re: The Bent Zombie Tribrid Tadpole Trike (build phase)
Defo - I can see the problems ya had w/yer BikeBug & hub, jus' for a lil while I messed with a similar setup, a lil friction drive (rear) rack ICE & a 'Zap' drive (discontinued now);
At the time I wasn't worried about comfort, speed or (electric) range & it worked well enough that I guess it's stuck in my mind (if not consciously lol)... but as you noticed w/yer setup the weight was substantial & the benefit marginal - yet one thing I
really enjoyed was the "stealth mode" through town with the power & range of an ICE for the distance. At the time I was living in Vermont & the posh lil town I lived near frowned greatly on the screaming chainsaw noises lol
Sadly, although fun & functional like your setup it was "overall not a winner" for any number of small reasons, no any one really killing the project but more a combination of factors - top heavy weight being the most prominent, the hills of Vermont & the unsuitably tiny engines another biggie, dual friction drives also took their toll. I'm straining to remember - but I think the only reason I stopped riding it was I trashed the roller drive for the ICE & tried to make one myself & failed miserably heh (long bfore this ossum forum was around ta help)... Given the lil 12v electric didn't have squat for range - that was the end of my very brief initial experimenting w/motorized bicycles, heck - I'd even forgotten about that summer o'fun until I saw a similar engine here on the forum & it all came back to me... guess I'm gettin' old too *sigh*
I'm not actually building this trike for speed BTW silver, at least not max top speed anyway... I suppose it might look fast because of it's lay-back design but much like yer thoughts on the "Cripmobile' (heh, bet some gangstas would be less than pleased w/that name), I'm tryin' for comfort, reliability & ease - I'll not hafta swing a leg over & I'm lookin' forward to the reclining lawn chair as I watch the world roll by heh. If it
does in fact turn out to be a fast'un I'll not complain ofc - I've still the need for speed and it gets the better of me from time to time, but I assure you that both Thud & KiM's stuff would blow me outa the water like I was standing still, they're building Ferraris & I'm going for... I unno... a Subaru Forester mebbe? There's a touch of "work truck" in my thoughts, a trailer in it's future w/o a doubt heh, the "performance" I'm after is raw durability, focusing on acceleration & handling - the take off from a dead stop & torque for the hills. Even the Rollfast is deceptive, I went with gears to improve it's acceleration, engine mods were done w/that same thought more than top speed... it just ended up being a lil faster than I thought it'd be lol, no complaints tho (I'd still get destroyed at the
Death Race w/o a doubt)
Not to say there isn't speed
potential as a recumbent has far less wind resistance (the number one top speed killer by far) - if I take the "best case" scenario with the manufacturer's data, the 'Pie is only reported to have a 45KPH (27.9MPH) max speed even with my 48v/1000w setup & while it'll ofc be able to go faster with the ICE helping, four strokes aren't known for their high RPM power... and usually have about the same top end, sometime a lil more. Gearing naturally muddles all of that, but I'm crossing my fingers for a
sustainable 35mph, perfect for our back roads & traffic safety... it's the "sustainable" bit that's tricky tho with the terrain 'round here, thus my focus on torque vs horsepower...
There are any number of engine mods for both the 'Pie and the Lifan, one of the reasons I got the 'Pie is it's controller is programmable & feature rich w/a USB port for a 'puter interface, naturally there's people hackin' away at it with both software & hardware mods:
Much More Powerful Pie Now!!! & there's a ton of potential for the Lifan, big bore kits, cams & even fuel injection:
Small Engine EFI conversion Kit ...but while I deliberately sought feature rich & upgradable engines for later modification and tinkering potential, some of them can have reliability consequences, most are quite costly & I'm hoping I won't
need them as that would mean my experiment is somewhat a failure... but it's nice that such is available for
next winter's tinkerin'... heck, I'll take top speed
and acceleration ifn I can get it heh
Speakin' of "costly" I did go ahead and order this seat from
ActionBent Recumbent Bikes (click to view);
...turns out they're (or were, not a lot of recent feedback) quite reputable & respected for their low-cost but quality recumbents, and while the above seat cost about $200 with S&H - the next least expensive seats I found for a full lay-back recumbent was $4-500 and up! While I'll buy quality components & accept that such will ofc cost more - there's no way in heck I'm gonna pay five hundred dollars or more for a freakin' plastic bike seat
Two hundred was pushing it... but I
really don't wanna get dragged into a fiberglass project on top of everything else, my time involved would work out to about the same cost so *shrug* close enough. It's also holding up the R&D as it's such an integral component - I can't even hack the frame any more until I have the seat so even that fundamental aspect is "on hold" until the seat shows up. It's even a bit of a gamble as there's no real measurements or data on the seat & the pics are not the best... I mighta jus' bought myself a really comfy but weird office chair (yea, I took a car racing hi-back and stuck an office chair roller base to it for similar reasons before lol).
Ah well, whatever happens will happen, tis part o'the fun fer me