My Trike

[grandpanystrom61]

Getting upset and pissed off does me NO good in life, seems I drove my self into a rant and a seizure at 5:50am yesterday morning, so I am a bit lost at the moment and slowly getting my thoughts together....Normally I do something stupid like use cleaning chemical sprays, or a bathroom cleaning product, none I can use with out a episode.

That maybe the trick to getting the job done Larry, I do hope I do not have to go that far to get the work done, but I guess I will do what it takes if at all possible.

Rex, not even sure what they did to look the forks over, I do remember one pointing out that the rockers are bent and they do not know how to straighten them. I simply asked why I could not make a set of new rocker's, especially if I am going to convert this set of springer forks into a set of Leading arm forks, doing this will allow me to increase tire size and get a little lift and with the leading arm design I can limit the trail in the forks to a few inch's.

Yes, it works out best for me if I can get things done here at the house, but if I have to load it up and run around looking for the one to do the job, than I guess that is what I will do.

[LarryA]

I forgot to mention the most important factor regarding loading the trike on a trailer the visiting the repair shops, is the fact that they can see the fork tube/neck/forks first hand.....needs no explanation...saves time for everyone. Plus the novelty of the trike will make an interesting repair for someone ....I remember at work (fixing/maintaining stamping and forming dies), we welcomed anything different to work on!

[grandpanystrom61]

Good day to everyone, oh that would be to easy and nice if I could do it that way.. I do not own such a vehicle for towing it around, nor do I have a flat bed trailer. I do think I can borrow my neighbors flat bed trailer f I had to, she sold me the trike, so I think she would help me out.

I just need a little luck with the shop down the street. I missed them yesterday as I was still on the recovery side. I actually can just push the trike down to them, but it hit me now.... if the flat bed trailer is solid and level enough I could just strap the trike down nice and tight, of course the center T mark on the trailer, line the trike over it, and all I need is the heat and pipe to tweak into position. Only if I had the needed vehicle for towing the trailer,,,, always a snag, but still I like the idea of the flat bed trailer as it could still work as a work plate form. Plus it is heavy enough to hold down the trike on it once alined.

[DeathBySnuSnu]

That is sorta related to how I originally built my frame.

I had a full 4ft by 10ft sheet of 3/4 thick steel that was fairly flat.

Welded the important parts to the sheet. Then fabricate all the parts in between.

[grandpanystrom61]

I have been working on the 4runner, has tranny issues at the moment, but if I can get it working again than I do have a two vehicle for this little job.

Now I am torn a bit, I know the neck tube is off to the left side by 1/16th of inch, but the main back bone could be offset this 1/16th of inch, but with the twist in the neck we do not know for sure.

Do we drop the foot rest bracket and cut the neck/backbone off in this area, so we can just weld back on a new neck tube and plug piece ( I figure first set neck tube and than set the plug and neck tube assembly into the backbone.

Do we drop the foot rest out of the way so we can heat up the area so that we can bend the neck tube perpendicular to the center line. This may leave the neck tube off to the left that 1/16th of an inch if the back bone was not offset. One will not know until the work is done.

Okay I decided to do it. I will drop the foot rest and remove what is in the way of the cut area, cut the backbone on a 90 degree angle just past were the angle iron stops on the back bone, near the master cylinder bracket.

I will wait a bit to see if any new ideas get posted, I just think cut/replace with new is a better way to deal with it.

[DeathBySnuSnu]

Well you know me.....I tend to over-do things.....and I have the resources to do it.

IF.....you are going to get a new fork. I would cut and replace the neck. Set up the geometry I wanted and ect.

IF......you salvage and use the existing fork. 4 inches of trail ain't real bad. 1/16 off center is not real bad. You know it worked before for years. The only significant problem left is twist in the neck.

And....once you fix the old front end.....that twist might be insignificant. Your front tire track might just be close enough to get inline with the rear axle slots.

Pro new neck.

You get the fork you want.

You get the wheel you want.

You get the geometry you want. Which in your case is not a massive improvement.

Con new neck

Lots of Money

Lots of Resources

Pro old neck.

Less Money

Less resources

Can work good enough.

Gets you back together sooner.

Cons old neck.

Have to live with it out of perfect alignment.

It is not what it seems you really want.

A little stiffer to turn

A bit harder to handle backing up.

[grandpanystrom61]

After looking at things I feel this area just past the angle iron on the backbone were the foot rest is welded, this section is my weakest area and with the straight edge it seems to be were the off bend starts, could be me and my eyes but I do think it is off, so I will do the removal of brackets and cut the neck/backbone area off, and we will rebuild, yes it can and will be done, LOL, early morning humor......I will look at the 1" stem size and see if all will fit under the body, need to have turn radius for the fork/trees.

[grandpanystrom61]

Good morning to everyone, lot's of sun shine out there this AM, so I do hope we all can get out and enjoy it.

Okay I was looking on ebay and found a neck tube assy., what I found is that it measure's out the same as what is on the trike now. I still waiting to hear back about the bearing # he uses.

https://www.ebay.com/i/152785382581?chn=ps

Okay my Timken tapered roller bearings are # 07100L and have a 1" I.D., yes I measured them. What someone did is make a spacer for the top bearing with a hex nut attached to it so the stem is centered in the bearings. The lower bearing also has a spacer, it is made a bit different, but still a spacer.

I found this to use for the new extension/neck assy.

http://www.speedymetals.com/pc-3505-...teel-tube.aspx

I can have 6 inch's turned down to the backbone inner dia. (figure is near 2") so means 1/4" turned down on outer dia. so it will slide down into the backbone. The new piece is much thicker and should provide solid support.

Could I just cut out old neck tube, grind off the old weld's as much as possible, roll the neck tube so that I have the smooth surface facing the new extension tube and weld them together ???

