# A year in the life of an E-trike



## voyager (31 Oct 2014)

Hi Folks 

*In search of a near perfect E-Trike *

The voyager e-trike is just coming up to a year old , This was my first real attempt in building and designing my own trike after nursing the gravel rash from the voyageur recumbent bike I built . The Voyageur a 20" front 26" rear long wheelbase recumbent had a few problems being 9 ft long it had the turning circle of an ocean going liner and the awkwardness of an extended ladder to move around the workshop , The bike rode nicely but it had to go 
The seat angle was changed and to make the trike more stable the plan was to get the seat under 12 " off the ground with a shorter wheelbase and wider track to give good stability at speed , this coupled with direct drive ehub and front disc brakes gave a trike with excellent handling and good stopping power .





This was one of the first Photos of the trike on the first of the test rides down to Shoreham Beach . . 
The trike is unusual as the cross boom has been dropped and the whole trike lowered by 2 inches as previously stated to get the centre of gravity as low as practical , so much so that we had to incline the front boom to eliminate heel strike with a 34" track and a 45 " wheelbase its handling can only be described as excellent
We went a little overboard on the gearing using a Thun quad chainset on the front and a 14-28 7 speed on the rear this gave us gears from 22" up to 90" and it is pedalable up to 30 mph .
The Trike was sprayed red with black trim and black seat and the original voyageur decals that I had ordered were adjusted to read voyager . 
Less than a week after this photo the trike was winterised with mudguards and lights and bigger panniers..

The trike was a great success from the start but had a few niggles which were sorted along the way more of which I will describe in later posts .

So a year on the trike is still my daily local transport 

more to follow 

regards emma


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## Panter (31 Oct 2014)

That is absolutely stunning! Very much looking forward to reading more about it


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## raleighnut (31 Oct 2014)

Very nice, kinda what I am thinking of for my N+1. I've been looking at the KMX and then fitting it with a 7 speed 250w rear drive (Cyclotricity)
I put my current () uprong together for about a grand but I also swapped the handlebars, seatpost and forks and ended up with a better trike than the £1600 models sold commercially (for me anyway)


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## numbnuts (31 Oct 2014)

Very nice well done


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## welsh dragon (31 Oct 2014)

That looks very nice indeed. Not sure if I would like something like that though. I would think it feels a bit odd being that low to the ground, but it does look like it woild be fun. I look forward to to hearing more.


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## steveindenmark (31 Oct 2014)

Thats lovely, but it must weigh a ton ;0)

What distance can you get out of the battery?


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## voyager (31 Oct 2014)

Panter said:


> That is absolutely stunning! Very much looking forward to reading more about it



Thanks Guys for the compliments



welsh dragon said:


> That looks very nice indeed. Not sure if I would like something like that though. I would think it feels a bit odd being that low to the ground, but it does look like it woild be fun. I look forward to to hearing more.



Believe it or not cars do give you a wide berth as the are uncertain about a trike



steveindenmark said:


> Thats lovely, but it must weigh a ton ;0)
> 
> What distance can you get out of the battery?



Here lies another tale , 12 v 12 AH batteries are unfortunately Heavy and this put the finished bare weigh up to 110lb about 53 Kg with a range of 12 miles as the 1 hour discharge rate of a 12 ah battery is ONLY 7AH  and the motor setup was power hungry  and the battery weigh was OVER 12 KG or 26lbs  , Pedalling the beast home with a flat battery was not the easiest of tasks especially on a long hill ..

As the first weeks went by a few little niggles were audible and visible , A ticking from a front disc ( I dont like these "bumpy " discs and prefer round discs) and the brake calipers are standard MTB ones which means the mounts are different left and right unlike the later trikes that use pit bike handed calipers and the pannier bags wernt stiff enough and could make a ticking noise as the touched the spokes after a few high speed turns ..

