I've pondered and pondered.

[Salar]

Hi All,
I've often fancied a diy trike and have access to a few fabricators and enough bike bits and donors lying around to get me going.

No doubt the following question has been asked many, many times,bear with me ,before I start googling I'd rather have our real riders comments.

I'm no speed merchant, still overweight and at 60+ I now enjoy toodling around our traffic free cycle tracks,taking it slightly more easy, there's a few inclines, but no decent hills. I doubt if I'll venture on the road with it, I'll stick to using my other bikes for that.

The question is what should I go for, Delta or Tadpole and any other recommendations would help.

Also short wheel base would be needed as I've downsized to a very small estate.

Thanks.

 

[arallsopp]

Tadpole seems to be more common. Having a single drive wheel makes things simple, certainly. You might find it easier to enter/exit a tadpole, however, as there's no cross member to negotiate.

Sure many will be along shortly with conflicting / additional advice.

 

[FrankCrank]

...I'm a homebuilder of two tadpoles, but no experience of a delta. My routes sound similar to yours - tracks and a few roads with little traffic. Here it's flatland area, three-speed hub gears are ample, as is a coaster brake. Makes building easy, straight chain-lines and no idlers......apart from me of course
I've heard deltas can feel tippy at high cornering speeds, but if plodding I expect they behave well. Might make one some day.
I also have a homemade LWB, and use this more than the trike right now, maybe just cos it's the new toy, but both are heaps of fun.........

 

[Salar]

Thanks Frank.

I've quite a few hills around here, but I'll be sticking to the less hilly routes, hub gears sounds interesting.

I should have kept my old Raleigh Twenty and RSW16 which had hub gears and a coaster brake on the 16.

 

[starhawk]

The tadpole are more stable cornering and have a standard set up in the rear, the delta have potentially a tighter turning circle but if you have front driving you wouldn't be able to exploit that, driving the two rear wheels calls for a more complex out of the standard assortment of parts for the driveline. For my part I have also chosen the tadpole because it looks better, no delta has ever caught my eyes

 

[voyager]

@Salar

Hi There

Having built several tadpoles , a hammerhead and a quad - and started a few threads here on Cycle Chat . tadpoles are relatively easy to build
the worse bit is the centre point steering angles but I have that down to a fine art now - I can build a trike in about 3 weeks of 15 hours a week ride it for a couple of weeks - then strip - paint- upholster and reassemble a final week .

These were built to use on holiday
https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/building-a-couple-of-20-wheel-tadpole-e-trike-from-scratch.166210/

but they have become our Weekend , Holiday , and Shopping commute trikes .
One fits in the boot with room to spare in my Mondeo estate and the other comes on holiday with us on the roof rack
our combined age is a little over 125 years and we are having fun with the electric assist trikes - more so when you can slide past a mamil that is suffering on a hill - Trikes generally are slower on a hill but great fun on the flat and down hill

The smaller ( 20" all round ) wheels make the trike much smaller but the overhead is the 11-28 freewheel necessary to get the gearing back into the use able range .of 20-86" for general use .

Take a look at atomic zombie for a range of trike plans and register with the forum - The news letters have a few of my homebuilts featured in them

including

http://www.atomiczombie.com/newsletters/2015/Dec 08/AtomicZombie Newsletter - December 08 2015.aspx

a trike built from the remains of a child gate and a couple of mtb frames

Hope this helps - PM me for a chat

Neil a Zombie is from Wales and has built a warrior .

Mine are all variants of the street fox with disc brakes ( a necessity ) and Under Seat Steering ( a nicety not found on some cheaper manufactured trikes )

This is taken on the local under cliff walk half way between home and Brighton
Photo shows the 20/20 e-trikes fitted with q100 motors and 36v lithium battery packs

regards emma

 

[voyager]

Here is another I completed earlier

ready for a shakedown , stripdown , spray and upholster






tadpole

 

[Salar]

Hi emma,

Some really nice builds there, many thanks for the information, pm sent.

 

[voyager]

@Salar

May I suggest on your next rides you take a tape measure with you and check the access widths
That will dictate the width of the trike and the length could be as little as 59" - a 39" wheelbase and 20" wheels IF you build with a folding nose boom - for simplicity go for a 11-32 7 speed DNP freewheel and 44 T single front chainset will give adequate gears unless you go like us for a 48-38-28 triple .

Weight wise a q100 36v 9ah converted streetfox (20/20 wheeled version ) will weigh about 80lbs ( range about 16 miles )
my Big trike the voyager ( avatar ) weighs about 100lb with a xiongda 2 speed e-hub and twin 10ah lifePo4 battery packs ( range 45+ )
but it is MUCH bigger and wont fit your limitations and build criteria -

also see Sandmans "electric tourer " for his approach on an electric folding trike - build has a thread on AZ

personally I would fit disc brakes and USS to a streetfox and build like me with a straight cross boom to get the wheelbase down to 40"


regards emma