Sept 7 2006

      So far, the frame looks like this.  It's the same twin rail style I've been building, but it uses the beefier 1¼" tube instead of the normal 1" I use.  The dimensions were modified slightly to use a 20" rear wheel instead of a 24" or 26" rear wheel that I normally use.  I also used a 14mm, 48 spoke rear wheel so that all three wheels would match.  This meant that on the freewheel side, I had to grind down the bearing cone and the jam nut a little so they would fit down inside the freewheel body without hitting it.  I also used 3/16" thick steel for the dropouts instead of the normal 1/8" because the 14mm axle slot was so big compared to a normal 3/8" axle.

     The seat frame is the standard design I've used for a while now using 1" EMT.  I'll likely switch to plain 1" steel tubing with .064" wall as it means I won't need to remove galvanized coatings anymore.  The seat rails have about 9" of adjustment fore and aft with ¾" hole spacing.  To try to make my trikes a little more compact, I decided to try something a little different with the boom.  Another home builder took my frame design and used a bike rear end bolted to the front of the crossmember instead of making a boom like mine.  I liked it because it looked like the boom would fold back, so I made a similar style for this one using ½" x .064" box steel.  The two upper boom arms are bolted to tabs on the front of the cross member and the single lower boom arm will be fastened at the bottom between two tabs using a Q/R skewer.  When required, remove the skewer, and the boom/BB will pivot up, back and down onto the seat to reduce the overall length by almost 18".  It'll be reinforced a little more than it is at this stage, so I think it'll be strong enough.  With the boom folded and the wheels popped off (a 60 second job), the trike should be small enough to fit in the trunk of a car.  I'll have definite measurements once the boom and seat are done.

     The rear derailleur tab, seat brackets, brake mounts and rear tabs are fabricated, they just need to be welded on and a little profiling on the welding beads.  Then the steering can be finished and the chainline run.  Hopefully most of it will be done by the end of the weekend.

26 Sept 2006

     Slowly making headway.  Chain was run, pulleys and lower chain tube installed, cable guides and stops for the rear derailleur were welded on and the handle bars installed.  To the right is a close-up of the boom hinges.  The black quick release at the bottom is removed to allow the boom to swing up and have the chain rings sit in the seat.  The chain goes slack, but I'm not going to worry about some kind of take-up rig for the chain because it would need to be folded fairly often to make the weight and complexity worth the while.

     Folding the boom back really shortens the trike by taking 13" off the length and by removing the trike's wheels, it takes another 21" off the length for a final number of 41" long.  That's short enough to fit in the trunk of a car with 21" wide by 41" long by 20" high.  Also, so far, the boom has no problem with bounce or yaw, but I'll see how it reacts to twisting from pedalling.  If it turns out to be too light, I can always replace it with a ¾" box tube version and it'll still fit the same hinge points.  My daughter and I stood on the frame rails to "test" it, and with a combined weight around the 350lb mark (I'm about 210lbs of that . . . :)) it held us with no problem and there was no rail flexing, so I'm pretty happy about that.  I wouldn't dare such a thing with the 1" box tube.

     Next, weld the front derailleur post, a couple more cable stops, a flag tube and two or three more tabs, mock it up for a test ride, and she's ready to go to powder coating.

30 Sept 2006

     Well, I've been slowly plugging away at it each night, save for 1, and it's pretty much done.  I got it all mocked-up last night for its first test drive but I only used my aluminum mock-up bushings instead of the real Delrin ones.  The reason for that is I found that pressing the bushings in and out during various stages in the building process invariably loosens them up a little in the king-pin housings and causes a little slop when the trike is finished.  To avoid that, I made up some aluminum copies that have a 1" x 1/8" flange with a ¾" OD body and a ½" hole drilled up the middle.  I also made them about 2" long and slightly under 3/4" OD so they go in and out of the king pin housings by hand but are tight enough to give fairly accurate and tight pivots so I can set up the direct steering and proper tie-rod length.

