recumbent trike build

[classic33]

I'd be more inclined to work at the ends, rather than introduce a possible weak spot, on the front arms.

 

[fixedfixer]

04.07 ! I take it you are on nights this week Classic33. Good advice, I think I'd work from an end too. Also going to look better in long run.

 

[classic33]

04.07 ! I take it you are on nights this week Classic33. Good advice, I think I'd work from an end too. Also going to look better in long run.

Just awake!
As in not gone/got to sleep yet

 

[stuee147]

I'd be more inclined to work at the ends, rather than introduce a possible weak spot, on the front arms.

yea i know what you mean i was just sort of thinking of if i could do it without having to redo all the angels for the steering again, its just me trying to be lazy lol. i was thinking of either sleeving the joint and welding at both ends of the sleeve or i did think of using a couple of bits of 6mm plate that i have and making some form of design with them say like a lightning bolt around 6" long and bridging the joint with that on 2 or 3 sides of the box so it strengthens the joint and when painted up (poss in black with frame red) it will give a feature that makes it stand out more.
to be honest i dont think i would be saving any time doing shortening at the ends or in the middle of the arms its just them angles and getting the wheels set right. i have been thinking of doing the adjustments in the middle of the arms just grind the weld off that holds it to the main boom and cut the joint in the 2 sides and shorten then reweld but i think it could be more hassle doing it that way. at the moment i cant do anything as im waiting on some new cutting disks, i was hopeing they would be here yesterday but they never arrived so fingers crossed for today although it raining so i dont think ill be cutting and welding anything in this, iv had a joult of 3 from welders in the past and id rather not try it again lol

yesterday i got the seat finished and put a temp cover on it to test and it works great the back is a bit high so ill probably cut it down a bit. i also got the main bed of the pannier rack fitted and iv sat on the back of it with no problems and i still had about 1/4 inch clearance on the rear wheel even with 17 stone sat on the back lol but yet again im stuck i cant do the rest of the rack until the round bar arrives. i also spent a bit of time just going around every bolt and nut checking they were tight and trimming down some of the bolts.
here is a few pics so far

setting up the rack

i used a piece of 40mm box section as a spacer on the rear wheel and i remembered to cover the rear wheel and bits with a fire retardant cloth so when i welded i didnt damage the tier (yes i have done it before )

all done and roughly ground down

im quite pleased with how its coming. but i do think the back of the seat needs to be a bit shorter it just looks to big, what dose everyone else think ??

stuee

 

[fixedfixer]

Looks a bit high but if it is comfy why worry. Looking nice and the custom pannier rack sounds like a good idea.

 

[ufkacbln]

As always, fine workmanship and a potential fun trike

My only concern would be that few panniers would fit this rack, and there is nothing to prevent the pannier snagging on gears and wheel

 

[fixedfixer]

I think he is going to add some round bar to the rack - stuee would seem to have thought this one through. Agree great workmanship. No doubt it will be red tractor paint too which looks great.

 

[stuee147]

As always, fine workmanship and a potential fun trike

My only concern would be that few panniers would fit this rack, and there is nothing to prevent the pannier snagging on gears and wheel

i have some round bar that has arrived today and im going to use the shop brought rack on MK1 as a guide to bend the round bar then weld it onto the sides of the rack the top of the rack that i have made already is the same width as the other rack but i have made it a little longer than standard.

I think he is going to add some round bar to the rack - stuee would seem to have thought this one through. Agree great workmanship. No doubt it will be red tractor paint too which looks great.

yes how did you guess it was going to be tractor red but im going to be doing some bits in black this time rather than all in red lol

stuee

 

[stuee147]

well i got the seat back has been cut down now i took off about 5" and it looks a lot better and its still comfey and i spent a few hours yesterday cutting and welding the front end to shorten the wheel track by 3" and its worked lovely i can now fit threw the side gate which is always handy lol
i took my time and spent a lot of time making sure i had all the angles right and everything in line once i had it all welded up i started to refit the handlebars and the brakes then i fitted the right hand side of the track rod then i went to the left hand side and wondered why it wouldn't fit then i realised i needed to cut the track rod down by 3" to match the wheel track. so out came the welder and grinder again. and that was sorted in about 5 mins lol
iv also welded end caps on the box section.
iv also started on the seat cover as the trampoline mat has arrived so im in the proses of fitting eyelets along either side.

i went for a test ride yesterday and the steering is a lot nicer no wobble no shakes all the gears work and shift quite nicely the suspension works great its a lot smother ride than MK1 and it seems a lot faster i clocked 27mph as i passed a bus at the stop up the road lol

ill hopefully finish the seat cover today and ill try and get some pics.

stuee

 

[stuee147]

well today has been quite a productive day with only one mishap (i must be getting better lol )
here is some pics

i started off with the back end i needed to cap the box section off so

i made up a plate that once welded onto the back of the rack will close the box section off and give me fixing holes for my rear light, 2 birds with one stone sort of thing i must be getting clever in my old age lol

all fitted and roughly ground down

then what i think is an ingenious seat adjustment system

i used the seat stem and the quick realise thinggy it took me a while to find the right angels so the seat stem would slide smoothly

i also got the seat covers sorted and they work great

i then finished off the rear rack and primed it

its looking good



stuee

 

