Spartan Trike Project

[mtntech]

Jul 13, 2014 19:58:27 GMT -5 mtntech said:

Jun 13, 2014 9:39:43 GMT -5 Liteway said:

As I look at your anti-roll set up I just don't get it. It looks designed to bust welds loose or twist the vertical tube to a point of permanent deformation. How can there be enough give in a 1ft (or less) length of tubing to accommodate independent compression, rebound in the front wheels? If you beef it up enough not to break, you will greatly limit independent movement.

I can see how it might work for racers, where there is little regard for suspension travel, and anti-roll is paramount over compliance, but it looks ill suited to street machines working in the real world of potholes and broken pavement.

I agree. That design will continue to fail. Take a look at Triplethreats setup. The part that has to twist must be made of the correct materials and be "supported" properly. As far as powder coating goes, a hammertone finish looks great and covers up imperfections as well. Gloss black will show everything. Just a thought.

[captainamerica]

August 3rd, 2014

The finished product is here, minus a few tweaks. Really glad I went with powder coating, kinda wish I added more color but it turned out nice anyway. I spent a lot of extra time on the rebuild getting everything in a position to stay for good especially with the wiring hardness. I hooked it all up and it turned over on the first try. The brakes still need a better bleed and it is over heating, but I think I have that figured out, vac leak making it run super lean, gonna try and fix it tonight.

Things I added, custom designed high misalignment pieces for much higher strength rod ends at the wheels, heat shielding on the drivers back side, routing the wiring harness under the driver instead of around the side, new clutch, painted the stator cover (for the complainers). First test drive we a few minutes ago, engine was running super hot, 250 range, killed it to look for the issue.

[jim99]

Hi Andy,

Looking good!

Bike motors can be a bear to bleed after the coolant system has been opened. I usually start it, let it get hot, shut it off, let cool and draw coolant from the overflow tank. Repeat several times and then you are good to go.

Jim

[captainamerica]

Putting a feeler out to the crowd of builders and fans on this site. I am considering taking my design to a commercial level and selling it as a non-street legal kit (ie off road) you put together and register it under your own states requirements. Initially it would be offered to work with any 04-08 GSXR 600-1000cc bike as a donor. The kit would come with anything that doesn't come on the bike, chassis, suspension, wheel outers, steering, pedals, brake system, wheels, etc. I am running the numbers currently but expect the cost to customer to be in the range of $12,000 plus the cost of the donor bike.

Is there any serious interest here? just send me a message and let me know what you think.

[nedkelly]

Morning Captain

For what it's worth in my opinion you would be better to create a easy to follow detailed set of plans for all us want to be trike builders, for you to go into production of your kit trike I would imagine this set up would put you considerable out of pocket which will need sales to recoup. When you consider your cost is around $12,000 + $6,000 ish (donor bike) + transport $ for the kit it's a fair wack of money which may limit your market and return on investment.

As you have demonstrated with your CAD drawing ability your plans for the Trike could be marketed world wide not just the USA giving you a much larger customer base with far less outlay and possible greater profit than the kit.

My 2 cent's worth.

By the way it looks fantastic

Ned

[captainamerica]

Do people actually buy plans?

[Liteway]

No liability fears Captain?

[stretchmobileski]

Sept 4, 2014 21:08:28 GMT -5 captainamerica said:

Do people actually buy plans?

Just ask Robert Q. Riley. I have a set of his Tri-Magnum plans in my closet.

[nedkelly]

The Aussie version, sorry about the quality of the photo

[nedkelly]

[Liteway]

This yours Ned? If so, how bout starting your own build thread?

[captainamerica]

Sept 2014

So after a few weeks of head scratching about my cooling problems I finally figured it out. The issue was inability to keep the engine temps down during driving, at idle they would begin to come down but I usually wasn't idling that long. For those of you reading this, it probably seems backwards I would imagine, cold when idling, how when running when the air should be flowing the best. Turns out that the wires to the fan were backwards, by color they matched the system but because I am running a pusher fan not a puller the direction needed to be reversed. Which in the case of a DC motor you just switch the wires. This meant that the moment I hit 225 the fan would kick over pulling air away from the radiator and pretty much stopping the cooling system. Previously I was running in the 220-240F range, one little change, 200-225F range. The moment I hit 225 and the fan kicks on the temps drop, very frustrating problem but an easy fix at the end of the day luckily.

Andrew

[captainamerica]

Sept 2014

Got materials on the cheap from a friend and poured myself a seat with an over sized trash bag. It worked okay except there was two much foam so I had to lean forward during the process to allow the foam to expand the bag without pouring over onto me. The stuff gets really hot during the process but the finished product definitely sticks me into place around the corners. Its not as pretty as I would have liked, and as comfortable as the seat is it alters my position slightly causing my knees to pretty much wedge against the gauge cluster (they did this before just not as bad). This is painful when you hit pot holes so it causes me to be rather tense while driving which causes fatigue quickly. Little kinks to work out, having watch my coworker at NASCAR do this for two of our drivers and now having done it myself and seeing both results I say experience has a lot to do with it. I am temped to grind out knee arches in the gauge cluster bar if things stay the way they are.

My friend is so small he has to have a couple pillows behind him to reach the pedals with his legs straight out. Its funny how that works, on the new chassis I am working on I added 1" to the front bulk head to give me just that little extra bit of room for my knees to be comfortable.

[Liteway]

Looks good Captain. I have big front tire/brakes envy.
Ever get the issues with front anti-roll system sorted?

[stretchmobileski]

Hey, just throw an Mexican blanket over it like the hot rod guys do.

[kp]

Hey Captain ..

This is a really nice blog and the way you have posted everything it's very informative. I have a proposal for which I would like to be in touch with you . Do let me know how to reach you

[captainamerica]

I am actually working on the anti-roll bar system this week, hopefully have something to test next week. As for KP, you can contact me through my account with a personal message to begin with.

Andrew

[Mick]

Have you opened it up yet and done any extreme cornering?

[captainamerica]

Not sure what qualifies as extreme cornering, I have pushed it in my opinion on the back rounds near my town as fast as I pretty much dare to go. The trike is solid up to around 80mph which is about the max I go off the freeway, I think maturity kicks in and tells you that you designed it and if it fails your going to hit that tree at 70 mph and you might not survive so lets have some fun but live to see another day. On the freeway I maxed at about 110mph, this is almost more due to nutsting road surfaces around here with all the 18-wheelers tearing it up and the noise. Its interesting how much louder everything is in an open thingypit, and its not just wind noise, I think its more the tires honestly.

Getting back to your original question, it feels really good in the corners, its an absolute blast to drive and see the reactions of people you fly past. Down shifting and braking hard coming into a corner and then the apex and back on the throttle and upshifting is an amazing feeling especially when you get it all right and just blast out of the corner. I have now put 2100 miles on it since April, and it was down for powder coating for 2 months of that.

In other news, the power coater burned off my VIN stickers before I was able to get the thing inspected. So I was stuck in limbo where I have plates and registration but no title. I contacted the state inspectors office and asked for VIN replacement, they did what they could and the state came back (stupidly in my opinion) that they could not make new stickers and would have to re issue my VIN, which they did so now my VIN does not match my registration and I will probably have to start the whole process over again which sucks because registration was $500. Yay more of me in the poor house.

Also for anyone interested I am getting ready to start my new chassis, which looks very similar to the one posted in Nedkelly's page. More on this soon.

[Mick]

Just wanted to know how the back end was holding out while on the power round a corner? Are your tyres 205 wide, is there any room left between the tyre and the swing arm? Could a 215 be fitted?
Bad luck on the registration :-(