Taco Express 30 minutes or less!

[LeMad Hatter]

Fun thing, I used paint.net to turn a photograph into the B&W drawing posted earlier. I then loaded that into my tablet and resized it to a rough graph paper scale and traced it. Old school and bulky but it worked.
View attachment 233458

I use Inkscape to do what you did. Upload a photo and you can scale it any way you want. It's not hard to create a digital copy of something like a bike frame, and because it's a scalable vector program, you can make real life measurements from it. As an added bonus, you can save stuff as a .dxf file and send it out to places like Send cut send for them to plasma cut parts

 

[Captain Awesome]

I use Inkscape to do what you did. Upload a photo and you can scale it any way you want. It's not hard to create a digital copy of something like a bike frame, and because it's a scalable vector program, you can make real life measurements from it. As an added bonus, you can save stuff as a .dxf file and send it out to places like Send cut send for them to plasma cut parts

Got me thinking

 

[SwissGuy]

Got me thinking

No more thinking, just try!
It's open source and comes for free!

 

[BobbyStillz]

And I'm out of wire. Ha it's like hot glue for steel with the little wire feeder from Harbor Freight but you gotta let it burn in cuz it won't do anything thicker than bike tubing. Even so I've got sleeves inside and out on these joints. So with my primitive plumb bob and my cardboard square it'll be fine... Really it will ...

*name change @McGuyverCarl

 

[GuitarlCarl]

I finally picked up the mig welder I inherited from my brother in-law. Now more incentive to get moved since I put it in my "new" garage. For folks who don't know, I also have the house across town I grew up in. I've been remodeling it for years... My biggest mistake was sitting idle during the cvd shutdown. It's ready now and I've been slowly "fixing to get ready" moving small loads of stuff over. My jam space for "band practice" is mostly ready, the push will be the day I move 60 some guitars, 4 amplifier rigs, the mixing board and my bedroom set. I've got bikes both places now but my guitars stay where I stay...

 

[GuitarlCarl]

No progress with no materials but I was given this cool changer...

 

[BartRidesEternal]

That looks cool! Reminds me of this:

 

[GuitarlCarl]

yeah but stick a few coins in that and see what ya got...

 

[GuitarlCarl]

Pretty rough mockup but I've got most of the frame rewelded for the vertical steering. An old set of stretched forks will provide the "spine" if you will. 2.5" space between the forks and the cooler base frame clears the lid opening, 19" to the bottom of the same leaves me about 9" of stash space for the portables. I could raise the cooler a bit but I don't want to be top heavy even with the trike setup. It shouldn't lift wheels turning with the vertical steering and I'm planning on tilting them in a bit at the top but the farther forward the wheels go the more snake-like it will be. Definitely feels like a "highboy" standing above it, kinda South of the Border-tracker hehe.

 

[Funkme]

Starting to take shape, I love the look of it.

 

[GuitarlCarl]

Well then here's a little more shape to it...

Man my garage is TRASHED! It's hard to get a good picture with this background...
And as I slowly move things from this house to the other one across town I look at this and realize I'm going to need the biggest dumpster they got lol.
I've also realized I missed an opportunity to do the dual chain drive steering. I could have just matched the headtube angle. The vertical steering should be more stable but dual chain drive would have been fun to build.
What a maroon...

 

[GuitarlCarl]

So to get the whole front end stable I'll be adding a lower box frame like the one the cooler sits in, about 4 to 6 inches longer and 2 inches wider. I figure the extra width will help tilt my wheels a bit and the length will determine the angle of the forks. I'm stacking the rear braces and kicking the extra length forward, savvy? The forks will get their tubes cut off and I'll be fabbing up some extra bracing here and there to tie it all together. Fun thing, I found some chrome office chair arms and those are the double curved parts connecting the cooler base to the fork. More soon oh and neon paint...

 

[OddJob]

This is coming along, si' ? I like your positioning of the cooler, sits in tight but top still cants back, and I agree on not making it look/ride top heavy. Will there be room for a mariachi band somewhere? Or maybe just a bluetooth speaker playing mariachi music?

I feel like with your passion for guitars, that a 'signature logo' has to be involved somehow....

 

[GuitarlCarl]

 

[GuitarlCarl]

Tacking things together this evening. The heat finally let up, it wasn't horrible but I also had family in for a holiday visit.

l

 

[GuitarlCarl]

Almost a roller! Steering seems fine, it's fine, it's good, yeah whatever you say man. It's fine, no really it's good lol. Probably gonna need a centering spring when I'm not on it. It steers so easy it turns sideways and tips over lol.

There's no lower rack on it yet either, no rack no cargo (or grill) no drivetrain no brakes no paint... So yeah how much time we got left? The rest of July? Better get on it.

 

[OddJob]

This really looks good, Carl! I did mount a spring on Beer Boy Delivery to stabilize the front end. Worked well when parked and didn't inhibit the steering during the ride.

 

[GuitarlCarl]

Yep. That's exactly what it's gonna need. The vertically aligned steering has no resting place, it really does steer easy, so when unattended it seems to roll a bit and if the front gets sideways it falls over. We'll see how it RIDES when I scab together some drivetrain out of the boneyard. After the build off it may turn into a sidecar if it isn't stable at any kind of speed. Gears been spinning in my head. I still may cut it down if I think I can get it done before the 31st, since I have welding wire and I have metal. All depends on the drivetrain. Hopefully tonight I'll know (and then we'll all know...)
Note to self: Neon Paint

 

[GuitarlCarl]

Whoa! This thing is so sketchy I'd rename it if I hadn't of already used it. I'm pretty sure the axle line is too close to the vertical pivot point. So now I've got a decision to make. Cut it apart and stretch the front out, or cut it apart and reuse the base for a side car. If I do the latter I also need to cut the frames head tube angle out (easy enough)
I am leaning towards this as the narrow front still tends to FEEL like it wants to tip over on the turns. All I know for sure is this is not the steering geometry I ordered from ACME....

It's definitely quick enough for a cruiser with the simple derailleur, but also on the test run in typical coyote fashion, no brakes...

 

[JA331]

Love it. Cool as.