Reverse Trike from 20” bike?

Wheelbender,
Does the trike you want to build need to have pedal power?
I built a fast, great handling wooden tadpole trike out of an 8' piece of oak with foot steering using a cross section of oak, 2 skateboard trucks/ 4 wheels at the front and the bottom rear section of a minibike at the rear. No pedals though.
I'll bet 2 bmx forks could be bolted to the cross member in lieu of the skateboard trucks & wheels...
-Lowracer-
 
I plan for my trike to look similar to the Terra Trike Rover (pictured in my first post), but with a 4x4 beam for the backbone and steering crossmember. Pedals will be out ahead of the front wheels, like the Terra Trike.
 
WB6,
I was thinking for the front & rear, cut a donor bike frame for its bottom bracket, leaving some downtube & seattube. Keep the seatube long enough for a front derailleur and light mount. Muffler clamps are great for attaching a tube to a flat. The bolted-on piece of the muffler clamp is flat and can be bolted to a longer piece of flat metal stock to then bolt thru the wood. The rear end could either be another donor frame rear triangle or just some 1"-1.5" angle steel or aluminum stock coming off both sides of the wood. Using long pieces of metal, you would have a few places to bolt thru the wood for added strength. Drill a 3/8" hole near the rear of the metal to bolt on the rear wheel. I'd grind from that hole to the rear of the metal creating a slot for chain tensioning and rear wheel removal (ex. fixie track ends).
Here are a few pics for ideas (the attached metal would need to go perpendicular for your project. This piece was used to attach a donor section creating a front drive recumbent)
...Cool project you got here...
-Low-
 

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The muff clamps look like they will work well. I had planned to simply drill thru the 4x4 and press in bearing cup from a one piece bb. Then I'll use a 3 piece bb adaptor so I can change chain ring sizes. I didn't think about the best way to mount a front derailleur.
 
I was also thinking of the steering area to build a wooden two wheel recumbent. You could cut the front end off of the same donor bike leaving half the top tube and half the down tube. Sandwich that piece between two 2x4's using the clamp-on back pieces of two muffler clamps (to go from round tubing to flat wood). The boom would be one 2x4 supported by the two 2x4's extended past the headset.
see pic
-Low-
 

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I was originally planning to use 2x4s bolted together to make it easier to attach bicycle parts. The 4x4 looked like it would resist the twisting from pedalling better. The pair of 2x4s should be strong enough with some crossmembers sandwiched between them and boxing them with some plywood.
I think the best material for the trike frame would be plywood. It could be layered together, bent and shaped for a custom appearance.
thumbs_dragonwood.jpg

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$600 is good for a used tadpole. I rarely see a used one listed for under a grand here.
I did see this delta trike listed for about $250 more than the cost of building my own trike.
-I could sit really low if I removed the basket and fire truck fenders and remounted the seat.
-Looks like a nice six speed setup in the rear.
-I would need to add underseat steering and linkage since the seat will be mounted so far back.
-They make some powerful 16" hub motors (front) to help me get the trike moving.
-No available velomobile bodies for this one so I will need to make one with PVC and Coroplast.
1998 ReBike ReTrike 606 Recumbent Tricycle
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I noticed that the axles looked mis-aligned too. If I go to see it, I will look at the drive train very carefully. Looks like power and brake only go to the right rear wheel, but that is adequate for commuting since it has a front brake too.
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Here is the type of body work you can build for a delta trike. The trike in the pic costs over $10,000 with the body shell. (Gag)
6a00e0099229e88833013487232408970c-pi
 
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