     Anyway, I took the trike for a little ride and it rolled really well, and had no nasty noises or bad habits/idiosynchrasies.  I think I've mentioned it before, but I always look forward to the first official test drive so I can see what kind of personality each new bent has.  The trike has very nimble steering, a seemingly very tight turning radius and pedals very easy even though I only had about 30 psi in the 65 psi tires.  There was no boom bounce, no boom yaw, no pedal steer and only slight boom roll when I was pushing a big gear.  Boom weakness was a big worry for me due to the different design and lighter construction.  It shifted easily and crisply front and rear, and I managed to get the seat angle set so that it is comfortably laid back and only about ½" in front of the rear tire.  Too many times, I built the trike to the length that I thought it needed to be with a laid back seat (45º or lower) only to find that once the seat was where I wanted it, I had lots of room between the seat back and the rear wheel.  This trike has no wasted space like that but unfortunately, it still ended up weighing in at about the same as the other trikes I've made :)  I guess the 42 lb range is pretty much the limit for the type of steel I use.  Part of the issue, I think, is the 48 spoke BMX rear wheel, and the thick and fat Kenda tires.  The wheel is pretty heavy compared to the lighter 26" wheels I've used in the past, but at the very least, it is much stronger than my other trikes but no heavier.  I also tried folding the boom and found that there were no cable or chain snags, and that the folding action didn't instigate any unintended gear changes at the front.  The only drawback is that the chain goes a little slack as you can see in the picture.  Can't win 'em all :)  Folding the boom back into place was equally easy and the chain dropped right into the guide pulley groove on it's own, the chain placement on the chainwheel was bang on, and you could immediately ride it away.

  While I have the flag tube, a small bracket to support the lower chain tube and the bidon mount to install yet, they're all cut out and ready but since the trike is fully assembled I thought I'd take the opportunity to get the child seat mounts squared away.  With all the parts present, I wanted to make sure there were no interference issues before I painted or powder coated any pieces.  The child seat was the same one I used with my little guy on the Battleship and as he's riding a little trike and a two-wheeler now, I'm making the seat so it can mount on the trike for my brother's little girl.  The front adapter is made out of dual ½" box tube and attached down on the seat mount flanges that are welded to the frame.  The flanges I added at the back of the chain stays have the rear seat mount adapters bolted to them.  By removing 1 quick release and two wing-nut bolts, the child seat and the adapters lift right off in under 1 minute.  I have a carbon fiber fender that a friend of mine (Larry ) made for me, so I'll use it for a rear fender and extra protection for the baby to keep her feet away from both the spokes and the tire.

     Tomorrow I weld the last three pieces on first thing, and then I'll use some 1" x 3/16" AL flat stock to make the fender mounting brackets and the fender guard.  After that, I'll do a quick wire wheel pass on the frame to prep it for powder coating on Monday.

5 Oct 2006

     The trike went out to powder coating Tuesday morning, it was done and picked up before supper, and it was assembled by 10 PM. As a painter, I really love powder coating.  There's no way, with my resources and budget, that I could hit the frame with a durable and tough top-coat and have it dry and assembled the same day.

     Anyway, the bare frame as pictured is everything required except for the bike parts.  It weighs 23 lbs.  Heavy I guess, but for an inexpensive steel frame, once assembled, the trike really moves along nicely.

     The trike is fully assembled with basic bike parts - nothing fancy or expensive.  Basic 14mm BMX wheels front and rear, 8 speed freewheel, basic twist shifters and derailleurs, threadless BB and $15 48/38/28 steel 152mm cranks, and some strong BMX side pull calipers and levers.  The only really expensive components are the platform/SPD Wellgo pedals.  It was slightly overcast and gloomy so the flash on the camera made the blue tires look a little weird.  Even though there's a bit of tread on the Kenda tires and they're only rated at 65 psi, the trike rolls very well and is fast and stable.  With some Schwalbe Stelvios or Marathons, it'll really fly.

     You might be wondering what's up with the funky rear fender.  Well, I added extra tabs to the rear end to be able to mount a childs' bike seat, and the funky holed panels in the fender mounts also act as foot guards, as does the fender.  The carbon fibre fender is the same style as used on my Speed and was built by Larry.  The fender is very strong and very stiff and matches the trike very well, I think.  To make sure the fender minimized spray coming up off the rear tire, I added a piece of anti-freeze jug, that I sprayed flat black, to act as a flexible mud flap.  The fender supports are hardware store variety 1" x 1/8" AL, formed around an old piece of swing set leg, and drilled with 3/8" holes to lighten them slightly and spruce them up a bit, and the drilled side panels were made out of a few scrap pieces of .032" 2024 with ¾" holes drilled in them and rivetted to the fender supports..

