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Post by liteway on Mar 16, 2019 9:45:10 GMT -5
Lloyd, I do not think so. If its hosted off site it only takes up like 25 Kbs of space or less. We are still running at about 137Megs of the 200Megs they allow. That is about 70 High Def pictures or so, it could go POOF real quick if a Newbie posted a build of large pictures hosted on site.
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Post by Admin on Mar 16, 2019 13:38:59 GMT -5
I watched the build on this trike morph into almost all phases of its current configuration. It is probably the most highly engineered piece of rolling stock of home built origin I’ve seen. It’s design and engineering is straight out of “How to build a rocket ship to the moon”. If there was such a book. I’ve worked on and around aircraft a good deal of my life and if this thing had wings it would fly. It doesn’t need a title and registration but an aircraft certificate of air worthiness and an FAA inspection instead. It was the reason I wanted to build the Eco-Exo and later on the TR1ke. As with most projects, it really is always a work in progress. A constant series of improvements and refinements. If there is a photo in the series showing a license plate, I must have missed it. I do hope it is on the road legally and it gets driven. Keeping this in a garage would truly be shame. Roger
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Post by Admin on Mar 17, 2019 14:24:29 GMT -5
I am glad I finally got liteway's thread up on this forum. I will go back to make any corrections if people message me and tell me where I made the mistake. Date, time and page would help me get there quicker. Thank you, Admin
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Post by liteway on Mar 17, 2019 22:31:04 GMT -5
Thanks James, Great job and I'll bet a rather tedious one at that.
I hope we have something here that other builder's or "would be" builders might get some useful information from, or better still, comment on what I might have done better or more efficiently. My Trike is an ever evolving project, and improvement ideas will always be welcome and needed. I may or may not agree with a comment or idea, but the conversation is usually enjoyable and can only broaden our prospective.
I'll stretch out the thread if/when I think anything that might be an interesting evolution occurs.
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Post by liteway on Mar 19, 2019 13:12:51 GMT -5
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Post by liteway on Aug 7, 2019 21:28:41 GMT -5
I watched the build on this trike morph into almost all phases of its current configuration. It is probably the most highly engineered piece of rolling stock of home built origin I’ve seen. It’s design and engineering is straight out of “How to build a rocket ship to the moon”. If there was such a book. I’ve worked on and around aircraft a good deal of my life and if this thing had wings it would fly. It doesn’t need a title and registration but an aircraft certificate of air worthiness and an FAA inspection instead. It was the reason I wanted to build the Eco-Exo and later on the TR1ke. As with most projects, it really is always a work in progress. A constant series of improvements and refinements. If there is a photo in the series showing a license plate, I must have missed it. I do hope it is on the road legally and it gets driven. Keeping this in a garage would truly be shame. Roger Some how or other I missed this comment until today and could not let it pass without acknowledgement. When I first read it I thought SRX had misplaced a comment from some other thread. Maybe not? Wow. Thanks Roger. Very good of you, if a bit over the top. High praise coming from a guy who knows trikes and has a couple of nice ones of his own. Yes, it's had a plate on it since 2010 and 12000 miles plus on the odo. Latest mod swaps the dash positions of the speedo and voltage gauge as I found my hand often partially blocked the speedo after the wheel installation. May not look that tuff, but took a whole day. Pardon the untucked wires hanging down, just noticed. The koso speedo had been recess mounted in it's previous location, which gave a cleaner look, but I missed not being able to access the button to reset the trip meter. In this case, practicality trumped esthetics. i.pinimg.com/originals/4c/f4/36/4cf4362b93dfe180909e5a7285175d5f.jpgi.pinimg.com/originals/53/ac/81/53ac81d01cbaf75d94bf47758122a504.jpg
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Post by CaptainAmerica on Sept 4, 2019 20:25:08 GMT -5
So how do you feel using a steering wheel like the rest of us commoners? Also where did you land on your castor and toe numbers?
