DH rope tow

K

kynan77

Likes Bikes
I am wanting to make a rope tow uplift for my DH track that is on private property, has anyone looked at making one before. there are a few clips on utube with backyard rope tows in the snow using small petrol motors and a few pulleys. I am unsure if it will works as well getting pulled up hill on a bike.
Any info would help.
Cheers
 
C

couttsyrides

Likes Bikes
Have you seen the one at kurrrajong ?

If not it is just a cable with l bars on it about every 5m And some tension keepers at halfway powered by an electric or petrol motor
 
dunndog

dunndog

Eats Squid
Yeah a t-bar or pomma setup is a fair bit more involved, you're looking for a setup more like a nutcracker, a rope that(in ski fields with them atleast) runs at about waist height. you have to wear a belt with a 'nutcracker' on it which you clip onto the rope and it pulls you up. A slight modification to suit a bike and this would work well. see what info you can gather on these systems..:)
Maybe you can make some sense of this: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6173722.pdf
 
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floody

floody

Wheel size expert
I'm going to wager that if the distance is short enough that anything less than tens of thousands worth of gear will cut it, then you should HTFU.
 
WynterPlace

WynterPlace

Likes Bikes and Dirt
floody said:
I'm going to wager that if the distance is short enough that anything less than tens of thousands worth of gear will cut it, then you should HTFU.
Click to expand...
Pretty much. Bit of pushing never hurt anyone, it'll do your fitness a lot of good.
 
Kingswood

Kingswood

Likes Dirt
Floody = Hobart
WynterPlace = Melbourne


Kynan77 = Muggy, hot, humid, suck the life out of you Queensland.
 
Last edited:
unitec

unitec

Likes Dirt
For arguments sake lets do a very rough DIY budget
lets say:-
Cable - $10pm x 1,000m = $10,000
Cable hardware & trolleys (say) = $4,000
Drives & gear boxes = $8,000
3 phase power supply & electrical = $6,000
Civils (concrete slab to mount drive) = $3,000
Clearing & level land for path = DIY
Total = $31,000

Still keen?
Thats no staturory approval (if required) or engineering/design etc.

Would probably cost way more than this.

I love dreaming about these things as well but when it comes down to doing something about it money always gets in the way
 
huffypilot

huffypilot

Likes Bikes
My mate has a set up similar to the one in the video . He uses it to practise wake baord / kite boarding tricks when theres no wind. It goes real fast and cost him around $3000. Catch is you have to walk the rope back out to the starting point.
 
K

kynan77

Likes Bikes
unitec said:
For arguments sake lets do a very rough DIY budget
lets say:-
Cable - $10pm x 1,000m = $10,000
Cable hardware & trolleys (say) = $4,000
Drives & gear boxes = $8,000
3 phase power supply & electrical = $6,000
Civils (concrete slab to mount drive) = $3,000
Clearing & level land for path = DIY
Total = $31,000

Still keen?
Thats no staturory approval (if required) or engineering/design etc.

Would probably cost way more than this.

I love dreaming about these things as well but when it comes down to doing something about it money always gets in the way
Click to expand...
im not building it for whistler bike park!
i planning on using a 5hp honda motor(which i allready own), 2 pulleys and some rope. it only going to be used for when i am riding alone as it is 4wd shuttalble, and before you say Harden the F*%K up like some other have I would like to be able to do more than 2-3 runs after work before the sun goes down.
So if anyone has any positive info that may help me please do so to save some time
thanks
 
floody

floody

Wheel size expert
What sort of distance are you talking?
How do you plan to start/trigger it from the bottom?
 
K

kynan77

Likes Bikes
floody said:
What sort of distance are you talking?
How do you plan to start/trigger it from the bottom?
Click to expand...
i was going to make it about 150-200m ( steepest part of the hill) and it will be a loop rope that continually runs once you pull start the motor, so i can drive to the top start the motor.
 
floody

floody

Wheel size expert
So you need circa 400m of strong, durable rope to begin with. Even at $5 a metre, which I reckon may be on the cheap side, thats $2k worth of rope, versus 200m or so of walking. How steep is this?
 
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