Amberwolf's Delta Trike Build v1.0 (The Delta Tripper)

[amberwolf]

They do! :lol: The first week's mileage should pay for all the dog food I have been buying up on clearance the last month or so, whcih itself should last me several months. The second week's mileage should pay for whatever clearance dog food I manage to get from *this* store's remodel sales.

Buuut...I am probably gonna need to buy some new tires and tubes soon. Remember Crazybike2's sidewall/bead separation? Well, I had something similar today, on the way home, on Delta Tripper.


The front 20" tire, which has that airless tube in it, has been feeling squishier and squishier, for no reason I could figure out. Today, an odd noise began, but I couldn't figure out which wheel it was coming from--it was obviously a wheel, from it's changing repetition rate with my speed, but it sounded like one of the back tires or even the trailer--yet it was the front.

About halfway home, just after I crossed over from the north to the center path of Thunderbird Paseo park's canal paths, the front wheel got wigglier than usual, as if I'd broken a bunch of spokes--but when I looked, I coudl see nothing wrong. I manually rolled the wheel on the ground and could *hear* a squishy patch and a bump, but couldn't tell what it was, and seeing as I didn't have a spare (who needs a spare for what amounts to a solid tire? ), I just slowed to 10MPH and went on.

But it got worse, and worse, and worse, over a few hundred yards, until I could SEE the tire looking like it was coming off the rim.

I stopped, and got off and looked at the wheel, finding the bead popped out of the rim and the wire of the bead actually coming out of the tire rubber and weave. Great...still almost 6 miles from home (though almost all canal path). I thought maybe if I just crawled the trike at walking speed....nope--the "tube" was getting squished out the side, and was just gonna com eoff the rim, and probably land me and the trike and trailer in the canal or worse.

So I sat there, parked in teh shade of one of the big power transmission poles along the path, in the gravel off to the side of the paved path. A couple of minutes later, I realized I DO carry a spare with me!

In fact, I carry TWO spares--on the trailer wheels! :lol:


Since I had almost no load on the trailer, just a frame off the bottom of our old book rack and some of the top support frame for it, I coudl take a tire and tube off of the trailer wheel, and swap for the one on the trike's front wheel! Genius? No, more like Captain Obvious.


Given how tired (ha!) I already was, and how much I hurt from all the climbing around and lifting/moving stuff I've been having to do at work for the remodel, it took only an hour or so, maybe a little more, to swap the tires/tubes.

EDIT: forgot to add that while takign the airless tube/tire off the front, I found teh rim tape (really a rubber strip) wadded up in the tire. That was the bump, and it might have been the whole cause of the failure, bead unseating, etc--if the scrubbing of the hweel from angling steering to compensate for the motor power on teh right wheel caused the compression/decompression of the airless foam tube to wiggle the rim tape up and out of the rim and then begin stretching/rubbing it on the sidewall or tread area inside the tire, it could've ended up wadde dup like that, in teh sidewall, pushing it out more and more with each tire revolution....until plop the bead pomes out. Not sur what actally causetd t bt wanted to note this beoefore i doze off againa tnd forget.



I coudln't seat the bad tire fully on the trailer wheel's rim--it just was too damage and distorted to fit correctly anymore. I put it on as best I could, and faced it so if it did come off it'd be to the outside, and not get tangled up in the trailer and cause it to lock up and do something bad, like maybe cartwheel or flip or drag or whatever, and cause me to crash. I'd rather just have a sudden loss of the whole tube/tire off the rim, which would be wierd to pull, harder to pull, but wouldn't be disastrous.

The trailer tire/tube worked just fine at about 45PSI on the trike--it actually handles way way better now, but I would dread what might happen if the front tire blew, and it only has a bit of slime in there, in a thin tube. So I kept it down to 15MPH or less the whole rest of the way.



The airless tube/tire on the trailer wheel didn't cause any issues, but I could hear it thumping around back there sometimes, though it never had enough weigth on it to push the "tube" out of the small opening in the tire seating. It cmae only slightly more unseated on the tirp home than it was when I started out, jus undert 6 miles before.
View attachment 1



I have been sitting here dozing/waking/reading/typing just like most previous evenings for a while, writing mroe each time I wake up. I want to go work on CrazyBik2es wheelmotor promgbelm, but i dunno that I can concentrate well enough to do it, long enough to get it donwe. I go tup yesterday to do it lke I said above, but that dnitn'a work out very well. I had the old controlelr in my hands, and turned on the sodlering station, was just gonna cut the hall wires again on the motor and splice to this contolrller, but dozed off and woke to the dogs in my face a bit later. Decided I wasnt' competent to do the work and quit, went to bed. (wake/sleep/wake/read/sleep/etc.)

Probably end up the same tonight.

But I will carry a spare tire and tube fro the trike with me tomorrow if I don't get CB2 fixed in time to really test it out.


Oh...and this is the frame I was talkinga bout above, from the book rack. I am thinking it'd be a good trailer frame. Muhcb etter idea than the folding table conversion.