I have generally non adjustable castor set at about 8 degrees and the new trike follows the same numbers but I am wondering if the camber gain curve that could be achieved with with higher castor numbers would be a noticeable help with turn in, without sacrificing straight line wear on the tires. I know that generally castor is used to help the vehicle naturally track straight and that the lighter you are the more you want as a general rule.
-Andrew
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Post by liteway on Sept 4, 2019 21:41:21 GMT -5
Hello Andrew. For my very light weight trike with only about 325 lbs over the front wheels, I think the sticks gave a feeling of response and control that cannot be gotten through a wheel. Just more fun. They provided better self centering too. However, it was hard maneuvering the trike from outside the cockpit. Also my particular set up gave some instability at speed over rough roads. I suspect that there was bump steer going on under the stresses of high speed and bumps that would not show up in testing when the trike was at rest. Another advantage of the wheel is it's lighter effort makes the trike more controllable when using one hand, as in while shifting.
The instability problem with the sticks became much more noticeable with the switch from light weight atv components to the heavier Can Am stuff. Probably not enough rigidity in the central link and bell cranks. Also the new geometry made kickback a problem for the first time. The wheel allows lighter steering for low speeds like parking lots, and bumpy roads induce less instability but there is still more kickback than I would like. I can adjust my caster with shims anywhere from about 4 to 10 degrees and the setting seems to make little difference. I settled at 8 for no particular reason. Almost forgot. More caster did increase steering effort some which was a big plus in my case as steering was way over light and I still use a steering damper to firm things up even more and lessen kickback a little.
My turn in is not quite so quick as it was, and prior experimenting with the old front showed this very sensitive to ackerman angles. I chock this up to the new steering arms that are much shorter to get firmer, quicker steering with the wheel. I am now over ackermaned (is that a term?) with 35 degrees at full lock on the inner wheel and 27 on the outer. Experimenting means fabbing new steering arms and I have not got around to it. The settings should not be too far off , there is no scrubbing in tight turns at least off throttle though I get more heavy throttle tight turn understeer than I did with the old frontend. It was remarkably neutral unless throttle oversteer was called on. This new stuff will need some work should I ever get the opportunity to autocross again.
Toe numbers do not seem to make much difference either if I stay reasonably close to neutral. I settled on 1 to 2 degrees negative. 3 or 4 degrees in produces no stability benefit and increases scrub.
Just to summarize : I would say for the old ATV front end, I preferred the sticks. For the Spyder stuff, I have a slight preference for the conventional wheel.
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Post by liteway on Sept 4, 2019 21:43:44 GMT -5
I have posted a new Video on youtube. Most of it is a rehash for you guys on the forum, but there is a short drive-along at the end. Disappointingly fuzzy. Looked great on my computer prior to uploading.
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Post by liteway on Sept 8, 2019 14:33:37 GMT -5
And another video, handling demonstration
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Post by 1983jzr3w on Sept 18, 2019 16:04:13 GMT -5
I really enjoyed the videos. Great looking trike.
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Post by liteway on Sept 18, 2019 23:01:54 GMT -5
Thanks for that JZR3w, and thanks for the likes Dave ({later edit } and Joe). I did enjoy making them and happy someone else got something out of it.
I have seen better videos, but the sound is absolutely authentic, that is, it sounds the same to me while riding with ear protection. Without ear protection it sounds as if I'm trapped inside a spinning clothes dryer with a bucket of bolts. The drive chain was a bit saggy when the last video was made but it is always much louder than I ever remember on a bike. Same with intake roar, clutch and cam chain ( tension is correct). I'm guessing its mostly because of the proximity of my ears to all the whirly parts, the chopped airbox and muffler.
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Post by davej98002 on Sept 19, 2019 2:04:20 GMT -5
Lloyd, I like your trike! I am getting closer to starting mine. Tossed on copying an old Velorex trike or making a 3 wheel clone of a Auto Union racer from the 1930's.
