Warrior Flag

I've been test riding.  As a result, I have made some minor modifications.  1) You will notice that the angle of the upper portion of the seat tube has been changed to better mount a rack or rear engine.  2) The brake levers have been rotated more to the rear of the bars.  Just more comfortable for braking and keeping my hands out of the wheels.  3) I needed a flag so that cars and trucks will pay attention to me and not attempt to crowd me when they pass.

Side view showing the flag.  My flag pole was missing a flag, and since no one will see much of the vest from the rear if I was wearing it ... I decided to tape it to the pole and use it as a flag.

You'll notice that the flag pole bottom bracket attaches to the idler pulley bolt at the base.  And I made a bracket that attaches to the seat bolt at the top of the seat.  It has a 2-1/2" length of 1/2" tubing that the pole passes through.  That controls the angle of the flag and secures it in a fairly rigid position.

From the rear, you'll notice that the flag pole extends a foot or more to the side of my left front tire.  I have found from experience that this tends to keep cars and trucks from crowding you on the roadway as they go past.  Due to there being no nifty bicycle trails around here ... I ride a lot of roads.  With this arrangement (I tried it on the main road today), if there is oncoming traffic ... the vehicles behind you will slow way down and wait to pass.  Opposing traffic on a narrow 2-lane road with no shoulders, will also slow way down and stay to the far edge of the roadway while going past.

The trike seems to roll easily without apparent mechanical drag (brakes, wheels, etc.)  The flag didn't provide significant drag either ... although any flag will provide some drag.  The smaller hills that I've pedaled up could be easily spun up (spinning).  I have a small gear on the front and a mega-tooth gear 42(?) on the rear.  I'll try spinning up a steep hill tomorrow and see how it goes.  I've stayed out of the smallest gears on the rear ... unless there is a tailwind or a good down-slope, it is just too stiff pedaling.  Although it does go FAST!

Riding Warrior

Here's where I'm at ... It's not really finished "done".  But the shifters, and brakes are all on there and functional.  The seat foam isn't glued on yet ... I just set the 3 pieces on there and sit down on it and ride.  I rode it up and down the street a bunch of times.  The angle on the seat-back post needs to be adjusted and trimmed.  A couple other little tweaks need to be made.  But that is what test riding is all about.  My neighbor got on it and rode it.  He didn't tip over, break anything, or injure himself.  He was very pleased with the speed and handling. 

Right side view

Left side view

3/4 view from front

I'll probably continue riding and tweaking it this next week.  I need a water bottle cage on the front boom.  I haven't got any, but fenders would be nice ... it's particularly annoying with the back wheel throwing dirt into my hair.  I need a rack or something on the back.  A flag poking up, back, and slightly outward would be very handy.  Car drivers tend to drive around the tip of flags so they don't damage their cars.  So I want it to stick out to the side far enough that they go around me and don't clip my left front wheel.

Rear Derailleur Cable

I finally welded on 4 cable stops and 2 cable guide rings.  I've heard that the less overall cable housing you have, the less friction.  So I figured to eliminate the length up behind the seat back.  And on the underside of the rear fork.  Here are the photo segments starting at the rear wheel.

Notice the wire under the rear fork.

Here's the run paralleling the seat back.  I used a small length of cable housing to  bridge up to the rear fork.

The cable housing runs behind the idler pulley and through the 2 guide rings ... then up the right handlebar.

Here I'm attempting to show the full length of the cable run.  I think I've got it adjusted so it will shift the full run of the gears.  I need to bolt the seat back on, set the foam pieces on.  And test ride it up and down the street.  Once it is fully functional ... then it will be time to strip it all down and paint it.  sigh.  :-)

Friction Thumb Shifters

Someone sent a request asking for closeup photos of the shift levers I put on my trike. 

The brand name on the lever and the spring clamp is "Lubao".

The flat spring hooks over the nub protruding to the left.  You kind of have to hold it in place while screwing in the phillips head screw visible on the top of that box thing.

Here you can see the screw from the backside of the unit.  On the left (angled towards you) is the thumb lever.

Here's the view from front side.  I just slid it into place and screwed it down until it firmly clamped.

I tried to find the brand on the internet, but was unable to find anything other than a town named Lubao in the Phillipines.  Do a search for "friction thumb shifters" and look at the Suntour & Shimano ones.  The Falcon ones are a bit cheap in construction.

