Manky Monkey Motors

In the beginning.....
I always seem to have stuff with me - tools, rucsacs dogs or children and the wee voices in my head reckoned a pick up trike would be just the ticket instead of having to fork out loads for a truck So, a quick look on Google Images produced some inspiration...
So hands up who would like the first on? Yes, I thought so, but there is more chance of the BBC showing re-runs of Jim'll Fix It then me finding one of these, never mind affording it.
The second one is getting there. A bit blingy but I do like the 30's Fordesque Pick up bed. Unfortunately I could carry more in my pockets than that. Mind you, I wouldn't send it back if I won it in a raffle. What else?

Bingo! This is what I need! Where did this come from? Manky Monkey Motors? Must have a look....
Just a few things I would change. It has to be bike based because Reliant Robins are as rare as Tory Politicians round here and bikes are more available. Plus I don't want to go down the SVA route so it would be a bolt on hardtail for me.
But MMM? What a wealth of info and experience -  just the thing for a chap like me up in the hicks.  Right, lets get some bit and get started...

After a bit of a false start with a CX500, I found a Virago 535 on Gumtree and a quick 'phone call and a bank transfer I was the proud owner. The proud owner of something  I hadn't seen and that was 180 miles away in Aberdeenshire.  My pals Daz and Angus who live over that way collected it and confirmed it was a good un. Phew! We were we meeting up the next month on a MR Course so we arranged a prisoner transfer then. Mabye January wasn't the best month to do this......

The journey back home was , em, interesting but all survived. I did mange to get rid of Doby the House Elfe who was sitting on the back ....
I had asked my boss if I could build the bike at work and he was happy to do so as long as it remained mobile so it could be pushed out the yard if we needed the room. The plan was to build off the swing arm but the mobility rule meant I had to leave the bike whole so it was onto Fleabay for another swing arm. I had already bought a Robin axle from the same source alongside a couple of very cheap Corsa rims with new tyres so when the swing arm arrived it was game on....

As it was basically going to be a flat bed on a flat frame then it made sense to make the frame out of box section rather than tubing, so it was measure ,measure, measure, then chop,chop. I think the pictures are basically self explanatory..

The box sections were welded at 90' to the spindle and parallel to each other and joined together with a 5mm plate. The side was then cut out of the drive side to allow the drive shaft to line up with the diff. I had done the usual cut up photos and drawings and decided that an 8" stretch in the wheelbase was what was needed. The width of the bed was dictated by the axle and a frame was made, complete with a pair of axle clamps as per MMM Trike Tech instructions,( but placed horizontally rather than vertically ). Nearly finished!

And up onto its wheels for a wee look...

Damn that red trike looks good ! ;D
Glad to see that you took pics as you went along. Makes a write up easier, informative and interesting.
Well done that man. :)

Looking good,another interesting project 

Your`re doing Braw work  :)
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Gentlemen, thank you for the kind and encouraging comments.

With the basic frame made it was time for a trial fit. The first picture shows my friend and colleague, Shane, starting to take the back end off the bike using the yard Hiab to hold it in the air! Shane is a biker of long standing and used to work in a bike shop so he is pretty much up on all things bike, though he has never done anything like this before. The great thing about Shane, apart from his sense of humour and his multi skills, is that he is a very good person to bounce ideas off. He also keeps me going when I'm struggling with the old Mojo....

The second pic shows the frame on the bike with the front crossmember in and two temp braces going up to the original shock mounts. the two notches are to take the 1" box section bed frame. We manged this in two hours keeping to our commitment of keeping things mobile. The reaction next day at work was quite interesting, especially from the young lads who couldn't believe you could do things like this..... They weren't brought up on "Custom Car".....

Everything was sitting right so whilst I made a couple of these....

....Shane started on the prop....
This was made with the front of the bike shaft and the rear of the Reliant one. I replaced the u/j later.The prop was tacked in place and the trike wheeled around to make sure everything moved as it should. Which it did. Sweet as a Gaelic song. Now it was starting to get exciting...