A pair of home made mudguards  were made up for the front wheels using a heat gun and formed with a piece of waste water pipe with headlamps fitted to the mudguard arms

The article on the E-Trike build was posted in the Feb 2014 Atomic Zombie Newsletter " In search of the near perfect e-trike "
The newsletter with the original article can be downloaded from here  http://atomiczombie.com/NewsLetters.aspx 

By the end of February I had a bit more money to throw at the project and I purchased a Lithium 10 AH battery pack and a pair of circular disc rotors

This cured the ticking disc which turned out to be a poorly manufactured disc with several burrs and the trike shed several pounds in weight , as if it had been on an superfast diet and workout  when the Lithium batteries were fitted , Leaner, meaner ,faster, greener and cleaner  at 82 lbs still a heavy weight but a quick , and awesome looking trike with a range of 16 -18 miles without pedalling , The only drawback is the Direct Drive motor saps a little power when the trike is under pedal power like a constant dynamo rubbing on a tyre .

( hence the 20/20 e-trike project was starting to form in my mind ) still the mods were carried out I wanted a trike that I could lift into the back of the car and take on holiday with me , and use a geared motor so the " overheads were reduced " .

With the gearing and despite being the wrong side of 60 I could still get this beast to over 29 mph ( 46kph ) on the flat , The search for the near perfect e-trike was over , Still I wanted some smaller and better , that story can be read inn the other thread.

So as Summer approached the trike was running well and joined by the newly converted AZ street e-fox for my partner a modified streetfox with disc brakes and USS .




Both trikes were now fitted with lithium packs marathon tyres , the voyager running as an everyday trike with Mudguards and lights in its winterized guise .

Summer brought out the triker in both of us and the limitations of the 20/26 trike meant we could never take the trikes on holiday with us , The new project was starting to be born

Well that's enough for now I need to dig out a few more Photos , but there are lots of info in the link above if you are interested in the build .
( sorry no photos of the gravel rash )

so Far that the first 4 months of the year and the trike having done about 500 miles without any real problems . more will follow later

regards emma


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## voyager (31 Oct 2014)

As you have probably realised by now I contribute to the Atomic Zombie Bike builders form as well as here and During March Danny came down from Essex as he was intrigued by the idea of an electric trike ( Currently he is building a trike from round tube with drum drakes ) and I met up with another Zombie
John who lives locally .
Danny came down for the day and we went out for a ride and discussed the idea of a Summer get together .




Down by Shoreham Lighthouse and the lifeboat station , Danny made the most of the trip down here and enjoyed meeting John and myself .

The idea of a camping weekend on trikes was born and in July it came to fruition with 5 of us on trikes staying in a relatively local ( for us ) campsite
The weekend was great despite a thunderstorm in the night and high temperatures during the brilliant sunny days all in all a brilliant weekend




So we have reached an abridged version of the first 6 months iin the life of an e-trike or maybe the thread should have been a year in the life of a bike building e-triker 

The first two trike are mine and are the voyager and the original 20/20 , Sandman's marango and Tuula's streetfox with Danny's original streetfox on the right .
all are home/hand built trikes 


regards for now emma


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## Panter (31 Oct 2014)

Fantastic, thanks for sharing those 
It's done absolutely nothing to reduce my wanting of a recumbent trike though


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## voyager (31 Oct 2014)

Hi Folks
Well its July now and the 20/20 trike as you could see in the last post ( red with cream upholstery ) was finished with its original Specification and Ken enjoyed the weekend with good food , wine , and company , Ken had brought along his Guitar and played in the background both evenings .
This weekend proved that without a trailer it was not possible to take the big trikes away but the 20/20 trike fitted with ease in the back of the Mondeo .
So in August the second of the 20/20 ( all three wheels are 20" ) trikes was built and the original 20/20 had a few upgrades ,
The red 20/20 was fitted with a q100 BMS 327 rpm motor and kept its existing bottle battery but the new " stealth trike (Painted matt black and with gloss black lettering) had the original bits from the red trike , This trike even had the SLA batteries from the original voyager but weighed ina heavyweight at 100lbs and between us we could not lift it onto the roof of the car . once we fitted the spare bottle battery it lost 25 lbs and became light enough to go on the roof (, lifting a trike to head height was no mean task for two 11 stone sixty something year olds .

