New guy interested in building a Chinese cargo trike

[fiat128]

Hi, I'm a new guy from El Paso TX interested in custom built bikes and found this forum while searching for information on bike builders forums.

I'd say that I'm a "hot rodder" type without the hype and really like the off the wall custom stuff.

I am interested in building my own version of a Chinese cargo trike or "san lunr". I already have a Mexican Mercurio tryke but would like to have the larger Chinese style. I found several for sale at a prop house in Hollywood but have to buy them and ship them here within a week which I can't do. That leaves me with building my own as my only alternative. I'm hoping someone here has pictures of these, especially the drive mechanism.

I'm also interested in building other stuff as I've got a welder and a head full of ideas.

 

[Markm]

welcome :mrgreen:

 

[Rat Rod]

Welcome to the forum! :mrgreen:

 

[Ace]

Google shows this:

http://www.wakinggiants.net/blog/?p=233

Interesting difference. On most cargobikes in the West we push our loads in front of us, but it seems the East prefers to drag it behind. No political nor cultural pun intended, just emphasising a difference in hauling stuff, I have no clue which way is the best use of energy :mrgreen:

Welcome by the way.

 

[fiat128]

Well, I bought one off ebay in working order for alot cheaper than I could buy the material to build it for so we'll see how it goes I've been exploring here and it's a really great site and some of you are master fabricators.

One other thing I forgot to mention in my intro was one of the main reasons I'm interested in custom bikes, esp the weird ones. Sometime around 1980 when I was a kid my parents got Smithsonian magazine. In one of the issues was an article about the San Fransico kinetic sculpture race comeplete with all sorts of photos of weird homebuilt contraptions. That's the sort of thing that makes a big impression on a kid so ever since then I've wanted to build some custom bikes but it was sort of on the back burner and I eventually forgot about it.

About 3 years ago I found the H.A.M.B. site for traditional hot rods and got the fire again and started learning and collecting parts. One of the things I collected was Miller Syncrowave 180 welder and as soon as I get the garage wired I want to start the build. However, I think I'll do a bike first to get the feel for it before I start cutting up my vintage parts. I'll probably just do some sort of mild chop and see how it goes.

One question I have for you guys is what sort of tubing do you use for builds? I imagine that I'll get most of my stuff from old junk bikes but what is good stuff to use when I have to start from scratch on load bearing parts of the frame?

I didn't find anything specific using the search feature.

 

[chainmaker]

Hey check out Atimic Zombie.com they have lots of info on hacking old parts together to make your own and a pretty good builders forum.
Cheers