New Delta trike

[John Lewis]

G'day all,

Ive been working on a delta trike. The DeltaWolf from the atomic zombie site.

An interesting feature is you have to make your own custom hub axle assembly. The axle is 19mm steel.



Then spoke it up.


Here is the rolling frame.


Still to do seat, steering and disk brake.

[Recycler]

Howdy John, Very nice work, I learn a lot from you. Keep up the good work.

[John Lewis]

Howdy John, Very nice work, I learn a lot from you. Keep up the good work.

Thanks for the compliment Recycler.

You're no slouch yourself. I've seen some great efforts of yours on here.

Regards,
John Lewis

[geoffw]

john how do you think theyd hold up on a front steer tadpole trike?

[John Lewis]

john how do you think theyd hold up on a front steer tadpole trike?

I'd say real good. The flanges are spaced wider apart and with 20" wheel I'd say it would be very strong. But what about bearings? Perhaps weld the flanges to a tube.

What I did on the tadpole I'm building is to use 20" 48 spoke BMX wheels. They have a thick 15 mm axle. I moved the axle over as far as I could. permanent Loctited the nuts and cut off the excess.



John Lewis

[John Lewis]

Finally got around to taking a few shots of the finished trike.

Rides nice and is nearly as fast as my 2 wheel bents which is not bad considering it weighs 25kg.

Photos taken at Middleton beach Albany looking out on King Georges Sound.









John Lewis

[Kalgrm]

Lovely work John.

How do you find the rear-only braking?

Cheers,
Graeme

[Mulger bill]

Looks good John

How did you go about routing the chain?

Shaun

[John Lewis]

Hi guys,

Yes I'm pretty pleased with it.

Graeme... The rear only braking is pretty good because the weight is well back. I intend to get a dual brake calliper from Greenspeed or Trisled and put the rear brakes on that then run a calliper on the front or a disk if I feel rich enough.

Shaun.. The chain drive side goes round a large plastic pulley off some exercise equipment under the seat area. I had to fit a better bearing though. The return is handled by part of an old derailer.



John Lewis

[Mulger bill]

Thanks John, impressive engineering there.

Shaun

[Leigh_caines]

Good work

Now...how's it go??
Handle?
Corner?
Feel?
And most important ...do you like it?

[Freddyflatfoot]

Looking good! Almost makes me want to start a delta project!

[John Lewis]

G'day Leigh,

Thanks for the kind comment.

How does it go? Well for a start its pretty heavy. About 25kg. I have a junky chain store MTB that weighs 21kg so I guess it's not too bad. The Taddy weighs 20 kg and my SWB about 18.

It rides nicely and the steering is great even though the front is lightly loaded I've had it up to 80 kmh downhill with no trouble.

It can give a bit of a thump if you hit a bump because you're close to the back wheels. It felt a bit weird at first when on a cambered road. I noticed it a lot more than on the lower tadpole.

Speed wise its quite fast for this worn out engine. It is faster than my LoGo tadpole with its little wheels by quite a margin. It doesn't give much away to either my SWB or the TE clone. Nothing in it really maybe 1 or 2 kmh.

Up hill it is a bit harder but surprisingly not too bad. I think I have better gearing range than the others and it shows on hills.
The gearing is 48 38 28 to a 7 speed 13 - 28 cassette. Could do with a bigger ring on down hills. Both the SWB and TE are 52 42 30 to an 11 28 in one case and an 11 30 in the other 8 speed cassette.

Cornering, I need to lean into the corner to stop myself sliding in the seat. I've not managed to lift a wheel but it could be done . I have cornered almost as fast as the tadpole with no problems and the Tad has been on two wheels. I'm not game to put this on two yet.

Overall I like it. Its something different to try. I'm going to try an Anura shortly and see how they compare. The Anura's owner has ridden mine and likes mine better. My favourite ride is still the TE clone. Ive yet to build and try a high and a low racer. They are in the offing. This year's projects.

Rob. Yes I think there's a place for the Delta. It might depend on what you want. This one is fast enough and rides nice but it is looong and that might be a problem especially for transporting. I've had it in traffic and I seem to get plenty of clearance by cars. More than the 2 wheelers.

Now I'm wondering about wheel disks and a tail box having read of your experiments.

John Lewis

[Freddyflatfoot]

G'day Leigh,


Now I'm wondering about wheel disks and a tail box having read of your experiments.

John Lewis

You must have been following my posts on BROL?
I have to admit, I am very happy with the results, bith on my SWB and trike!
For those that are interested,



sorry I hijacked your post John!
BTW, is the seat your EuroMesh clone?

[John Lewis]

Hi Rob,

Don't worry about hijacking the post. It's all part of building these things and fits in.

Yes saw your posts on BROL. I go over there a bit for a look but don't post a lot.

Yes the seat is the euromesh clone. Uses thinner steel tube. The euro has bigger ali tube but I cant weld that. I have an aircon foam cushion about 40mm thick on it but removed it for the photos. Actually I think the seat is equally comfortable without the foam and no doubt cooler.

I have a stack of 2mm and 3mm coreflute here so will be having a go shortly at the box.

Have you seen Giles Pucket's lofting program for planning out these things?

http://www.aloftyideal.com/

John Lewis