Hey Fellas,
I'm new here, but have been reading for a few months now. I came across this site while I was searching for some replacement brake shoes for the drum brakes that I used on this bike. I never did find any, but scavenged some from another project. I have found that there are a lot of really great bikes, and great builders on here. I have been very impressed with some of your bikes, and even gleaned a little inspiration from them here and there at times.
Anyway, I thought some of you may be interested in having a look at this trike I have been putting together. It really isn't finished, but days are getting shorter, and free time is getting hard to come by, so it may be put up in storage shortly.
The idea for it began with a simple frame modification to an existing Worksman folding trike that I got cheap on the side of the road. The front part of the frame comes from a Sears Spyder 500 girls bike that came from a barn sale. The head portion was goose-necked just slightly - about an inch, just to change the head angle. And the two were tied together with pieces from the Spyder's original fork. At first, I decided to incorporate the crank hangers from both bikes on there, as it provided for a smoother transition from the Worksman fat frame to the Spyder skinny frame. And also because it was great for structural support, but to honest, it was also because I wasn't sure where I wanted the crank to be at first.
I hadn't originally intended on doing the leaf spring front end for this trike, but I had been planning on eventually building one for a BSA project I've got lined up, so I figured I would give it a try and see how it worked out. A practice run essentially. A few things would have made the whole process a lot easier and faster, for example: if I hadn't used heavily rusted scrap steel for the trees, if I had access to a proper drill press, if I hadn't tried to use bent, recycled pipe for the fork tubes, etc. But in the end, it worked out alright. It's much heavier duty than it needs to be, but it's got great spring to it, and rides very nicely. My biggest complaint is that it causes the front end to "flop" over, when it's parked, but i put some stops on there, so it won't damage the frame when it does so, and for now, I'll just deal with it. It did take some thinking to get the drum brake tied in to it too. I wound up fabbing a bracket off of the rocker to connect the drum to. This means that the rocker does rotate slightly when the brake is applied, but it only goes about 30 degrees, and it's not noticeable when riding. I wouldn't recommend trying this same set up on a motorbike though - results could be disasterous.
Gearing - this is sort of interesting. The original trike came with a 3 speed in the hub set up. It also had a "coaster" or "back" break. The coaster break drives me crazy, so I wanted to swap it out with freewheel or something. But in the process, I had an idea. I figured, since this is not a direct drive setup - the crank chain runs to a jack-shaft essentially, and then to the final drive on the trike axle, I figured, if I added a sprocket to an old drum brake, then I could use the gears themselves to apply braking action to the rear, instead of something wheel mounted. So that's what i did. I took an old drum brake with a 5 or 6 speed sprocket cluster on it, I can't remember, and added another sproket onto the drum itself. Then I added a rear derailleur so the primary chain can be changed over 6 speeds, and the drive chain goes from the drum to the axle. When the brake is applied, the final drive chain does the job of stopping the axle from spinning. That was probably a little long and tedious to explain, but hopefully you get the idea.
The cargo box on the back is hand made of hard-rock maple, and I built in an access panel to reveal the gearing below for maintenance, etc.
It's got 2.25 x 20 tires on the back, and a 1.75 x 24 on the front. I would have gone with a 26 on the front, but the 24 was already laced to the drum brake. Right now, the shifter is on the head, with a long cable run down the frame, because it's the only shifter I had. I was thinking of putting some kind of shifter into the frame tube that is cut off below the seat (see second to last pic) with a big long shift lever coming up. But I don't really know what to use. I'm not that familiar with shifter systems.
Whats not done: the seat, and the paint. I wanted a sprung seat, for some rear suspension, and instead of just buying one, I tried to make one from the folding hinge from the original trike, an existing seat bracket and seat pan, some hardware store springs and a big U-bolt. It's not great. It doesn't actually work properly. The seat pan needs to be shaped better, and I think maybe I need smaller springs, it's pitched forward too far. I may just go out and buy one to make riding more comfortable. The paint, I'm planning on pinstriping the front end, and the cargo box. I probably won't do too much on the frame itself. The only thing I've gotten to do so far is a little striping on the crank, which I did when it was apart for paint.
Anyway, that was pretty long. Take a look at the pics, let me know what you guys think, if you have any questions or suggestions or anything. Thanks for reading.
