Manky Monkey Motors

hi
can anybody help me with a bit of a problem im having.I bought a cx500 already converted by a so called profesional
you can see from the pictures whats happend  :o i have bought all new cds tube and another swinging arm what i need to know is how to go about the conversion without making a pigs ear of it and also making sure its safe and strong enough to do the job
thanks in advance

Ooh, that's nasty. Can you be a bit more specific about what you're trying to achieve Mouse? Got any shots of the whole trike so we can see what we're dealing with?

hi m8
heres my trike
http://www.bikerlifestyle.co.uk/Trike/micks/trike.html
im going to completly redo the swinging arm and make all the tube work to conect it upto the reliant axle what i need to know is.Whats the best way of conecting my new tube to the exsiting cx500 swinging arm.If im right the best way i can think of is to put a smaller diameter tube on the inside of both the new tube and the cx swinging arm am i correct ?

Mouse.
I have cut up/ looked at half a dozen cx swingarms now, and all of them have had some sort of corosion inside the tubes, from mild to rotten right through.
Dunno quite what you had in mind, but I drew this pic for someone a while back.
Also you might like to try BTW-UK.
  http://xsorbit27.com/users5/btwuk/index.php

now that looks a lot stronger than what the last guy made thanks a lot

Cheers.
I cocked up on the drawing. The tube should be 1 inch I.D (internal dia).

ok m8 thanks  ;D

Here is a horror story for you.
I built a new back end for this CX trike. The rear end was 2x1 inch thin wall box and it was welded straight on to the axle. It had been MOTed the previous year.
When I started to cut out the box section I found a load of rot in the middle frame, and had to fabricate a whole new section.
The new rear end was then made up from 3/4ID tube mounted through the bottom tube where the foot pegs bolt onto.

Just a shot of the new tube.

ByzMax & I were discussing the MSVA trike registering process the other day. It's true what he said- The MSVA's not designed to stop people building trikes as some think, but to keep the death traps off the road. I've seen stuff at shows that I wouldn't want to ride to the end of the carpark, let alone on the open road.

lets hope it works Manky Monkey because like you say theres a lot of bad s**t out there

I agree with Manky.

The dealings that I have had with the MSVA testers and the tech enquiry chap who does all the training of the testers has been great. They are very helpful and knowledgeable and do everything they can to help you get your chosen mode of transport through the test.

The test is very thorough but not ridiculous.

The stories that the MSVA inspector told me about some of the vehicles that he has inspected and refused made me realise what a good idea it is. It stops those that have got a bag of spanners and a welder for xmas and no idea of much else putting a death trap on the road.

There are some silly rules and regs amongst it  ::) but you can always change the parts that you want to afterwards as long as it continues to meet construction and use regs of course ;)

Will be posting an thread on getting a Trike through an MSVA soon.

We'll put it in the Motors, 3 wheels, trike tech bit as a proper article, rather than a forum thread when you're ready Byz.

Hi Mouse,
I'm converting a virago 535 and on all of the joints on the swinging arm I used 40mm tube with 4mm wall thickness. I turned down some solid steel bar to use as inserts, about 100mm long. I'm not saying that tubular inserts are not good as loads of people seem to use them. Just a personal preference to use solid inserts. I'm not trying to rattle anyones cage coz i'm pretty new to trike building myself., but its what makes me feel a little safer.
take care, ride safe, have fun.
Keith