Tribrid Tadpole Trike road test

Outstanding, Geoff. Congratulations on the build. Like George Pappard on 'The 'A' Team' used to say. "I love it when a plan comes together.

Thanks for sharing the build and the ride with us.

Tom
 
Thanks Tom, hopefully soon there'll be more - ATM they're calling for rain/sleet & snow, generally more cold, wet nastiness so the taddy is tucked away warm & dry... dunno when this winter's gonna end heh
 
Thanks Otero, I've not done any top speed testing yet as I'm still workin' the kinks out & learning to ride the thing - it's a lil freaky TBH, comfy & handles well... but it's defo odd lol

I had it flying downhill at one point during stability testing & in my brain I was screaming like a schoolgirl, didn't have the speedo hooked up (just found the misplaced sensor FTW) & it was prolly only around 30mph or so, but man it felt like warp to ludicrous speed, breaking the plaid barrier :p
 
I watched that video 6 times yesterday...awesome machine...oh and I went over my data usage and can no longer watch youtube on my phone...until the 2nd anyways...
 
Didn't see you had a new thread, been posting on the original one. You already know how much I like the amazing bike and I've been sending the video link to friends who are not necessarily bike people and getting thumbs up.

What I want to comment on is the quality of the video. I've watched a lot of riding videos on this forum and this one is by far the best I've seen. You alluded to the wind noise problems in recording as you ride and we have all us almost gotten sick watching vids with the cameras attached to helmets. When a camera pans to the side it exaggerates the movement. (In real life when we look to the side we blink so that it is more like cutting from one scene to another. Try it yourself. That's what we do. Now do it while staring straight ahead and moving your head to the side. Weird. That's what a camera does.)

I used to do a lot of film making when I was young and you learn early on to hold the camera steady and to pan slowly if at all... not something that's going to happen when the camera is attached to your head with eyes looking here there and everywhere. With some vids I just have to stop mid way and quit watching.

You overcame those problems very nicely. For one you set the camera up in stationary locations and rode into and out of the frame of view with no problems with wind sound. That was nice! Easy on the ears and eyes. And for the action, you-are-there-riding, the camera is attached to the bike itself which apparently has very little vibration or bumpiness, attesting to what a good ride the bike has... also making it easy on the eyes.
Changing the point of view by relocating the camera on the bike to the axle area also helped to make the view of the road and scenery more interesting. By having music instead of a "live" recording of road and bike sounds you avoided the irritating wind noise so much a part of amateur bike vids and brought yours to a whole nother level. The result of your forethought and efforts paid off big time. And nice editing finished it off. By reversing the direction of the first stationary shots at the end of the video gave it a nice beginning and end to tie it together. Well done.

Back when I worked with moving images it was film, not video. At that time (late 60's early 1970's) video cameras were clunky and editing was rudimentary. I liked being able to fade to black out or do fade ins to open a scene, or do a dissolve from one cut to another so that one set of images fades out as the other set fades in... so that one location melds into another. This is part of what is known as "the language of film" and is so common we don't even notice it when we watch movies.

A few years ago when I first joined this forum most of us here were pretty new to motorbikes and were simply putting Happy Time motors on our bicycles and trying not to mangle the spokes with the kit rag joint, poorly installed. We learned pretty quickly that the advertised " make yer bike into a cool moped in acoupla hours with minimal tools" was not quite true. There were a few advanced builders and some very cool bikes, but many of us didn't know what we were doing. But we learned and got better. Over the years the general level of the builds here has gone ballistic with so many great builds, much more sophisticated fabricating going on, better made parts and more choices in upgrades and such... bigger and better engines, shift kits, etc. which have taken things to higher and higher levels. And we've been sharing what we've learned from each other.

But, the vids are for the most part on a level with our first Happy Time rides. Pretty crude. Those of us who have been around awhile with this addiction of building bikes generally seem to want the current build to be better than the last one. Better looking, better riding, more reliable and maybe faster. Less like a bicycle and more like a light motorcycle. And rightfully, we're proud of our efforts and like it when people stop us and ask about our rides. When I see a car stop ahead of me, a guy jump out and take pictures as Moosh in her sidecar and me the old bear ride by it brings a smile inside. We like being appreciated and like sharing what we love. It's only natural. And the videos can be a great way to share. But what we record is a far cry from what we feel and experience riding. Gone is the serenity, gone is the beauty of riding. To share that is going to require taking the video more seriously and giving it the same kind of artistry we give to our bikes.

