The building of a Trike... and for an interlude, A Vespa
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Budget update
£609 (as of last count) + £70 (headstock turning and bearings) = £679 Crikey, I'm a bit worried that im going to go over budget - can i really bring this all together now for just over 300 quid? and i haven't even bought my frame tubing yet!
3 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Good to see some steady progress on Black Spanner. Re our text message last night about tidying up all the cables and ancilliaries etc. I would try and hide as many as I can in the frame tubes. I know it adds extra time, hassle and maybe a bit of cost but I also think it would be worth considering locating the radiator at the back behind/under the seat. If you plug the frame tube with an outlet and then use some sort of sealer like petrol tank sealer then the frame tube will carry the coolant. If the rad is at the back then it will require some sort of space that you could use to insert a box for the battery (and other electrics). I also think it would be worth trying a bike battery (probably at least 1/4 size of a car battery) to do the job. We could always try one of my bike batteries to test if it has the oomph to turn your engine over. The Reliant trike I saw last night didn't do any of the above and I think it suffered a little cosmetically as a result. What he did have however was a simple suspended back axle that he had retro fitted. We got talking and he said that the hardtail proved to be just too hard for him, mind you I didn't ask how many miles he does each year. Obviously it was more complex than a pure hardtail but not in a way that made you think it would be beyond you technically and also from the budget perspective. Cheers, Hughie
Ooh lots of thoughts here. Ive seen some rad-at-the-back set ups and they do look very neat. My hesitancy here is driven by my want to keep the back end as sparce as possible (not many trikes seem to do this) and keep the bulk forward - i visualise this like a lunging leopard on elegant rear legs and thrusting powerful chest.... also it will keep the cost and time down if i mount up front! That said i'm not closing the idea yet Excellent idea about the battery - im sure battery technology must have progressed over the years to have something a bit more compact that would turn this little engine over - i dont want to get involved with changing voltages though!.... and it would be worth me investing some time in getting the engine running sweetly so that it didnt need great effort to get it to fire. Soft-tails? Lets get this prototype hard-tail finished first ;-) maybe yours should be a soft-tail?
I think you might be surprised at how small and discreet a modern bike radiator can be. Take a look at a few bikes and judge for yourself. But a compact rad with a discreet fan (I have one about 4" dia.)could still fit at the back without compromising your desire for a sparce back end. All bike batteries will be 12V by the way, no need to change electrics. Hughie
3 comments:
Good to see some steady progress on Black Spanner. Re our text message last night about tidying up all the cables and ancilliaries etc. I would try and hide as many as I can in the frame tubes. I know it adds extra time, hassle and maybe a bit of cost but I also think it would be worth considering locating the radiator at the back behind/under the seat. If you plug the frame tube with an outlet and then use some sort of sealer like petrol tank sealer then the frame tube will carry the coolant. If the rad is at the back then it will require some sort of space that you could use to insert a box for the battery (and other electrics). I also think it would be worth trying a bike battery (probably at least 1/4 size of a car battery) to do the job. We could always try one of my bike batteries to test if it has the oomph to turn your engine over. The Reliant trike I saw last night didn't do any of the above and I think it suffered a little cosmetically as a result. What he did have however was a simple suspended back axle that he had retro fitted. We got talking and he said that the hardtail proved to be just too hard for him, mind you I didn't ask how many miles he does each year. Obviously it was more complex than a pure hardtail but not in a way that made you think it would be beyond you technically and also from the budget perspective. Cheers, Hughie
Ooh lots of thoughts here. Ive seen some rad-at-the-back set ups and they do look very neat. My hesitancy here is driven by my want to keep the back end as sparce as possible (not many trikes seem to do this) and keep the bulk forward - i visualise this like a lunging leopard on elegant rear legs and thrusting powerful chest.... also it will keep the cost and time down if i mount up front!
That said i'm not closing the idea yet
Excellent idea about the battery - im sure battery technology must have progressed over the years to have something a bit more compact that would turn this little engine over - i dont want to get involved with changing voltages though!.... and it would be worth me investing some time in getting the engine running sweetly so that it didnt need great effort to get it to fire.
Soft-tails? Lets get this prototype hard-tail finished first ;-) maybe yours should be a soft-tail?
I think you might be surprised at how small and discreet a modern bike radiator can be. Take a look at a few bikes and judge for yourself. But a compact rad with a discreet fan (I have one about 4" dia.)could still fit at the back without compromising your desire for a sparce back end. All bike batteries will be 12V by the way, no need to change electrics. Hughie
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