recumbent trike build

[stuee147]

I remember as a kid removing all the cogs and spacers off a freewheel and then reassembling them on another working freewheel. Maybe have a go taking your old 7 speed cogs and moving them onto one of your other working ones that you have in the shed.

i was thinking the same the bloke at the nike shop asked if i wanted the old one and i took it, i thought i could at least take it apart so i can work out how it works and get a better understanding of a free wheel, weather or not i get it back together is another thing but im sure i will get it apart lol

 

[stuee147]

well heres a little up date i was finding the 6 speed freewheel although works well i just couldn't get used to the gearing, and hills i was able to get up with the old 7speed i was really struggling with the 6 speed. so i had a look on ebay for a 7 speed like the one i had but then i saw megarange freewheels and yes you guessed it.
today the postie arrived with a few parcels for me. and so iv been fitting the new parts
first the new freewheel

on the left the 6 speed freewheel i took off and on the right the new megarange 14/34 7 speed freewheel

then i also got some new fancy dust caps for the front wheels

cant beat a bit of bling on the wheels lol and talking of bling wait till you see my new mirrors

view from seated position

view from infront

yes they are skeleton hands holding the mirrors i just couldn't resist and when i finally get round to paint the chrome will look great

and this is how it looks so far lol

iv not had chance to give the new freewheel a test on the hills yet but its working great around the garden so im looking forward to getting out soon and testing it

 

[roadrash]

looks fantastic...,brilliant ,well done , i envy your skills.

 

[davefb]

*wow*

 

[Scoosh]

It's going to be so heavy, you'll have to have that electric assist !

 

[classic33]

It's going to be so heavy, you'll have to have that electric assist !

Wonder what it actually weighs?

 

[starhawk]

Isn't those mirror to close? I initially placed my Mirrycle mirror on the steering lever but could only see a small part of the road behind me, mostly I saw my own arm. I had to buy an extra arm to the mirror to get it out so I could see the road only and not my arm. Now I have fitted Bar ends to the steering levers and placed the mirrors on the ends which works excellent. Would love to have your skeleton arms though

 

[stuee147]

QUOTE="classic33, post: 3183762, member: 299"]Wonder what it actually weighs?[/QUOTE]
Im not sure of the weight I'll have
To try and get some scales to weigh it but iI dontdon't think its to bad I can lift the front and back one handed quite easy.

Isn't those mirror to close? I initially placed my Mirrycle mirror on the steering lever but could only see a small part of the road behind me, mostly I saw my own arm. I had to buy an extra arm to the mirror to get it out so I could see the road only and not my arm. Now I have fitted Bar ends to the steering levers and placed the mirrors on the ends which works excellent. Would love to have your skeleton arms though

There quite good believe it or not bad there I had the same problem with the mirrors on the handlebars where most of the mirror was just looking at my arm. But where they are now right out in front like that I get a great view behind me and best of all I can still see directly behind me as I'm turning rather than looking off to the sides. Also with the mirrors out front like that it makes it easier to look at them as there sort of in my view if you know what I mean. Its a bit like the old cars with the wing mirrors out front on the wings rather than on the doors.

 

[fixedfixer]

I really like the mirrors. Very rock n roll Stuee .

 

[stuee147]

I really like the mirrors. Very rock n roll Stuee .

iv had 3 different types of cycle mirror ranging from cheapies off ebay to around £15 a pair and to be honest i found all of them suffered from a bit of vibration and movement as i rode so i decided to go for motorbike mirrors and so far they are nice and solid and clear even over rough ground and they were only £7.99 off ebay lol
i was looking at flame shaped mirrors they look great but they didn't look that practical with the shape of the glass.
iv already ordered a second set of the mirrors but this time in matt black and they are for MK1

 

[starhawk]

best of all I can still see directly behind me as I'm turning rather than looking off to the sides.

I imagine that could be a problem with direct-steering levers as your bike, but I have indirect steering levers so there is no twisting of the handles to consider

 

[stuee147]

I imagine that could be a problem with direct-steering levers as your bike, but I have indirect steering levers so there is no twisting of the handles to consider

your lucky thats one thing i don't like about direct steering is that anything fixed to the handlebars twists around out of eye line when turning, but i do like the feel of the road you get with the direct steering and that makes up for its down falls for me any way

well here is another update iv been out and given the new megarange freewheel a bit of a try, iv not had chance to try it on the bigger hills but so far im liking what i have the hills iv tried so far have been so easy a couple i have had the chain on the middle cog at the front it was just to easy in 1st gear lol im now looking at maybe changing the ratio on the front set now but ill see lol.
other news i got some new gear leavers i love the friction leavers i had but i was finding it hard to use the front leaver, so i decided i would invest in a set of rapid fire trigger shifters my only concern was my very pore history of setting up indexing gears, but i thought i would give it a try and just took it slow one step at a time and it seems to have worked quite well the front derailleur was the hardest and im not completely happy with it now, i can change up with no problems but coming down it wont switch from 3rd to 2nd i either have to give it a little nudge with my heel or go straight down to 1st then back up to 2nd, if i adjust the setting screws so it will switch from 3rd to 2nd it then wont shift up from 2nd to 3rd. so iv gone for the best setting i can, i think its due to the indexing gear leaver and the derailleur are both shimano but the front cogs arnt and i think the spacing is wrong for the indexing thats why im looking at maybe a new crank set. anyway it perfectly rideable just fiddly changing down on the front set but i can live with it for now.
iv also added the solar booster system to my electrics and it works great iv not fitted the solar cell anywhere yet iv got it so it straps onto the rack at the back at the moment as iv been looking at semi flexible solar cells im thinking of glueing of fixing them to the top of the panniers but ill see i may get another idea yet lol