[stuee147]

i then had a mishap i went out for a test run and coming down the hill i decided to test my brakes with an emergency stop (i had already checked there was no other vehicles or anything )
all was going great i checked the speedometer and it was reading 26 mph so quick double check in my mirrors and ahead and all was clear. i slammed on the brakes hard. as if i was doing an emergency stop and POP the hard plastic brackets i had made for the duel brake leaver broke. luckily the rear break worked fine so i was able to stop ok lol

so i had a think and a look in my bits box for something stronger and i came up with some 6mm plate steel

something tells me that the brackets are not going to brake this time no matter how hard i break lol

iv also had a play about with the handle bars trying a few different angles and shapes and have found ones that seem to work and are comfortable but only time will tell how they will be on a longer ride

i also had a play about with some scrap tubing and have come up with a nifty way to cap off the top of the tubing on the bottom bracket and at the same time gives me a handy mount for speedometer and headlight

and iv tested it and there is no way i can catch my foot or leg as im riding

and after moving the safety flag i tried out my panniers on the rack and have a bit of a ride.

im very happy with the way its going so far everything is working out well.
im just playing about with cable runs and setting bits up how i like it. and of course taking every opportunity to go for a run up the road i can. honestly i need to go on a test ride to make sure the battery's in the lights are working lol
but soon and im hoping to do it sometime next week ill be dismantling it all doing some sanding and grinding of the welds and if need some touching up of the welds then prime and paint

stuee

 

[stuee147]

iv not got much done on the trike iv had a few days where i wasn't able to get myself out and do anything typically it was some of the hottest and nicest days weather wise and when i was ok to get out and do things it was poring down with rain

but i got myself out the past couple of days and iv spent most of the time fettlelin and adjusting things for a more comfy ride.

iv given all the welds a bit of a grind down and clean up, then iv given all the frame a quick coating of red oxide primer, and before i welded up the ends of the frames i gave it a good spray of red oxide inside the tubes,

sorry the pics arnt as good as normal, iv got a new phone which is great but the camera is not as good a quality as the old phone but then i got it for a phone not for the camera.
the trike has been working great i did a few test runs yesterday and it was running well my fastest speed according to my gps was 29.6 mph it was on a steep down hill. i didnt go far on my rides it was more just testing i started off with some small hills and a few twisty little roads to test the steering and all was fine so i went for the bigger hills i got up the largest and steepest hill i know of around me. its not a long hill only about 400yrds but its steep most folk that walk up the hill stop half way or if there fit they stop for breath at the top. when i came down the hill after i had cycled to the top i didnt pedal yet still clocked 29.6 mph just rolling down the hill.
and everything is working fine i got up the hills and round all the corners and i could even stop which is always good lol.
the only things i need to adjust is the seat base i gave it some slack thinking it would be a bit more comfy but i think its to much slack as i can feel the side bars now, but i shouldn't take long just to tighten the straps.
the only other thing i had a slight problem was the chain. i found 2 minor problems with the chain.
firstly you can see in the pics i left the axle in the bottom bracket just infront of the rear wheel. the reasons i left the axle in was i found the top chain line when the chain is slack was hitting on the rear fork arms, when i pedal the top of the chain is tight and the line of the chain is fine missing everything with plenty of clearance. i also found that when i went fast and pedalled the chain would sometimes jump a bit and a couple of times i found it had somehow got caught under the bottom bracket axle.
i did consider removing the axle from the bottom bracket but that would mean the chain would rub quite badly on the rear forks, so iv been thinking of a guide wheel instead of just an axle. im not sure how im going to do it yet, i have a few ideas, like using a spare skate wheel i have and i was thinking of removing the 8mm bearings and drilling out the centre so it would fit onto the square axle, the other idea which i think will look better is if i get an old triple crank set and cut the pedals off and the middle and larger gear just leaving the smallest and have the upper (power side ) of the chain run over that as a guide i think the toothed gear would hold the chain better and prevent it slapping the frame.
the only other problem i have is sometimes when im really powering into the pedals i get a slight slip or jump on the chain, im not sure why yet but i do have an idea, i noticed that when turning a sharp left the cable from the gear leaver to the rear wheel would pull slightly not enough to affect the steering in fact i didnt even notice it pulling i just noticed that the gear leaver twisted round the handlebars now and then and it was only by watching it as i was steering that i noticed it pulling. so im thinking that the tension of the cable when i turn must be why now and then the chain slips slightly. so when i can im going to change the outer cable. i have plenty of outer casing and i brought all new cables which i have used but iv not cut down yet so its not that hard to lengthen it. iv learnt from experience that you never cut the cables down until you have a finished bike. while im still adjusting cable runs and bits i want to be able to change things so if i had cut the extra 2ft off the cable id be stuck now lol.

stuee

 

[stuee147]

well iv started the paint iv done the black bits lol and its come out really nice

as you can see it was a bit wet here yesterday so i only rebuilt the left side,

also i have a confession the last pics i put up i was a little disappointed with the quality of the pics and just thought it was the camera on my new phone, but when i was doing these pics yesterday i went to wipe the camera and noticed it had one of them silly thin bits of protective film over it like most screens come with now so i pulled it off and wow what a difference its only taken me about 4 days to notice it i wonder what else iv missed lol

stuee

 

[fixedfixer]

Ha ha. Yep photos looking better. I like the red / black scheme (which tractors are black then ?).
Good work as always. You're getting on well with this one.

 

[Dogtrousers]

i then had a mishap i went out for a test run and coming down the hill i decided to test my brakes ... i slammed on the brakes hard. as if i was doing an emergency stop and POP the hard plastic brackets i had made for the duel brake leaver broke.

That's not a mishap! That's a successful test! Problem located and can be resolved.

Lovin' the thread. Keep 'em coming.