A new trike.

[Moper361]

Nice build there .Im curious if you have a good pace up down hill and you need to get on the brakes hard because some twit gets in your way ,Does the ar#%#se end stand up in the air .I have never ridden one so have no idea how they would react .I would not mind building one of these for my daughter

 

[savarin]

With tadpole trikes there is only one hard and fast rule - dont put your feet down to slow the trike.
The cross tube strikes the back of your calves and drags your feet under.
I've never managed to tip one up but my mate who is a very light weight has.
No big deal it flops back down.

 

[th62]

Slam on the front brakes as hard as you like it won't end over. No point in rear brakes on a Tadpole: as soon as you apply brakes all weight is transferred to the front. Tadpoles tend to have lots of gears, many low range because of hills. On a normal bike tou can stand on the pedal to assist going up hill, not an option on a recumbent so that's where gears come in. Generally speaking though, recumbents on a nice flat surface will outperform a bike - in top speed at least. A recumbent is not a lot different from a leg press machine you use in the gym, so you benefit greatly from the power in your thighs.

I have tipped one, ironically it was on the lowest one I ever built, from memory the seat height was somewhere around the 100mm mark, so anything is possible. Recumbents with two wheels at the front will always handle better in corners than recumbents with two at the rear, two at the rear are quite easy to tip.

Have you given thought to a two wheel recumbent? if built right they are seriously fast and handle well due to the low centre of gravity. They are also easier to cart in the back of your car, lighter and easier to build. The drive train may need some assistance in the form of a third set of gears if speed is the goal.

 

[th62]

Part way through the new chassis and then the new wireless speedo arrived so took time off the chassis to make a mount for the speedo and mirror. Simple fix, just a 300m lemgth of 12mm aly tube shrunk into a square piece of acetal for the axle mount. The speedo and mirror are housed on a bracket made from a 25mm piece of round acetal. Rather than modify the mirror, which I can get anywhere, I drilled an 18mm hole in the acetal for the mirror mount and the 12 mm aly tube is shrunk onto the speedo bracket. Simple but looks neat.

 

[th62]

Another addition: I had a spare coolant hose, normally used on my lathe, in the workshop so i fixed it to the back of the seat and mounted a water bottle to the front deraileur post linking them together with a length of retic hose.

 

[th62]

I did a little work on the new chassis over the last few days, added mounts for a shocky, the mounts give me five settings and around 100mm of travel. The shocky weighs 400 grams but the fork stays that aren't required with the shockies save 400 grams so the chassis should be around 100 grams heavier, I can live with that.

 

[th62]

A little more work done on the new chassis: Completed the swinging arm and suspension as well as the squab and shaped the backrest.

 

[th62]

Made a bit of a boo boo with the suspension: didn't allow for my weight so had to make new mounts and order a shorter shocky. While waiting I spotted some cable guides in place, attached mounts for a rack, shaped a luggage rack, tacked the front deraileur mount on and attached the chain idlers. The new suspension now has nine settings in lieu of five, bit of a waste but it does look good. I'll attach a couple of chain idlers up front tomorrow and then it's just a matter of waiting for the shocky to arrive.

 

[th62]

Getting there: undercoated and waiting for the top coat. Metalic silver chassis, Black for seat, rack and steering bits. Alloy bits will be blasted and clear coated.