Manky Monkey Motors

as mankey requested,heres a couple of pics of the trike i built using a bike the missus bought,
its a hard tail bolt on rear end and has been built about a year but because of the birth of my son earlier this year it hasnt had much use as yet
(http://i757.photobucket.com/albums/xx211/charliefarlie35/trikescan.jpg)

so whad da ya think ? ;D

Hi. it looks very tidy. what bike was it . are you running a full width axle or shortend.and is it a reliant axle. how dose it ride like . is it all registered and on the road

Questions, questions!
Very tidily done mate. Got any close up shots of the hardtail to frame mounts?
Overall, it's longer & lower than most bike/trike conversions, which I'd imagine would make it handle better. How's it ride?

the pics are deceiving,its not actually that long,i think its the camera angle.the axle was only set back probably 4-6 inches further than where the original bike wheel was...the hardtail framework fixes to either side of the swing arm mount point and then i had two blocks turned up that fit over the upeer shock mounts,visually its all bolted on so it was registered with a quick (30 seconds!!!) inspection at my local dvla  ;D
the bike is a virago 535,some say it would be underpowered but i find its quite nippy,will sit at 75-80 no worries.
axle is full width and currently running the 15" alloys you see in the pics,im currently looking for some 14" and fit with a slightly higher profile tire to give a little more bounce at the back as on bumpy roads it can be quite harsh on the kidneys  :),all in all it rides quite well,has a little wobble at 35 but once thro that its smooth.

Performance is about the same as a decent Reliant then. I was wondering if the rear hardtail subframe moves on the bike mounts at all & whether it needed locating tabs of some sort to stop it trying to pivot. But I guess because it's triangulated, it can't actually move anywhere.
Does the hardtail flex at all when you're riding? Appears to be smaller diameter tube than my own trike frames, but it matches the original bike frame dosen't it. I might've been tempted to add an extra couple of bracing tubes in on either but it obviously works just fine as it is. It's visually very simple -lots of open space, which I quite like. A lot of Triketeers seem to over-complicate things & pile on all sorts of unnecessary doo dahs just for the sake of it. Simple's always best in my book!
We recently added Klogan's Virago soft tail trike adaption to the Motors, 3 Wheels section of the site. If you've got any build-up pics & a few more of the finished product, it'd be nice to add a hardtail Virago conversion so readers can compare the 2 alternatives.  ;)

The frame doesn't flex or twist at all,the bottom frame rails are of a larger diameter that the top ones and are cds quality,the fixing bracket to the swingarm mount incorporates another mount slightly above it this gives it loads of horizontal strength,altho this mount looks a little ugly,it is hardly seen and serves its purpose...across the top of the axle is a tube eliminating some stresses taken along the axle
I will get some pictures taken to put on here

Yes please.  :)

Looks good!


Loads of people told me my GT550 wouldn't be powerful enough for triking but I've never had a problem with it - and when I go out with bikes they usually get left behind at fiorst simply because they're not expecting it to have much acceleration - which it does!