Triple Trouble Pickup Trike

[Iceman]

 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.

[Olds]

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

[the coppersmith]

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

[Manky Monkey]

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.

[Iceman]

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...

[minimutly]

Very neat

[Manky Monkey]

  That'll do it.

[Iceman]

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.....

[Iceman]

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[Iceman]

Oops...

[Iceman]

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[Manky Monkey]

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.

[Iceman]

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.

[Iceman]

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.

[Iceman]

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.....