Mach2 in Blue

       Once upon a time at D.I. in St. George, I bought a "Giant" mt bicycle.  Eventually I cut it up and welded it into a Mach2 frame.  A.D. Carson's Mach2 Instructions
       And then it hung on the wall in the shop for a long time.  So, the other day I decided to cut apart the rear end of my TE Clone and straighten the angle of the rear wheel.  Which means I needed to pull down the Mach2 and throw it together so I have a LWB recumbent to ride.  Anyway, at the moment I scrounged up enough long cable to connect the front brake and the front derailleur ... still need some really long ones for the rear.  That means I only have a 3 speed (the one tiny one on the rear, varied by the 3 crank rings on the front.)  It's not really up to hill climbing yet.  But I'm having a great time racing around town on it.  Foto follows:

It has a sticker on it from when it was registered in SLC onetime.

(Just back of the upside down word "Giant".) 

Cargo Bay

I put in 1/2" EMT support bars in the cargo bay area

to provide more even support under the thin plywood decking that I intend to attach in this area.

In conjunction with all the tubing underneath,

This area should support a fair amount of weight.

If the wheels can support it, that is.

I've placed my entire 250 lbs standing vertically on this area and the only sag I noticed was in the front shocks and front wheel.

 Here's what it looks like at this point.  Next step is the steering.

Freighter Cart 2

 

 The materials list and information here is nice to have.

 

This is the really important part ...

making the bends. 

Using this information from page 150 you can make any number of different carts.  The axle plates are made with plain electrical box covers that have no punch-outs, and have corner slots for screws (which in the diagram have been cut off). If you need more information about the axle plates, click on the link to axles or freighter cart plans and it will take you to that blog entry.

Scrounging Lumber

I've located scrap lumber for 1/2 the cargo box ... Now I just need to get some more 1/4" lumber to finish the box

The Cart Book With Plans & Projects - Freighter Cart

 I bought the hardbound edition of this book back around 1983 when it was published.  Like so many good books, it is long out of print.  I scanned the pages talking about how to make the Freighter bike cart and have them in a PDF.  This is a really great cart.  I think the Bicycle Touring Cart is also a very handy cart as well.  I've made one of those too, but my cousin has it now, so I need to make myself another one.

More Like a Cargo-Trike ?

 

No box or steering bar yet, but it is starting to look like something.

Right-side view 

 

Box goes up front between the wheels. 

 

frontal view 

 

left-side view 

 

This is an example of how it works when finished. 

 

Another example of a finished one .. in use.

Wheels?

 

This needs explanation:  

I used flat electrical panel plates to make the parts that support the wheel axles.  2 of the plates I took and inch off the top.  The other two plates I drew a line across one (1) inch from the top.  I placed these plates in the vise with the line even along the top of the front jaw, with a piece of 3/4" round tubing clamped behind it.  Then I used a hammer to wrap the top of the plate back around the tubing.  Those are like the one you see clamped around the tubing closest to you.  The straight ones are clamped to the cargobox square tubing.  At 1-5/8" in from the bottom edge, and centered side-to-side, I drilled a 3/8" hole, then used a hacksaw to cut a 3/8" slot from the edge to the hole.  Then I placed a piece of 1/4" angle Aluminum (just a handly piece of scrap) to line all these up as I clamped them for welding.  These aren't centered on the sides, but located just aft of the pivot point.  Why?  I don't know.  Just because most of the cargotrike frames I have looked at, had it that way.   

 

Here it is with the plates welded on to hold the axles. 

Notice the 3/8" slot cut  down to the drilled hole.

 

Here it is with 24" wheels 

 

Looking at the bottom with 24" wheels on.

The rope is because I was trying  drag it to the house to show my wife, and it just kept pivoting back and forth.  So, I had to lock it down with the rope in order to tow it behind me.  It will be okay once I weld the aft portion of the bike to the main tube and attach some kind of steering bar to the cargobox frame.

Needs Wheels

 

To the cargobox frame, I have added the outside support tubes for the wheels.  These are large enough to contain 26" wheels.  Designed for the use of front wheels only.  I marked the 3/4" tubing at 4" and 37".  I aligned the 4" mark with the arrow on the tubing bender and gave it a 45° bend.  Then I cut the tube at the 37" mark, measured back 4" and put another mark to align with the arrow in the tubing bender for the other 45° bend.  Before doing the second bend, I eye-balled the tube to make sure both bends would be in the same plane of reference.  Rotated the bent end until it lined up straight, then made the second bend.  Make sure the tube parallel to the box frame, is 4-1/8" out from the frame along the middle straight side.   Also check by laying the tubing down on the frame and supporting it with a bit of scrap to make sure the outside of the tube ends don't extend beyond the cargobox frame.  If necessary, you may want to tighten the bends a bit.  Draw extensions of your frame line and cut off the tubing at an angle for welding to the box frame.

This definitely won't roll through a door now. 

Base All Welded

After walking the dogs this morning, I went into the shop and welded up all connections and then used the 4-1/2" grinder to smooth them off.

