free wheels on the rear stop rearward motion while the forward legs roll to allow the vehicle to move forward. On the up stroke, when the legs draw together by internal spring or such, the front legs are prevented from moving backwards and the rear legs roll forward.) Anyway, she commented that she would have loved it as a kid, which made me think of the kind of thing I would have liked as a kid, which is a WW2 fighter plane-like Power Wheels, but with some actual range and power and without the cartoon quality they always impart on kids toys (I even hated it when I was a kid). But war is ugly, so maybe the Golden Age of air racing would be better . . . sparing anyone still reading the rest of the long, boring story, I'm thinking of making for my other sister's three younger kids, a motorized Mobo Triton with the seat facing the correct direction, single stick steering and hand throttle, and Gee Bee Z bodywork (I think I even have a great idea of how to build a radial engine from various plastic bottles), but not if this thing's made of tinfoil. My two nieces would probably prefer the pony thing, but their parents can buy them that and my idea would span a wider age range to reach the older nephew (with an appropriately adjustable governor for the motor by age). Yeah, there's not much place to use it around here, but I won a gocart as a kid and we still had fun with it the short number of times we were able to use it, and the memories were worth the trouble.
Of course, I'll probably come up with some new idea tomorrow that will enthuse me until the one after that, but for today, this is what's consuming my brain.
Boring story leading to an idea: One of my sisters found a thing called a Ponycycle, which is a rather clever riding pony that is propelled forward by the kid hopping up and down in the saddle (looks like rollerblade wheels at the ends of the hooves must have freewheels so that on the downstroke when the fore and aft pairs of legs move apart, the free wheels on the rear stop rearward motion while the forward legs roll to allow the vehicle to move forward. On the up stroke, when the legs draw together by internal spring or such, the front legs are prevented from moving backwards and the rear legs roll forward.) Anyway, she commented that she would have loved it as a kid, which made me think of the kind of thing I would have liked as a kid, which is a WW2 fighter plane-like Power Wheels, but with some actual range and power and without the cartoon quality they always impart on kids toys (I even hated it when I was a kid). But war is ugly, so maybe the Golden Age of air racing would be better . . . sparing anyone still reading the rest of the long, boring story, I'm thinking of making for my other sister's three younger kids, a motorized Mobo Triton with the seat facing the correct direction, single stick steering and hand throttle, and Gee Bee Z bodywork (I think I even have a great idea of how to build a radial engine from various plastic bottles), but not if this thing's made of tinfoil. My two nieces would probably prefer the pony thing, but their parents can buy them that and my idea would span a wider age range to reach the older nephew (with an appropriately adjustable governor for the motor by age). Yeah, there's not much place to use it around here, but I won a gocart as a kid and we still had fun with it the short number of times we were able to use it, and the memories were worth the trouble.
Of course, I'll probably come up with some new idea tomorrow that will enthuse me until the one after that, but for today, this is what's consuming my brain.
