Indian Tadpole

From your statement in Ricks Simplex thread.
"I'm feeling better thank you. Unfortunately as I feel better I tend to overwork everything and wind up dealing with new pain. Muscles that have not been over taxed or barely taxed in years now are and they are none to happy about it. Eventually everything with balance out."
Golden years is BS and getting back to previous activity level is almost always counter productive without professional physical therapy Steve. Our USA Medicare for my wife not that I needed convincing provides excellent care at reasonable cost.
If you can get physical therapy, take it Steve.
Merry Christmas to you and all you love.
Tom

Have a Merry Christmas guys!

Rick C.

Only thing golden is the urine. LOL

Mary Christmas
Curt

Hi Tom,

We are not covered in British Columbia for Chiropractors or Massage Therapy with our provincial health plan. Lot's of talk about it with our current provincial government but it's not close enough to an election to hold it out as an reelection carrot.

Our health care in Canada is excellent and free but each of the 10 provinces and 3 territories runs their own. The federal government supplies the money. If your from one province the other provinces/territories won't recognize your provincial health plan. You have to pay out of pocket. Country wide medical plan has been floated many times and the resulting howling from the provincial/ territorial governments of the about their rights would drown out the cries of the unfortunates in Hades by a great margin.

Steve.

Our provincial health cards used to be gold coloured, Curt. That was the only gold I ever saw in old age. Since so many off shore citizens showed up to use their relatives health cards if they were close in age they went to a drivers licence type card with a photo on it. Solved most of the problem but they still find ways around it.

Steve.

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope it's the best one ever.

Thank you for coming along for the ride and staying with me. Over the years it's had more ups and downs than an elevator but I'm determined to get it ended shortly.

Couple of more projects to make before I can't do it any more and this one needs to be finished.

Again, thank you all.

Steve.

Happy New Year everyone.

Steve.

Steve it's been a year minus a few hours. Best to you and family in the coming year.

Rick C.

Same to all...........Curt

Did ride at Hollister Hills SRVA California offroading and as fun for a day. Rain happened around 1/2hr before Sunset but got 4 hrs done. Noticed some side play in the rear axle. Not noticeable riding, just as inspecting. Looking for my 15 cone wrench. I can see whats up without it to some degree. Maybe just get a new wheel again. The 35 dollar job on Ebay or was it Amazon is no longer available. It had 11 or 12 gauge spokes. Lasted probably 4 or 5 years now. Happy New Years !!!

Very slowly getting back to the bike. The chair's comfortable and the heating pad on my back is really nice and the garage is cold and damp. I have consulted with me old pal Art Ritis and he did agree that an hour or two could be spent in the garage so long as the heater was close by and there wasn't any strenuous work attempted.

Just about have a working clutch lock out lever worked out and an adjustable work light made for brightening up any welding that needs to be done. Have to open the garage door to do some grinding and welding but the weather isn't good. I need to lock the clutch lever open so I can start the engine with a drill. Legs don't work well enough to pedal start it.

This is of course the Wet Coast of Canada here in British Columbia. Winter storms roll in off the Pacific Ocean constantly. Winds in the 40- and 50 MPH range and 2-4 inches of rain are normal often day after day. Temperatures aren't bad so far this year. From the upper 30's to the low 50's though it may get into the upper 20's this weekend with some snow.

On the bright side of it though the long range forecast says we will see some sunny days towards the end of February.

I'll try and get some photos of where thing are at the moment. Most everyone here has seen a pile of steel so there isn't much more than that to show until we get some decent weather.

Steve.

Seasonal stuff, age and health issues Steve certainly cramp ones style and plans, yet we soldier on.

I like photos and revisits are nice for those who've followed your tri-car build while others just joining in have never seen what you're building...way more than a pile of metal at this point I'd add!

Rick C.

Hi Rick,

Last two days were supposed to be cloudy with sunny periods and yesterday there wasn't any sun and today there is nothing but sun but it started out at 33F and went up to 40F. One of the worst places in the world they say to predict the weather. Except in the winter. They just tell us it's going to rain and when it doesn't we're so happy we don't think about them being wrong.

I haven't updated the information about how to get to Photobucket in a long time and thank you again for the reminder. I'll do it shortly. Once I have the bike on the ground I'll gather everything here photograph wise as a final finish as you and Tom suggested.

Steve.

We'll as usual it turned into a long shortly.

