Campground Buggy Trike

[SwissGuy]

May I present you:
the „Campground Buggy Trike“

The starting point:

• a black NSU ladies frame from the 50ties (bought in spring 2020)
• a Haverich therapy trike (bought in 2019)
• a baby buggy probably from the 50ties or 60ties (bought in 2016?, made it’s first appearance here on RRB in a sketch 2018 in my BO13 Egg-Beater thread)

If I got you interested, head over to the build thread. If you just need a short(er) overview, scroll down to my next posting...

 

[SwissGuy]

The Making Of:

The basic idea was to build a trike with the buggy acting as a trunk. The very first mockup of the trike happened in late 2020 and was very promising, so I started collecting parts…

As in the last years I planned to spend a large part of my summer break on the campground and do most of the bike building there. I used the weekends before the break to finish up the basic trike and to build the base for the trunk from the stays of a rear triangle coming from an older project...

The next step was to mockup the buggy on the trike, so I did some CAD-work here:

The following labor-intensive step was crucial to this build: The work on the buggy trunk.

I had quickly realized (thanks to the CAD-work) that the buggy itself was too narrow to fill the space in between the rear wheels, so it had to be rebuilt wider. I took it completely apart and kept only the side panels. In my balcony workshop at home I built a new box from scratch, using plywood for the flat parts and cardboard for the curved rear. I also bought a set of vintage rear lights (from an Opel Rekord P2). Thanks to @MattiThundrr and his idea of frenching the lights the rear came together really well…

After primer it got a black base coat than a coat of „rust“ and on top of that the final two tone paint job. Then I took some wet sandpaper and took of the shine and some of the topcoat to get some wear and patina on the trunk. I sealed all in with a flat clear coat to finish it off.

The final step was to get the electronics to work. Besides the lights I also wanted to add horns and a siren. Both parts I had in my stash for several years now, just waiting for the right build…
Some switches, relays, soldering, about 30 m of wire and a 12V battery later it looked like this:

And after some final touches this baby finally was ready to ride…

Parts list:

The main ingredients:

• NSU ladies frame from the 50ties
• Haverich rear trike axle
• 50ties baby buggy sidepanels
• Box made of plywood and cardboard
• Rear lights from an Opel Rekord P2
• Apehanger bar of unknown origin

The “small” stuff:

• Fixable break lever from the Haverich bike
• Altenburger winged axle nuts
• Imperial headlight converted to 12V halogen
• Chainguard from unknown NSU bike
• Stem of unknown origin
• 1664BMX pedals
• Wittkop Freischwinger seat
• Two shiny covers originally intended for boats
• Caravan cupboard lockers
• various non-bike hardware and fixtures

Electronics:

• About 30 m of 1,5mm wire
• Various switches, all of them leftovers from older projects
• Siren (bought on a flea market several years ago)
• Lion car horns and relay
• Indicator relays (ebay)
• Fuses
• 12V motorbike battery
• Digital volt meter
• multicolor LED strip soldered to red (yes this baby has red underfloor lights)

 

[SwissGuy]

Videos

Walkaround video(s)


Workshop and lights:


Ride through Sacrow Park


Three short ride videos from during the build:


...more in the pipeline....

 

[SwissGuy]

Detail pictures

Some close ups of the finished trike:

Headlight converted to halogen

Using tomato paste to conserve the beat up look of the actual paintjob (the frame probably was blue in the beginning and later someone painted all over it with black to use it as a beater bike in Berlin...)

How the trunk is fixed onto the base.

To french the taillights I used cardboard rolls from cheap tape

These pedals were a perfect match: the right color, a lot of wear and sturdy enough to not mind some touchdowns on uneven ground due to low ground clearance.

This nice pair of russian taillights were my first choice, but they didn't fit (too large)

Two of these NOS switches are for turns signal and main lights:

The break lever for the front comes from the therapy bike

These grips are much nicer

The development of the headbadge:

Pictures of random miscellaneous stuff from and around the build...

The first sketch:

The campground garage (a 1975 trailer)

My tube bender (and a 20' fork as cheater bar)

The buggy and Mr. Wobble, my (untrustworthy) workbench built from scraps...

Who needs a workstand if one has a set of folding chairs...

First shakedown ride

Unfinished but very usefull already. Off to the lake...

The cardboard cover will get done when I can afford more paint.
(A washing machine is more important than paint for a stupid bike, she said...)

The bike got inspected by a curious squirrel (I was a tiny bit to slow to really catch it on camera...)

