Building a Manual Machine

Hey everyone! Well once again it is raining, and it does not seem like it will end anytime soon. The trails are slowly becoming part of Lake Allatoona and I am getting cabin fever and can not for the trails to get in riding condition. So yesterday we had a tiny break in the rain where I decided to try and build a manual machine, which is just a bike rack with support so you can practice wheelies and manuals. Primarily used to help a rider find the balance point to hold a manual or a wheelie in place. This is how the build went.

Everything I used for this build was found around my house. That’s where I made my first mistake, instead of going to Home Depot I just used scrap pieces of wood from other projects and I did not really have the proper size wood to start. I went forward with the project anyway with the idea of “I can make it work.” I started my measuring the length of my bike and then I took a spare 2inx6inx10ft plank of wood I had in the basement and cut the plank where I had an 8ft section and a 2ft section. The 8ft section was used for the base while the 2ft section was used to help support the back tire. I then took two spare 2inx4in and used them to help squeeze the tire to help hold it up. Here comes mistake number two, after I drilled the two 2x4s in I realized that it was way too wide for my back tire and again I took the “I can make it work” mentality and shoved more scrap wood to make the tire a little more snug. The next step I took was making the cross brace which hold together the base of the rack and the support piece by the back tire, this is really the only part of the project that went as planned and they did their job. The final step was the make a brace on the back of the stand to help stabilize the entire stand when I tried to lean back. I did not have a piece that I thought would be long enough to stabilize the stand with my bike and my body weight on it, so I improvised with a smaller piece (mistake number 3). All in all, I got the rack together similar to how I wanted it to look but when I brought it outside to test it, I lost my balance on the stand almost immediately and fell over. Problems: The two pieces that squeeze the back tire need to be taller and wider to squeeze my tire along with providing more support on the sidewalls, need to put more support on the back to make the stand a little stronger, I watched some YouTube videos and I want to add a strap to the front of the stand to hold my bike if I fall off, and finally I need to find the measurements I really want and go to Home Depot and get proper lumber for this project ( I think I could do this project with 2 2x6x10 planks, eye hook ,and strap). So, I will go to Home Depot soon and try again but for now unfortunately I do not have a manual machine, but I do have an unstable bike rack.

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