Here is the simple photo that started the build. Hard to believe that the famous words "This won't take long" were uttered. That was ten years and one month ago. Years of illness and many changes in the build plans as I something that was better than what I was using for the build turned up.

Steve.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/...w5ZajEt8auNAdd8oPI4hlgvDv4a2pBCRlXGxYxM3yjU&s

Took a while to get the link to Photobucket going. I don't use them any more other than to store what was already there.

This starts at the last photos I put there. If you want to go to the beginning of the build, start on page 37. Much of what is shown has be discarded as unworkable. The foot rest for the front seat was to large and was replaced and the gas tank on the bike originally was replaced twice. The third {and last} gas tank is now on the bike.

The front spindles didn't work the first time so the bike has the second attempt installed. It took a couple of attempts as well to get a clutch/jack shaft set up that worked as well. I had a 3D Clutch modified so it could be pedal started and I used a Sportsman Flyer pedal crank set as the jack shaft.

To see the whole build which had more ups and downs than a runaway elevator start at the beginning of the story.

Steve.

http://s866.photobucket.com/albums/ab228/speedydick/Indian Tri-car Build/

MEASURE TWICE said:

Did ride at Hollister Hills SRVA California offroading and as fun for a day. Rain happened around 1/2hr before Sunset but got 4 hrs done. Noticed some side play in the rear axle. Not noticeable riding, just as inspecting. Looking for my 15 cone wrench. I can see whats up without it to some degree. Maybe just get a new wheel again. The 35 dollar job on Ebay or was it Amazon is no longer available. It had 11 or 12 gauge spokes. Lasted probably 4 or 5 years now. Happy New Years !!!

Click to expand...

15 Cone Wrench Found! Have Bronchitis and meds to recoup.Think to look at airfilter and prefilter on engine when I get to lookin at the hub.

Not an advertisement Steve, but my primary Doc is recommending Extra Strength Omega-3 EPA/DHA Fish Oil. I have not tried it yet as I consume generous amounts of high quality EVO every day. But the afore mentioned is supposed to be hard on your buddy Art.
Tom

Thank you, Tom. I'll get some. I hate to give in to going to the doctor where you can bet the cure is a wonder drug that has a couple of companion drugs to make sure the first one doesn't do any harm.

Steve.

When I started to build the Indian tri car I heard about the wicked skills I possessed. In reality they weren't any other than what I learned in the mid 1950's in vocational school. They were marginal and 40 years old at best. My main trade was restoring antique furniture. That did help making the front seat but left everything else was pretty much lacking.

There was welding equipment here at the house that my nephew had bought to restore a car and I had some non wood working hand tools. Not a very flashy beginning.

YouTube was my saviour and all the experts who imparted their wisdom allowed me to slowly improve what I knew.

Combed the internet for more tri car photos and it was slim pickings. The ones that were there were mostly side shots taken from twenty feet away or closeups of the motorcycle part of the tri car but never a close up of the tri car section. The occasional close up of the steering and front suspension was usually taken at an angle where it was nearly impossible to see how it was done. I just went ahead and guessed using what I saw. When a front facing photo was finally shown I had guessed correctly.

The tri car was an add on to an Indian motorcycle that you bought separately for $125. You lifted the bike off the front forks and wheel and placed it on the tri car where the steering shaft replaced the front forks. Install the handle bars and connect tri car to a point near the bottom bracket and you were ready to ride

You could buy the tri car attachment plain, with a delivery box or with the front seat. I believe the cost with the motorcycle was $325 if you bought one with the seat.

What was considered to be the most original camel back gas tank Indian Tri Car sold at auction for $165,000 in 2016 plus the auction fees. I could only have wished they had shown it all those years earlier. I went back and corrected a few things.

The motor is from a Jacobson Snow Thrower. A light snow blower that used paddles instead of a the usual snow blower configuration. It's a 103cc two stroke. A fella who was on the forum years ago sold it to me
and modified the case and the flywheel trimming off the cooling fins and the case.

That's how it came about. Would I do it again? No. I would have used a Sportsman Flyer frame and parts and made the tri car attachment to fit. Trying to get as close as possible visually to a historic motorcycle is a lot of fun, when someone else does it.

Steve.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...sedan-chair/&usg=AOvVaw1EqEAnb-Hu0NVQZ2zsc3Fp

Have you seen this one Steve? https://www.instagram.com/p/B3PMigXBOBU/