Freewheeler "Chopper" Project

[Tucci]

Inspection

Some inspection mechanics will hand you the inspection sticker as you ride by.

 

[MDO]

Free Bird, I was at Doc's HD today, getting my clutch recall repair done.

I saw your trike there. They were putting the rear wheel back on. They had all your painted body parts off. It looks like it's ready to ship for paint.

They had a great BBQ lunch for Veterans & handed out some nice Doc's coffee mugs. Very cool!

Beth, the owner, was there greeting everyone . Overall, a very nice afternoon, considering how cold it was.

 

[MDO]

Duplicate Post.???

 

[Free Bird]

Free Bird, I was at Doc's HD today, getting my clutch recall repair done.

I saw your trike there. They were putting the rear wheel back on. They had all your painted body parts off. It looks like it's ready to ship for paint.

They had a great BBQ lunch for Veterans & handed out some nice Doc's coffee mugs. Very cool!

Beth, the owner, was there greeting everyone . Overall, a very nice afternoon, considering how cold it was.

HA! I was there too!!! How funny. We may have been in the same room but didn't know it. Yep the trike is torn down and I was going through the details of the crating for shipping the parts out for paint. I am WAY pumped about JoAnne Bartel doing the flames.... she is a Master at them. She is doing a mural on the trunk lid of the Mater Dolorosa as well. Check her work out and Crazy Horse Painting....

Anyway, My wife and I had BBQ and some of the cookies the DAR were passing out. A good time (as always) at Doc's

 

[Free Bird]

Well.... as MDO pointed out... the trike is torn down and headed for paint. Thought I would share the fender fab details... There is how they were done... I bought two caliper mounting brackets from the MoCo and they served as the hard points for attaching the fender to the axle

 

[MDO]

Free Bird, I was wondering how your front end build up went today?

In a 1/2 hour this evening, we had a thunder & hail storm, then a very high wind, possible tornado blow by. Now rain and snow are coming. I'm glad I rode yesterday.

 

[FuzzyWuzHe]

Free Bird, I was wondering how your front end build up went today?

+1

Nice job on the fenders ... that thing is gonna be a beast.

 

[Free Bird]

Free Bird, I was wondering how your front end build up went today?

In a 1/2 hour this evening, we had a thunder & hail storm, then a very high wind, possible tornado blow by. Now rain and snow are coming. I'm glad I rode yesterday.

Yes... Tornado warnings out earlier this evening and snow now... Welcome to STL

I have issues with the front end. Machining is good on alignment but neck post and bearings are different. I actually caught these issues prepping for today's session at Doc's and called it off until it is resolved. Kinda feels like going to the hospital to have a baby and it is just not time yet.....

 

[Free Bird]

+1

Nice job on the fenders ... that thing is gonna be a beast.

Thanks... I am REALLY looking forward to more riding than building.... but I like building

 

[peteg59]

A word of caution on your rear fender mounting points, from real world experience: As you are likely aware, there are serious vibrations on the axles due to road surfaces. This potentially leads to fender brace weld failures as well as metal fatigue on other parts of the fenders.

From experience, the axle fender mounts tend to fail prematurely due to the excess vibrations. Even when using triangulated bracketry.

I know the look is right as you currently have it but if there is any way to mount your fenders on the "sprung" side vs "unsprung" as you are doing, I'd highly recommend going the extra steps necessary to avoid headaches down the road.

Unless this will be more of a show piece, vs a daily rider...

Good luck, either way you go.

 

[Jack Klarich]

I am waiting to see the finished Trike

It is going to be a 1 of a kind

 

[Free Bird]

A word of caution on your rear fender mounting points, from real world experience: As you are likely aware, there are serious vibrations on the axles due to road surfaces. This potentially leads to fender brace weld failures as well as metal fatigue on other parts of the fenders.

From experience, the axle fender mounts tend to fail prematurely due to the excess vibrations. Even when using triangulated bracketry.

I know the look is right as you currently have it but if there is any way to mount your fenders on the "sprung" side vs "unsprung" as you are doing, I'd highly recommend going the extra steps necessary to avoid headaches down the road.

