Homemade Recumbent

[mitchj]

G'day all;
The other day I was looking for tricycle plans on the 'net, but kept coming up with lots of recumbent plans. One of these caught my eye though - a Flipped Frame Recumbent, by Keith Moss at http://www.bentrideronline.com/messageb ... hp?t=74982. It looked like a reasonably easy thing to make so I had a go.
I started out with these-

& ended up with this- A 7-1/2 foot long ripper!

This was 3 days work (probably 1-1/2 if I knew how to weld properly...) & is obviously still a work in progress. It uses the flipped rear end & top tube of a ladies MTB, & the flipped front end & BB of a mens MTB. A bar along the bottom & some bits from the junk pile, & that's basically it!
Keith said it was an easy & comfortable thing to ride, & he was right. I was riding it up & down the road for ages on Sunday arvo - It's great! It still needs gears, brakes, a proper seat & better wheels. I'm working all that out at the moment. I may even put a small jockey wheel at the bottom of the seat tube, to keep the chain up a bit. When I get all that done & it is running nice & smooth, I will strip it to bits, paint it & re-build everything.
Hopefully in a few weeks I'll have some pics of it all finished!

[just4tehhalibut]

Before you paint I'd consider welding one more tube into the frame, going from the bottom bracket up to the toptube and at an angle that would allow a front derailleur to sit at the correct orientation. Even if you don't want a front derailleur this tube will provide a bit more stiffness to the front of that 'main triangle', the bit that has to handle the stresses from your pedalling and steering, as well as making the frame a little stronger by providing support for those long tubes between where your weight sits and where your inputs to the pedals and bars meet.. A LWB like you've built will always be a comfy cruiser, you won't be compromising the ride by adding this support tube but you will get better handling.

And, as I found out the hard way on my recumbent trike, having no front derailleur at the end of a long chain run meant the chain would often pop off the front chainrings over bumps and speedhumps. The trike had a jockey wheel halfway along the chainrun and some chaintubes, still didn't help more than keeping the chain off the crossmember tube.

You're way ahead of me, I've built up a good collection of CrMo frames to cut up to make a LWB, could have built one anytime in the last 4 years, just can't get motivated.

[mitchj]

G'day just4tehhalibut;

Thanks for the suggestions mate - always happy to listen to advice! I was thinking of adding that tube weather I added a front derailer or not.

[}SkOrPn--7]

Great build perfect chain line for a home made under/over idler to take away some off that chain sag. I agree with just4tehhalibut about the added tube it would solve many issues down the track.

Ricky

[Recycler]

G,Day Mitchj, Great minds think alike, here is my masterpiece.

[mitchj]

Good stuff Recycler! I like the curved down tube, I was looking at some ladies racer frames the other day with the curved top tube & was wondering if I could use them in a future project. I guess you can use anything if you think about it a bit! The rear end of your bike looks interesting too.

[Recycler]

Ladies bike frames are great for this type of build. I turn the frame upsidedown, put the forks in and you can get new ideas.
The rear end is a front fork on top of a rear fork.

[Arakasy]

Nice work guys.... But you need real seats
Gets the whole recumbent thug life feeling going on

[Recycler]

I would call these type of bikes Pedal Scrapers.
They are fun to ride, I have a 3 speed - coaster brake set up on mine.