In fact, the tubing is the same size as the present trailer's, so I could pretty easily take all the bits off teh trailer frame (tow hitch arm, wheels, etc) and put them on this one instead, to get a longer trailer. Just need a platform for the top,a dn I have a number of things that would work, including more plywood. I would also probably put a short "fence" around the edge of the trailer to hold in loose stuff that cant be as easily tied down as long bits. Maybe one that can be removed with a quickrelase of some type so I can stll use it for longer stuff than the trailer is. (like that table)

Maybe even make it a four-wheeled trailer, with the pairs of wheels close to each other in the middle like car-type trailers sometimes are, for heavier loads and redundancy of tires. I have two sets of bolt-on wheels with one-ended axles, in 20", from those jogging strollers. Hmmm.... (wish I had time/energy to go play with the idea right now while I'm thinking about it).

 

[amberwolf]

Yesterday I fell completely asleep before I could post this.

I got inspired while riding home, thinking, watching the front tire carefully at some points because of some noises I'd heard, and because upon careful examination in daylight before setting out for home I had seen the tire is covered in cracks.





But the watching (for bulges, etc) made me notice that the freewheel I'd left on the wheel I'd installed in place of the old one lined up (naturally) with the chainring on the cranks on the boom, and that there was enough clearance between the freewheel and the fork leg to pass a chain...at least when steering straight ahead.

So...when I got home, I fed the dogs and let them out for potty/play, then grabbed an old derailer and chain (one already in a loop, not disconnnected), and installed it on there (requires taking the wheel off, but easier than findin gmy chaintool). Derailer is bolted on just as if it was on a rear wheel/dropout, except the little bolt that would fit into the dropout's root is at the tip of the dropout just below the axle.


It fits just about perfectly, derailer keeping it tensioned and lined up when I turn the steering up to at least several degrees to either side.






Turning to the right, it rubs the chain on the tire past that, but it doesnt' derail the chain as long as I don't pedal while turning.

View attachment 2



Turning to the left never rubs the chain, but again, have to not pedal while turning past a few degrees.




Thankfully, since I have to make wide turns anyway to keep from tipping, I almost never have to turn the wheel very far to either side to go around a corner. Only when I am in a close space, like turning around corners on some trails' ramps and such, and on a couple of sidewalks, do I have to turn greater than that, and even at nearly 45 degrees the chain still doesnt' pop off, though it is badly rubbing the tire on right turns and definitely couldn't be pedalled like that.


But it works in a straight line, and around gentle curves, very well. Albeit at only about 5MPH before I'm spinning wildly, and the trike is rocking side to side dangerously. :lol:

Tha'ts ok, since I don't need it to go fast with pedals, just to go, as an emergency backup in case of motor systme failure, and to aid the motor starting up on slight slopes, as being sensorless it doesnt' start well under heavy loads, or on uphill slopes. It works fine once it's going in either condition, but getting started seems toneed some help getting it into motion.



It allows me to pedal without too much knee pain even from startup, on the flat, but it's basically a super-low gear. So I guess it really is an "electrically-assisted bicycle" now, instead of just an electric trike.




Also yesterday I borught home more salvage--1/8" clear plastic sheets that used to be the panel windows of our dog training/bark collar secure case. dunno if theyr'e plex, lexan, polycarb, or what. But they should be usable for windows or windshields or whatever, if I ever decide on an enclosed (or partially-so) vehicle.



I also got the cabinet locks from it, but not the keys (weren't with it). I'm still wiating to hear back on if the key for it was tossed or still at the store, and if I could get it (or at least borrow it to duplicate it).


View attachment 11


Oh, also, here's some pics of the disintegrting tire and the airless tube:

 

[amberwolf]

So now I am off for four days, after what amounts to a 14-hour day today, including time spent packing all this salvaged stuff on the trailer (not including unpacking it at home):





The dogfood isn't salvaged, but it was clearanced for a bit more than 2 bucks a bag, so it might as well ahve been. Plus four boxes of little "meow mix" cat food cups that can be used as "gravy toppers" for the dogs' food (they like the smell of the cat food more than the dog food, for some reason); less than 70 cents a box. Both of those for a lot less than 10% of normal retail.


I'll need those days off to rest up tomorrow, then fix CrazyBike2, and do some minor repairs to Delta Tripper. The top right bar welds for the trike kit broke off suddenly on a manhole cover dip I didn't see on my way to work, just a couple miles in. I was avoiding some major unidentifiable debris in the road and so was in the lefthand lane, which I don't normally look at while riding in the righthand one, and so didn't know it had the cover/dip there. SURPRISE! BLAM! I felt the seat shift and thought it might've broken a nutsert out of the wooden base of the seat...but when I stopped and got off, the seat didnt' wiggle, so I started carefully looking at the welds and the frame and stuff, and found this:
View attachment 19




It might be easier to see with all the stuff out of it, so it leaves a big air gap:






I just used an extra cargo/pallet strap and put it around teh entire rear rack and stuff, top and bottom, to tighten it down till I got to work. After work, while packing up the trailer with the stuff above, I also moved the main battery (white box) down tothe bottom rack, since it is now easy to lift the top rack out of the way to do that. As I cant' take taht battery in and out of the rack if I re-weld it, I will have to figure out a solution to hinge it or else take the white ammocan pack out first if I just reweld it.





