faux trike

deacon

deacon

minor bike philosopher
I tested it today and it works better than a trike I think. I have not ridden one of the adult trikes but this one corners pretty well. I can even do U turns in the road just as well as with a simple one side hooked trailer. I am satisfied with it all things considered.
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Oh yeah the bike itself cost under ten bucks.... the donor bike for the rear wheels was under ten as well. The metal probably was about twenty and assorted nuts and bold still left it under fifty bucks.

It has coaster brakes on the rear and a hand brake on the front. The motor is 24v 600 watts running at 36v with a 24v controller. It runs really nice. 24 volts just won't do it nearly as well. The one red wheel reminds me of a movie. ONE RED SHOE MAKES MURDER. I wonder what one red wheel on a bike makes it....JUNK
 
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I rode the bike with a small set of batteries this afternoon to see if I could get some range on them. It did pretty well but I kept the power drain down by running it at about half throttle. It would probably do better if I pedaled only on every flat or downhill run. I will have to give that a try. It is pretty heavy though so maybe it will require some pedal assist even on the flats.

I think I'll paint the trailer wheels. That one red wheel bothers me.
 
Its better since I tightened all the joints and did some spot welds to hold it tight (I hope)

It actually is doing better than I expected for the first day. I am giving some thought to building the basket into a complete battery compartment.
 
or six sla batteries. Those I have on hand. I think it will hold two sets of 36v batteries. That would be cool
 
My real concern is loose clothing lol.... I would never wear and old aviator scarf for instance.
 
I get more impressed with this bike each time I ride it. Today I rode it in conservation mode with 7ah batteries and it did two miles. Now that doesn't sound like much but it is enough to get me to the park for my morning walk, which I have been neglecting due to the rain.

The batteries are also very old by the way. I have no idea how many times I have charged them but it has been a lot. I am trying to save my 12ah batteries to ride to the home depot which is a bit farther than the park.

The bike balances well and it also rolls pretty darn easy for all the weight it is carrying. ME.

The stability the trailer give it when bolted to both sides is quite a bit. Yet for some reason it will do a Uturn in the road or a right turn and still be stable. I have no idea why. I have another bike just like this one minus the double hook trailer stored in the shed in case this one gets stolen. I think one day I will do this to that one as well. I expect that I will make it an even larger trailer and maybe with twenty inch wheels.

I plan to also keep an eye out on craigs list for a real trike. The Kmart schwinn is 250 maybe I can find one for $150 there. I will have to put the rhino drive on the front wheel of course but that shouldn't be a problem with the additional balance of the two rear wheels.
 
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I took the faux trike to the bike shop today and they were suitably impressed. The owner made a comment that really did sum up the bike. He said that it was a nice simple design.

Most of you know I try to design bikes that anyone can build, so that was nice to hear. Also I put the bike in my range mode. I ran it slow until I hit a big hill then I pulled it up with the motor. I wanted to see how much drain it had after pulling some really nasty hills. It is probably three miles up there an back maybe a little more. I did it with 38 volts and change left over. The bike will pull some with as little as 35v so it had quite a bit left to give.

All in all this is a nice bike. Now I have a real battery dilemma. I would like the lithium batteries but I can haul around enough sla to do what I want and the bike will still pull. It proved that to me today. So do I buy the longer lasting but much more expensive lithium or do I buy bigger sla. I think I will just wait and see what happens to the price of lithium. The way I use the batteries I probably have a year to make the final decision.
 
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Yesterday I cut the faux trike apart. It wasn't as cool a ride as it looked. It cornered poorly and the weight distribution was bad. I did keep the double frame extension. I put a cross bar and turned into a trailer hitch and it seems to work better than any trailer hitch so far. Of course I haven't done much with it yet.
 
I took the trike apart yesterday. I kept the double frame extension to use as a trailer hitch and it seems to work better than any trailer hitch I have had so far. So all was not lost.
 
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