Photo edited.
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Post by liteway on Sept 20, 2019 22:58:58 GMT -5
Lloyd, I like your trike! I am getting closer to starting mine. Tossed on copying an old Velorex trike or making a 3 wheel clone of a Auto Union racer from the 1930's.
Photo edited.
That looks great with 3 wheels. The proportions would allow the body to slip right over my chassis and many other rt's. It would just need some tall skinny front wire wheels (motorcycle type?) to achieve the period correct look. And a roll bar like the type seen on many A.C. Cobras would work well too. Get after it.
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Post by davej98002 on Sept 21, 2019 3:01:12 GMT -5
The 4 wheel one is a $10,000 peddle car with 7 speeds. Peddle car?? $10,000??
The longer tail to the seat back allows a longer engine combo like a Goldwing. Doing glass over foam for the body will take practice.
I have a few of these laying around that need cleaning and painting. Ford Mustang modern bolt pattern too.
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Post by liteway on Oct 1, 2019 12:17:51 GMT -5
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Post by liteway on Nov 10, 2019 8:59:52 GMT -5
After getting this purchase home and microchecking its condition, I began thinking it might be a shame to dismantle it. It did have lots of problems but I decided to play around with it and see if maybe I might keep it to ride for a while before selling it on again. I have even considered keeping it on permanently as an additional toy. After a couple rides, keeping it as a bike is out. I am reminded why I went from bikes to trikes. It frankly scares the c..p out of me. Much rather take the trike out where I do not feel like I could die at any minute if tempted to exploit it's performance. Even with a pretty good windscreen and a fairly upright riding position, it's not comfortable enough for me to want to go any distance on, even though the suspension does soak up bumps much better than the trike . Fixing it up has been just as fun as working on the trike that's much harder to find ways to improve now. If I can get my money back out of it, I will sell it on next spring after rehabbing it. If not, it will be parted out and the motor will go in the trike. That's my current thinking, which tends to change at least as often as the local wind direction. I'm well along on cosmetics, but in has considerable mechanical problems yet to be addressed. i.pinimg.com/originals/ce/c7/d3/cec7d33b370b5b52281a8febfe5ba36f.jpg
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Post by liteway on Dec 8, 2019 12:28:31 GMT -5
So now I'm thinking this would look good stuffed into the back of my short wheelbase trike. I wonder how the weight compares to the 600 4 I have in place now. Concerns: Stacked transmission looks like it results in a high C.G. The bike itself feels top heavy to me but I have not had anything this big before. Its really wide at the clutch, not leaving room for the 4 link concentric swing arm pivot design I want to try out. i.pinimg.com/originals/de/97/34/de9734f51bd51295e13a8c10d824cc51.jpgI do like the way Yamaha eliminated the head/frame mount here, leaving no frame tube or flange to hide that lovely engine. I think there was a design compromise forced by that though, as the engine could not be used a stress member, resulting in a heavy frame.
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Post by liteway on May 24, 2020 19:44:34 GMT -5
I have deferred the engine swap decision, opting to work on the rear suspension instead. I have spent the last couple of months, on and off, on that. The old set up had some odd and annoying things going on with it. A bucking ( yes I spelled it correctly) oscillation when taking off over a bumpy surface. The same might occur when encountering a series of evenly spaced bumps, like concrete expansion joints, bridge joints etc, even at a constant speed. Not knowing if it was caused by my swing arm geometry or rear damper, I put up with it because there were other things I wanted to improve first. Anywho, my new setup has cured the problems and makes me think I should have given this more priority. The old coilover unit came off the donor bike, which had been working vertically though a compound link at the head of the back wheel as it common practice on many modern bikes. Not liking the trike length that would result from directly installing that swing arm assembly on my trike, I did my own deal using the coilover without link mounted at about 45 degrees and above the pivot. So either the coilover was not made to work at that angle or it was worn out, because it seems my whole problem was it just was not damping properly. I bought a Monotube shock , the stock one for a Kawasaki Versys, and mounted it via link horizontally below the left side of the engine. After welding a lever to it at the front pivot, I was able to retain my relatively stubby swing arm with no problem. As a bonus, ride height is easily adjustable independent of preload. Having a better sorted chassis and not much of a market for my FZ1, the engine swap is getting more likely. i.pinimg.com/originals/38/73/cb/3873cb629805d61ca174dc428bd6cb59.jpgi.pinimg.com/originals/c4/c9/31/c4c931d1c940765dccd73d28d5988746.jpgNow that the coilover is under engine instead of under the tank, I took the opportunity to lower the tank 5 or 6 inches as well, but now my rear fender solution no longer works. I would like a lightweight aluminum or plastic trailer type fender to keep that rear wheel from flinging muck all over myself and the trike. Anyone know of a source for something that will come near fitting?