What I would like to do is use parts of those big red racks and replace *all* the rack stuff on the trike, putting it all down low on top of the axle housing. Just not sure if I will bother doing that on this trike, or just leave it as it is and build another from scratch. (at some point). Probably for now I will do a quickie version of that on Delta Tripper itself, just to make it a little less tip-happy. Then add a couple of those small black racks below the axle to put the batteries in, so i can get them in and out and not use up my cargo space for them. One on each side should be enough space for those and tool boxes, I think. (though I don't yet have a tool box I can put on there, besides another ammocan)





All that stuff in the pics up top packed easily onto the trailer:








But it is quite heavy. Unfortunately I don't have three (or five) scales, so I had to measure in stages of at most two scales at a time, and I know that makes the measurements wrong, but I don't know by how much. Still...it gives one an idea of the load the wheels have to take.




Trailer left (100 lbs), and right (120 lbs):
View attachment 16





Trike left (80 lbs), and right (70 lbs), and front (20 lbs):







Trike front with me on it (95 lbs). (I couldn't get a pic of the scales on the rear with me on there, couldn't hold the camera right, and all the blind shots I tried didn't catch the scale (and I can't read it while I'm on the trike, either).












Even unloaded, the trike is not light. It was too dark to get good focus on the scales, but it was 15lbs on the left trailer wheel, 10lbs on the right. 45lbs on the left trike wheel, 50lbs on the right, 35lbs on the front wheel.





I mentioned the scrubbing fo the front tire due to fighting the motor torque, but I dont' remmeber if I said that the left rear wheel also scrubs, thogh I forget why at the moment. Anyway, you can clearly see the great difference in wear, left first then right. Boht were almost the same wear state when I started really riding DT a couple weeks (and 275-ish miles) ago.




.


OH, and pics of those cabinet locks I mentioned yesterday.

 

[Chalo]

Different wear between the two rear tires, with the unpowered wheel receiving more wear, seems like an axle alignment issue.

 

[amberwolf]

It is, in a way, in that since the motor pushes the trike to the left, and I have to steer toward the right, then the left rear wheel is then misaligned from straight...but then, so is the right, so I guess I don't really know--unless being powered it is kept rolling at the right speed to not scrub as much? I dunno.


I could test the theory by deliberately misaligning the left wheel so it is toed-in just a bit, and see if that changes anything.

But I don't know if it is perfectly aligned to start with--the whole rear trike kit unit could be bent up and I cant' tell. Or I might have the wheels misaligned where they're bolted to the trike kit's dropouts. It's also possible but less likely that the trike kit is bolted to the bike frame non-square, but that I checked with an L-square when I set it up, so it should be right. (doesnt' mean it is, cuz I usually have to measure several times and still fix my work, as I never seem able to really make anything straight like it's supposed to be no matter what I do).

 

[Chalo]

[...]in that since the motor pushes the trike to the left, and I have to steer toward the right, then the left rear wheel is then misaligned from straight...but then, so is the right, so I guess I don't really know--unless being powered it is kept rolling at the right speed to not scrub as much? I dunno.

If both rear wheels both share a common axis, they will always yaw around a common center point; there will be no scrub (except for the tiny amount of scrub that happens within every loaded contact patch). If your axles are not parallel, you'll get tire scrub, and if they are parallel but don't lie on the same line, you'll also get tire scrub. In a flexible frame, the axles can go out of parallel when weight or centrifugal force is applied.

My sidecar bike has its side wheel placed ahead of the rear axle to better support the load on its cargo bed. That arrangement scrubs terribly in tight turns, because the rear and side wheels (the ones that can't steer) never rotate around a common center. The more lightly loaded one always scrubs laterally with respect to the direction it's pointing, when the vehicle is traveling on a curved path. If I had known how significant the friction would be, I'd have put the sidecar wheel alongside the rear wheel when I built the frame.

 

[amberwolf]

If both rear wheels both share a common axis, they will always yaw around a common center point; there will be no scrub (except for the tiny amount of scrub that happens within every loaded contact patch). If your axles are not parallel, you'll get tire scrub, and if they are parallel but don't lie on the same line, you'll also get tire scrub. In a flexible frame, the axles can go out of parallel when weight or centrifugal force is applied.

Then they must not be parallel or one is slightly ahead of the other. Well, that's relatively easily fixed--I just adjust the left wheel for chain tension purposes (though I guess since the pedal chain is now in front it doesn't matter, does it?) then adjust the hubmotor wheel on the right for alignment to the left wheel.

 

[amberwolf]

(partial crossposting from cb2 thread)

I started to do some quick mods and fixes to the cargo rack, replacing all of what's there with the red rack much lower down. But I needed to cut stuff with the angle grinder. I have it, and all the discs/etc., in a box together...but somehow the pin wrench and stuff needed to change out the discs is not in there, and I wore teh disc out removing the existing top broken rack, and needed to put a new one on, and could not find it for teh life of me, anywhere i ahve recently worked on anythign (with or without the grinder).

So I started a major cleanup prject for the house, to get all the tools in one place mostly, and also to move the old feeder tank and stand and refrig system into the house, as well as taht stove above (the plant tank Nana is in will stay outside about where it is now, only on the stand itself which will be off the ground by bricks). This has taken two full days, and I iz compleeeeeeeeeeeetley worn out, sunburned,and hurty all over in places I forgot I had.

