Newbie from South Africa

[Alan_c]

Hi All

I am Alan from Cape Town, South Africa. looking to build a VW based trike at some some stage in the near future. Looking for ideas, tech knowledge and guidance where required.

[1dn5up]

Alan , hang in there , the VW guys will show up to help.

Ride safe.

[paws]

Hi Alan! Welcome to TrikeTalk. Check out the VW Forum here on TrikeTalk.

[MDO]

Welcome from Missouri!

[rhino 2]

Alan, Welcome to Trike-Talk.................

[Fearless]

Welcome to the forum from Western Pennsylvania great people around here great group of VW builders here as well Lurk around the VW forums a little they will help Ride safe Fred

[Kiwi Mark]

Welcome to the Forum .

Now Im a VW trike guy , and found this forum Years ago .

My bad , only plucked up the courage to sign up Yesterday .

Binge read everything in the VW board and especially Tech Tech Tech by Death by Snu

Snu .

Now First You need to decide whether You are wanting to ride or Build and ride .

Then You need to consider Budget , Family (Building is going to suck trolley loads of Money & Time )

Then You need to check the law in South Africa about building a LE class or ICV .

Then Have You got the correct Licences to ride the thing ?

These are the starting points .

Best Wishes , Mark

[trike lady]

Hello and to Trike Talk, glad to have U with us.

[FuzzyWuzHe]

Welcome to the Gang from Western Colorado.

We have a great group of VW guys here .... lots of knowledge ... they should be of great help.

Glad to have another "Alan" to the group ... especially since you spell it right ...

[Jack Klarich]

to Trike Talk

[David357]

Hi Alan.

to our Trike Talk Family.

[ol' school]

Welcome to Trike Talk Alan!

[Zammy]

Hi Alan, welcome to Trike Talk.

[Marc H]

Welcome to Trike Talk Alan!!!

[Ray Paige]

Welcome From Montana

[Gorilla]

Alan welcome aboard

[Alan_c]

Welcome to the Forum .

Now Im a VW trike guy , and found this forum Years ago .

My bad , only plucked up the courage to sign up Yesterday .

Binge read everything in the VW board and especially Tech Tech Tech by Death by Snu

Snu .

Now First You need to decide whether You are wanting to ride or Build and ride .

Then You need to consider Budget , Family (Building is going to suck trolley loads of Money & Time )

Then You need to check the law in South Africa about building a LE class or ICV .

Then Have You got the correct Licences to ride the thing ?

These are the starting points .

Best Wishes , Mark

Hi Mark

Thanks for the pointers. Yes ultimately I want to ride but the only way for me to do that is to build it first .

I realise that it can take quite a bit of dosh, but nowhere near what it would cost to buy one from say Harley or Boom. There are no other manufacturers currently supplying anything into the SA market - and besides I like the engineering challenge.

I hear you on the legal aspects of a self build as the bumbling officials and regulators have made it incredibly difficult and challenging to get something like this done, but it can be done with a bit of perseverance, determination and pure bloody mindedness ( as well as a few shortcuts around the system )

Driving it requires a motorcycle licence - on my plan of goals for this year.

Regards

Al

[Alan_c]

Welcome to the Gang from Western Colorado.

We have a great group of VW guys here .... lots of knowledge ... they should be of great help.

Glad to have another "Alan" to the group ... especially since you spell it right ...

Thanks for the welcome Alan

There is another way to spell our name???

[Kiwi Mark]

Righto Build She is .

First : Get the guidelines from Your DOT.

(I can only make suggestions based on local laws here in WA .I doubt it will be much different in SA as vehicle standards are pretty much the same worldwide now . )

These Dudes will give You a list of certifying engineers and also The Design rules .

Now this is especially useful as here without engineers certification You are screwed .

After Practical completion The Trike Wlll be inspected and MUST comply with every design rule as applies to a Motorcycle trike .

Then theres a whole heap of planning , design work , then getting the bits some tools and on and on and on .

Then You need to be damned certain that Your significant other is on board 100% .

Im writing up this whole Journey as My Build book to accompany My trike. My trike is already on the road and the rules have changed .

Mine is called "Unfinished Business " as the rules are always changing at Bullshit Castle so Im continuously upgrading .

.

Remember These Mofos , make administer and enforce the rules .

Now if Thats not enough there is No such thing as a Cheap Build .

You Will pay if You are going to be road legal

All that to one side , Go for it ,start the planning and read up on the VW thread , the home built trikes and Tech Tech Tech

[Alan_c]

First : Get the guidelines from Your DOT.

(I can only make suggestions based on local laws here in WA .I doubt it will be much different in SA as vehicle standards are pretty much the same worldwide now . )

These Dudes will give You a list of certifying engineers and also The Design rules .

Remember These Mofos , make administer and enforce the rules .

Do you possibly have a link to a DOT guideline for trike building from Aus - we have no access to any such document here in SA - it probably doesnt exist anyway.

You have no idea the complete lack of knowledge, competence and intelligence resident in our government departments. It took a friend over 8 months just to get a completely built imported Boom trike registered here so asking them for info on the requirements and design rules will be an exercise in futility.

Some years ago I was lucky enough to find a very helpful and well written document from one of the Aus states with regard to trailer design and building - hopefully there is something similar for Trikes?