My newest recumbent is a trike. I bought it in December 2013 from a fellow recumbent rider and, having put over 600 miles on it so far this year, I have to say, I’m in love! What a joy to ride!
This trike is a Terra Trike Zoomer Elite (Elite was the aluminum version) and is probably about seven years old, but looks brand new and was well taken care of. It originally had 20 inch wheels all the way around, but has the Terra Trike rear adapter so no2 sports the larger 26″ rear wheel. Bar end shifters on the handle bars, which I had never used before, are so much better than the standard twist shifters on many recumbents. I’ve done lots of little modifications which I will cover one by one in the future.
Needless to say, I don’t think I will ever go back to two wheels. I can’t wait to try it out on all my distance rides this year across Nebraska and Iowa.
Took the trike out for it’s first real ride since building it and after 24 miles over 2 1/2 hours I can say I’m pretty pleased. Although it still needs some tweaking, it performed without any adjustments or breakdowns. Below is a picture at one of my stops, Seymour Smith park near 68th and Harrison. They’ve installed a really cool free water park and it was a nice break watching the kids (and parents) play in the water. Unlike my recumbent bike where you have to just about lift yourself out of the seat to put your foot down at stops, with the trike I simply set the parking brake I installed, sit back and enjoy the few.
Below’s a map of my route today, around the Omaha trail system. The orange dot on the trail is where the above picture was taken.
Several weeks ago I mentioned my intentions to build a recumbent trike. It’s begun!!!! And I’m making good progress.
As my welding skills are nearly nonexistent, I searched for plans that would allow me to build a trike without welding and found a great guy in the Netherlands who has been helping me with some great ideas. What I liked most about his trike plans is that you really don’t need any special tools. Hacksaw, drill, some wrenches and you are set.
That said, my bike build is going to be a little harder as I’m going to try something different and am about halfway there. In retrospect, I should have built one just like the plans and then modified it to my needs. And what are my needs, a lightweight, sturdy, comfortable trike that I can take on all day rides, like BRAN and RAGBRAI.
So what am I up to? Well, when done it will more of a Frankentrike. The rear of the bike is from an aluminum Schwinn mountain bike. The middle has parts from two of my kids old scooters and the front is a do it yourself aluminum trike of tadpole design.
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The above is what is left of the Schwinn mountain bike frame. About any any type of mountain bike that has a pivot point like this one will do, but I liked this one as it had a really sturdy rear section for the rear tire.
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The above is a picture of the front crossbeam of the trike showing the unique steering knuckles which imitate a kingpin. The bolts are all temporary and I will put the correct sizes on later. Everything now is just the creating and testing modes and I’ve changed my plans in my head a few dozen times since starting. That’s not a bad thing, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the stimulating time I’ve had dreaming up how this bike will work, what I need to do to make it comfortable and making it as light as possible. Not everything has gone perfect, but the beauty of a bolt together bike is you can take off any part and put on a new one.
Speaking of errors, the above shows how my tires are both leaning in. That was not my intention, but the good news is they both lean in an equal amount on each side. This is acceptable on a trike of this type and should not be a problem. The tires on the above are actually from a Schwinn kids bike trailer that I had converted into a cargo trailer to tow behind my two wheel recumbent bike. I’ve never used the trailer, but am thinking they will work nice for this trike. The 9 mm axles, though, are too small and will not hold the load of the trike and user.
The picture above shows the Sturmey Archer drum brake hubs I bought special for this build and they come with a 14mm axle. The mounting part extends past the brake cable and my diagram shows the bracket I plan to build to hold the hub in place correct.
As you may have noticed I’ve not blogged in nearly six months. And, sadly, I’ve not ridden much in that time either. I simply did not get in shape and our summer was so miserably hot it was not wise for me to rush my training for RAGBRAI, the bike ride across Iowas, which I also cancelled. From those people I know who went, I hear my decision was a wise and health one, the heat was unbearable.
I also got sidetracked when in June I bought an 1983 VW Rabbit Convertible which took a significant amount of my time and resources. It’s a beauty, fun to drive and my first convertible. Ironically, my first thought riding it with the top down was that it reminded me of riding my recumbent on a fast downhill ride, feeling the wind whirling around you, naturally cooling you off.
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The downfall of all of this is a real loss of my physical conditioning and gaining more weight than I want to share. As biking is the only physical exercise I enjoy I really need to get back involved, but with a few inches of ice and snow on the ground, I’ve picked the wrong time to get motivated. I’ve never been a cold or cool weather rider, I really prefer the heat, but mostly I’m scared I’ll take a spill on a patch of ice or puddle of mud.
For months I have been looking for a safe solution and an incentive to get back on the bike and finally I found it, riding a recumbent trike. Unfortunately, good recumbent trikes are only made by a handful of companies in the US and do not come cheap ($1500-$3000). Many riders build their own out of old bikes, but even though I own a welder, I’ve not had enough practice to safely weld all the critical joints. Frustrated, but undaunted (I’ve always wanted to use that phrase), I sought out inspiration and ideas from the all knowing and all seeing GOOGLE. I came across a do it yourself (DIY) recumbent bike that one can build with no power tools (but they do make the job a little easier). It’s light weight aluminum and all of the moving parts can be salvaged from other bicycles at relatively low cost. The aluminum I can easily find locally or on ebay.
First I’m going to build a prototype, probably out of wood, just to get the size and design finalized, but I’m already scavenging for parts. Goal is to have the prototype done in January and the first build of thew working trike done in February. I say first build as the beauty of this trike design is you can easily modify and redesign at any time along the way.
So, stay tuned. There will be a lot more posts here as I plan, build and test the new trike. The goal is to have a working and dependable trike for my bike ride across Nebraska (BRAN) in early June. Wish me luck!
And as always, I appreciate your comments and support!