 

Welded and ground smooth (well, sorta)

 

I leaned it up against the door so you can see the cargo box bottom attached to the pivot unit.

 

A closer view of the pivot unit - you can see the chainring and plate welded together and two 1/4" bolts attaching the cargobox bottom to the pivot unit.

 

Here it is, back clamped in the vise.

 

A side view across the cargobox bottom.

Next up are those outside pieces to hold the wheels ...

and then the vertical corners. 

Cargo Box Base

This frame is 62 cm wide x 100 cm long.

I clamped an end and a side to a 90° square and tacked it ...

then repeated for that side and the other end,

followed by the other side

and finally that side to the original end.

Corner-to-corner measurement comes out about the same.

Which means it is fairly rectangular ... not a parallelogram.

I measured center of each end ... then measured out 3-1/2" to either side for placement of the middle bars.  Again clamping them with the square while I tacked them into place.  I wanted them to fit just so, on the pivot plate. 

Here I've welded in cross bars the width of the pivot plate.

Kind of supports that area where the wheels will be added on the outside, and makes the middle more rigid. This was all constructed with 3/4" square tubing.  Now it needs to be ground smooth, then flipped over and welded on the other side.

Cargo Trike Progress

 

Here's the bottom bracket welded onto the main tube to act as the box pivot.  I had to weld-in (close) a 1/2" hole left over from where a tube connected to the BB. 

This is with the pivot mechanism mounted.

You'll notice that it is not a 90° angle to the main tube.

The diagrams and fotos that I've found show it at a slight angle ... probably so that when there is weight in the box, the rear of the box doesn't drag on the main tube.  This angle on mine is the width of the Sharpie marker line (no more than 1/8" wide).  I drew the lines to make the "fish-mouth" cut outs for the BB.  After clearing out the excess metal with a 4-1/2" grinder, The BB was vertical.  Then on only one side, I ground to the back of the Sharpie line.  You have to file each side between the fish-mouth cuts to get a line that will allow the BB to seat.  And this was the resulting angle. 

The next questions is 3/4" tubing or 1" tubing for the bottom box frame? 

We'll just have to see how it all works out. 

Cargo Trike - Box Pivot

 

I welded a 7-1/8" square plate to the chainring - sprocket 

to give me more surface and a thicker base for attaching the box frame.

This will be inverted and the the box frame will attach to the other side of the plate you are looking at. 

 

The sprocket is held in place by this base of the pedal shaft.

So I kept it and cut a hole in the plate for it to poke through. 

 

Here the bottom bracket is disassembled.

This allows for bearings and cups to be serviced or replaced. 

 

I trimmed down the pedal shaft ...

So when I mount the box frame to the top of this plate,

it won't interfere with the box. 

The Cargo Bay

I'm working on the cargo bay for the Long-Tom.  Tom thinks that only 24" wide is good for going through doorways.  I decided to go with 26" wide.  I only wasted a bit of EMT tubing in the process of figuring out  How to get each side 13" wide with two 90° angles and a total length of 23" (or 23-1/4").  Once I had two of those that matched, I put them on the floor and welded them together.  Then cleaned off the welds with the grinder.  I centered the frame, clamped it in place on the bicycle frame, and tack-welded it into place.

You'll notice that the cargo frame isn't exactly flush with the bicycle frame.

So there will be a slight backward slant to the floor.

However, it butts up against the bottom of the top tube

and firmly up against the headset tube in the rear.

It's not going anywhere.

This is looking at the bottom of the cargo frame ...

before 45° braces were installed.

There it is out in the sun with handlebars.

You can also see the 45° support bars that I welded to each end of the cargo floor.

Oh yes, I cleaned and re-greased the bearings for the bottom bracket and put the crank back in.

HOWEVER, I don't yet have the steering rod attached ...

Which makes the bike a little awkward to move around.

(the handlebars just spin 

and the front wheel goes any which way)

Steering Headset

 

Foundation for the cargo section. 

 

The top tube fits the headset cup.  But the headset extension tube is larger in diameter than this tube ... so I cut a piece of 1/2" EMT tubing and split it down one side, cut across to make two pieces, then spread them open to make 1/2-moon pieces to go around and shim the larger tube.  This centered the larger tub inside the headset extension tube.

 

Looking down inside the headset extension tube, you can see the end of the short piece of tubing that the cup fits into. 

 

Looking from the side ... what you can't see are that the shims were even with the top of the headset tube extension, while the inner tube protruded 1/8" above.  I then welded the inner tube to the outer tube.  And tapped the cup into place.  This allows for replacement of the cup and bearings as they wear. 

 

This is the extended tubing for the headset.

It was cut, and a 3/4" EMT tubing was welded in between the two pieces.

 

Upper end 

 

lower end. 

 

If you can differentiate it from the parts in the background ...

 There's the frame temporarily on wheels. 

 

Another view from a rearward angle. 

Gotta work on steering rod and brakes next.