Manky Monkey Motors

Hi all, as a newbie to the world of trike building I have a lot of ideas running round my tiny brain and I'm not sure if any of them are workable so I'm here looking from advice from the experts  ;)
Right, to start with having perused the build info by MM and been very impressed by it, I am thinking of a similar look for the middle bit (where the engine & gearbox go) but I want a softail as both me and the missus have bad backs, I was thinking of an angled four link (Satchell) with coil over shocks, anyone know of any done like that? or any problems with the idea.
Next, and here's where it becomes a bit silly perhaps? I want to use the front suspension/braking system from the donor Reliant :o that bit needs a lot more researching tho' because I find it very difficult to find photo's of the front end, it's not the fixing on but the steering that's the problem.
Well, what do you think? Mad? Idiot? Total Tw*t, yeah I've had all those myself, and more  ;D
I'll be interested to see what you all think, Ralph.

Hiya Ralph.
Bouncy trikes aren't my particular forte, (all mine have been hardtails so far, just because I like the clean simple lines of a rigid back end & it's a damn sight easier to build. Certainly possible though. Have a browse through the Motors, 3 wheels section of the main site for some ideas. Triker Pete's built a few with suspension & might well be in the market to help you out, (he's currently reworking a mate's trike in his shed down in the New Forest). We've got a few semi pro builders here who should be able to give better qualified advice. Wynne at JW Motorcycles, (Dracken1 on the forum), springs to mind. He's Welsh but we like him despite that. Suspended trikes usually opt for the extended swing arm route, but a hotrod style 4 bar linkage ought to work just as well I'd have thought.
As for the front end, it's the bit most people throw away first. Very heavy & cumbersome. Depends on how chunky the rest of your trike's gonna be, but might look a little unbalanced, as well as being hard work to ride with. I don't know is the short answer! I've seen a few big car engined trikes using Reliant front ends but nothing the size of our little runabouts. It mounts off a heavy gauge box & round tube frame on the front of the standard Reliant chassis -might be tough to hook up to a single point on a trike frame. That'd be a hell of a lot of stress on the headstock. It'd need some serious bracing. Possible, but maybe a job for a pro builder. I'm also not sure how you'd fare if you put it in for an MSVA registration test. There's one set of regulations for "motorcycle derived trikes" & another, more stringent set for heavier, car derived trikes. Motorcycle derived doesn't refer to the engine but to the yokes, forks & single front wheel set-up of a normal bike front end. Using something that bears no resemblance to that might cause you problems. The extra weight might also be a factor. I don't know cos I haven't tried it. Have you got a Haynes manual? Several piccies & diagrams of the front end in there. I can send you a copy of it on a disc if you PM me your address.
Anyone got any ideas?

I am in the middle of modding a softail reliant trike, I was thinking of a similar rear setup, for speed of build ( prefer independent) and funnily enough I had a look at the original front end after seeing some racing sidecar setups recently, I want it low and to handle well, a better way to go would be leading link in my opinion

Hi again, thanks for the comments so far, now I'm even more confused, didn't even think about the handling ??? as far as the front end goes I wasn't going to use the Reliant chassis just the swing arm and shock etc.,I was thinking of fabricating the mounting lugs onto the front of the frame, does that make more sense?  R

I would love a copy of the manual, thanks I'll pm you.

by the way my Mammy was Welsh  ;D

The disc will be in the post in the morning Ralph. Hope it helps.
Yeah, sorry, I was thinking along the lines of grafting the Reliant gear onto a normal bike type headstock. I don't suppose it needs one though, any more than a Reliant car does. It'd certainly make an interesting build. Hope we'll get the write up when it's done! :)