But is I stillc ant' find the freakin' pin wreench set to change wheels on the angle grinder.

So i sat down to eat and type up this new trailer project idea
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=48718
but I already dozed of a bunch of times just doing that, soI'll have to continue looking tomorrowo (monday, last day off before I go back to work doing another remodel from 6am-3pm, though at least it's a shorter trip, maybe 3x as far as my normal commute instead of 5x, and it's nearly a straight shot west to get there, and east to get back).

I hope I can find the wrench, cuz I really need to deal with the rest of the repairs/mods, in case I can't fix up CrazyBike2 tomorrow (which I didn't get to because of the cleanup).


I can't beleive I haven't found the stupid wrench yet.

 

[amberwolf]

I found the pin wrench for the grinder, but too late to work on the trike. Was already fixing Crazybike2, which took all day and well into the night.
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12500&p=718581#p718581
but at least CB2 works now. SO i will ride it in to work gtomorrow, assuming nothing blows up.


dunno when i'l get back to the trike now, unless CB2 dies and I need to swap to DT to get to work.

 

[amberwolf]

I was taking pics of other stuff when I got home form work tonight and rememberd to take a pic of the possible fenders, made from retail shelf product info rails:

 

[amberwolf]

CrazyBIke2 broke again:
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12500&p=720020#p720020
so had to rig up DT1 for work commute, as I ahvent' had time to fix it up yet.
View attachment 9


I used the red rack, cut in half, as a "clamshell":





It's hinged with hose clamps,




held to the original bottom rack with more clamps




held closed with a padlock
View attachment 4



and still needs sides but for now it holds stuf ok.




battery boxes strapped inside rack for now, but need to go on the bottom. didnt' wanna do it without a bottom rack for them to rest on though, in case bumps break a strap i don't want battery box hitting the road.



Bags pack in over top of boxes and strap down.


On way home from work the jacket and pants for keeping me warm on the way there arent' needed, so the y stow in there too.



Taillight is bolt-clamped with washers to the wire, and Fusin taillight is ziptied to it. The latter also keeps teh lid from going down level and resting on the trailer hitchframe, so I will likely move it before it gets broken. I have more than one of these so I think I'll wire them in parallel on the two rear edges of the top lid, if I can fidn the other one. I dont' actually need them but the more lighting the better.
View attachment 2



And so, I also added the other fishtank LED light bar on the toptube of teh bike frame, pointing down to light up the frame and the road around it. Taped over the red LEDs on this too, jus tliek I did on CB2. Didnt' ge a pic yet cuz it was too bright outside (only 330pm) when i got home and took the other pics, and I have beenlaying here dozing and typing and dozing since then, am really hurty and tired so iddn't want to get back up till I have to.



Now that I have ridden them both on teh same path, I can say that DT1 is slightly more efficient htan CB2 on the way out there, at about 27Wh/mile, 15.4MPH average, while CB2 is 29wh/mile with 15.6MPH average. Probalby it is because of the current limit on startups on this one keeping it down to 1000W, while it's 1500W+ on CB2. Plus CB2 was pulling the trailer, and DT1 was not. I should test it with the trailer, too, but I didn't have time to move the hitchpost back to DT1 last night, so coldn't ake thret railer today.

 

[amberwolf]

Made sides for the rear cage:




and a lower rack



and some pics of the lighting:













.

 

[amberwolf]

A wheel felt kinda funky now and then on the way home, but every time I stopped to check them, nothing was visibly wrong, and no nuts were loose; all appeared to be very tight using the wrench (but my hand strength isn't what it used to be, especially when it's hurty (whcih mostly is all teh time to one degree or antoher nowadays). Periodically after acceleration or braking I would hear the freewheel sound louder--the one on frint should be the only one I hear, cuz the rear has no chain and should spin with the motor. So if it gets suddenly louder it means the rear one is engaging and that means the sprockets are rubbin g on the rfraome, possibly ipinched against it if the axle shifted.


When i got home and could stop and take things apart, I found the axle had partly spun, about 90 degrees, with the torque washers cutting into the axle.









Also, the dropout had spread apart on the inside (left), which made the left nut seem tight but in reality it had loosened (allowing this spin) and was only tight now because the bent dropout was pressing against it.



The right dropout is fine.





I bent te droout back with a hammer and vise-grips. I filed out some old regular washers to go over the axle to put on the inside of the droputs, to give more surface area to put pressure on them instead of just the nuts taht were on the inside, for better grip to help prevent this again (since I dont' have torque arms for it, or time to make any right now--I would just weld on thicker metal if I had the time to cut it and weld it, but that won't happen for a while).

Realigned and tightned it all down, and found the mtoor suddenly seems to have a lot hgiher friction frweeheling--no load current is up to 3.5-4A! That's more than double what it used tob e, AFAICR. I took the wheel back off and found the nuts on the inside of the dropouts were really tightedned down, and that must have put pressure on the bearings to push against stuff in the motor or something. So I loosened them, nut and locknut, then locked them together a hair farther out (kinda like the way you would setup cone bearings on a regular old hub). This reduced the no-laod a lot, but I don't think it's a s low as it use dto be. I can't remember exactly waht it was though, to compare to now, and I must not have noted it in tehe Fusin 1000W review / test thread.


