reliant soft tail trike frame semi trailing arm ?

[jamie1107]

Hi
I'm new to the site but have spent although of time researching ideas for my trike build and have settled on the idea of using a reliant 850 running gear package.
The problem i have is that the roads where i live are shocking and he whole reason for the trike is that i made a mess of my pelvis and back in a bike smash so I'm very apprehensive about using a hard tail design.
I would like to keep the design as simple as possible and I'm almost sold on the idea of yoda s frame design as it seems both strong simple and also easy to make but i just need to modify the back end .
So the idea i had was to build the front half of the frame as per the design and stop where the outriggers come out to the axle and fit two bearing tubes leading to a single trailing arm back to the reliant axle and then use twin shocks mounted at an angle from the hub end of the axle up into the frame just behind the seat.
I realise i will have to triangulate the seat frame back into the main frame to take the extra load and also brace the swinging arm over the prop to hold it all together.
The reason I'm posting this is because i wanted a few other opinions on what i was doing or other ways of going about it before i end up with a pile of scrap lol.
Any ideas or possible problems with my idea would be gratefully received I'm sorry theres no sketch I'm just useless with pen and paper although if anyone has a design which works id love to see it .
many thanks
jamie

[BikerGran]

Hi Jamie, welcome to MMM!

I know very little about building trikes - mine was built for me.  It's a bike trike based on a GT550 so it was shaft drive already and uses the original swingarm, adapted of course.  It won't be the same as what you are doing but I guess the principle is the same, there are some phots of the back end Here if it's any help.

[shabby]

welcome jamie1107 

[Manky Monkey]

Hiya Jamie 
I've only ever built hardtails so bouncy bits aren't my forte I'm afraid, but I can't see why a widened swing arm set-up wouldn't work as long as it's braced well. I'd also make the bearing points as wide as possible to lessen the leverage on them from the wide back end.
I'm not actually sure what Yoda's trike frame looks like. Yodie set up this 'ere site for me 3 years ago & ran it on my behalf up to about a year ago, when Taz & I started to take over the reins a little. He's still there as a trouble shooter if we have problems, but we now handle the day to day stuff ourselves. Sounds terrible but I haven't visited his site, (bikerlifestyle.co.uk), for ages. Just don't get the time to go anywhere but here. You're talking about his BMW trike rebuild?
Most recent Reliant soft tail trike I've seen was this one, which was at the Billing hotrod weekend & again at the Avon Park Nostalgia Nationals. The only pics I've got of it I'm afraid & the pannier covers the bits you want to see!   

[jamie1107]

thanks for all the info
the pics you posted of the black reliant trike are exactly the same as the red one i saw in a biker mag so it must be i kind of tied and tested design
few lol
so now i have got most of the bits i need engine box axles prop etc all i need is some pipe to fit my good old clarke pipe bender and I'm ready to fire up the tig
i did see somewhere on the internet a chart of pipe and tube dimensions which would allow us to pick the right od and id tube to fit the clarke type machines i will see if i can find it again and post it as it might be some use
thanks for all your help I'm sure i will be posting again when i manage to burst the 850 reliant motor i have lol at the moment its almost finished ready for the frame with a set of quad carbs from a gsxr750 and a home built megajolt wasted spark mapable ignition system part built tubular stainless exhaust  and plenty of metal removed from the cylinder head ports any bets on how long it will hold together lol
jamie

[Manky Monkey]

I'd like to see that!
Never really delved into the tuning side of things -we just bung more or less standard motors in ours. I'd be interested to see how it performs compared to a standard set-up.
Any chance we could persuade you to write us a piece on Reliant tuning mods, with some piccies of yours?

[SWAMPIG]

actually the reliant engine was used in a racing car at one point I cant remember what it was called but it was built in Grimsby I believe (I am from there originally  ) but you can get hot cams and carb upgrades still. shouldnt be too difficult to get the engine sorted they were all Ally so polishing ports and stuff should be ok. I had a Reliant Regal that did 110+ mph with these fitted .....now that was an experience!!!

http://www.750mc.co.uk/

[Manky Monkey]

I had about 90 from my last trike -they've got a jokey, Del Boy image but Reliants can really fly with a bit of tweaking.

[XL-erate]

May be some information you can use at the links:

http://www.automotivearticles.com/Suspension_Design_2.shtml

http://www.gmecca.com/byorc/dtipssuspension.html

http://www.rqriley.com/3-wheel.htm

[harley gazz]

owt like this un jamie 

[harley gazz]

another shot 

[Manky Monkey]

Very tidy. Have you moved the pivot point of the swing arm back from it's original position?

[SWAMPIG]

want one !!!!!