Storm's trike

[Storm]

Hi all,
a number of people have asked me to do a thread on my trike so here are some pictures and give you some info.

My trike is a work in progress, this is the second trike I've made the first was average and made from old bike frames gassless mig welded together, the new one is scratch built. I've used aluminium tubing and rivited together using brackets as I dont have alu welder/heat treatment etc, except the threaded tube for the bottom bracket salvaged from a cheap aluminium bike frame, I had this welded to the boom tube by a local guy for $15 the bottom bracket. She's abit rough around the edges but it's been an inertesting though time consuming project.

 

[Ypedal]

Very cool !

I like the looks of it, how do you find the suspension ? if you had to re-do it would you make it any different ? ( What's the rear shock from ? )

And where do you usually mount the batteries? Trikes are a great platform for battery mounting. A good friend recently started working at a machine shop, i think i just found a way for him to repay all the favors he owes me lol.

 

[Malcolm]

Nice work Storm! I can see a lot of thought has gone into the design. Are the tubes and seat straight aluminium or T6 alloy? How much of a weight saving do you reckon you made over a steel version? Did you build up the disc wheels yourself or can you buy them off the shelf?

Love the seat by the way, it really finishes it off nicely.

 

[BiGH]

thats a beautiful trike! i'd love to build something like that.

was it a complete DIY job? is it a kit etc?

 

[Storm]

The rear shock was bought from ebay an xfusion mountain bike type with compression and rebound adjustment, atm the spring is too stiff and needs to be swaped with one around 300lbs, in retrospect I should have bought an air shock to avoid the hasssle.

The aluminium is various T6, the trike rolling with a standard rear wheel is 18.5kg without motor batts etc. I had the wheels built by a shop using stainless spokes, 20mm axled disc hubs and double wall rims, they were the most expensive parts next to the electrics batteries etc.

Although it was probably cheaper to build then buy you do need quite a few tools, you learn alot too and I think that what money can't buy.

 

[fechter]

You could relocate the shock mounts to increase the leverage and keep the existing spring. Dang springs are expensive.

 

[ngocthach1130]

The steering look uncomfortable. What do you make of how it's position? Would you ever revise that to the vertical stick people often use? The trike look great btw. Very stealth. I tried to make out where battery went but had some trouble. Oh and what are the 2 tube in the front at the crank use for? Were they just left over from the bike crank you used? Did you have some kind of canopy/fairing mounting layout in mind which are bolted to those 2 tube?

 

[safe]

Move the shock mounts forward towards the pivot point... both the bottom and top at the same time. Compensate for the increase in travel (increasing the ride height) by also lowering the bottom mount below the level that it's at now. You will get softer suspension, but also more travel so you might start to bottom in more places. It's not a perfect solution, but if the spring is way too stiff now you will not bottom that much with the revised mounts.

You could probably leave the top mount as it is and just add an extra bottom mount location that is in between your swingarm. (in that little square area)

The result will be a shock that isn't laid down so much...

 

[Storm]

The steering looks uncomfortable. What do you make of it's position? Would you ever revise that to the vertical stick people often use?

It's not that uncomfortable tho I do plan to change to a vertical stick position with long bar ends or somethinng simmilar eventually.

Did you have some kind of canopy/fairing mounting layout in mind which are bolted to those 2 tube?

Yes, thats why I left the front tube there as I want to enclose the trike and thought I might use it for mounting it or maybe a light.[/quote]