So, this was a wreck of an old school Worksman trike I bought my wife, just to get her to try riding. It was fully functional, but rudimentary, and the prior owner spray painted the rims with the tires still on them, painting the tires as well. He had also painted the handle bars and other chrome with aluminum rattle-can.
She had not ridden a bike in nearly 60 years. She was skeptical, but she tried it and she liked it. She can't walk very far due to flat feet, so this lets her zip around our very bike-friendly neighborhood. I first added a Bionx kit off of a very used Dahon Ciao - the guy told me he rode it five miles round trip to work nearly every day for five years.
It was beat, but the Bionx kit worked great for a while, then went down hard. I replaced this with a new Ebikekits trike kit, that has a heavy duty direct drive motor with a nice display panel and reverse. This does about 15 mph forward and about 4 mph in reverse. The control panel allows you to dial-down the assist. At 5 of 5 bars, this thing will peel out and accelerate more briskly than the wife likes. She can dial it down so it accelerates more slowly even cranked to the max, and this also lowers top speed.
I found that I could ride this thing at 20 mph with the Bionx kit, but it's a little scary - particularly since it only has one front brake. You also get a little occasional tricycle wobble at that speed, which is disconcerting until you become accustomed.
I wanted this trike to be the "pilot project" that would get the wife to accept my taking on the larger project of building her something a little fancier - but she will not have it. She has bonded with this little critter like it was a puppy. She calls it her "rat bike."
I was gonna get her a nice, newer trike to which I could at least add a coaster brake, but no. I wanted to then at least maybe repaint the rims in a copper or brass metallic, or maybe even purple, and add some cream colored tires, but no. She won't have it. I put a nice mirror on it - she wanted the rusty one back. It's pictured here with a nice Planet Bike plastic front fender - she got her way, and now the rusty old chrome Wald fender is back on the trike, rust, aluminum paint, and all.
The bar end that holds the control panel was supposed to be temporary - just something to let me mock it up and test it. She likes that the way it is, too, so it has become permanent.
Since starting out with this trike, I've already had half a dozen Worksman 20 inch trikes, a couple of Adventurers, and now I've also got a used G3 trike with an older Ebikekits motor on it. I've swapped over to another Worksman and then back to the 3G. That kit will do 25 mph. If you want to learn about electrifying bikes, the best way to learn is to just jump in and do it. It's not that hard. You can pick up used stuff pretty cheap to tinker with, and once you get the hang of it, you can graduate to better stuff.
You just can't put it on your wife's trike.
But, I did pick up some "take-offs" from my LBS today - some better quality caliper brakes in black anodized. She let me put those on it. I also replaced the beat up rusty basket.
If you don't let your machines sit out in the weather, I've got a good tip on eliminating rattles from these old trikes. Forget about the original mounting method for the basket. You have 2 or 4 screws kind of in the middle of the basket. Even if the basket hasn't gotten a little bent, it will rattle. Get some foam pipe insulation - the kind that come as a foam tube split down one side, what you use to eliminate condensation on your plumbing. Put that split foam tubing on the frame where the basket sits.
Strap down the basket nice and tight at the corners and middle with very heavy duty cable ties, so that it compresses the foam very tight but does not bottom out. Done right, this is absolutely rattle free and strong enough you can pick up the bike - even with motor and batteries - by the basket.
I wouldn't do this on a bike that will sit outside - of course, I would never let a bike sit outside either - but sunshine will eat up the foam padding and will make the straps brittle in short order.