Looks better than that last propshaft on here .? ::) well done sir

If I had known that we could have made it out of box section  it would have saved a bit of time! :)

Anyway, it had all gone too well up to now. With the bike now a trike we did some measuring and realised that the right side of the trike stuck out 50mm more than the other. Hmm. we measured and measured and couldn't work out why. There was no choice but to take the thing apart again and lop 25mm of one side. Think about it...God knows we did..
So it was back onto the table, clamp, chop and weld. Whilst we were there we lopped the back off the frame too. We had completely over engineered the frame and it had become too heavy considering that there was a second frame being built out of 25mm box going on top to take the bed. We also braced the cross member and I started on the brakes
 

So here is the basic brake set up .
I used the existing bike cable and lever set up which is about 4:1. This  hooks up to the bottom of the lever pushing on the Landie clutch master cylinder which is about 2:1 . We beat ourselves up   deciding whether the final ratio is 6;1 or 8:1. In the end  it worked so its all academic and there is loads of adjustment. Life is too short to worry about some things...But where did all those bloody holes come from?

Nice.
Yep shaft drive swingarms aren't always aligned centrally to the bike. ;D
Will you be replacing the UJ with a  CV joint ?
PM sent.

I was just about to say you can add some holes for lightness but you've upset me now by calling them BLOODY holes ? ::) if you don't need them please donate them to my favourite charity..HOMES for HOLES.. 8)

Mr Olds,
Yep, the the back end of the bike is not symmetrical.... Every day is a school day! I hadn't plan to replace the U/J with a C/V, do you think I should?

Mr Stinkey, I think these things holes are breeding, look at the state of my over-engineered exhaust bracket. If you want them come and get them :)

You should at least think about it. UJ's (Hookes joints) should really only be used in aligned pairs. It depends a lot on the angle the prop runs at. The greater the angle the greater the variation in rotational speed in each rotation transmitted to the axle.
Short wheelbase trikes where the axle hasn't been shortened one side to align the diff with the gearbox output, tend to suffer most, from gearbox, axle or UJ wear.

Hello Dave,
Hmmm. Now you have me thinking. The splined end of the prop locates into a socket on a u/j attached to the output shaft from the bike. I made sure the u/j's were aligned when I fitted it. The prop is horizontal and only angled in one plane and is running at 15 degrees. Nothing binds and it runs smooth, however, I have to seriously consider a constant velocity joint - I don't mind replacing the bearings at the axle end, but I would hate to have to replace them at the bike end - it would mean taking the whole trike apart. Nice to know some-ones looking out for me! Anyone out there have experience of running a prop at 15 degrees?
Cheers, Tom.

If you have a UJ at both ends and they are correctly aligned, then there should be no problems at 15 degrees. I assumed that the bike would have a CV joint at the output, but come to think of it my 650 Yam also has a UJ at the gearbox end. :-[

Phew!  :) I'll let something else keep me awake tonight !

Can you post those holes to me ?

Mr Stinkey,
I tried to catch some of the big ones but they were too quick for me, so I have sent you some wee ones instead...

That's fantastic kind sir..they can be tricky little buggars.. 8)

                    ;D

You keep 'em talking, I'll get a policeman......................................... :P :P

I bet that doesn't reach him -you know how useless those Posties are.  :P

Some postmen tend to push to hard,which tends to affect their lives outside of work ? ::) but they do a sterling job

Aha ha, ha -Stirling. I see what you did there.  :D

Haggis you'd get it.?

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Never tried it. Maybe next year!

I suspect it's great after a long walk and your freezing cold,but it doesn't look appealing to me ?

Battered Haggis puddings are on the menu of nearly every Scottish Chip shop along with White and Red puddings  ;D ;D ;D.
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You lot are just weird!  :P

.... and this is the bastion of common sense and all things normal ? :D

 Weird IS normal around here. Common sense gets left outside, otherwise nothing would get done. :)

Guilty as charged.  :P

haggis is great. love it. best battered haggis i had was from a chippy just down the road from the oban distillery  ;D :D

My mother in law tried to buy a haggis in Sainsbury but was told they didn't have any at present because they were out of season.....

