Wing Mount Points for a Mountain Bike.

[Rooster]

I have mentioned on another thread before that it would be nice to have a place to hang mine and my wife's Mountain Bikes outboard of the lift struts.
I asked the designer of the Kitplanes for Africa Safari (Nice 115ktsIAS all south Africa bush aeroplane evolved from the Kitfox http://saplanes.co.za/models/), and he seemed to think there might be too much of a twisting moment.

I see that Murphy has done something: http://kitplanes2.com/blog/2016/07/murphy-radical-adds-bike-racks/

What do you sage fellows think?
John and Debra - Can this be done? Could you make an aftermarket kit available?

After all, having a pucker bush aeroplane, should have a mountain bike to round off a weekend of outdoor activity..........

Regards.
Reid

[Esser]

I have thought about this quite a bit too. I think after over thinking many ideas, basically I am going to add bands off stainless steel to the struts in 4 places similar to how the jury struts are attached. The bike won't be held vertical but at the same angle as the struts.

[jrevens]

I have thought about this quite a bit too. I think after over thinking many ideas, basically I am going to add bands off stainless steel to the struts in 4 places similar to how the jury struts are attached. The bike won't be held vertical but at the same angle as the struts.

In my opinion, I don't think that's a good idea, Josh. The lift struts & jury struts, and their attach fittings are not designed for those kinds of weighted loads. The jury struts are designed to just keep the lift struts straight so that they are only subjected to tension & compression. You definitely don't want to load the struts that way.

[jiott]

I agree with John, the jury strut attach points at the wing spars are pretty lightweight in my opinion. Any hard pull or twist could pull out the two rivets holding the jury strut to the spar. I would beef this area up substantially before even thinking about mounting a bike.

[Dusty]

If you have the float mounts could you mount off these,it would look a bit awkward but be functional (but without much ground clearance)

[Rooster]

What about using the brackets for folding the wings and then bracing with something off of the lift struts so that the suspended bike won't flap from side to side?
I would however want something more solid, like the rail that Murphy has.......

One bike fits in ok, but I cannot take a passenger. The 1 wheel has to be cable tied to the roof inside.

But the plane is a 2 seater, and I would love to take 2 bikes and a passenger......

@Dusty:
Unfortunately, here in South Africa, we are not allowed floats, as the different African water plant life stays alive on the wet floats in flight and spreads to areas where it shouldn't exist....

[Esser]

Hey guys,

There is a little more thought going into this than I made it seem. It is actually being engineered by my friend who is an aeronautical engineer. Most of the weight will be on the strut attach points. The plan is for the bike to add rigidity to the strut so it doesn't put more stress on the jury strut attach points. My early post made it sound like I was going to use the jury strut points which isn't the case. This may go through a few more design changes as well.

I've thought of putting it under the plane but clear issues etc. Your comment about the float attach points though made me think of a rack that could extend horz from the side of the plane...

More to think about. My goal is to get flying before I go after this in earnest.

[Rooster]

Thanks Esser.
That's a great thought. If I understand you correctly, hang the bike from the lift strut attach point, and swivel it inwards and upwards to brace on the bottom of the lift struts. This gives the rigidity to the lift struts and better ground clearance when landing and taking off? The 4 wheels could all go in the baggage area?
Maybe even a cheap fairing (Looking like a cupped hand) that fastens to the bike to help with drag???
I have a concern that in this configuration it might affect the airflow under the flaperons in a wider area, or is this not an issue???

This is nice thinking, Guys and ladies! I cannot wait to get out there and cycling.

Reid