The Spartan trike project by CaptainAmerica

This wasn't an actual appraisal and neither was the one done by the insurance company, I needed a piece of paper to make the DMV happy and so I tallied up what the major components cost and had two people who have in fact looked at the vehicle before and our current valid dealers of trikes sign off that they agreed to the number. While not actually correct, it did represent the value of replacing the major components. The insurance adjusted just made up the numbers about labor time and repairs to match what I had asked for, and since that whole transaction is private it can be done that way and I am sure it usually is anyway even with real body shops.

December 2016-January 2017

Work all but stopped through early January as I was looking for and subsequently purchasing a new house here in North Carolina. I was tired of paying rent my new mortgage is actually cheaper then the rent was, however the gains from the investments the down payments were in probably more then offsets the difference. Sadly the new house came with a really small garage (17x20) which basically amounts to a single car garage. The first order of business was to epoxy the floor, I went with a 2.5 car garage kit from rustoleum because Lowe's was out of the valspar version I had used in California. The finish ended up looking really good, although I did park the trike on it about 3 days later before we had a warm day and the tires left some marks. I have now consolidated all my tools from the old rented shop into this tiny space which doesn't give me a lot of working room, especially with the lady deciding she wanted to start making furniture so now there is constantly saw dust floating around and covering everything. My plan is to build a 1200sqft shop on the other side of the property but I am currently waiting on the city to get back to be about an annexation as one of the two plots I bought is in the county and not the city.

Not to be completely out of whack with work and getting things done I did a pedal position adjustment, trying to maximize foot room and give the clutch more play throughout the throw. This ended up giving me a lot of headache and the further I went the deeper the hole got dug. The clutch master cylinder actuation rod makes an upward angle to the pedal, its been this way since I built it and its a negative thing as is increases the amount of throw per angle of motion. So I opted to make it a downward angle so that the pedal attachment is closer to the center of rotation. Everything seemed to work great after I finished, but unbeknownst to me the master cylinder piston had wore into the bore in such a way that when I flipped the actuation angle it caused the piston to bind without fully releasing. This caused the clutch to not close and for me to get a very strange noise while driving every time I got on the throttle, it also hindered acceleration quite a lot as you can imagine. This was sorted out over a night or two last week, I then put everything back together and could not get the clutch to release, tested by putting the trike in first with the clutch in and trying to roll it. I kept adding pedal throw back in, that I had removed for foot room, to obtain more master cylinder actuation distance but nothing helped. So I have now dropped the motor and hooked up the clutch slave to the engine outside of the chassis so I can actually watch it actuate which it seems to do just fine. I am now currently confused and ready to just put the thing back together and see if I missed something, I am also going to fix a bunch of small problems that I have while the engine is out for the first time in two and half years. More pictures to come, also new wheels, something a little brighter and more visible.



The new house and the view from the front door after it snowed 4 inches.

I am glad you like what I did, always nice to hear that. Honestly I would stick with the electric idea, pack the batteries down low, get the chassis as light as possible. Its actually something I want to do, make an electric version that a paraplegic can drive, just a hand brake and throttle. I think I can get my rolling chassis down in the 500lb range and then add batteries back in with the motor, possibly still chain driven for simplicity. No idea off the top of my head what kind of distance I could get out of something like that but we shall see in the future.

I too have a 3 car garage, its even a wider version at 750 Ft Sq plus attic space, but I also have a son that does not have a garage so all his stuff is packed in with my stuff.

On Forum attachments, I do not think re-posting pictures during a quoting of a post will take up any more room but I am not 100% clear on that. I do not know if there is a way to block pictures when a quoted post is made. But CA's pictures are hosted off site.

I just checked the Admin page and we are at 166 Mb of our total allotment of 200 Mb so we are ok for now.

What's all that white stuff on the ground around your new house? Question, do you wear a helmet when you drive your trike, or better put, are you required to by law in N.C. When I visit the Smoky Mt, I do not wear a helmet and have never been stopped for not wearing one. Maybe just lucky, in that area we bounce in and out of N.C and Tenn. all with in a few miles.