Yes, great comment and very true. It is always a problem on hardatails. Sissy bars and fenders take on every piece of gravel, tar stripe, and pothole. I re-welded and or replaced them routinely on my old panheads and pan shovel chops. Gusseting on these is intended to improve the vibration fatigue by spreading the load over a wider area. The reaction brackets still pose a potential stress riser area, but I will keep an eye on it. The main reason for the approach was to avoid having to elevate the flat surface the amount required to clear vertical tire travel. I did mock it up using TerraHaute's body mount approach. I ended up with something that looked like a baja ready 3 wheel dune buggy.

So your point, it is something to watch...closely. It is a riding bike, so inspections at the welds will be a common thing. If they crack... I will go back to the drawing board or run fender "naked"

 

[peteg59]

I ran axle/swingarm mounted rear fenders similar config.as yours, and experienced bracket weld failure on it's first road test.

My rear fenders were probably a bit heavier than yours, as I used a set of stock FXST/Deuce units. I started out with 2 fender struts/supports as you currently have. After both broke at the welds, I added another to "triangulate" the load in hopes of having the look as well as the setup that would work on the real world roads around here.

It took a couple 50 mile putts, but unfortunately even that added structural support couldn't handle all of the nasty road vibes and it failed again. Could it have been the welds, welder, machine &/or operator? Sure, but I doubted it at the time, (still doubt today), & moved on to relocate the mounts.

I was lucky enough to have room on the flatback deck of my trike to mount the fenders to that, without sacrificing too much of the look over that of the axle mount.

 

[Free Bird]

I ran axle/swingarm mounted rear fenders similar config.as yours, and experienced bracket weld failure on it's first road test.

My rear fenders were probably a bit heavier than yours, as I used a set of stock FXST/Deuce units. I started out with 2 fender struts/supports as you currently have. After both broke at the welds, I added another to "triangulate" the load in hopes of having the look as well as the setup that would work on the real world roads around here.

It took a couple 50 mile putts, but unfortunately even that added structural support couldn't handle all of the nasty road vibes and it failed again. Could it have been the welds, welder, machine &/or operator? Sure, but I doubted it at the time, (still doubt today), & moved on to relocate the mounts.

I was lucky enough to have room on the flatback deck of my trike to mount the fenders to that, without sacrificing too much of the look over that of the axle mount.

Yeah. I will not know until it has been ridden more miles than I have ridden with the bare ones on (~150mi). We will see how it goes.

 

[Free Bird]

I ran axle/swingarm mounted rear fenders similar config.as yours, and experienced bracket weld failure on it's first road test.

My rear fenders were probably a bit heavier than yours, as I used a set of stock FXST/Deuce units. I started out with 2 fender struts/supports as you currently have. After both broke at the welds, I added another to "triangulate" the load in hopes of having the look as well as the setup that would work on the real world roads around here.

It took a couple 50 mile putts, but unfortunately even that added structural support couldn't handle all of the nasty road vibes and it failed again. Could it have been the welds, welder, machine &/or operator? Sure, but I doubted it at the time, (still doubt today), & moved on to relocate the mounts.

I was lucky enough to have room on the flatback deck of my trike to mount the fenders to that, without sacrificing too much of the look over that of the axle mount.

PS.... Thanks for the comments. I appreciate the input

 

[MDO]

PS.... Thanks for the comments. I appreciate the input

Good luck my friend, your braver than I am to take on such a project.

Personally , I'm too selfish to give up the riding time.

 

[DK Custom Products]

Yep, always gotta be checking.I've had good fortune with my swingarm mounted fender on the DK Sporty, it's some heavy gauge off a Military Hummer.

I have really reinforced the fender on my rigid Sporty, have not ridden it yet, but hope it holds up well.

Kevin

 

[Free Bird]

Yep, always gotta be checking.I've had good fortune with my swingarm mounted fender on the DK Sporty, it's some heavy gauge off a Military Hummer. I have really reinforced the fender on my rigid Sporty, have not ridden it yet, but hope it holds up well.

Kevin

VERY NICE!

 

[Free Bird]

Good luck my friend, your braver than I am to take on such a project.

Personally , I'm too selfish to give up the riding time.

Yep... fully understand... I have been without one since 2010... So the few month downtime in exchange for the fun of the build is ok by me.

 

[MDO]

Hey Free Bird, any updates on the build? The painting should be close to done. Any news on the front end.