Pure
10 kW
I've been thinking about this build every since my accident made me lose the use of my left arm. It's going to be a wile (if ever) before I can ride a normal bike. This left me looking/shopping for a trike of some sort. Obviously I gravitated toward the tad pole recumbents. Their design just makes the most sense. But there are a few things I dislike about most of commercially available tadpoles. So this build will be my attempt to fix those problems, either my solutions be right or wrong.
For starters IMO they are too low to the ground to be used as an every day commuter. This bike will be my primary source of transportation, the risk of getting squished is just too high in the average tadpole. So I intend to make this trike with a seat height that will put my head at least mid window on average car. Raising my center of gravity has it's down sides. Obviously the risk of tipping being number one. So to combat that this is another things I've thought long and hard about.
The width of the front wheels. From reading I gather that most trikes don't ever go wider than 32inches. This is to keep them so that they will fit on most bike paths and through most doors. My bike, well is going to be big. It's never going to see the inside of my house. I have a large shop/shed in my back yard with concrete floors to store and charge it in. Also, well there really are not any trails/paths in Jacksonville for me to go on. In fact I can drive west of here and find more 4 wheeler trails than I can shake a stick at. Bottom line, I want the width to be at 42 inches. I would like to go wider, but 42 inches is what I consider at the edge of what's reasonable for a car to go around in the same lane. No I will never ride it on the sidewalk, not that Jacksonville has loads of those either. I do still realize I'm going to have to be careful in high speed turns. But again I don't foresee me ever trying to do a slalom in this thing.
Suspension is going to be tricky. I'm looking at a dual a arm setup and instead of bike shocks, I'll be using MotoX shocks meant for a 150CC motorcycles. I'm aiming for 8 inches of travel. I'm not stuck on what exact shocks I'm going to use but something like this is where I'm going. http://www.ebay.com/itm/16-NTC-Air-shock-absorbers-Quad-Go-Kart-ATV-Motorcycle-pair-yellow-/180767996727?pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&hash=item2a169cbb37&vxp=mtr#ht_3928wt_1366
For the frame, I'm working with one of my brothers for this. Well he is the certified welder in the family so he'll be handling the welding part of assembly. What I'm envisioning (sorry no fancy cad renderings) is a terrace frame design, but like most trikes Using the mono tube design but instead have one terrace rail mocked up then cut and rewelded to the rough shape most other tadpole frames are shaped. This also isn't set in stone so, I am open to suggestions. If you are having a hard time seeing what I'm thinking, I can slap something together on MS paint.
I'll be using my X5 for the power plant, and as soon as this project is completed (paid for) I'll be taking either the LiPo or A123 plunge.
Steel is being ordered on Monday. Spindles, brakes, BB, and rims will be ordered this weekend when I take the X5 into my LBS to be relaced into a new 26" rim.
Because of suspension geometry and what I want,(Basically I don't want the front A arms to be fully extended downward to give better clearance. When it sits with rider the front A arms should be almost level with the frame.) I want to get a good portion of my ground clearance from the wheels. So 24s on the front and a 26 in the rear. The track should be wide enough that the larger rims should have no clearance issues in turns.
That about sums it up, Basically I want a full suspension trike with at least double the travel and ride height of what's currently available. Wile this build will not be the lightest, I think it's whats needed to support my 250 pound frame dropping 4 feet from what ever I run over.
I'll be updating this thread as I go and will be sure to get plenty of pics.
I'm open to all comments and suggestions so lets hear it.
Oh before anyone says it. Yeah Leaning would be really nice but, I'll save that for version 2.0.
For starters IMO they are too low to the ground to be used as an every day commuter. This bike will be my primary source of transportation, the risk of getting squished is just too high in the average tadpole. So I intend to make this trike with a seat height that will put my head at least mid window on average car. Raising my center of gravity has it's down sides. Obviously the risk of tipping being number one. So to combat that this is another things I've thought long and hard about.
The width of the front wheels. From reading I gather that most trikes don't ever go wider than 32inches. This is to keep them so that they will fit on most bike paths and through most doors. My bike, well is going to be big. It's never going to see the inside of my house. I have a large shop/shed in my back yard with concrete floors to store and charge it in. Also, well there really are not any trails/paths in Jacksonville for me to go on. In fact I can drive west of here and find more 4 wheeler trails than I can shake a stick at. Bottom line, I want the width to be at 42 inches. I would like to go wider, but 42 inches is what I consider at the edge of what's reasonable for a car to go around in the same lane. No I will never ride it on the sidewalk, not that Jacksonville has loads of those either. I do still realize I'm going to have to be careful in high speed turns. But again I don't foresee me ever trying to do a slalom in this thing.
Suspension is going to be tricky. I'm looking at a dual a arm setup and instead of bike shocks, I'll be using MotoX shocks meant for a 150CC motorcycles. I'm aiming for 8 inches of travel. I'm not stuck on what exact shocks I'm going to use but something like this is where I'm going. http://www.ebay.com/itm/16-NTC-Air-shock-absorbers-Quad-Go-Kart-ATV-Motorcycle-pair-yellow-/180767996727?pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&hash=item2a169cbb37&vxp=mtr#ht_3928wt_1366
For the frame, I'm working with one of my brothers for this. Well he is the certified welder in the family so he'll be handling the welding part of assembly. What I'm envisioning (sorry no fancy cad renderings) is a terrace frame design, but like most trikes Using the mono tube design but instead have one terrace rail mocked up then cut and rewelded to the rough shape most other tadpole frames are shaped. This also isn't set in stone so, I am open to suggestions. If you are having a hard time seeing what I'm thinking, I can slap something together on MS paint.
I'll be using my X5 for the power plant, and as soon as this project is completed (paid for) I'll be taking either the LiPo or A123 plunge.
Steel is being ordered on Monday. Spindles, brakes, BB, and rims will be ordered this weekend when I take the X5 into my LBS to be relaced into a new 26" rim.
Because of suspension geometry and what I want,(Basically I don't want the front A arms to be fully extended downward to give better clearance. When it sits with rider the front A arms should be almost level with the frame.) I want to get a good portion of my ground clearance from the wheels. So 24s on the front and a 26 in the rear. The track should be wide enough that the larger rims should have no clearance issues in turns.
That about sums it up, Basically I want a full suspension trike with at least double the travel and ride height of what's currently available. Wile this build will not be the lightest, I think it's whats needed to support my 250 pound frame dropping 4 feet from what ever I run over.
I'll be updating this thread as I go and will be sure to get plenty of pics.
I'm open to all comments and suggestions so lets hear it.
Oh before anyone says it. Yeah Leaning would be really nice but, I'll save that for version 2.0.