New member from beautiful downtown Texas

[Bill J. from Austin]

My 1974 shovel the day I bought it, and the way it looks today, after adaptations for my disabilities.

Been on motors all my adult life. Started on a '74 shovelhead I bought in 1979. Still have it, but I've owned other bikes, as well: several HD Big Twins, a BMW R1100R and a 1949 Famous James 'Comet'. Worked in an independent Harley shop for many years, and early in that career helped design and build a shovelhead-powered trike for a wheelchair rider. There were no bolt-on trike sections or any of that back then, so we had to design or adapt just about everything on that bike. The process fascinated me to the point that I began collecting info about handicap adaptations, acting as a clearinghouse for said info, and even writing about them for Road Rider, in that magazine's November 1988 issue. Never figured I'd be needing the info for myself, but then, who does?



The trike I helped design and build was featured in Easyriders after the owner, a hell of a paint and body man, did a bunch of plating, paint and detail work to it.

Soooo.... I was catastrophically injured in a work accident in 2004: a 35' from a structure I was climbing. I'm not in a wheelchair anymore, but the nerve damage at my broken back has rendered my right leg unreliable, to the point that I no longer trust it to hold me and my shovel upright at stops. I tried to score a rigid trike frame I could swap my shovel motor and transmission into - I started my riding career on that shovel and was hoping to end it on the same bike - but suitable frames are rare as hen's teeth. Got desperate to get back in the wind, and of the current crop of trikes the Freewheeler was the most attractive option for me. I picked up a 2016 FLRT at Mancuso's in Houston this past Saturday.



The Zephyr sidecar I adapted to my rigid-framed shovelhead, with the help of ace welder Bill Mading. When I brought the hack home in the back of my truck my stepdaughter looked at it and said 'My car!' Smart kid!

Aside from test-riding the wheelchair rider's trike we built in the early '80s, and the sidecar I bolted onto my shovelhead in the mid-'80s, I've never ridden a three-wheeler. Once I slap some quieter mufflers on my new-to-me FLRT, I can begin the process of relearning to ride. Let the games begin!



My new-to-me 2016 FLRT, just in from Houston. Been in this house for 24 years, and actually like most of my neighbors. I'd prefer they go on liking me, if it all possible, so my first order of business is pulling off the too-loud slip-ons and replacing them with stock mufflers. Then I start learning just how much I don't know!.

[rhino 2]

My 1974 shovel the day I bought it, and the way it looks today, after adaptations for my disabilities.

Been on motors all my adult life. Started on a '74 shovelhead I bought in 1979. Still have it, but I've owned other bikes, as well: several HD Big Twins, a BMW R1100R and a 1949 Famous James 'Comet'. Worked in an independent Harley shop for many years, and early in that career helped design and build a shovelhead-powered trike for a wheelchair rider. There were no bolt-on trike sections or any of that back then, so we had to design or adapt just about everything on that bike. The process fascinated me to the point that I began collecting info about handicap adaptations, acting as a clearinghouse for said info, and even writing about them for Road Rider, in that magazine's November 1988 issue. Never figured I'd be needing the info for myself, but then, who does?



The trike I helped design and build was featured in Easyriders after the owner, a hell of a paint and body man, did a bunch of plating, paint and detail work to it.

Soooo.... I was catastrophically injured in a work accident in 2004: a 35' from a structure I was climbing. I'm not in a wheelchair anymore, but the nerve damage at my broken back has rendered my right leg unreliable, to the point that I no longer trust it to hold me and my shovel upright at stops. I tried to score a rigid trike frame I could swap my shovel motor and transmission into - I started my riding career on that shovel and was hoping to end it on the same bike - but suitable frames are rare as hen's teeth. Got desperate to get back in the wind, and of the current crop of trikes the Freewheeler was the most attractive option for me. I picked up a 2016 FLRT at Mancuso's in Houston this past Saturday.



The Zephyr sidecar I adapted to my rigid-framed shovelhead, with the help of ace welder Bill Mading. When I brought the hack home in the back of my truck my stepdaughter looked at it and said 'My car!' Smart kid!

Aside from test-riding the wheelchair rider's trike we built in the early '80s, and the sidecar I bolted onto my shovelhead in the mid-'80s, I've never ridden a three-wheeler. Once I slap some quieter mufflers on my new-to-me FLRT, I can begin the process of relearning to ride. Let the games begin!



My new-to-me 2016 FLRT, just in from Houston. Been in this house for 24 years, and actually like most of my neighbors. I'd prefer they go on liking me, if it all possible, so my first order of business is pulling off the too-loud slip-ons and replacing them with stock mufflers. Then I start learning just how much I don't know!.

Bill.......Welcome To Trike-Talk...........

[ol' school]

Welcome to Trike Talk Bill!

[hardwickbv]

Welcome from Indiana!!!

Bob

[1dn5up]

Bill , life is loaded with many stories. Ride safe .

[Sully]

Bill Welcome to Trike Talk from North Ga. ..

[PosseRider]

Welcome to TT from Ohio.

[woody]

Welcome to Trike Talk from Alabama

[Jack Klarich]

Hi Bill, to Trike Talk

Quite a resume you have, I admire your devotion

Hope you have miles of smiles on your FLRT

Check Ebay for stock take off mufflers cheap

[trike lady]

Hello & to Trike Talk.

[Zammy]

Hello Bill, welcome to the forums.

[Uncle Fester]

Welcome from Greenfield, Indiana!!

[Marc H]

Welcome to Trike Talk Bill!!!

[Bill J. from Austin]

Hi Bill, to Trike Talk

Quite a resume you have, I admire your devotion

Hope you have miles of smiles on your FLRT

Check Ebay for stock take off mufflers cheap

Thank you, Jack. I scored a set of next-to-new takeoffs from the indie shop where I used to work. Once the rain and my aching sacroiliac ease up I can get down on the garage floor and get 'em mounted.

Then it's time to relearn how to handle a three-wheeler.

I signed up for an MSF 3WBRC before I went to pick up the trike, but ended up having to miss it. Instead, I'll be annoying my neighbors by very slowly motoring about the 'hood until I get a feel for the steering geometry and potential tipping point. I have the MSF 3W manual, for whatever that is worth. The rest will be practice, practice, practice. I have forty-four years on big twins in all kinds of weather, on all kinds of terrain, but not much of it means anything when faced with the radical difference of riding three wheels instead of two. I am as a babe in the woods.



I appreciate the warm welcome and best wishes. Mayhaps I'll get to meet some of y'all down the road!

Sláinte!

[Bill J. from Austin]

I appreciate the warm welcome. As noted in my OP, this is a new adventure for me. Being older and not quite as young-and-dumb as I was when I first started on motors, 'way back in the 'way back, I am trying to treat the adventure and my 'new' Freewheeler with the respect they deserve. I'm too young and pretty to die, and my wife has expressly forbidden me getting any more gimped than I already am, so I intend to take this learning process very slowly. I hope y'all will bear with me if I come back and ask the occasional question or two.



Elsewise, should we meet on the road, I'm always good for a cup of coffee and some bench racing!

Sláinte!

[nucseal]

Welcome from San Antonio. Perhaps we'll see you down the road.