oh and iv ordered a set of bathroom scales so i can weigh both mk1 and mk2 so come on place your bets now for the weights of each trike. the winner gets a gold star lol im not going to put my guesses up as iv got a fare idea of weight as iv picked them up lol but i will say mk1 fells a lot heavier than mk2 even without all the extras thats on mk2 at least it feels it to me i may just be able to find the balance better with mk2 lol

 

[stuee147]

well i never i got the scales today and i think they are faulty lol my guesstimate of MK1 being heavier than MK2 was way out lol, but in my defence when i weighed MK1 it looks like this

as you can see iv taken the panniers off and apart from the small frame pouch which is empty its just the bear bones of the trike and it came in at what i think is quite a reasonable 20kg dead on

now we get to MK2 i left the panniers on and decided that i couldn't be bothered to take stuff out but theres only a few bits in them maybe 2kg at most. then there is my 3ltr bladder pack on the back rack thats full so there is another 3kg then my tools under the seat probably another 2 to 3 kgs so by my reckoning iv got around 7kg ish of extra weight. the total weight of the trike with all the electronics solar cells 6v battery ect came to 38kg so i would say the basic bike with all the electronics panniers solar cells ect would be about 31kg.

i haven't taken a pic of MK2 in all its glory yet today but i have got a couple of pics of some fettling iv been doing this morning.
iv altered the seat (yes again lol) iv changed the back of the seat for a semi ridged back with a thin layer of foam and a waterproof cover and iv re covered the bottom of the seat to match

iv also changed the handlebars (yes i know again iv had more handlebar setups than hot dinners lol) i got some nice ally butterfly bars i love the curves and i like the angles it makes for a more comfy position and i think looks quite cool

iv also moved my skeleton hand mirrors back down onto the handle bars. i loved them out front and i think they looked great out front but i would when the sun was low and behind me i got some glare from them and although iv not tried it i could see me getting blinded at night from the cars behind so moving them to the handlebars takes the glare off my eyes a bit, but you never know where they might end up or maybe if i fitted a small camera to the back with a lcd screen on the handlebars i wouldn't need mirrors any more and a dvd player fitted in the panniers and wired to the screen now theres a plan the A team would be proud of lol. as long as im not riding and forget im watching a film i would think theres allsorts following me lol

 

[classic33]

your lucky thats one thing i don't like about direct steering is that anything fixed to the handlebars twists around out of eye line when turning, but i do like the feel of the road you get with the direct steering and that makes up for its down falls for me any way

well here is another update iv been out and given the new megarange freewheel a bit of a try, iv not had chance to try it on the bigger hills but so far im liking what i have the hills iv tried so far have been so easy a couple i have had the chain on the middle cog at the front it was just to easy in 1st gear lol im now looking at maybe changing the ratio on the front set now but ill see lol.
other news i got some new gear leavers i love the friction leavers i had but i was finding it hard to use the front leaver, so i decided i would invest in a set of rapid fire trigger shifters my only concern was my very pore history of setting up indexing gears, but i thought i would give it a try and just took it slow one step at a time and it seems to have worked quite well the front derailleur was the hardest and im not completely happy with it now, i can change up with no problems but coming down it wont switch from 3rd to 2nd i either have to give it a little nudge with my heel or go straight down to 1st then back up to 2nd, if i adjust the setting screws so it will switch from 3rd to 2nd it then wont shift up from 2nd to 3rd. so iv gone for the best setting i can, i think its due to the indexing gear leaver and the derailleur are both shimano but the front cogs arnt and i think the spacing is wrong for the indexing thats why im looking at maybe a new crank set. anyway it perfectly rideable just fiddly changing down on the front set but i can live with it for now.
iv also added the solar booster system to my electrics and it works great iv not fitted the solar cell anywhere yet iv got it so it straps onto the rack at the back at the moment as iv been looking at semi flexible solar cells im thinking of glueing of fixing them to the top of the panniers but ill see i may get another idea yet lol

oh and iv ordered a set of bathroom scales so i can weigh both mk1 and mk2 so come on place your bets now for the weights of each trike. the winner gets a gold star lol im not going to put my guesses up as iv got a fare idea of weight as iv picked them up lol but i will say mk1 fells a lot heavier than mk2 even without all the extras thats on mk2 at least it feels it to me i may just be able to find the balance better with mk2 lol

MkII: 31.5Kg(All in weight)
MkI: 27Kg

 

[fixedfixer]

Most shop bought trikes seem to be 18 / 19 kg so your mk1 is very good. I'd say lighter wheels and components would get you down to similar weight. But compare the cost of your homebuilt to the shop bikes and those extra kg's look very cheap. Mk2 is so individual that its not really appropriate to compare weights.
Both your bikes are looking very good.