Anyway, brakes. I replaced all the brake parts and by luck, sorry, careful planning, the foot brake works fine now its all been bled and the brackets tarted up. The only thing I did out of the normal was to mount the shoes the other way round which meant the leading edge was facing the right way because the axle is running upside down. And yes, I did remember about the breather!
Handbrake next. I saved the cable stops off the axle when I cleaned it up and welded them to the new frame. I used an original Reliant handbrake lever and an original cable. I didn't want to use the original wheel system thing and split the cable.If something goes wrong with one side then at least I have the other side. I hope. I used stainless, compression, rigging end lugs. I reckoned if they were okay for Lloyds Register they should be okay with the MOT man.I was going to use the original wheel bracket but the cable was just long enough to be able to bolt through the bottom of the brake lever direct. Since the photos were taken I have covered the bare wire with Mig liner sleeve and the ends at the wheels with gear cable rubber bellows. I know what these shiny cables will look like after two days...

This was a big moment because it is really the last of the big mechanical jobs - the trike goes and stops. Yahoo! Body and electrics next.....oh, and perhaps an exhaust or two.

Very neat and I love those cable ends.
  You don't appear to have incorporated an equalising bar to ensure that the force applied to each side is the same, irrespective of cable stretch or adjustment.

Olds is right, its sometimes called a compensator. Without it you might only have one working, and pit a lot of side load into that joiner thingy.

Gentlemen, you are, of course, correct. Oops..  I've Googled 'Handbrake Compensator ' and it seems simple enough. I have about 200mm of space between the the lever and the barrel adjusters so I should be able to work in a balance bar there that will please The Man. Two steps forward, one back.....
Cheers, Tom

So, for the benefit of stoopid people, such as I, tell us more about these rigging fittings.
Like a braided brake hose, you just push the bare cable end into the end fitting, slide up the copper olive & screw the end cap on, & it grips the cable hard enough to withstand being hoiked on with a handbrake?
How much are these wondrous devices & are they available from any yacht chandlers?
I don't think I actually have a use for them at the moment, but could've used something like that many times in the past.

 Andy - The Sunday name for these fittings is a Swageless Terminal.On these particular fittings there are three wee wedges that surround the cable and are forced into the cone shaped base by the threaded lug pushing down on them via the brass washer. Its really important that the fitting is the right size for the cable, ie if the cable measures 3.2mm then you must use a 3mm fitting. I bought these from SWR for about £8.00 each. They are not rated but I've seen cables break before they slip. I'm willing to take the chance ....

http://www.steelwirerope.com/StainlessSteelFittings/SwagelessTerminals/SWR03303-3326.html#.WCQrf-OLSM8

 
The Rolls Royce of these fittings are Sta-lok which use a little wedge to tension everything but the same fitting costs about £18.00

 http://www.stalok.com/p-359-sta-lok-eye.aspx

However, a company I use a lot, Seaware, offers a similar, but cheaper alternative for about a tenner.

https://www.seaware.co.uk/stainless-steel-316-cable-eye-terminal.html

Seaware are a great little company - check out there stainless fixings - and despite being based in Cornwall manage to deliver to Fort William ( via Royal Mail) overnight.

Cheers,
Tom.

Just did a quick ebay search. Fork end, eye end and threaded rod end are available. They are never going to be cheap but could save a lot of hassle.
Thanks for sharing Tom

I can vouch for the strength in these couplings, seen them used on Hobie Cats, and they take some strain when moving.

Hobby Cats? Loony had a Workshop Cat that took some shifting sometimes.
Maybe there's a Royal Mail boat service I don't know about that sails them up the coast from Cornwall to Fort William?  :) Mind you, you'd be hard pushed to do that overnight I should think. What a marvellous service our Posties provide -give them all a raise I say.
Thanks for the info Tom. Can't think of a use right away, but I'll put that in my bag of Useful Stuff To Remember for future reference.

Groundhog Day for my handbrake! Thanks to Messrs Olds and Minimulty for pointing me in the right direction on this one. Total brain f*rt that was. Anyway, where was I before I had to re-wind? All this talk of Haggis and cats with hobbies has put me all wrong. Sometimes I think this forum has been hacked by Eddie Izzard. Without the make-up and ladies clothes of course. I presume. Unless your a lady. It's Friday and I need a weekend pass so I'll let you look at the photo whilst I go for a lie down...

Very neat

 :) That'll do it.

