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A Racing Lawn Mower called.....
THE BUG (#66) WAS FUN TO RACE BUT NOW IT'S GONE!
NEWS :
re-treaded the roller ready for new season
new tread works well! less 'drift' in corners, just waiting to see what it's like in the wet
season going well!
Back ground to the project (or why the hell did I build it!)
I had heard about lawn mower racing a few years ago and always fancied a go. Searching the web I came across the North West Lawn Mower Racing website. Fantastic! great site with loads of information, the people on the forums are a relative mine of help.
Do not make the mistake of thinking these are ordinary mowers we are talking about here. A lot of time, effort and hard work goes into making a racing mower! I know and I have only just started!
A group two mower can do about 35MPH over a rough field! and yes the cutting blades are removed.
I am going to make a group 2 mower with a roller ( as opposed to wheels). I will be using an 8HP Honda GX240 motor driving through a Superdream clutch. The side plates are from a 24" Atco. The roller axle and components are 40mm Kart bits.
I have had loads of ideas about how to build the mower but the first step is collecting all the parts.......... most of which I now have! And the construction has begun, pictures of the progress are in the pictures bit.
I have finished it! for now at least. No pictures were drawn, it was truly a proper 'lets just give it a go' type build. Built using the rule 'if it looks right, it probably is'. we shall see.
So far the axle components have been EBay finds.
The clutch is also from a chap on EBay!
Clutch shaft from 'rodge70' on the NWLMRA forum ~ top man
The Honda engine was one advertised on the NWLMRA forum. ~ cheers 'Grasscutter'
The Atco side plates are from a mower shop in Stockport
The rollers themselves are plastic pipe, the sort you may 'find' near road works!
A very nice man donated the off road tyres that will be bolted to the rollers!
Roller side plates cut by Wright Shapes
rear wheels are 'freeline' front kart wheels from EBay.
seat is a universal tractor seat from Roy Perfect Ltd, Cumbria
Brakes is a cable operated Kart unit and disc again from EBay
'Cherry bomb' style exhaust is made from a used CO2 cylinder from my MIG welder ( with baffles and exhaust packing)
Kill switch is a motocross job from eBay
Rubber matting for the roller cover is yet again, surprise surprise, from eBay
pictures of the progress........
Here are the parts for the rollers
I have changed this design as the bolts sheared off during the 6 hour race!
main engine bars, side plates and centre bearing mount/trailer mounts
layshaft, brake disc and handle bars
new pictures! Thanks to Andy Rostron!
new roller !
Tyre is from a mate of Fudge, Cheers to both of you!
pictures from the grp2 race at Carlisle ~ thanks to Andy Rostron (again)
pictures from Barnard Castle 23rd & 24th August 2008
new six hour roller
pictures from the 2009 season
a couple of fantastic pictures taken by Joy Whitehead ( thanks!)
more of Joy's Pictures
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first ever proper test! slow start, but then I kind of get the hang of it!
first proper race in the Wirral (2007) ~ video by Paul Barker (cheers mate!)
shake down run of the grp3 bug(2009) ~ my neighbours must hate me!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwCRVNKrsV4 ~ good race ~ until I crashed!
Bloody great fun! but you have to be careful not to whack your knee on the handlebars!
I have rolled it! many times! it hurts!
Great fun the in the mud! back end slides round and you can 'broadside' every corner ~ see picture above for the state of the mower
improved the linkage and managed to drop the trailer a bit; made things better!
update: its now a lot more stable!, lowering the engine by 1.5" has made a hell of difference. 11hp engine makes it much better out of corners, new roller working well, lots of grip.
the grp3 is great fun! I will see how it handles at the testing weekend
Q1. Why lawn mower racing?
A1. I just fancied having a go! and the fact that you have to build it yourself suits me down to the ground.
Q2. Why group two, why not group three or four ?
A2. Group twos look like 'real' lawn mowers. Simple as that.
Q3. so why have you now built a grp3 bug? they don't even look like mowers!
A3. I know!, but they are great fun and there are more of them than grp2 rollers so the racing can be more 'involved'
Q4. Why don't you use a Tecumseh engine like everyone else?
A4. I'm not like everyone else and the bug was built around the Honda! and the Honda has better torque low down.
MRSA ( its a super bug!) ~ Westood lawnbug Group3 Racer
I have started the build of a group three lawnmower racer; A Westwood Lawnbug. It will have a gxv340 engine, a bully centrifugal clutch, Grimeca Brakes and most importantly HANDLEBARS!
BEHOLD THE BEAST ( not sure about that seat, its quite heavy!
quick assembly to see what it looks like painted!
and there you go ~ one westwood lawn bug ready to race!
photo from the testing weekend taken by Del ( cheers)
new starting lights
Hyper bright 10mm leds, 45 red and 45 green. Controlled by a microcontroller running a 'random' number generator so as to produce a delay of between 2 and 8 seconds in whole seconds between the red and green.