I sound like a know it all and apologize for that. And if I sound critical, I don't mean it that way. I'm just saying that taking good vids and sharing our favorite riding music can also be artistically fulfilling and a great way to share our love of motorbicycling. It takes a little bit of know how and some time and effort. But what a nice payoff when people like your video and watch it multiple times before sharing with friends. Cool beans! Someday when I grow up and am caught up with building I'd like to fool around with making a little riding movie (video). It's another kinda great fun.
SB
 
This is a sick looking ride!
Done any top speed testing yet?
Manual or auto?
Kudos to you sir for a fantastic designing-out-of-the-box build!
 
Thanks RicksRides, the "looks" just sort of happened... it's the only way I could make the pieces fit lol & yeh, I hope it proves reliable enough for years of use.


maniac57 - no top speed testing yet: http://motorbicycling.com/showpost.php?p=474740&postcount=5 & it's an auto-clutched manual jackshafted to the seven speed cassette - I use the Lifan's three speeds as just a "low/med/high" range with the seven speed twist shift as it's primary. This allows me to have an ideal gear range for whatever environment, in the vid I used the "low range" for the little bit of trail riding, the "high range" for the road cruising.

It may sound like I need to do a lot of shifting but in actuality I tend not to, with the electric assist helping with take-offs & hills I find I tend to use only one or two gear changes, at most three - the critical difference is I've a perfect gear for every occasion, trails, hills, paved or unpaved shoulders, ridin' hard or just cruising & eventually all the above with a heavily laden trailer.

& thanks for the complements, it's defo "out of the box" lol, but not that farfetched a build, I'm kinda hoping others will take up the challenge & without the "hybrid" electrics, it's not even that costly. With something like this as a donor for suspension, engine, harness & more: http://motorbicycling.com/showpost.php?p=446434&postcount=485 it would cost far less than even an unmotorized recumbent tadpole, mine was less than most even with the electric drive.



silverbear - as usual you've offered some interesting thoughts, thank you for taking the time to share them. I'm glad you liked the vid, but "taking good vids and sharing our favorite riding music" isn't the easiest even with today's tech, I'm glad when anyone uploads anything as it offers an insight into their experiences...

Video editing is massively time consuming, the file sizes huge it often takes a long time to upload, to make even the smallest change takes forever to process, the software cumbersome or expensive, even both. The YouTube editor is extremely limited but at least reformats the video nicely (file & resolution conversion) & Windows Movie Maker is almost as limited, but does horrid things to the quality of the display... using either/both is often an exercise in frustration and without a decent camera (read expensive) you're often faced with technical issues as well, vertical high frequency vibration distortion, low frequency impact movement, poor coloration, pixelation & artifacts, wind noise & other audio issues like levels & subject discrimination... with a decent camera you can still find yourself subject to these problems with the additional issue of worrying about damaging your pricy toy with any interesting "action" shots, you'll note I've never offered examples of my winter commute - obviously bombing down the icy, snow packed roads during a blizzard would make for great video, equally as obvious is my reluctance to smash my camera lol

There's the much touted GoPro of course which takes care of the majority of technical problems, but when faced with the choice I decided to get my Canon ELPH 110HS, nearly twice the resolution for about half the investment - perfect for everything except "in flight" action, small enough to always have in a pocket it was the ideal camera for everything I needed until now lol

I've done some searching around for a lower cost alternative to the GoPro but after watching comparison vids I just can't bring myself to buy one, there's some that do an OK job of it... but not any better than my Canon & most far worse save perhaps water resistance, so I'm afraid for now anyway "action" vids will be the exception & not the norm, my poor cam simply isn't built for it & without good editing software most of what I offer will most likely be short, single clips - just to share detail about whatever.