By now all the quirks were sorted out on the Voyager and it was running like a dream and was still

my daily runabout in the Brighton to Shoreham area being used as a car replacement and if necessary towing a trailer . .

In late August we booked our late holiday thanks to a carers grant and extra cover to allow me as a 100 hour a week carer for my mother who is in her 95th year , the second 20/20 was finished off and checked over to eliminate any problems but as most of the running gear came from the other trike the build had gone smoothly.
Both 20/20 trikes were coming with us and a caravan on the back with one trike in the boot and the other on the roof it looked like we meant business getting a few odd looks by other road users on the way ,
The 20/20 red e-trike spends a lot of time in the boot of my car now as I have run out of space the Streetfox is now " in the way" as we are using the other two trikes most of the time , I hope to sell that later on , the specification is rather specialised and requires that special type of rider that likes that sort of power. , anyway back on track the weeks holiday we had was great , with 2 e-trikes running around the quiet town of Selsey with so many comments and cheers of cool , awesome and I want one everywhere we went , The week finished so quickly it was a shame but we had to go home
Martha Reeve and the Vandellas were on at the Holiday venue the weekend we were there and we really did have a great time with really nice weather.





The English Channel on the background this is the most southerly point of Selsey Bill the pub just up the road of the same name unfortunately had closed down to become next year a supermarket so we were forced to ride on to find another Pub 

After we got back Ken asked the question how easy would it be to make a dismantable trike that would fit either inside the caravan or go inside the estate along with the other one , Now that is yet another story .



Panter said:


> Fantastic, thanks for sharing those
> It's done absolutely nothing to reduce my wanting of a recumbent trike though



Why not build your own ?

regards until after the weekend for the final parts of the year

emma


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## Panter (31 Oct 2014)

voyager said:


> Why not build your own ?
> 
> regards until after the weekend for the final parts of the year
> 
> emma



Sadly I have absolutely no DIY skills whatsoever. I struggle to make a mess by myself let alone anything constructive!


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## ufkacbln (31 Oct 2014)

welsh dragon said:


> That looks very nice indeed. Not sure if I would like something like that though. I would think it feels a bit odd being that low to the ground, but it does look like it woild be fun. I look forward to to hearing more.




The problems with the height are a myth that can only be disproved by riding one


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## voyager (1 Nov 2014)

Cunobelin said:


> The problems with the height are a myth that can only be disproved by riding one


I must agree there Remember a trike is much bigger than a council wheelie bin and people don't keep running these over in the road 

Ride and see for yourself 

Continuing 


So now we have come to the end of September , During the holiday we sketched up a few Ideas and came back refreshed and read to start again ....... ,

The Transportable had been designed a little while ago ( but not as a totally dismantable trike but had the ability to remove the front pedal boom 
BUT ( l like a but sometimes ) it was not without its little opportunities but with a few mods the new trike was rideable in October Now with Under Seat steering and disc brakes all round . , Well we could add a electric motor was the next idea , but that comes later, ( I must admit it would be sensible to add a motor , with my health not being 100% ( I am a diabetic with high blood pressure and I have diverticulitis which flares up without warning )
an e-assist is a sensible option .

Still there is still a month left in the year ...

The thread on AZ on the trike is ....
http://forum.atomiczombie.com/showt...antable-transportable?highlight=transportable

Having lost an hour of Daylight  the voyager was refitted with Cree front lights and a single rear light on a repaired bracket that I damaged whist reversing the trike into a fence  and is still in use with over a 1000 miles of fun in the past 11 months .

more to follow 

regards emma


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## voyager (1 Nov 2014)

Hi Folks
Before we conclude the final month of November  a couple of more photos 
The e-shopper project was completed in October  and the Cree Lights were fitted on the voyager , from the photo you can see its much the same as last year with its lithium battery upgrade  and circular disc rotors 





The e-shopper project was a quickie project thrown in for good measure , The hubs were on special offer at chain reaction for under £35 delivered






and today the first of November after Lunch we had a ride on the e-trikes from Peacehaven along the busy A259 dropping down to the esplanade and along the underpass to the Cafe at Ovingdean for a well earned cup of tea  ( we had been working hard today chopping wood and tidying the garage all morning ) 




and home before the darkness descends on us at 16:45 .