I also took the sprocket cassette off of it, since I dont' need it on there an d it is jus tmore weigfht and potentail isseus to come about from it.


ANyway, it seems to stil be work ing ok.


I ch3eced the other wheesl and found no issues, other than a little low in front (36PSI (max is 40)) and pretty low air on both rears (32.5PSI, min should be 50 and max is 100). I upped the front to just under 40, and the rears to 52.


I am sseriously considering taking the other older Fusin off of DayGlo Avenger and putting it on the left side in place of the 3speed IGH wheel that basically is pointless cuz it isn't being used to drive anything. Then if anything goes wrong witht the main one I have the backup...and also I can use both at the same time for faster startups, and to make the steerign easier since I wouldn't have the one rightnahand motor pushing the trike to the left all the time. I dug out DayGlo Avenger but that is as far as I got.




As an aside, on the wya to work I saw something reflective in the bike lane as I passed it (it was lit up by my LED downlights I think), so I slowed and stopped a few dozen yards down the road once there was no traffic passing me, and hobbled back to see what it was, because my brain told me from the instant's glimpse I ahd of it that it was a "slow vehicle" sign...which in fact it turned out to be.


I've been pondering making one for some time, but never got around to it...so providence handed me one instead, right when I really ought to have one, being on 40MPH+ roads at 20MPH or less for several miles at a time, in a narrow bike lane that in some places just goes away, in the predawn darkness with little traffic but some bursts of a lot of it, and in the midafternoon with lots and lots of traffic mostly in bursts. I'll be riding this for at least the next several days, and then I will also proabaly take the same route to get to 91st ave and south to Mcdowell for the next two weeks after I'm done at this remodel at the end of this week, because I know the roads already.


Having the large reflective and dayglo triangle on the bakc makes me more visible day or night, and people that know what it means might give me more berth than otherwise (though usually people give me pletny of room anyway).


It cant' be affixed tightly to the back, though, only hugn from the top, cuz of the clamshell opening and the trailer hitchbar, etc. So it's setup to slide over the tip of the htich bar as I opoen the "trunk" cage.






I had something else to add but i forget hwat it was now, too many unintentional naps sinc I started typing this an hour or two ago (or more?).

 

[amberwolf]

So as of today, Iv'e done at least 401 miles on this trike. I think it might be closer to ~450 but I'm not totally sure; I am only including what I actually wrote down for trips or can calculate for certain based on where I went with it.

Almost all of it has been in the last 3-1/2 weeks, to the stores I've been working at the remodels for, and the largest amount of that was in just ten days, racking up 270 miles to and from one store, and some side trips on the way home from there, as well as a couple grocery runs.


Good news for today is that nothing else broke. It was nearly 20 degrees colder this morning than the last several days, and I was rudely reminded by that that I still need to make wind deflectors for my hands, which hurt a lot today because of the chill they got during the ride--they went numb a few times and I had to stop a moment to exercise them and warm them up.

There were fairly gusty winds on the way home this afternoon, between 320pm-4pm, worst the first ten minutes or so, though ti was nice and sunny and warm. Most of the gusts were from behnd and my right, so from the southwest, changing to directly from the south at some of the larger dusty open fields I pass (whcih made it nearly impossible to see; I couldn't see cars coming behind me until they were only a few car lengths back, and even then only th eones with headlights on. The others I coudln't see until they were about to pass me.

Made me glad for my reasonably bright taillight and other lighting on the trike, and that big orange slow-vehicle sign
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_moving_vehicle
which probably helped people see me at least a little bit. (maybe--it was very hard to see anything at all)


People actually did slow down while passing thru the dust clouds, which surprised me--often they speed up as if they might make it thru such things faster (they do the same thing in the rain).

 

[emiyata]

It was nearly 20 degrees colder this morning than the last several days, and I was rudely reminded by that that I still need to make wind deflectors for my hands, which hurt a lot today because of the chill they got during the ride--they went numb a few times and I had to stop a moment to exercise them and warm them up.

My night drive home tonight Tomah, WI 18°F | °C ‎Clear ‎Wind: N at 0 mph ‎Humidity: 86%. Keep warm.

 

[amberwolf]

Yours is much much colder than mine. :lol: I'd probably have to bundle like a mummy, maybe with electric heaters, or make a velo shell to ride in that and still be able to function at my destination.

I did remember to make the hand wind-shields, though they are just 5-minute quick versions. Couple of 2-liter soda bottles saved from ages ago, cut about 1/3 of them out, then cut about 2/5 of the cap end off so it would easily fit around the bars. Twist of wire around the cap end/neck and the bars holds them on quite well.



I forgot about the brake lever's mount and the throttle housing, though, so I had to do some cutting and ducttaping of it to fit around the right bar so that it owuld still block enough airflow over that hand.



So...they do work, quite a bit better than nothing, but not quite as good as I wish. Still, it's good enough, and keeps my hands warm enough for the ride in present predawn temperatures. They'll do.



