Ron,
Much as I wish things had gone differently this past month with a delayed trip to the east coast, much time and energy lost to Steve's camper electrical issues and my own Silverado giving up the ghost at the same time... it has not gone exactly as planned! Ha!
But as the Irish say, "It is what it is", and we can cry about it or make the best of it and move on. It looks like the camper will live again and soon and the trip east is still a go. I have a nice 81 F-100 I'm closing on which has 26,000 original miles on it and looks like new. Pretty soon I'll head down to Iowa to pick it up, so that's something to look forward to.
I had hoped the trike conversion would be to the point of having the frame together and it being a roller with pretty much just refinements to make over the course of the winter, tinkering with the electric front wheel and figuring out how to give it a disc brake, making up a battery pack from used laptop batteries under the tutelage of cannonball2, figuring out the gear ratio for the differential axle and so forth and having it together for spring of 2015.
Kind of looks doubtful I'll be that far along, but so what really? I wanted to build this as my geezer trike anticipating a day when I am perhaps less mobile and need an ultimate "mobility scooter". Lots of time yet before I'm that old. Besides, I like building and this way I get to stretch out the pleasure of talking it over with friends, staring at it until it reveals what it wants to be and how it wants to look. This and the Indian Hiawatha tri-car are ambitious undertakings and are to be savored. It gives me another summer to look forward to for Motor Bicycle Summer Camp (for boys who never grew up).
As for the Villiars Midget having enough power for the trike, I think it will. It has a good bit of grunt and is 98cc in displacement. These have a reputation of pretty much running forever. Also it will be geared low enough to keep the top speed down to the range of maybe 25mph tops on a straightaway. Trikes can be tricky to keep upright, so I suspect that most of the time I'd be riding along at 15 mph or so. In addition there is the electric front wheel which will be running 36 volts. That could be upped to 48 if it is needed. I believe it is enough by itself to power the trike, so it will be more than adequate to assist the Villiars in starting out from a dead stop even up a hill. I don't believe having enough power will be an issue, but we'll see.
We're also coming up with a plan for Steve to make up two rear triangle assemblies in his shop this winter. One would be for this trike and the other would be for the 52 Schwinn frame he is taking back to Vancouver with him and which will become a vintage "van truck trike". When mine is welded up with it modified to plug in the Atco mower cradle, pillow block bearings for the differential axle and whatever else is needed he will ship it down here to Minnesota to be joined to my 63 bike frame. We've discussed where my chain stays will be cut and how much of the upper supports coming back from the seat post will remain so that the new section can be fused to the old. Initially it can be pinned together so that assembly can continue. Eventually it can be welded and become one unit. That's the plan anyway. Winters seem endless when viewed from their beginning, but then spring thaw comes finally and we discover we didn't have quite enough time to get everything done after all. Maybe that's good, always having things to look forward to. I can't imagine just sitting in a chair staring at a television, doing nothing day after day. As I think about it, I don't want to be "done".
SB