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## voyager (3 Nov 2014)

Hi Folks

As you can see a lot has happened since the design of the Voyager , I sold my original T rex tadpole this was due to a number of reasons that could just be described as a bad design , The trike had an awful design for the wheel pivots and having rim brakes did not stop and would have taken more time to modify it than build another 




The Trex I owned for 8 months and despite all the little opportunities it was my first tadpole , I fitted the e-conversion after a few months as my health was not good , The e-assist allowed me to use the trike as everyday transport rather than the car and slowly my health improved .

The T rex gave me the background learning experience I needed to build the Voyager removing all the bad points and adding disc brakes and under seat steering . Fitting pannier bags even helped to reduce the centre of gravity making a " leaner , meaner , faster and cleaner , greener trike the almost perfect e-trke and adding mudguards to stop the high speed water wash that came off the uncovered front wheels in a turn on wet roads .
Originally these were made from sliced pieces of waste pipe reformed using a heat gun but later as they distorted due to the internal stresses of thermal plastics were replaced by the mudguards from an old 20" shopper bike and sprayed matt black.

In the background is the streetfox built from the Atomic Zombie Plan before we modified it for electric power fitting Under Seat Steering and front disc brakes

So what have I learnt so far , The choice of the DD motor was not the best choice that I have ever made, the geared motors are more human power efficient and lighter . You sometimes make mistakes to learn but overall I am happy with the trike and its performance. 

The BMS range of motors and batteries are good value for money but the carriage costs are high if you order a complete wheel .

The 20/26 trikes are smoother to ride than the 20/20 although I love them both I find the 20 /26 more fun to ride . So what is next for the rest of the month ,

That we are going to have to wait and see . Things are on order and the next few weeks depend on what arrives first ...... 

regards emma


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## voyager (7 Nov 2014)

Hi Folks 
With about 3 weeks before the first Birthday  of the Voyager e-trike , Things have started to slow down the wet and windy weather does nothing for the aches and pains of a retired OAP but active cyclist  . Some of the bits I have ordered are destine to arrive next week . 

One of The Cree headlamps I only fitted last week has lost its lens already after about 5 miles of use, so you can imagine I am a little pee'd off and have ordered another set these will have a dab of nail varnish to stop it happening again .

Next week it will be a wheel build for the other trike assuming the hub arrives . and see if anything else will fall off between now and then 

regards emma


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## Scoosh (7 Nov 2014)

As long as the bits are only falling off the trike … 

I love the casual, almost nonchalant way you mention "a wheel build …"  - something most of us would baulk at doing and would be asking for advice/info from CC !


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## voyager (7 Nov 2014)

Scoosh said:


> I love the casual, almost nonchalant way you mention "a wheel build …"  - something most of us would baulk at doing and would be asking for advice/info from CC !



Hi Scoosh 

Forty odd years ago I need a wheel build doing ( pair of sprints ) and a racing bikie offered to do it for me for fifteen bob ( 75pence in todays money or 2 gallons of fuel back then ) 

*Or*
for a pound  He would teach me to build the wheels myself and true them , That was the start of it and I have built my wheels and time trialled on them That was many moons ago , Turning pedals in anger  now I am a pleasure Triker and by hobby a bike / trike builder and I still find it relaxing to build my own wheels  - Remember you cannot get 20" wheels with disc brakes and 14mm spindles , ( don't prove me wrong ) and its cheaper to get Chinese e-hubs delivered than complete wheels . Most of the rims I use are ex bmx that have been recycled and that in itself saves an OAP some pennies .

regards emma


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## Scoosh (7 Nov 2014)

Sounds like the best £1 you ever spent !