     So my new neice can enjoy the trike too, until she's old enough to ride her own or ride in a trailer, I refinished the child seat frame and mounted it up.  The close up shows the two 3/8" bolts and wing nuts for the rear mounts, and the quick release for the front support is down just behind the seat support mount on the frame.

     Overall, I'm very happy with the trike.   The frame feels much more stiff than the 1" frame, it feels nice and tight, tracks straight and true and the chain line runs very smooth.  My brother also said he really liked it once he finally came back from the test ride and caught his breath :)  The only unknown is how the boom will react to long term pedalling stresses.  If it does fail or get twisted badly, I'll just remake it out of ¾" box and then it'll be bulletproof, and the extra weight will be negligible.

     Only things to add for later are things like a speedo, rear view mirror, lights, a flag and maybe some front fenders.

20 Oct 2006

     The trike handled very well at the velodrome races and was actually faster and easier to control than my Catrike Speed.  Due to the slightly wider frame, the seat mesh was a little too wide and didn't tighten the way I'd like, so I made a new yellow mesh that was slightly narrower, and it now tightens correctly.  Also, I put 3 new Schwalbe Stelvios on it and it is even faster and smoother than with the Kendas due to the very smooth tread pattern on the Stelvios.  The thing I was concerned about was whether the 30mm rims would be too wide for the narrow Stelvios, but they fit fine.  There is also tons of side clearance with the rear tire now, so the rear fender can go back on with no fear of rubbing on hard corners.  Last thing to do is mod the rear rack, and it's done.

20 Dec 2006

     I wasn't entirely happy with the original boom I made out of ½" box.  It had more twist than I liked so I made another one out of two ¾" box sections on top to replace the original ½" ones.  I left the bottom piece at ½" and thought I'd see if it was stiff enough.  If it was, it would be a little lighter than the ¾" version, and if it was still too weak, I could always build a third with all three tubes being ¾".

     The top one compares the old on the right and the new on the left.  The bottom picture has the new boom on the trike.  The upside is that it was also a prime opportunity to try out the new boom jig.  So the new boom is on, and the trike is done excpet for modifying a bike rack once commuting weather hits.

07 Feb 2007

     The plan was to take the trike down to the Brantford ice races, so we needed to make some skate blade adapters, and a dual brake assembly that could quickly bolt to the rear end to provide rear wheel braking.  The blade adapters were made from 1" box tube and some ½" box tube, and the rear brake mount was made out of ½" box steel.  Both assemblies simply bolt on after the rear fender is removed and the front wheels and brake calipers were taken off.

     The new boom worked great, so there's no need to use ¾" square tube on all three boom tubes.  The traction was great, but I totally missed the boat with the blades.  The blade pivot was mounted too far to the rear, and I think the blades might be too short as well.  The result was it was a bear to steer smoothly, it chattered on the turns, and too much weight was on too small a blade area, so it wasn't fast.  The brakes worked well enough though.  So, as the Toronto ice races are coming up, I'm making some new blades that will mount further to the rear and properly (I hope) distribute the weight, and then we'll see how it runs.

10 Feb 2007

     I kept the old blade adapters, but just changed out the blades and made new ones out of 1/8" mild steel instead. I offset the mounting holes this time so the weight sits more in the middle of the blade and it steers much better.  It's smoother, and a little faster, but in the end, its forte is tires and the street.  It'll still be fine for lower speeds and maneuvering or endurance events like the slalom or lap races, but high speed cornering on ice sets up too much vibration and chattering from the high lateral forces.

     It's been converte back to tires and hopefully nature will cooperate and let us get back to riding early this year.

26 June 2007

     In preparation for the Ride for Heart '07 in Toronto, I wanted to put a rack and bags on the trike.  Both had been in my garage since building the trike but time and necessity were not big motivating factors until the ride approached.  We were doing 75km and I wanted to make sure tools, some food, drinks, some place to carry clothing, etc was taken care of prior to the ride because I didn't want to have to lug all that in my tailbox. :)

     The rack was from Canadian Tire and had an aluminum deck with steel legs rivetted on.  The steel legs were the bonus because all I had to do was use a piece of angle iron for the front mounting tab and then set the angle for the rack's deck.  After that, I measured how long the steel legs were, cut out the excess and weld them back together, shoot the paint, and bolt them on.  The rack is essentially mounted to the fender and fender stays because the combination of the 4 aluminum fenders stays plus the CF fender is more than strong enough to support the front end of the rack while the two steel legs support the rear.  A little flat black paint and she's good to go.