February '16

Finally got the trike put back together after much to do about nothing. Apparently some pedal adjustments I did to the clutch caused it to over actuate and lock itself into an open condition. I dropped the engine and took the clutch apart and found nothing wrong with it, so I put it back together and then spent some time making sure that the max throw of the master cylinder isn't pushing the clutch more open then it needs to (about 1/16"). After all that I put the system back together with some modifications. I bead rolled all the coolant pipes which now seem to be holding pressure versus before were they would all lead slightly. I removed a bunch of crimp on electrical connectors and soldered most of them together with new heat shrink to make everything look a little cleaner, especially the wires up to the upper brake light. Also, new wheels, the orange powder coat my friend at CRC powder coating in Mooresville turned out really good, I was skeptical if the orange was going to be to dark based on the color pallet they had but it is quite bright enough for me.

Go Okla. State!

I appreciate the surely unintended salute to my alma mater.

Looks good too!

Close to color Porsche used on the wheels of race versions of their touring cars, but with more gloss. Your use seems more appropriate.

Liteway is running a 600cc engine right now. He can answer this better than me. But there are a few 400cc trikes around that will not win too many drag races but will sustain 85 MPG all day long if needed.

It would be so cool to design a bolt on rearend subframe swap. One day its a trike and the other a 4 wheel car. May not be legal for street use if registered as a motorcycle. But for a TRACK DAY.....

Thanks Andrew, NOW my head is spinning gears.

Yeah I remember 30, was uhh 31 years ago today

What are you running for tires?

Toyo Proxes R888 205/40 17. Maybe.

DOT legal, designed for track and autocross use, not recommended for the street. Hydroplane city.

That is correct, exactly. I don't do much in the rain so its not been a problem, but its still treaded a bit so its not end of the world if it sprinkles. Same tire on all 3 corners

AHHH, a sudden rain and being not prepared.

I once (1980's) had a 65 Dodge Dart GT with a BUILT 340 and a 3200 RPM Stall converter. I was running a spool "Posi" rear end. I did have fair tires for dry weather on it. I was 25 miles from home when the rain hit. That car was not controllable at all. The rear was trying to swap ends and the crown of the road was trying to make it slide down hill.

I parked it inside at a Shucks Autoparts store that had a repair shop and I knew the manager. His parts driver gave me a ride home.

How do you like the R888 compare to regular tires you had before?

I would say they are much stickier getting into the corners, but once you get used to something it doesn't stand out as much. I would say its still very much an under steering vehicle with powered over steer if you aren't careful with the throttle. I am running more camber to help with more aggressive turning, I could go more aggressive but the tire wear goes up and I am not trying to push it most of the time. Mostly since the accident and since buying my house I don't drive it to much, maybe 2-3 times a month.

Last Saturday was a surprise birthday outing for my grand son (12). We were headed to the "Pit" in Mooresville, NC, for a day of karting and lazer tag. I mentioned to my son, Daniel, that Captain America and his Spartan Trike lived there. We both have followed the Spartan build. He agreed to make a slight detour if Andrew was home...and was available for us to take a look at his creation. Andrew and I had spoken a few times via phone, but had never met. It was great to finally meet, and a big surprise when he asked "Want to drive it?"!!! Well, YES! Andrew told me that was his way to pay it forward as he had been given the same kind of surprise from the owner and builder of the P6 Scorpion early on in his Spartan build. That helped to encourage him to get it done.

My impressions? I had never ridden a Reverse Trike, so I had no preconceived ideas of what to expect. My few laps around the block was not sufficient to give an in depth overview of the many attributes. I'm still learning about under steer, over steer, castor and camber...yadda, yadda. The open wheel, low slung Indy style is fun. I was grinning ear to ear the whole time. It was noisier than I expected, but not unreasonable. Spartan is very appealing to the eye, and awesome as an adrenaline rush.The clutch had no feel or pedal play, so I choked it out more times than I care to admit. Andrew did give me a heads up about it and said what he planned to do to fix it.  Throttle response was crisp and very responsive. Spartan is very appealing to the eye, and awesome as an adrenaline rush.

Thank you, Andrew, for the riding experience...and the boost I needed to finish my build.

A very impressive and ambitious project. A couple of questions about the basic architecture.

Are you happy with the wheelbase and width of your trike?
If you were going change either, which way would you go?
Are you happy with your choice of tire sizes?
If you were going to change tire sizes, which way would you go?

Regards, Bill Barton (Frankston TX)

Thanks so much for the info, it is exactly what I was looking for. Experience is a wonderful teacher!

Regards, Bill Barton