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## voyager (7 Nov 2014)

At the time l didn't think so 
On reflection over the decades, if l ever met him again . A big thank you would be in order. I never realised at the time how many wheels l would ever build over a lifetime.
Thanks Steve where ever you are

Regards Emma


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## voyager (10 Nov 2014)

Hi Folks 
I have been going through the older photos on my computer and This was taken about 14 months ago it was the voyageur bike , the easy to build recumbent bike from Atomic Zombie , It used the rear end off a suspension MTB and the front end off a BMX , A real simple bike to build but a handful to store ,
It was this that became the voyager e-trike with a little help from an angle grinder and a mig welder .
More details can be found in the AZ newsletter of February 2014 .
Once mastered I was surprised how smooth it was to ride but it did need a lot of space to manoeuvre and at 9 foot long a garage to store it in .







It was never painted as the decision to turn it into a trike happened so very soon after I had mastered it and before the gravel rash had healed .
Apart from removing the front , The seat rake was reduced and the suspension angle of the rear triangle were reset lower to get the trike to sit much lower down .
The trike was lowered so much that the front part of the main boom was inclined to give enough clearance to eliminate heel strike .

regards emma


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## neil earley (14 Nov 2014)

Me as a kid was no good with a mechano set!! wish I was as good as you building things well done and cant wait to see your next build.


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## voyager (20 Nov 2014)

Hi Folks

I have replaced the Cree front lamps that fell apart and I modified the rear lamps on the voyager , I fitted a bar across the rack and now I have two rear lamps rather than the original single rear lamp .The hardware I sprayed black to blend in with the rack .
The rear wheel , disc brake , and battery have been fitted on the blue 20/20 trike and the pannier rack and bags fitted on the red 20/20
That only leaves the handlebars and cables to sort at the weekend .
I have managed a few more miles today and the trike is still running well in just over a week it will be a year old ,
Although I might seem to have gone quiet at the moment i am planning the next project and gathering the parts .
But that will be in another thread when it starts to get interesting

here is the original photo and the photo as it approaches its first birthday 





and now 





Regards emma


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## voyager (26 Nov 2014)

Hi Folks 

We have come to the end of the year of the e-trike The voyager is a year old today , it has covered well over 1000 miles and given many more smiles during the year along with the design and development of the 20/20 e-trikes that have proved more " manageable " for transporting . The voyager is still by far my favourite trike and despite a few short comings due to the lack of knowledge of e-bike bits 18 months ago when I ordered the rear wheel it has been a fun and reliable ride ( and still is ) out of a score of 100 its would get over 90 but if I were to upgrade it then it would get a few little changes , but on the whole it turned out well . 
The red 20/20 e-trike is almost 6 months old and has been a great development project going from a 20/24 " wheel trike ( still to big too fit happily in the boot ) down to the 20/20 this small change in design has made it a lot easier to transport in and on the roof of the car .
From the original weight of the SLA battery voyager at just under 60kg down to under 40kgs with the lithium pack and getting the weight of the 20/20 e-trikes with batteries down to under 35 kgs ready to go with higher specification equipment has been part of the fun .

Over the past year my fitness and health has improved ( I am still having problems but that is the way life is and things happen and I have to take the bad days with the good .As long as the good days exceed the bad ones its a bonus ) 

As for the " bent legs " that everyone talks about I think there has been so many muscles that have been spurred into life and some DF ones that don't get the use in the sitting position but it does not matter in the long run .

lt has been a really good time in building and fine tuning the trikes , and I have learnt a lot and thoroughly enjoyed the experience and have made a load of new friends along the way , I hope this thread gave you an insight into the good time that l have had along my journey in search of the near perfect e-trike . 

Hope you have enjoyed the thread and thanks for all the* "likes"* it has received along the way 

I will continue to add to the other 2 threads of the 20/20 e-trikes and the transportable as it is developed 
and start another thread if the voyager has any upgrades but at present none are planned ..

regards emma


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