Jody.
I'm new here, but have been reading for a few months now. I came across this site while I was searching for some replacement brake shoes for the drum brakes that I used on this bike. I never did find any, but scavenged some from another project. I have found that there are a lot of really great bikes, and great builders on here. I have been very impressed with some of your bikes, and even gleaned a little inspiration from them here and there at times.
Anyway, I thought some of you may be interested in having a look at this trike I have been putting together. It really isn't finished, but days are getting shorter, and free time is getting hard to come by, so it may be put up in storage shortly.
The idea for it began with a simple frame modification to an existing Worksman folding trike that I got cheap on the side of the road. The front part of the frame comes from a Sears Spyder 500 girls bike that came from a barn sale. The head portion was goose-necked just slightly - about an inch, just to change the head angle. And the two were tied together with pieces from the Spyder's original fork. At first, I decided to incorporate the crank hangers from both bikes on there, as it provided for a smoother transition from the Worksman fat frame to the Spyder skinny frame. And also because it was great for structural support, but to honest, it was also because I wasn't sure where I wanted the crank to be at first.
I hadn't originally intended on doing the leaf spring front end for this trike, but I had been planning on eventually building one for a BSA project I've got lined up, so I figured I would give it a try and see how it worked out. A practice run essentially. A few things would have made the whole process a lot easier and faster, for example: if I hadn't used heavily rusted scrap steel for the trees, if I had access to a proper drill press, if I hadn't tried to use bent, recycled pipe for the fork tubes, etc. But in the end, it worked out alright. It's much heavier duty than it needs to be, but it's got great spring to it, and rides very nicely. My biggest complaint is that it causes the front end to "flop" over, when it's parked, but i put some stops on there, so it won't damage the frame when it does so, and for now, I'll just deal with it. It did take some thinking to get the drum brake tied in to it too. I wound up fabbing a bracket off of the rocker to connect the drum to. This means that the rocker does rotate slightly when the brake is applied, but it only goes about 30 degrees, and it's not noticeable when riding. I wouldn't recommend trying this same set up on a motorbike though - results could be disasterous.
Gearing - this is sort of interesting. The original trike came with a 3 speed in the hub set up. It also had a "coaster" or "back" break. The coaster break drives me crazy, so I wanted to swap it out with freewheel or something. But in the process, I had an idea. I figured, since this is not a direct drive setup - the crank chain runs to a jack-shaft essentially, and then to the final drive on the trike axle, I figured, if I added a sprocket to an old drum brake, then I could use the gears themselves to apply braking action to the rear, instead of something wheel mounted. So that's what i did. I took an old drum brake with a 5 or 6 speed sprocket cluster on it, I can't remember, and added another sproket onto the drum itself. Then I added a rear derailleur so the primary chain can be changed over 6 speeds, and the drive chain goes from the drum to the axle. When the brake is applied, the final drive chain does the job of stopping the axle from spinning. That was probably a little long and tedious to explain, but hopefully you get the idea.
The cargo box on the back is hand made of hard-rock maple, and I built in an access panel to reveal the gearing below for maintenance, etc.
It's got 2.25 x 20 tires on the back, and a 1.75 x 24 on the front. I would have gone with a 26 on the front, but the 24 was already laced to the drum brake. Right now, the shifter is on the head, with a long cable run down the frame, because it's the only shifter I had. I was thinking of putting some kind of shifter into the frame tube that is cut off below the seat (see second to last pic) with a big long shift lever coming up. But I don't really know what to use. I'm not that familiar with shifter systems.
Whats not done: the seat, and the paint. I wanted a sprung seat, for some rear suspension, and instead of just buying one, I tried to make one from the folding hinge from the original trike, an existing seat bracket and seat pan, some hardware store springs and a big U-bolt. It's not great. It doesn't actually work properly. The seat pan needs to be shaped better, and I think maybe I need smaller springs, it's pitched forward too far. I may just go out and buy one to make riding more comfortable. The paint, I'm planning on pinstriping the front end, and the cargo box. I probably won't do too much on the frame itself. The only thing I've gotten to do so far is a little striping on the crank, which I did when it was apart for paint.
Anyway, that was pretty long. Take a look at the pics, let me know what you guys think, if you have any questions or suggestions or anything. Thanks for reading.
Jody.
