To pull off walking through Mongolias Gobi desert, I will use a cart to carry my food, water and gear. Surprisingly there is not a huge demand for desert carts so I will have to build my own. I have enlisted the help of my multi talented friend Dean - who will assist me in the design and build of a prototype ( from which I will have an aluminium finished cart built from).
We agreed to meet one beautiful sunny Wellington evening for our first design discussion at Ekims burger bar ( now fondly rechristened as the "design office"). A couple of hours pouring over images of carts from previous adventurers, discussing the pros and cons of each, we decided on a design that would suit my needs. Job one done!
Eager to get the project under way, we made a visit to Mechanical Tempest - a community bycycle workshop in Te Aro - to acquire a pair of mountain bike wheels. The workshop offers a space to work on your bike with an array of tools and spare parts in a relaxed atmosphere - its an inventors dream! All this is offered for free and is possible by the work of volunteers and donations. With a little help we found two suitable wheels, the second wheel we found requiring some extra work. We soon discovered that we had lost many of the prerequisite skills of childhood we once had that involved changing a bike tyre! Fortunately help was at hand in the form of a volunteer who was working away (surprisingly he was still eager to help even after we accidentally knocked over his very expensive looking electric bike!) A couple of hours later we left with two fine second hand mountain bike wheels for a small koha* of $10. Now we were ready for business.
* koha is the maori word for offering or donation.
* koha is the maori word for offering or donation.
That weekend saw us start to assemble the prototype. I must commend Deans enthusiasm as he related stories and videos he researched on the net of mountain bikers trundling through the Gobi. Good old Dean had already designed up some temporary axle mounts so we were able to get building as soon ss I arrived.
With a plan quickly formed we assembled a couple of 20 ltr water drums and backpacks to represent what 2 werks of self sufficiency would look like, giving us a good idea for dimensions. With axle mounts on, wheels fixed and chasis braced, we started to see the cart take form.
Fortunately with 10 weeks to go before the expedition, we have time to make a prototype using cheap materials before investing in a full aluminium construction. We need to allow for up to 100kg of weight to be pulled, and design the harness system so that I still have room to use my walking poles. With our alloted couple of hours used up, we ushered the skeleton back into Deans shed, ready for the next stage - the trailer arms, harness and testing!
" If you know what you are doing,
then you will always do what you know "