The neck tube I have on the trike is the size I want, it is still good, just welded in wrong position, so can I use this old neck tube with the new extension tube ( welding old steal onto new steal ) does this work ?

I have limited welding experience and most of that is with new fresh aluminum, but I have tig/stick weld a few steel projects in the past.

So I can get the neck perpendicular, put old forks and body back on trike so I can run around a bit, all while I get the new set of forks made, or make them myself would be fun if I had a shop for such work. I do think a leading link arm style front end is ideal. It push's the axle forward more putting the front wheel out in front a bit more so that a larger dia. rim/tire can be used. This also might provide me all the lift I wanted in the front end and keep the fork length at the basic same length and have the larger rim/tire up front for more stable control.

[LarryA]

One option is to do the cutting out of the bad /bent steel yourself grind off old welds, do the backbone/neck alignment on the trailer, just tack up the parts "using temporary braces if needed"....then off to a good welder for the finish work. welding new steel to old, should be no problem as long as old weld material is removed. doing as much of the work as you can, saves both time and money, but most importantly gives oneself confidence to tackle most any problem.

[grandpanystrom61]

Now is the cup for bearings, just a choice for looks, or does it really work better than the race and roller bearings, but than one still needs seal caps for the race bearing.

Part search time, if I can get what I have great, if not than I will look at the cups and cap set up for the bearings.

Have gotten the mounts cut off the top of the backbone and than the foot rest assy. I cut with the larger angle grinder and than used the dremel tool and cutting wheel to work off the rest of the weld. I always need to save money as we always have another place it is needed, LOL

I do like that fine finished look of production fork assy.'s, but you do pay for the fine finished look. Choices to be made, just like the old forks are not totally bad, not the best either, and last night my daughter hit me with my own words.

"if you are going to do the job, than plan on doing it right the first time" and with that we are rebuilding the front end and now the idea of cost is not the issue with the wife, "getting it done right " is more important.

I do "question" myself a lot when I am not sure of what I am doing, or it is the first time.

[grandpanystrom61]

I have realized that "just because we rode dirt/street bikes" well it does not mean we know all about bikes, nor does it mean one repaired a lot on the bikes.

So honestly, it is my first time ! I never had the pleasure of working on a frame, let alone the neck tube, but it has went well so far. A few update pic's to share









I have to get a bit more cut at the top side of the backbone/neck tube joint. Angle is making it hard.



I will work my way around this brace piece that is attached to the backbone and neck tube. I might not be able to get all the angles needed, or the tool to fit in the tight area, but it that is the case I can just cut the backbone tube so all is off. Testing myself on how well I can do this, remember this is the first time I have done this and it is coming along nicely I think.

[grandpanystrom61]

wow, not sure how those last two pics made in the reply.

I did a bit more work and got the neck off.



What is still attached should come off easy enough and I think all will grind/sand down to look good enough to re attach on the new extension piece.





Originally I thought I would cut off just at the front of the brake MC bracket, but I wonder if just going to the other side where the backbone looks more straight, yes I will have to cut thru the angle iron on the bottom a little. This should provide a nice area to join the new piece. Oh yeah the backbone is filled with buckshot, when I looked down inside the tube I seen it, must have did it for the extra weight it added ?

[DeathBySnuSnu]

Well.....no turning back now.

That neck weld does not look like good weld penetration.

[grandpanystrom61]

The tube used for the backbone is not as thick as I thought, so less needs to be milled off the new extension piece which only leaves it stronger. My cut off area on the backbone went well considering it was all free hand work.







I remember I had taken pics with a ruler using the bracket as a stop, so I wanted to see if I could make the cut with the bracket still attached. I have to remove some welding over flow out of the inside of the tube, but all is looking good so far.

[grandpanystrom61]

I am still at it. I had to take care of a few things as my son is returning to NV and I had to get the RV ready for him.

I had been working on the neck and getting that lower support flange cut off with out destroying the neck tube.

A few photos of the neck tube after I cleaned it up.













I tried to rotate it and take a pic so that I could show off my work. I had a bit of welding material to grind off and than the 80 grit flapper in the grinder did help a lot to get it looking this good. Maybe I could do a little more, but it will get painted and is cover up by the body, so it will do for me.

My extension will get done soon, I had a delay in getting it to the machine shop.

[DeathBySnuSnu]

Remember your plug welds.

[grandpanystrom61]

Yes, kinda funny, that is what I had in mind " two offset plug welds" located at 2 and 3 inchs in on the 5 inch insert section.

Getting this done is taking longer than I want, as I keep getting taken off my project for family stuff, but once I get this done I can look at the forks. I can not go to big and bulky, so maybe I can get a HD narrow fork design with the 1" stem to work. It will get done.

[grandpanystrom61]

So all going on schedule " of getting done" along with all the family stuff.I have real bad eyes, looking off center to much, or just worn out cheap tools. I should have spent the big $$ years ago and got me quality tools and not the crap I did, but at the time we do what we can do.Okay, the original neck tube is 2 5/16" OD and it will not work with the 2 1/4 " OD extension piece I bought, but I did get a new DOM neck tube off ebay that is exactly the size needed. I also got a set of HD tripple trees off ebay that should be here on july 3rd, and they are 39mm main tube dia. I just could not believe the prices in some shops for TT's, but that is business these days.What type of front end do I want, one that works and is stable. I am thinking the leading link arm with the two shocks down by the front wheel. I am leaning towards this style because I can use a little larger front rim to help with the axle line (rear axle height to front axle height ) should be equal if possible, at least I think so and feel the trike might have the look that all blends together nicely.

[LarryA]

sounds like you got the plan, got the parts coming, take your time and enjoy the job!

[stacebg]

wish i had know earlier might have save u some labor