On the wya to work, about half way, there was a sudden noise in the mtoor wheel as if spokes had broken, but when i checked, they're all fine. I rechecked every couple miles and again at work, and didnt' find anything. After work I did some more checking and found it seems to be some loose object (spoke nipple? I don't remmeber losing one in the rim...) inside the rim, and it sometiems rattles and sometimes doesn't. It is unnerving while riding, but appears to be harmless enough. I don't want to take the tire and tube off just ot get whatever it is out.


Got another great deal on dog food today, a few bucks for a 30lb bag (that's usually almost $60), of a kind that even Loki can eat (since he's allergic to chicken).

I coudl probably haul at least two bags like that on this trike, on top of the rack, and probably one smaller bag underneath the main trunk rack, *maybe* the bigger bag might fit there. I coudl haul two more inside the rack, perhaps, maybe a medium sized and a big one, with both batteries in there. (only need the small battery for my usual store runs, so two big ones then). I guess I could put one behind me on the seat, too.

That would push it to 30-40lbs per big bag, x 4 max, and 15-20lbs per medium bag, x 2, so perhaps up to 200lbs of dog food on there. More if I stack it higher on the back rack, but I do not know if it would actually stay in place; guess it depends on how well I tied it down (rather like with the trailer), but I couldn't make turns at any speed at all (unlike now where I have learned to do it above 10-12MPH popping one wheel off the ground a teeny bit but staying below the tipover point).

So, I guess it can't beat what CrazyBike2 does, yet. That's part fo teh goal of the trike, to be able to carry more. It does carry it *easier*, though.




I am pretty used to the trike now, and confident in riding it. No crashes except the one about a month ago, I guess it was; a few hundred miles on it since then. It still need serious redesign for stability in turns, but it is quite rideable in a straight line at 20MPH.

 

[emiyata]

Yours is much much colder than mine. :lol: I'd probably have to bundle like a mummy, maybe with electric heaters, or make a velo shell to ride in that and still be able to function at my destination.

I have the claw type riding gloves and you can pull up the claw part and then it's like a standard glove. Even on closeout the are pricey at $20. I picked them up one size bigger so wool liners will fit in the gloves. Last night it was warmer, balmy 28 degrees. A windshield is also on the list of things to buy.
I am building a trailer like the one you built from a cart used to haul kids. How much weight have you placed on yours?

 

[amberwolf]

About 250lbs so far, but that was quite an overload, given that it's rated for only 100lbs. Most commonly I have 100-150, sometimes 200lbs of stuff on there, trying not to load it that heavily. The wheels and frame seem able to handle it, so far, but the spring/polymer hitch pivot is stretched spring now, bent, and the polymer torn, from either hauling hte long wiggly table or the very heavy load of metal stuff. I don't remember when it happened.


I would recommend coming up with something different for a hitch if you intend to use it for anything remotely heavy or if it will waggle the hitch polymer and spring a lot.


I have a new trailer project to build here:
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=48718
but I have to actually have time to build it first.



Today was another really long day...get up at 4am, leave at 5am, get there before 6am, work till 330pm, bought more clearance dog food then left work and thought I'd stop at Target that's in the same shopping center, but when I went over there and was about to turn to pull up toward the bike parking area, the motor just stopped working, no response to throttle at all. hour and 15 minutes to fix that. another horu to get home. aother 3 hours to make a better fix and do a cople other mods, long long day.




Voltage was ok, power to controller ok, it's lights still worked...so I got fof the trike and checked connections, following eeryting vrom battery to motor..then I saw the motor plug at the wheel wasn't fuly connected. And then I saw why--the axle had spun nearly a full turn pulling out the pplug. Glad I didnt reqziptie it when i fixed it yesteray. I fI had it might' ve jsut ripped wires out.



Anyway, i had to unbolt the wheel and use my wrenches as torque arms hose clamped to the frame to get home. Gave up on Target for today, because it took an hour and 17 minutes to get the thing clamped down, since my hands don't work all that well these days, and today was really bad for my left hand and not so great for the rest of me, as the weather has been changing again, much more humid, though warmer.



I have pics from after i got home. First are pics of the wrehcns I used in the target parking lot to fox iit. I almost forgot to take them so i tostarted to take the stuff off to replace them with better stuff when go t home. then there's pics of the replacement wrenches, which fit tighter, but are still a stopgap till i have time to make thick thick plates, maybe clamping, to repalce the droppouts with.





even with the wide not-really-hard metal adjusab el wrench, he axle was twisted and scarred by that wrendch on the right side where wires come out.

hard to see in the pic but the axle flat on the right shoudl have a shapr ecdge and you can see where it isn't that' sher the soft wrench cut into the even softer axle.


This is the "new" wrench fix on the right side instead, a 10mm wrench, that doesnt' fit very tightly (the axle is inconsistently machined--the flats on the left side are closer to 3/8" but a hair bigger (can tap a 3/8" wrench onto it though), and on the right closer to 10mm, but smaller, so there is a bit of wiggle). But it is better than the adjustable.

View attachment 4



Tjem the inside (left) axle gets two 3/8" wrenches, and a good tight pinch of the axle washer hardware against hte dropout.



