Context:
I built this last summer in an attempt to wakeboard on the San Joaquin River.
The rear tire is elevated; as the frame sits on the stand. I removed the tire, and replaced it with a hemispherically cut plastic drainage pipe to act as a housing for the 200ft vinyl-wrapped steel cable, and 55ft waterski tow rope. The cable is threaded through the valve stem canal in the rim, and secured with a 10mm bolt/nut. The guide mounted on the tailgate is threaded loosley, so it can pivot and follow the wakeboarder (outside) the wake. The bike is strapped down at the handlebars, and we found everything works better if we put a ratcheting tie-down transversely over the seat.
How it works:
We backed the truck down by the water on a little peninsula (with the tailgate facing downstream). One person straps the wakeboard to his feet, grabs the rope, and floats downstream in his lifevest. Once the rope is distended, the other fires up the bike, kicks it in gear, and the rotational motion of the tire is converted to translational motion of the wakeboarder. It equates to about a 15 second ride at about 25 mph.
Sorry, no video. I do however plan to use it for a jib in the snow this winter. (Same concept; accelerate toward a little kicker on a snowboard.)
"the game of life of is not so much in holding a good hand as playing a poor hand well"
