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  • Amphibious Bicycle

    These have been around awhile:

    Click image for larger version  Name:	carboat.jpg Views:	0 Size:	163.4 KB ID:	103747

    Here is the latest amphibious vehicle:

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    A man is preparing to travel the width of Scotland and back again in a bicycle canoe built by hand according to the time-honored British tradition of performing adventurous feats for charity.

    The 36-year-old spent two months building his unique contraption, which has been dubbed Pedal Paddle, and will see him take on over 150 miles of land and sea.

    Starting from Fort William, Ben Kilner will paddle to Inverness along the Caledonian Canal before turning around and cycling back on land along the Great Glen Way.

    He aims to raise £2,500 for the charity A Leg To Stand On, which provides prosthetic limbs for children in developing countries across the world. He also hopes to inspire people to go outside and explore the world.

    The idea was born after Kilner, who previously paddled down the River Thames in a hand-built canoe, was left unable to walk for several days after a camping trip.

    “It was deeply upsetting and highlighted how much I rely on my mobility and how much we take it for granted,” said Kilner, from England’s East Sussex.

    “The canoe is a skin-on-frame canoe made from Douglas fir and steam-bent green oak with a ballistic nylon skin stretched over it,” said Kilner in a TikTok video announcing his voyage by paddling the strange machine right into a lake. “The reason for going with that design was because it is super lightweight and also something I can build myself relatively easily.”

    Source: https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/man-...-made-by-hand/

    VIDEO HERE:

    https://v16m-default.tiktokcdn-us.co...t ag=e00090000

  • #2
    I'm always torn on this kind of thing!

    Is it an Amphibious Bike or an Amphibious Canoe?

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    I can speak from experience that dragging road wheels through the water costs a LOT of forward speed!
    (There's a pretty good and ancient reason watercraft are very streamlined!)

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    • #3
      Originally posted by Steve Klare View Post
      ...Is it an Amphibious Bike or an Amphibious Canoe?...
      Both. And if your foot slips off the peddle and goes through the thin floor, it becomes a submarine.

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      • #4
        Top Gear was a brilliant to watch on TV here is one episode you should watch
         

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        • #5
          I greatly respect the retractable landing gear, but that front wheel dipped in the water would turn the craft around in a hurry sailing against a current.

          As Graham's video shows: an amphibious vehicle is a great example of why compromises never make everybody really happy! Classically an amphibious car isn't either a good boat or a good car: They are awkward on the land because they are shaped like a boat and on the water they tend to leak and (you know...) SINK.

          The Ford Amphibious Jeep was just a regular Army Jeep under all that Outer-Nautical-ness. One of the first compromises was losing that handy "door" cutout the land-Jeep has. There was kind of a toe-hold in the side that riders basically hooked a boot into and flung themselves up over the hull and into the cockpit.

          I don't care if you are 19 years old: doing this in the mud with a full pack and a rifle and a canteen still isn't any fun!

          Word is that Soldiers kind of hated these things: it just may be the least successful US Army vehicle of WW2!

          (The Soviets on the other hand loved 'em! They made thousands of knock-offs after lend-lease gave them prototypes.)

          I am working on my second Amphibious Jeep model: twice as big as the crappy first one (-this one actually works, too!). I've sworn if I'm ever foolish enough to start a third one, it will be an Amphicar (like that first photo), twice again as big and include radio control!

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          • #6
            Click image for larger version

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ID:	103771​Here in the UK, we haven't quite mastered amphibious vehicle technology .

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            • #7
              I believe the most successful amphibious military vehicle was the DUKW known as “ducks”. I had a ride in one onto the great bitter lake way back in 1952 whilst doing my national service in Egypt. Mind you, the water was so salty that you could float on your back and read a book without getting the pages wet on a calm day!!

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              • #8
                Ken,

                I've ridden on kind of a reproduction DUKW myself: there are tours around Boston (and other cities) that use them. They are so popular that some companies are building new ones with modern parts. (Still: not the safest way to take a tour...there have been incidents.)

                Saltwater was not friendly to vehicles like this:
                .
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                The hulls were all steel and "rust protection" was something that became an idea no earlier than maybe 1970. Of course all it takes is one fingernail sized rust-hole.

                The whole idea was to get as much equipment out there as soon as possible because the World was pretty much on fire: if it was all scrap three years later and the war ended as best as possible, it was a small price!


                Now of course if you want to try a multi-mode vehicle, take the car-boat every time! The history of the car-plane has never ended well, and the car-submarine isn't promising either! (James Bond aside: if we had HIS resources...)

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Steve Klare View Post
                  ...I've ridden on kind of a reproduction DUKW myself: there are tours around Boston (and other cities) that use them. They are so popular that some companies are building new ones with modern parts. (Still: not the safest way to take a tour...there have been incidents.)
                  ...
                  In 2015 there was a fatal crash on a bridge involving a Duck tour boat in Seattle. A wheel on the boat fell off and and the driver lost control. The boat hit an oncoming bus. Five people were killed.

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                  • #10
                    Yes,

                    -and that one that sank in Missouri with the loss of all hands a couple of years ago.

                    Every technological system that exists has compromises: cost, service lifetime, size, performance, safety and everything else we expect from our Widgets. We can't make all of these great at once: something has to suffer in the bargain.

                    We may even make the thing nearly perfect: then it just becomes really expensive!

                    When you make a system do two things that aren't completely compatible, the compromises really start to pile up.

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                    • #11
                      I used to work for a Triumph agency so its fun to watch an old Triumph Herald floating down this reservoir with a sail, brilliant TV series always good for a laugh
                       

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                      • #12
                        -and of course those famous VW commercials from the 1970s!
                        .


                        A very early VW product was the Amphibious Jeep equivalent they produced for the German Army:
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                        It has the wonderfully German name "der Schwimmwagen"!

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                        • #13
                          In addition to Duck boats, we have Ductwork boats:
                          Handyman Corner "Ductwork Boat"

                          And Riverboats:


                          Last edited by Ed Gordon; July 25, 2024, 03:46 PM.

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                          • #14


                            Even with Phil Silvers at the helm, the 48 Ford Super Deluxe isn't up to the task!
                            .


                            (Didn't work on the Simpsons, either!)

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                            • #15
                              And let's not forget Bond (James Bond)

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