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....