Reverse trike

[Manky Monkey]

Your list's longer than mine K!
Looking forward to watching this one come together. Sounds interesting.

[klogan45]

Yep just a few things to sort out and build.
Acouple of the neighbours are always interested in what I'm doing and when I said I was going to stick two wheels on the front they thought it was really unusual. However since Monday three of them have told me, on seperate occasions that they have seen a couple of reverse trikes locally. They said that they thought they were unusual but nice in a quirky unusual sort of way.
I suppose that its like one of those situations where you never really notice a car untill you get one then itseems that the roads are full of them.

[Manky Monkey]

Typical. You wait ages then 3 come along at once!

[klogan45]

Just like Posties ahem....I mean buses 

[klogan45]

As promised (later than promised but here now) some pics of what I've been doing.
The top pics is of the bits I made to replace the forks, the second and thirdneed no explanation i'm sure it's not finished yet.

[klogan45]

a couple more

[klogan45]

Last one for now. I've welded the lowere A Arm mounts but my flippin' camera went up the swanee
The tubes and steering rod were just propped in place to give an idea of what's going on with the steering.
They're not in order either but you get the idea.

[Cabman77]

never having looked at one of these things, in any detail, I may be being a bit picky here, but, is angle iron the right material to use? I would have thought box section or seamless tube would be more of the right way to go. I do fully accept that I haven`t got a clue about right or wrong , in this case, but for angle iron to have the same relative strength it would have to be bloody heavy.

[Manky Monkey]

Id've gone with tube with lots of triangular plate gussets myself, but that's cos I build everything out of ERW toob. I reckon you've welded a car ramp to the front of your bike K! 
The idea looks intriguing though. Nice to see someone thinking outside the box, (section). 

[klogan45]

Hello cabman and MM, I have been having a think about things over the last few days and have been thinking about rectangular hollow section. Tube is a no no coz I'm going to enclose the whole front end and have some where to store a few bits and pieces! I also find tube to be hard to mitre. I know that it can be bent but try as I might I can't do compound bends.

I decided to go along with the angle section for two reasons which are both connected.

The angle section is fairly cheap so any cock ups are not so bad. I can just chop things about quite easily. I'm working from my head and how I want it to look. When I'm happy it will be easy to 'knock up' the design that I have. All the angles will be right (for my liking) I tend to have a quick sketch and then change things as I go along.

I can also then get a 'real' welder to weld up any really awkward area's for me, I've found a few already I'd as soon pay someone to do a good job on the area's that I can't do so well coz I can't reach them comfortably. There's not many though so that's ok by me. I can weld pretty well if I can get at things comfortably but awkward internal angles I find really hard. Now I know practice makes perfect but it would probably cost me more in knackered steel than getting a 'little man' or 'little lady' ( Politically correct....please note ) to do those bits right in the first place.

The angles are to give it a 'stealth' look.

I've already decided that the back end of the frame needs to be about an inch higher. Now is the time to change bits and pieces then re-do the frame in rectangular section.
I'm thinking 50mmx25mmx3mm which has about 2/3 bigger cross sectional area than the 30mmx30mmx5mm equal angle. So it will also be about 2/3 heavier. It won't flex as much either so probably won't need as many braces though.
Thanks for the comments, I appreciate your thoughts,
Regards
K

[Manky Monkey]

Sounds great mate. Good to have a plan!

[klogan45]

Every man should have a (Zombie) plan