One more trip to the lake...

 

[OddJob]

Swiss Guy, your work on that buggy part of the build is one that will go down in Rat Rod Bikes build off history! From concept to completion your ingenious design and detailed execution kept us rivoted from day one.

Congrats on this exceptional build!

 

[SwissGuy]

Swiss Guy, your work on that buggy part of the build is one that will go down in Rat Rod Bikes build off history! From concept to completion your ingenious design and detailed execution kept us rivoted from day one.

Congrats on this exceptional build!

Thank you for the praise!
Let's say I just went with the flow and tried to listen to the bike...

 

[KJV]

Enjoyed following along on this build. Very nice!

 

[Karate Chicken Industries]

Nice!

When you haul a kegger in it, pics!

 

[metalchewy]

That's an awesome trike. Lovin it!

 

[OddJob]

...and, I just can't stop looking at this thread. The electrical execution, creative use of everyday parts (cardboard tape rolls for Frenched tail lights? ), multiple 'work shop' locations, and taking it all to the absolute 'nth degree'; so much to appreciate about this build!

 

[SwissGuy]

Enjoyed following along on this build. Very nice!

Nice!

When you haul a kegger in it, pics!

That's an awesome trike. Lovin it!

...and, I just can't stop looking at this thread. The electrical execution, creative use of everyday parts (cardboard tape rolls for Frenched tail lights? ), multiple 'work shop' locations, and taking it all to the absolute 'nth degree'; so much to appreciate about this build!

Thank you all! It was really great to build this bike and take you all along on the journey.
I appreciate all the comments, encouragement and likes I got. It helped me a lot to keep going, staying on it and avoid cutting corners! I really love the positive community here in this forum!

 

[Swampthing]

I like this build a lot.
it’s creative, fun, and functional.
And it looks cool.

 

[JA331]

very cool. nice work

 

[user 26311]

Excellent work! I love the box you built with all the curves and such, also the drenched tail lights! Awesome!

 

[Jude Ephesus]

Amazing build!

 

[bleedingfingers]

Unusual but I like it it's like a bike and a Carnival ride all in one .

 

[kingfish254]

This was such a cool and fun build thread to follow! And such a cool idea too. You pulled it off perfectly!
Definitely not "under the radar"
CONGRATS!!

 

[SwissGuy]

A big Thank You! to all that voted for this build! It was a real pleasure to see the count going up until the last few hours of voting. At halftime it was even a head to head race with OldNews (by @EricStreetRat) and @OddJob s Shelby (which by the way both got one of my votes) for 6th place. Nerve wrecking!

I'm really happy with my 7th place and the 35 votes I got. As I already stated somewhere else, this is the double of all votes in previous finished build offs combined... (7+7+4) And who would have thought that I could get the famous OddJob Award! I already have a spot in mind that proudly will show this award!

The ones of you that followed my build thread already know that right now the trike is not operational, as the rear axle brocke which is a real bummer as I would like very much to ride the trike as often as possible.... But I already found a suplier for steel tubing that is affordable and as soon as i got enough time (and money) I will get her back on all three wheels! This baby needs to get introduced to the critical mass crowd of Berlin! I'll keep you updated in my build thread!

See you in the next BuildOff! Rat On!

 

[kingfish254]

A big Thank You! to all that voted for this build! It was a real pleasure to see the count going up until the last few hours of voting. At halftime it was even a head to head race with OldNews (by @EricStreetRat) and @OddJob s Shelby (which by the way both got one of my votes) for 6th place. Nerve wrecking!

I'm really happy with my 7th place and the 35 votes I got. As I already stated somewhere else, this is the double of all votes in previous finished build offs combined... (7+7+4) And who would have thought that I could get the famous OddJob Award! I already have a spot in mind that proudly will show this award!

The ones of you that followed my build thread already know that right now the trike is not operational, as the rear axle brocke which is a real bummer as I would like very much to ride the trike as often as possible.... But I already found a suplier for steel tubing that is affordable and as soon as i got enough time (and money) I will get her back on all three wheels! This baby needs to get introduced to the critical mass crowd of Berlin! I'll keep you updated in my build thread!

See you in the next BuildOff! Rat On!

Can't wait to see some critical mass pics with this buggy!!!!!

 

[kingfish254]

I am looking forward to meeting you in person and seeing the Buggy Trike today in Berlin! Saw this little doll sized buggy in one of the Christmas Markets yesterday and thought about your build.