Onh, and that clanking...it oun ds dalin=k (Edit: wow I guess that was when I finally fell asleep yseterday :roll This shoudl say "that sound I had heard like a spoke or nipple in the rim loose, instead turns out to be inside the motor, and seems to be coming from the freehub/cassette mechanism. I don't understand why, htough, because it is spinning with the mtoor. Maybe something else is rattling around insid e the motor casing, but I would have expected it to get stuck in the planetaries before now. And jam up and break teeth etc etc. )


I also adde d anothe rFusin taillight off the kit Dogman gave me at the undead radce a couple years back, parallel wired with the one that came with the newere fusin. this one has a much lnger wire on it and a connector still, so i can put it on the traielr if i hae to witout stretching the wire which is what happened on the other one, where i ended up adding an extension. anyway, it mkeas a pair of smaller taillights below the corners of the SMV sign, with the main light at the top corner. and give sme a backup lighting ssytem in case the 12v does, as thes are traction-pack powered.



i moved the fusin headlight up to just under teh cranks, partly to add a light at the cranks, and partly to put one where i can aim it down a little more for close lighiting of the area *right* in fortn of the trike where it doesn't get much from the headlight. and also fro lowspeed use on sidewalks wehre i might want/need to turn off the main headlight but still need some light.




it rubs the chain but i don't pedal really so it's ok. if i really ahve to pehdal i'll scar u pthe plastci of the headlight, i guess.

View attachment 1

all in all took another three hours mostly on the torque arms to get done with the bike, having gotten home around 615pm and gotten to finally shower, sit down amnd eat almost 9pm. (fed dogs as soon a si got home as i was already a couple hours late with their dinner)


now am in bed but am too tired to sleep, if that makes any sense. hae ve dozed off a bundh of times typing this but keep waiking up again.

 

[emiyata]

About 250lbs so far, but that was quite an overload, given that it's rated for only 100lbs. Most commonly I have 100-150, sometimes 200lbs of stuff on there, trying not to load it that heavily. The wheels and frame seem able to handle it, so far, but the spring/polymer hitch pivot is stretched spring now, bent, and the polymer torn, from either hauling hte long wiggly table or the very heavy load of metal stuff. I don't remember when it happened.


I would recommend coming up with something different for a hitch if you intend to use it for anything remotely heavy or if it will waggle the hitch polymer and spring a lot.

My big dummy can haul a load , so I don't think over 100lbs on the trailer. Making some type of hitch should be easy.

 

[amberwolf]

Probably; there's lots of DIY trailer hitches out there for small loads. (well, small for *me*. :lol


Apparently I fell asleep last night before I finished the post above, I didn't submit all the pictures yet, but I must've clicked submit at some point while too drowsy to reemember.

Anyway, i've edited in the pictures that should've been there.

 

[amberwolf]

So this morning as I headed out to work, the whole right wheel and frame fell off as made a turn.

Yeah, that's a first--havent' ever had that kind of thing happen on any of my bikes.





I thought I had fixed the wheel mounting sufficiently, but I apparently misjudged the amount of damage the frame and dropout had taken, and the entire damaged part sheared off as I turned, when the wheel was side-loaded pulling rightward and downward against that piece, and then I just fell over with the trike thinking, hey, this thing is tilting way too far for as slow as I am going (like 10MPH), then it went further and further and suddenly I'm on my back in the middle of the (thankfully empty) intersection at Butler and 29th Ave.

It took a second for me to realize I'd crashed, but I didn't understand why-- I dont' know exactly how long I was actually laying there, because even though I dind't hit my head or een get hurt at all, I was so suprised and stunned I kinda just lay there looking at sky. Then I looked around and saw the motor wheel "hanging" by the top edge of the trike frame, where it loops over the wheel to the rest of the trike--this is the area I had cut and added-on tubing to extend it rightward because of the wheel width.

It was still connected at the top edge of the tubing, but the rest of the weld was torn just inboard of the weld itself, on the thinner tubing pieces I had added. I guess I should change them out for thicker ones.

but the wheel itself was sticking out almost parallel to the ground while the trike was almost on it's side with the bottom right edge fo the rack sitting on the pavement.

As soon as I (straining, as it's heavy there) picked it up it fell of completely.

All I could do was to set the wheel/frame on the seat and try to hold up the rear rigth while I walked (hobbled) it back to the house, call work to tell them I'd be an hour or so late cuz of th whee lfalling off, and do my best to figure out all of what broke and fix it fast enough to make that come true.


I did take pics after I got bakc to the house, and more after fixingi it and after getting home, but I put thememory card in my pocket then, after having emptied my pockets in prep for washing clothes, and promptly forgot it was in there untiL I was already laying down after having finally gotten food for dogs and me, and started the wash cycle. I only eeven remembered cuz i was gonna upload the pics for this post--otherwise it wouldn't just be a little damp inside, it'd've been thru the whole wash cycle and on the clothseline before I noticed it.


So the card is opened up and in a container of rice drying out for a while, and there wont' be any of those pics until I'm sure it's dry enough to put in teh reader port witout damaging anything.



and I am too wiped to go back and use the other card to take pics of the fixes, which did hold up ok for hte ride to work and back. I'm off for the next two days, though, so I might get teh chance to do that then, while I'm fixing stuf in more permanetn ways, and also getting crazybike2 running again one way or another, so this can go bac to being a backup ride.