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Post by Admin on May 25, 2020 2:53:00 GMT -5
I think you would like the rear fender that is on my ryker. It sits very close to the tire and is plastic(i think). I will look at my ryker and see if i can take mount pic's to put up tomorrow( it's 4am here, LOL). srx660
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Post by liteway on May 25, 2020 7:39:46 GMT -5
Thanks James. I do like the way it hugs the tire. Is that a 17 inch wheel?
Looks like lights and braces are molded in though, so it may not be what I need.
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Post by Admin on May 27, 2020 17:25:17 GMT -5
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Post by Admin on May 28, 2020 17:47:40 GMT -5
boat trailer plastic fender. BoatTrailerParts.com
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Post by liteway on May 28, 2020 22:05:38 GMT -5
That's a possibility. if the radius is close. Good thing is they are cheap, so if I cut it up and still don't get a good enough fit, not much harm done.
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Post by joesarasota on May 30, 2020 7:39:47 GMT -5
Nice rocker linkage design for lowering that rear shock, glad that solved the problem 👍
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Post by liteway on Jun 18, 2020 10:40:29 GMT -5
New video just posted Please leave a comment on you tube. Being nice is optional.
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Post by thejoker on Jun 18, 2020 21:16:22 GMT -5
Nice job! Great attention to detail and craftsmanship
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Post by noahkatz on Jun 23, 2020 14:22:34 GMT -5
Yes, beautiful work and result.
And 600 lb is very impressive.
What modifications did you make to the Can Am spindles?
Also, do you have any weights for the front suspension/wheels?
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Post by liteway on Jun 24, 2020 8:57:41 GMT -5
Thanks
My apology. The weight given in one the videos is not correct and reflects an earlier configuration (ATV front end and wheels, heavier seat). 625 to 630 would be more accurate now.
The cast in steering arms on the spindles were much too long and not positioned for my particular spacial and geometry needs. Those I cut/ground away and made a set of bolt on ones that attach to the original Spyder fender mounting bungs. If memory serves, Spindles are 11.5 lbs. Wheel with the tire mounted is about 20. Weight at each front corner went from 20 to 40 lbs, ATV to Spyder, still not too terrible considering the Wheel tire alone is heavier on most cars. Add heavier brakes, heavier spindles and control arms and you could be looking at 80 to 90 lbs a corner for small car components.
Anyone have an accurate figure?
July 3rd edit. I should know better than go from memory when I post specs. I had the front wheels off today doing some brake work. I weighed them to check my memory. Memory not so good. 17 lbs for wheel tire total, not 20. For contrast the lightweight custom 17" alloys and 215/50/17 tires I bought for my vdub weigh exactly double or 34lbs.
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Post by noahkatz on Jun 24, 2020 13:44:03 GMT -5
625 - 630 is still excellent, seems to be several hundred lb less than most that I've seen.
Thanks for the weights; spindles are heavyish, but 20 lb for wheel + tire is quite good I think.
What kind of tires are those?
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