The good looking exhaust on the Virago is like a Holywood set - look round the back and you realise its all a facade. The only useful bits were the down pipes which were grafted onto a series of pre formed bends. These in turn connect up to a pair of 1.3/4" straight exhausts. The whole system is supported by four rubber mounts. I have learnt from bitter experience not to hang exhausts from rubber bobbins - they must sit on them or they just come apart. There are baffles in the exhaust pipes a la Andy's Junkyard Frog but they don't seem to do much. I am going to try wrapping some glass round them because I have damaged hearing and loud noise at close quarters physically hurts me.
The theory of exhaust wrap is that it keeps the exhaust gases hot for longer making the system more efficient and scavenging a few extra horses. In my case exhaust bandage covers up my pidgeon sh*t welding.....

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Oops...

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Yup, I found the same with the bobbins -all mine on my Pop had split around the middle after a year of use, so I had to reverse all the mounts so that the weight of the pipes sits on the bobbins, same as you. Mr Kapri had told me about this during the build -should've listened.  :)
My bike's got 12" long conical perforated baffles in each pipe. I haven't actually heard it run yet cos it's still at Mr Dslam's workshop, awaiting an MOT, but he tells me it's a tad loud. Unfortunately, wrapping the cones in fibreglass wadding would just reduce the diameter of the pipe as it'd be pressed into the cones by the gases. Maybe adding solid discs at intervals along the inside of the cone would disrupt the gas flow enough to quieten it? I'll be interested to know if you come up with a better alternative as I don't particularly want a loud bike.

Blimey! Its been a while since I posted. The trike made slow progress but my friend Shane ( see earlier ) became very ill and was eventually diagnosed with cancer in his leg. The cause of this was most certainly the hundreds of x-rays he had twenty years earlier after a horrendous bike accident.
I worked away at all those little jobs, solely because whenever I spoke to Shane he would ask what I had done and I didn't want to disappoint him. My heart certainly wasn't in it.

Shane's condition deteriorated to the point that he had to have a leg removed, but typical of the man, he was back at life in two weeks after he got his new prosthetic leg. The last jobs on the trike were the wiring then it the usual exercise  in patience with the DVLC.

With the Distinguished Gentleman's ride in Sept as our deadline we worked to finish the trike. But Shane's condition deteriorated, the cancer had spread and sadly in August he passed away. I pushed the trike into the garage and locked the door. If I had been offered a fiver for it at that point I would have taken it. We scattered Shane's ashes at sea this April and Shane's widow, the lovely Tina, persuaded me that I should finish the trike and go for the DGR in Shane's memory. To cut a long story that's what I did.....

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sorry for your loss. well done on a good looking well executed ride

Sorry about Shane.
Nice useful looking trike.

Gentlemen, thank you for your kind words. Time, as always, is the healer.
I've been hooning  around on the trike for a year now and it is a hoot. Testament to Shane's engineering it handles beautifully- hands off at 60 no problem. I'm glad I didn't push it into the sea!
Mr Olds, you have to take credit for a lot here if you go back to the beginning of the thread. It is indeed a very practical little wagon.
Now, next project......😁

Sorry for your loss , nice looking trike though

Shane would've wanted you to do exactly what you have -get out & use it & enjoy it.
Nice trike & a tribute to your friendship.

 Wow some journey, if someone would have told you it would be 3 plus years to build the trike would you have bothered? Probably not.. and life moves on, people come (and go), but still we plod on. Nice trike - shame your mate didn't get to ride on it.
Best of luck with it, enjoy getting out on it.

Minimutly, Andy, Merv, thanks for the kind words. Shane did get to ride on the trike - a friend and my self strapped him onto the pillion and drove him around for 10mins. He was very ill but it  put a smile on his face .The  effort left him knackered for days afterwards.
I was always led to believe that life made more sense as you got older but it doesn't does it? Why good people have to suffer so. Just got to make the best of it whilst we can, eh?🙂

Amen to that.

A great story about two friends and their journey thanks for sharing it with us good sir and I'm sure he's with you every day 👍😎

Thank you , Stinkey. I hope you are looking after those holes I sent you. Did they have to go into quarantine when you moved to Spain?😁

Yes but now in lockdown so not sure if or when I will see the little blighters 👍😂🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