I suspect the majority of others are faced with the same dilemmas, between the time and money needed for "professional" looking vids - you could have built another bike... I bet given the choice most choose the latter & I can't blame them, I'll still welcome even the shakiest, grainy & noisy phone cam shots as "something is better than nothing" and I only wish more would take a moment to take pics while they build and a coupla shots of their bike in action, each pic "worth a thousand words" and all :D
 
Thanks for clarifying some things. It's pretty obvious I have no experience or knowledge of video and the limitations of current software/ cameras, etc. I guess I had imagined the editing was simpler and cheaper than it is. Not so.
My comments were born of my long ago experience with film, which was also a pain in the orsch, time consuming, expensive and any editing beyond splicing scenes together was technically difficult. So it is that the home movies of our parents and grandparents were often difficult to watch. And they were silent. Sound with film was for the studios who recorded separate sound tracks later added to the film either with a magnetic strip or with an optical track, both out of the league of the amateur.

And you are quite right, even with wind noise interference, being able to hear the engine and exhaust and seeing a bike in action or even just sitting there is a whole lot better than words trying to describe and our imaginations left to supply the rest. So keep the videos coming. Someday the cameras and ease of editing may catch up and make videos like your tadpole riding with music an easier thing to accomplish and more commonplace. With all of that said, it puts into better perspective what you accomplished. And thanks again for sharing and taking the extra effort to make something special.
SB
 
BarelyAWake said:
...I'll still welcome even the shakiest, grainy & noisy phone cam shots as "something is better than nothing"...
Click to expand...

Speaking of - I just found this lil vid shot by another rider during the Shrimp Run Rally, while low res & not my kinda tunes really it's still awesome he took the time to shoot & edit some of the run. Not only is it reminding me of good times in the sunny summertime, I don't often get to see what the taddy looks like flyin' down the road;

http://youtu.be/r3T_r5-HLE8

I'm sitting oddly, a bit sidesaddle in the beginning of the vid & if you're wondering why I'm so twisted in an otherwise extremely comfortable seat it's because I'd fractured my hip the weekend before, if I hadn't a recumbent I wouldn't have been able to do the ride at all.

With the recumbent I was fine, so long as I didn't get off my trike... which was fine too lol ;)
 
That was a cool vid. All mopeds? I saw one scooter.
What speeds were you averaging?
That one bridge near the end of the vid looked narrow. Was that a bike trail or just a narrow bridge. Didn't appear wide enough for a car.
Thanks for sharing, and I didn't even find the tunes objectionable. At least it wasn't rap.

Tom
 
Rap music is a punishment for being naughty :(

Thank you for sharing your videos Geoff and it was great seeing the Shrimp run video too. Your tribrid tadpole trike is stunning, but I would imagine I'm not telling you anything that you don't know already :)
 
Thanks Tom & Intrepid - it was mostly scooters, about 75-100 of 'em actually but the vid was the outbound leg of the run when I was rollin' with the fifties. On the way back as much as I wanted to stay with my fellow lil ones they were all two smokers, not runnin' 100:1 mixes & I'm about muffler height... well, I love two strokes but not that much lol so I picked up the pace and ran with the "big boy" scoots as best I was able.

The speeds were residential/rural, roughly 35ish but it did get a lil squirrely on the run back as pack discipline kinda went poof, interesting as I was now outa my league and while I do know the area I was ignorant of the route so it was redline all the way home, white knuckles & hoping for the best. While that was still the taddy's first test run of any real distance, I figured if it was gonna blow up now would be the time to get it over with as I was surrounded by fellow riders & there was even a chase truck & trailer - amazingly of all the scoots & peds on this three day event, not a one needed their generous offer!

Tom, that was a pretty "normal" automotive bridge for back roads through the brackish marsh areas & low wetlands around here, that one is in good shape too as it's just outside of town. We've lots of single lane small bridges like that, that one odd only in that they've fairly recently fixed it up lol

Here's a short clip from the beginning of the run back, while high res it's brief & kinda tough to see all the scoots... except the delta trike right in front of me ofc lol, still kinda neat & you can hear my lil 49 four smoker vrooming along as there's no tunes: http://youtu.be/_ZijRUwopys

...don't judge the taddy's seeming lack of acceleration - I couldn't shift or use the e-assist as I was holding the silly camera thing so I was stuck in mid-range gearing until I put it away to attend to the business at hand, the business of chuckling at the surprised look on any of the scooterists I pulled up next to heh ;)
 
Thanks for posting this new video Geoff :)

I really enjoyed seeing the scenery along those back country roads. Where I live is on the edge of huge river flats and floodplains and a lot of our country roads look very similar.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top