recumbent trike build

[Scoosh]

When I changed from twist-grip shifters to bar-end shifters I fully expected to have to be using the friction setting. The only 8 speed bar-end shifter I found was Shimanos Ultegra and the rear derailleur is a SRAM X9 and according to all "wise men" they shouldn't work together in indexed mode. But stubborn as I am I set the shifter to indexed mode and set off for a testride. To my amazement it worked wonderful, there was one or two gears that rattled a little but they are at the end of the range and seldom used so it doesn't really matter. And I really didn't set up the gear, I just tightened the wire and screwed the clamping screws tigh

Good one ! ....


... but you really know how to p*** someone off, don't you ? Stuee has spent all this time and effort - and yours just 'worked wonderful'.

Meannie !

 

[stuee147]

Have you checked that the drop out where the rear mech bolts onto bike is correctly in line? Looking from the rear of the bike the two jockey wheels should line up with the teeth on the rear cogs. That might be the cause of the problem as you say everything worked on another bike. Anyway, you've got the bike running. Good man. Enjoy.

yea i checked that and it all lines up lovely the only thing i wondered was i have the rear dropout and the attachment for the rear derailluer are all in a straight ling and i have noticed on one of my old bikes the derailluer bolt hole is set about 4mm in towards the wheel im not sure how or even if this will effect it.

Good one ! ....
... but you really know how to p*** someone off, don't you ? Stuee has spent all this time and effort - and yours just 'worked wonderful'.
Meannie !

ill just hunt him down and hold him hostage untill he fixes my indexing gears

im sure indexing gears are like the old seven day timer on the old vhs machines you can either do it and it works or it feels like your trying to do brain surgery wearing scooper gear while singing we will rock you by queen

 

[fixedfixer]

I'd be surprised if the 4mm made a difference. What's important is that the limit screws let the mech move the full range from say 7th to 1st. More critical perhaps if you ran 11 speed where the smallest cog is a fag paper width from the drop out. Sorry I'm not closer or I'd come and help. Looking forward to a ride report when you go out with Scoosh

 

[stuee147]

Yea I wasn't sure if the offset would matter I was wondering if it could be why I had problems as each cog is space about 4 to 5mm about the same as the offset. But iv just noticed there is quite a few washers on the axel so I might try moveing them about to see if it makes any differents
Well I'm out in the garden now so ill have an update later hopefully with pics lol

 

[stuee147]

well had quite a good day outside today even though its been threatening to rain all day.

first up iv moved the bottom chain guide forward only by about 4 inches but iv also spent time making sure its in aliment with the wheel cogs and the pedals. i also found i had an old deraillure with large cogs almost twice the size of all the others i have so i swapped out the front cog for a larger one this has given me plenty of clearance on the trackrod now.

the next thing on the list was to make a final decision on the handlebars. i finally went with one left and one right hand bar both cut and angled slightly differently, to allow for my left arm weakness. i also played about with different types and sizes of brake leavers, and gear leavers and i found a way to set them up and iv found it to work well for me.

then came the fun with the front brakes, i needed to make them pull from the bottom and i also wanted the left hand brake to receive the cable on the right instead of the normal right.
first stage was to dismantle the brakes and cut the two connector holders sections off making it so i could swap the connectors around giving me cable in from the bottom

cut and ready to weld

and here it is welded and then the welds ground smooth the brake pad you can see next to it is to show the part i used to rebuild the brakes i used the part off of and old set of v brakes that holds the pad to the arm this screws into the threaded hole where the cable guide used to screw in then the hole where the brake pad used to go is where the threaded cable guide goes

and the finished brake with the cable in from the bottom. unfortunately i was unable to work out how to get the cable in on the right on the other side, the only way i managed it was to put the brake on underneath the brake arm not quite what i wanted but it will have to do until i can figure out how to work it.

here is a view of the pulley that the cable from the front brake leaver comes around and then splits into 2 going off to either front brake in the second pic you can see the splitter and how the cable runs underneath the main frame

and here is the finished trike working brakes working gears it all seems to be up and running lovely
now if i get time tomorrow i will carefully strip the bike down grind down and tidy up the welds on the frame and then paint it all and then rebuild it i cant wait

 

[fixedfixer]

Good work. I still can't believe how you just crack on with stuff. I like what you've done to the brakes to alter the pull. Looks a great bike. Looking forward to seeing the photos of the painted bike.