Also, I am probalby going to put the other old fusin geared hub on the left side of this bike. I't' s stilll on Dayglo Avegner ringt now, (or did I take it off last night? I forget--have to look) with the Lyen 6FET on it. I wil change that out for the Fusin 48v contoroller cuz its designed more to protect the mtoor from overcurrent than the Lyen, which is still setup to run a 9C 2807 DD hub, and is probably why I overheated the other old fusin several times.

Anyway, the old fusin hub is a front so it should fit where the left wheel is, whth the Sachs 3speed IGH I'm not even using as a drive wheel anyway. Then I will have a backup motor, and I can alos use it simultaneously (left hand throttle, maybe?) with the nwere Fusin to take some load off of each one and make it less likely to rip a wheel and droput/frame off the trike again. :lol:


I might have to work out some simple electronics (passive, I hope) to use a single throttle for both wheels, but since they are not the same motor or controller they liely won't respond in the same curve, and so won't be able to be controlled that wya.


I would use the other fusin in the front wheel but I'd have to lace it up ona 20" rim and I simply don[t hae time to do that rightnow. Just hthe quick changeout of wheels, swapping tires/trubes over, connecting up controller and throttle, and that's it. Even that may take more time than I want to spedn on it right now cuz I want to fix CrazyZBike2 instead. (but need two wroking bikes, and I don't really wanna fix DGA ATM cuz I don't think I could ride on that saddle for the upcoming commute, among other things--I want a "seat" not a saddle. )

 

[pendragon8000]

Omg that sux.

 

[amberwolf]

That's one way to put it! :lol:


Now that it's nice and light outside, I gotta get up and go see about making the fix more permanent, so the wheel can't just fall off next time somethign fails.


(and hopefully never does again but we all know that cant' happen)

 

[emiyata]

That's one way to put it! :lol:


Now that it's nice and light outside, I gotta get up and go see about making the fix more permanent, so the wheel can't just fall off next time somethign fails.


(and hopefully never does again but we all know that cant' happen)

I hope you are ok. I did the weekly preventative maintenance today and need to add a few checks to the list.

 

[amberwolf]

Other than my pride I'm perfectly fine. I was mostly just very surprised. :lol:

The turn itself was only at a few MPH and the motor came unplugged as it happened so I was decelerating the whole time.

Well, I strained some muscles in my arms and back trying to lift and hold the back end of hte trike up while hobbling it back to the house, but nothing directly from the crash itself.


I re-examined my work and whatnot in daylight today and it appears to be holding up perfectly fine, even though I treated it just like I didn't suspect any problems on hte ride home yesterday, and abused it like normal. (I was kinda careful with it on the way to work cuz I knew I would not have any help or options until I got there. On the way home I could deal with it one way or another cuz i'td be in late afternoon, instead of 6-7am).

So instead of risking screwing it up worse, I left it alone and started looking at some better lockable cargo box options for it, to carry more stuff lower down on the trike, under the seat to either side (as I don't have to worry about chainlines and such now). I figured out I could install the same cargo boxes CrazyBike2 and DayGlo Avenger use, if I put the hinged "lid" on the side instead of on top. I have two of them left that I know of--one is the old bent up one off CB2's right side, and another is pristine (still has osme electroncs in there from whatever it used to be). Would have to make the top and side "lids", with hinges and a lock, and mount rails to the trike to bolt the pods to. Not a lot of work to do it, so may do it tomorrow. I even have nice "new" piano-hinges, saved from the old treat bars tossed out at the most recent remodel.

I could put the bateries in theri ammocans inside the pods, one on each side, to help put the weight much lower and more centered forward/rear. Is very back-end heavy right now--I can easily lift the front wheel with only a couple of figners on the crank boom when standing next ot the trike, but it takes all my strenght to lift one side of the back end, and Ic an't lift both at once. (has ben a problem getting it over some curbs when looking for alternate routes now and then).


I also have a potentially watertight case (if I replace the lid seal and tape over the bolt holes) from an old Navy signal generator; it's about 1 cubic foot inside, maybe a bit more, rounded-corner/edge aluminum about 1/8" thick, similar thickness to my other cargo pods. This might mount up front on the bars if I need more cargo space, where the headlight is now-but I think it would be in the way of either seeeing (if mounted higher) or pedalling (if mounted lower). If I cut part of the lower rack off I might be able to mount it at the rear behind the axle below the main rack, but that would negate the ability to fold the SMV sign under the rack as I open the clamshell, and so I'd have to find another way to mount the SMV sign. (perhaps on a vertical post hinged/pinned to the trailer hitchpost so I can still swing it out of the way of the clamshell rack)

The case is big enough to hold both battery packs I think; but not in their ammocans, though. but it would certainly hold all my tools and the air compressor and cargo straps. It does not yet have locks, just latches on four "corners" of the face, but I coud easily piano-hinge the "bottom" edge of the face/lid and put a hasp or a cabinet lock on the other edge.



No pics cuz the camera card is still in the rice bin drying out.