# Bike Lift Alternative



## mtbadvance (Jun 22, 2012)

Has anyone seen or heard of a way to transport your bike uphill to the top of a trail, for parks without thousand x10 dollar lift systems. maybe like a hook and pulley system . Cant involve motors, just by hand. I was looking at how loggers move the logs, but most of it is motorized. I don't know how to explain it anymore than that .


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## leeboh (Aug 5, 2011)

Small chainring up front , pedal bike, repeat.,


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## evilazonic666 (Mar 19, 2012)

A buddy of mine built a go cart of sorts using a 5hp Briggs and straton motor and belt drive out of an old riding lawn mower. Wasn't super fast but worked. Made a little trailer for it too.


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## robbiexor (Aug 22, 2011)

Van... truck... donkey... modified bob trailer?


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## mtbadvance (Jun 22, 2012)

robbiexor said:


> Van... truck... donkey... modified bob trailer?


<( less than) midgets , if we are going that route


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## evilazonic666 (Mar 19, 2012)

mtbadvance said:


> <( less than) midgets , if we are going that route


Midgets and rickshaws?


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## hado_pv (May 26, 2006)

Sorry, this is the best I can come up with. Lee's right - little ring and a climbing trail...


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## Bill in Houston (Nov 26, 2011)

atv pulling a trailer that holds the bikes?


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## CSC (May 23, 2011)

Original chair/rope tows used a Model T on blocks and a simple transmission to get the power running in the right direction. You could try to buy a junker car and do some welding/machine work to get it working.

Now that I'm thinking about this...I might say use a zip line cable with a hook (or something similar) to hold the bike, and a second line with a bull wheel on either end and a lawnmower engine to power it.

I can do up a drawing for visuals, if someone wants to build it.

Zip lines can be pretty long, so I don't see why it would not work.

[EDIT]

Not using a motor is easy: gearing and a hand crank system, pulleys are good, too. But a garage door opener would be good for a single bike. Much more than that, and you need a bigger motor, because the weight of the bikes and cable/chain will add up pretty fast.

If your operation is making money, look for an old double chairlift. Resorts sell them every now and then.


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## CSC (May 23, 2011)

That or a friend with a pickup


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## leeboh (Aug 5, 2011)

And then what, walk up the hill? Pedal up, reap the rewards of the down, dude.


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## CSC (May 23, 2011)

A remote control like a garage door opener would allow you harness yourself in, then click and go. But as a XC rider, I don't really care about riding up hills.


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## zrm (Oct 11, 2006)

legs and lungs?


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## pascale27 (Aug 26, 2011)

mtbadvance said:


> Has anyone seen or heard of a way to transport your bike uphill to the top of a trail, for parks without thousand x10 dollar lift systems. maybe like a hook and pulley system . Cant involve motors, just by hand. I was looking at how loggers move the logs, but most of it is motorized. I don't know how to explain it anymore than that .


More details....wanna see where this is going


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## Bill in Houston (Nov 26, 2011)

if you used something with a counterweight, you could cut the required effort down. kind of like an elevator or a funicular. 

imagine two parallel ziplines about 6 feet apart, one with the counterweight, and one with the bike-carrying hook setup, connected by a cable through a pulley. 

you could make it human powered with some kind of winch/crank thing at the top, or by having a person ride it downward. of course, that means he has to walk back up, but you gotta get power somehow...

so you start out with the counterweight at the top, and the bike carrier rig at the bottom. you hang a bunch of bikes on the carrier part. then you crank the winch sending the counterweight downward or have someone pull it downward by riding it down, towing it down with a bike, or something like that. reverse the process to tow the bike carrying rig to the bottom and the counterweight back up.

if you had a water supply at the top you could use bags or buckets of water to provide the propulsion.


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## slocaus (Jul 21, 2005)

mtbadvance said:


> Has anyone seen or heard of a way to transport your bike uphill to the top of a trail, for parks without thousand x10 dollar lift systems. maybe like a hook and pulley system . Cant involve motors, just by hand. I was looking at how loggers move the logs, but most of it is motorized. I don't know how to explain it anymore than that .


There has to be more to your request, please give us more info about the situation and why you need this. Ignore the ones who want to rag on you for not riding up. I'm a climber too, and not a lift rider or shuttler, but I suspect there is a back story to this that would help us give better recommendations.


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## CSC (May 23, 2011)

slocaus said:


> There has to be more to your request, please give us more info about the situation and why you need this. Ignore the ones who want to rag on you for not riding up. I'm a climber too, and not a lift rider or shuttler, but I suspect there is a back story to this that would help us give better recommendations.


photos would be a good first step...the hill/area, any trees or poles that could be used to hang lines...undulations in topography that would provide room for cable sag (which is unavoidable).

