Trike Done! Part 2

I mounted a water bottle cage on top of the main tube using t-nuts intended for wood working. I cut off the tangs, then set them into a hole drilled in the frame and welded around the edge. I actually found metric t-nuts at Ace Hardware where I seemed to go twice a week to pickup nuts and bolts.
Here's the boom clamp I made. I but a section of the 2" tube, then slit it and spread it out slightly. I cut a threaded nipple used for tensioning fence gates in half and welded the pieces onto one side for nuts. Then I welded on two bushings to hold the bolts. It turned out pretty nice.
Here's the rear deraileur - it came from the bike I snagged at Community Cycling Center.
Finally, we could start painting, and wouldn't you know we got a 70 degree day for it.
I was able to paint the entire bike all in one day since I could use the back yard and driveway.
Reassembly went pretty quick. This time, I replaced the temporary nuts with nylon self-locking nuts wherever I could, especially in the steering linkage. To adjust the steering, I first loaded the trike with 150 pounds of sandbags to simulate a rider.
Then I centered the middle link and adjusted in one wheel to match it.
Then I used a yard stick cut into two pieces to make a slide ruler. Two rings of inner tube hold the pieces together. I brought the other wheel in line adding .1" of toe-in. It tracks very nicely, so I'm happy with that.
I made a mount for the speedo sensor out of a prop rod from an old wire rack. I drilled a hole in the brake mount for a place to attach it. I wanted to put the wireless sensor on the rear wheel to minimize error, but the wireless wouldn't reach that far. It works here without any problems.
These are the steering bumpers - just a piece of old tire wrapped around the handle bar. The tire protects the seat frame.
I made a seat cover out of Pfifer Tex, an outdoor furniture material I bought at Fabric Depot. I hemmed all the edges 1" and popped in brass grommets then laced the seats on with 1/8" cord. I put on 2 and a half chains from Bad Monkey, and adjusted everything. Here are a few pictures of a really happy kid riding his new trike. We both rode in the Human Power Challenge this weekend. It's a great group, with a large contingent of homebuilders, and some of the fastest and most capable riders around here. He took home a medal, and I got some positive comments on both of the bikes. Good times.
Jack

Trike Done!

My Bad - I haven't blogged in a while because I've been working feverishly to get the trike done before the Human Power Challenge which is put on by Oregon Human Powered Vehicles. Now that it's over and one, I'm catching my breath and tidying up the garage workspace as well as getting you caught up on the final part of the project.

I made handlebar mounts the same way I made the steering knuckles - by cutting pieces out of square tubing and welding up the seams. Then I cut up an old handlebar to make trike style direct steering bars. Somewhere I picked up a pair of bar-ends , which I'm using now as handles. Just by chance (not by design), swapping parts from side to side and front to back can give me 4 different hand locations/positions.
Here's the boom. The bottom bracket shell and shifter stem came from a road bike, but the sliding tube to fit into the frame is a 1 7/8" muffler pipe. Crude but cheap and it fits perfectly.
Here is #1 son testing the hand position to see if he can reach the full range when turning.

Now onto the drive train. I knew I'd need an idler to handle all that chain, so I started by turning a Raz'r wheel on the grinder and using a screwdriver to melt a groove in it. I made a spare while I was at it.
I laced string through the largest and smallest rings in the front and back and played around with the chain line by moving the idler around.
I ended up with this as the perfect location. The chain passes over the outrigger, and under the seat frame. With only 1/4" clearance above and below, I needed to be able to finely adjust the position of the idler.
This is the result. It mounts on a clamp around the short vertical tube that the rear triangle attaches to.And from the other side...I used links from an old chain for hinges on the clamp. It had to open up fully to go around the tube, then tighten down firmly with a bolt and welded-on nut.
more in the next post....

Flickr

I'm moving my bike project pictures to Flickr, since all I really do here is upload pictures and add comments. I plan to finish up the trike project story here, but that will probably be the last for this blog.