To Trike or not to Trike...

ferball

ferball

New Member
I am getting ready to start building my 'bent. My original design idea was to go with tadpole, but I plan to use it for my daily commute so I am having second thoughts given the width in town may be a problem. I know most tads are around the 30 inch wide mark, but I was wondering if it can be shaved down to like say 24" (I have seen deltas with super narrow wheel bases) or am I better off just going with a regular old two wheel 'bent? Has anybody experimented with a narrow tadpole? I am also thinking a trike might be a little ambitious for my first fabrication build.
 
Not that I'm even remotely a taddy "expert" er nuffin - but... I believe that so long as they have equivalent wheelbase widths, a tadpole is inherently more stable in turns than a delta... I dunno about as narrow as 24" but I figure so long as you keep yer CG as low as possible I don't think there'd be any problems with say 28" wide, those I've seen offered commercially.

TBH width & traffic is a problem, the lack of height/visibility with your typical 'bent another safety issue - but I'd not discount a trike for a concern about fabrication skills alone, there's very little difference once ya start makin' things from scratch... ya've an "extra" wheel is all lol

It's w/e yer diggin' I figure ;)
 
I built a pedal tad ,it's 40inches axle nut to axle nut . Not to discourage you any but iv'e been fabin frames for a long time and even with help of machinest friend it was a chalenge. We made a cross member out box beam and used some kids bike head tube and neck steam for parts. The hard part came in milling beam at corect angle to allow wheels to "cant" , then drilling hole in neck so axle was level and 90deg. To centerline.
The cant angle on those fancy greenline tads is 11deg off plumb at 90deg to centerline , so we copyed that . Turned out ok after a few tries and rode well as far as wheels not jerking during turns .
We used an old kitchen chair as seat (works and looks great 2 bucks at thrift) and got hollow core 20inch wheels from northen tool. There are garden cart web sites that have 26inch hollow core wheels as well.
I am curently building a "can am " style tad to motorize , were one sits at normal height above street. I never felt good riding that low around town and was almost crushed a few times , so use a flag and maybe paint it dayglo green or something. Good luck let me know if i can help in any way.
Sorry no photo having posting issue right now.
 
That is why I was concerned about the width, I am not planning on making a low cg type bent. I was planning on a higher seat, I am figuring it will be about the height of the top tube on a 20 inch frame, I am a little leary about riding low on traffic. If my first attempt comes out decent I have enough parts that I will probably do something more "experimental" but as the weather gets nicer I would like to get a daily driver operational. Is a higher CG a problem on a bent? I mean it is still going to be lower than on a traditional bike so was not worried about for a two wheeled version.
 
ferball said:
That is why I was concerned about the width, I am not planning on making a low cg type bent. I was planning on a higher seat, I am figuring it will be about the height of the top tube on a 20 inch frame, I am a little leary about riding low on traffic. If my first attempt comes out decent I have enough parts that I will probably do something more "experimental" but as the weather gets nicer I would like to get a daily driver operational. Is a higher CG a problem on a bent? I mean it is still going to be lower than on a traditional bike so was not worried about for a two wheeled version.
Click to expand...

The CG is very much a consideration no matter the type of vehicle, with a leaner/two wheeler you do have a lot more leeway as your weight shift helps compensate in a turn - with a trike (fixed) however this compensation is extremely restricted, you cannot lean the vehicle whatsoever and you're pretty much limited to your torso's weight.

When you say "I am figuring it (higher seat) will be about the height of the top tube on a 20 inch frame" - what part of the seat are you referring to? What type of seat & angle?

Here's some interesting examples from ActionBent Recumbent Bikes (buncha similar examples there) utilizing the same seat with close to the same inclination (the two wheeler is on a stand) - the seat height on the two wheeler does seem close to what yer talkin' about;

t1xfullsidegrass.jpg

FocusREV04.jpg
 
As far as being seen you can put a piece of pvc pipe up and put on some flashing lights and a flag and such.

As far as CG goes some of the UK trikes ride about as high as a road bike. You learn to ride it I guess.

But sitting low allows less vision in front. Seeing what is coming over hills and such.
 
Lots of trikes in Florida. We were at the park one day and some kids were trashing one.

They were taking turns and loving it !

I learned that day about trike moves.

They destroyed the right wheel then removed it and kept riding it on two wheels.

I bought it. Fixed it, sold it to a friends mom. She loves it. It's a Trailmate.

Trailmate DeSoto Classic

Trike have moves all their own. Even a simple Trailmate.

Here is a really good book about trikes. It is from the UK and they still trike. :)

http://books.google.com/books?id=my...&resnum=1&ved=0CDIQuwUwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
 
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