Sounds like there's a sort of agreement on the zip line idea...

No power at all, as in no power available? A generator would be a feasible power source, though local running water would be "free" energy.


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## Joules (Oct 12, 2005)

I'm also interested in hearing the back story, but you know, pretty basic physics tells you that you aren't going to reduce the work required to get bikes and bodies up hill much below riding or pushing them up without some source of energy i.e., a motor of some sort. 

a counter-weighted zip line could work, once. you'd have a weight staged at the top, a bike at the bottom, you run the line and they swap places, then what? in order to lift another bike that way, you'd need to get the weight back to the top, which would be just as much work as ferrying the bike without it. 

you could do a hand or pedal crank with some gearing, or some pulley system to reduce the force required, but the work required would be the same; the same effect as making a longer, less-steep hill to ride up.


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## Bill in Houston (Nov 26, 2011)

Joules said:


> a counter-weighted zip line could work, once. you'd have a weight staged at the top, a bike at the bottom, you run the line and they swap places, then what? in order to lift another bike that way, you'd need to get the weight back to the top, which would be just as much work as ferrying the bike without it.


You make the counterweight equal to the average of the weights loaded and unloaded bike carrying rig. So if it weighs 100 lbs empty, and 400 lbs full, you make the counterweight weigh 250lbs. Equal effort is required to move stuff up or down. It makes it easier for whoever is providing the work. Same amount of work though, in total. OR, if people walk to the top and want to ride the zipline down, THEY could hang on the same thing that the bikes do, and their weight could pull the counterweight back up.


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## NEPMTBA (Apr 7, 2007)

mtbadvance said:


> Has anyone seen or heard of a way to transport your bike uphill to the top of a trail, for parks without thousand x10 dollar lift systems. maybe like a hook and pulley system . Cant involve motors, just by hand. I was looking at how loggers move the logs, but most of it is motorized. I don't know how to explain it anymore than that .


 1st question, you have to ask yourself is: Wouldn't multi-million dollar ski lift operations have figured out a cheaper way by now if they could?

2nd question, How much liability insurance would you be willing to pay for this "other" method?

I can build you a Steam Catapult that will get them to the top in seconds by I assume no libilty what so ever!

LOL


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## CSC (May 23, 2011)

I think that anyone showing up to this "place" would probably not be very concerned with getting hurt...you could always say "enter at your own risk" and write your self off of any liability whatsoever.


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## CarbonDreams (Jul 3, 2012)

$700 truck would probally be the cheapest way to get to the top of a mountain.


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## mtbadvance (Jun 22, 2012)

My ideas were a 2 pulley system to where you hooked your bike to a metal cable, hiked up to the top and then through pulley leverage pull your bike up manually , but that would require a device to hold your bike , and that would have to be able to go back down easy and slow somehow or it would become a 100mph medieval gate destroyer.


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## pascale27 (Aug 26, 2011)

I applaud your out of the box thinking but I'm not sure how hiking up would be more desirable than riding up or pickup truck shuttling. The system you're proposing sounds like alot of effort for such a small outcome.


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## whoda*huck (Feb 12, 2005)

mtbadvance said:


> My ideas were a 2 pulley system to where you hooked your bike to a metal cable, hiked up to the top and then through pulley leverage pull your bike up manually , but that would require a device to hold your bike , and that would have to be able to go back down easy and slow somehow or it would become a 100mph medieval gate destroyer.


Makes no sense. If you're going to hike up, it'd be far easier to simply push your bike as opposed to pulling your bike and the additional weight of the apparatus it's attached to. I suppose you could add a counter weight to offset the additional weight, but it would have to constantly be changed depending on how many bikes were attached...unless you're talking about one bike per trip which would be incredibly inefficient.


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## mtbadvance (Jun 22, 2012)

Yeah its the best I could think of, I was just curious because if something like this was created I think it would be useful to resorts , or maybe not . I dunno


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## slocaus (Jul 21, 2005)

mtbadvance said:


> My ideas were a 2 pulley system to where you hooked your bike to a metal cable, hiked up to the top and then through pulley leverage pull your bike up manually , but that would require a device to hold your bike , and that would have to be able to go back down easy and slow somehow or it would become a 100mph medieval gate destroyer.


You will do twice the work and get half the riding time. First you have to pulley your bike up, then it will likely take as long to hike up as it did to get the bike up. I don't see the benefit.


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