 

[stuee147]

yea if i have something to do i will crack on until its done i really hate having things dragging on lol

i think its going to look good the paint i have is Massey Ferguson bright red i think its a lovely colour and i used to use it on my old landrovers so i know its very hard wearing and easy to apply and drys quick. its also an easy to see colour in day and night so its good for safety.
depending on how i go this week i should be able to strip the trike down and prepare the frame and parts for painting in about 2 days then i will be able to put 2 good coats of paint on in a day easy it can be recoated after 2 hours with the paint i have. and i will be painting it at my house as i have a large spare room that i dont use so im going to line the floor with plastic sheeting, and i have a couple of fans that run off usb and i can use my free loader usb battery pack so the fans will help clear the fumes and as its not using mains power no risk of a big spark catching any fumes. also the paint i have will be applied with brush and gloss roller gives a perfect finish quickly and easy. iv been thinking of maybe tack welding a few pieces of 3 or 4mm rod a few inches long that will hold the frame off of the floor and could be touched up after. my other idea is to make a sort of cross out of some 3x1 iv got laying about and knocking a few 6inch nails threw to hold the frame as it drys.
and on the day i paint the frame i can clean up the parts that dont need paint. then i think a day to build it back up and a day (or 20) to set and adjust the gears brakes steering ect and of course make a better seat cover lol so with my workings i might be on the road (god help everyone else lol) by sunday or monday

 

[starhawk]

ill just hunt him down and hold him hostage untill he fixes my indexing gears

OOOps didn't want to p*** someone off, more like an illustration to that sometimes it works like clockwork without any hitch at all and othertimes it works against you every step of the way and develops new problems along the way

 

[stuee147]

well another good day i started off with the left hand front brake, about 3:30am i had a brain wave about how to make the brake cable enter on the right so i got my mini drill and started work.at 11:00am

the left brake fitted under the support arm to receive the cable on the right

this is the finished brake just how i wanted it and it only took me 20 mins

here is my home made track rod i used the top section of the down tubes of my two donor bikes and welded on a pice of 6mm plate steal with a hole threw to attach it to the wheel bearings. then a seat tube gets slotted in. and to adjust you simply undo the bolts that hold the seat tube in place and slide it to fit then tighten. as easy as changing the hight of your seat

by 12:00 after two hours i had the frame striped and ready to prepare for paint

then by 5pm this evening i had this

a frame striped welds ground down and a primer coat applied and ready for paint. and a big box of parts with the parts that need painting cleaned up and primed ready for paint.

so it looks like i need to rethink my time scale as im already a day and a bit ahead of what i thought lol

 

[Scoosh]

This could be one of the quickest home-design-and-build trikes ...

 

[stuee147]

This could be one of the quickest home-design-and-build trikes ...

really ? i honestly feel like im going slow..
a few years ago it only took me 6 days in-between doing 8hr shifts to remove strip down and rebuild a series 3 landrover engine that included grinding down the valves and there seats by hand. but then again i was a few years younger then and had full use of both arms lol

anyway last night i put the 3rd coat of paint on the frame and parts so today im going to spend the day cleaning and preparing the bearings and clean all the brake leavers and gear leavers and clean out the threaded holes from excess paint. then. tomorrow all going well i will start to rebuild the frame .
here is a couple of pics of the painted frame and parts

oh yea and at some point i still have to make a cover for the seat lol
iv ordered a new chain well 3 lol and iv also ordered new inner cables for the brakes and gears. when i was building the trike i used old cables off of the donor bikes to set up and test the brakes and gears so i could test out different ways of routing cables without wasting new stuff. the only drawback to this is there isnt always long enough lengths of cable to do one run, the way i have got around this is on the longer runs of cable such as the rear gears and brakes i didnt have long enough lengths to test so on one of the longer straight runs of cable i welded on the cable guides i had cut off the donor bikes. this left me with a long section of exposed inner cable just the same as on a normal bike. as i was having to use old cable to test fit it was a simple case of joining the cable in that exposed section making 2 short cables into 1 long one. and now i have the new cable on order when i fit it on that exposed section of inner cable i will slide on a few of the little rubber rings iv got hold of and best thing is they are red so they match the frame lol

 

[fixedfixer]

Looking good. I do like the Fergie red. I have seen single speed chain in red - don't know if you can get it for 7/8 speed but it could look ok. I really like what I see here. My bent is a EZ clone via Recycle Recumbent plans but I could be tempted with a trike build. You are an inspiration stuee147.

 

[stuee147]

Looking good. I do like the Fergie red. I have seen single speed chain in red - don't know if you can get it for 7/8 speed but it could look ok. I really like what I see here. My bent is a EZ clone via Recycle Recumbent plans but I could be tempted with a trike build. You are an inspiration stuee147.

iv looked for a red chain but i can only find a single speed in red so iv ordered a nice shiny silver one lol iv got cable outer casing in red and the little cable end crimps i was looking at going with red material for the seat but i think it would be to much red so im now looking at black as a contrast.
i looked at several designs on the internet from autonomic zombie and a few other sites and i couldn't find just what i wanted there are some great designs out there with some great ideas. so i basically picked the bits i liked and designed my own version around them i made a rough prototype to test and to get some measurement from and then drew up something i could work from but i have to admit a few things have changed along the way lol

and i dont know about an inspiration but if it gets more recumbents on the road who am i to argue lol

 

[Scoosh]

If you need longer than normal brake/gear cables, check out ones for tandems, as some of them they obviously need to be very long. An LBS needed a tandem gear cable when I had issues with my DF bike with SRAM kit.

 

[stuee147]

a standard cable is long enough its just the cables i used to test fit everything were off of the donor bikes i had so had been cut down for them. the ones i have ordered are 2 meters long each which should be long enough i just have to wait for them to be delivered im hoping they come tomorrow so i can get it all done and test it out but knowing my luck they wont come until mon or tus lol