Cabling 2

I watched TV today more than working on the cables.  With the shift levers on the front of the handlebars, I had to turn them way inward so they wouldn't hit the tires.  And then they were running into the frame and hitting my leg on tight turns.  So, I turned the brake levers outward.  I mounted the brake cables.  Then adjusted the front shifter cable.  Still pondering how I am going to mount the rear shifter cable.

Here's a topview with the levers positioned and the cables mounted.

Here's a bottom view showing how I routed the cabling.

This is showing how I ran the cabling up to the front shifter.  I didn't have a handy cable stop to weld on so the cable would clamp.  So I took this ring that does the same thing off of another bicycle.  It works fine.

This is showing that the brake levers clear the tires by about 3/4".  You'll notice that I ran the brake cable over the top of the right arm.  I found that if I attempted to attached it to the bottom of the arm, the loop tended to push into the spokes.

This is showing the left bar all the way forward.

This is the right bar all the way forward.

Here's a top view showing a hard left turn.  All cables functioned without problems in neutral and extreme positions ... no binding.  Tomorrow I need to pull the seat and the rear pulley off so I can weld on some chain stops and cable guides.

Cabling 1

I've got to look at  some other trikes to see how they are doing their cabling.  I'm kind of stymied at the moment.  I put on one cable to the front shifter.  So I now have 3 gears up front.  But still only one in the back.  And no brakes.

Here's the one cable for the front shifter.

Here's the shift lever ... and the brake lever below it.

I did ride it up and down the street a couple of times while changing the gears up front.  Got some pretty good speed.  Particularly since I can only use the smallest gear in the back.

Chain Drive 2

Busy today taking brake levers and shifters off of handlebar units.  I put the tube on the non-drive portion of the chain.  And having done that, I had to go out and test ride it on the street again.  There are definite speed limitations when you can only use the small gear on the front.  With no brakes, leaning into a turn, slapping the bars as far as they will go in one direction -- I am amazed at how tight a turn it will make!!!  Severe fun! 

There it is with the rollers for the drive chain and the tube for the back chain.  I figured I could use the tube holders to function as chain keepers ... so the drive chain doesn't pop out of the pulleys.  In this configuration I have the back chain directly below the drive chain.  We'll see how it works.  If there are any problems yet unknown, I may have to move it parallel to and slightly below the drive chain.

Here's the front roller with the tube holder ...

Here's the rear roller with the tube holder which is tacked to the bottom of the frame.

Today if you look down under the seat, you can see the evidence of the chain tube.
FYI - It is 24" between the tips of my handlebars. Has anyone crossed their brake lines?  I'm thinking of it because there would be less tight turns and concerns with the cables.  The tires on the front wheels are airless.  That makes a bit more noise and drag ... but would probably last longer than normal tires, if the trike was motorized.

Chain Drive 1

Okay, so I mounted a chain on the frame with idlers.  Only one gear on the front (the smallest one).  Only gear on the back (also the smallest one).  Took some photos.  Then rolled it out to the flat road out front, then took off riding down the street, turned right into the driveway, and rode down behind the shop.  It moves out pretty good.  I won't really know how well it will actually perform, until I get shifters, shifter cables, brake levers,  and brake cables on it.

In order to clear the tie-rod under the frame, I had to make this adapter.

This didn't turn out very focused ... bottom view of the trike.  I have a 3" idler roller (v-belt pulley) on the rear.  And a 2-5/8" idler roller (v-belt pulley) on the front. 

A view of the steering (trike upside down).  Front chain idler (2-5/8").  Brakes mounted.

Steering turned all the way to the right.  I can achieve these steering angles while riding (without the wheel hitting my leg).

Steering turned all the way to the left.

A view from the front (trike right-side up).  Clip on pedals are a must! (Crank Brothers Candy 2)

Here it is just before I took off riding.  Next addition is the return chain tube, some means to keep the drive chain from popping out of the idler rollers (it kept coming out of the front one), and brake levers & cables.

A Quick View of My Shop

I'm starting with my workbench and rotating 360 degrees to the right.

This is my workbench.  Drill press on the left.  Vise and mig welder on the right.  I'm using flux core wire, no gas.  On the lower shelf to the left is my 4-1/2" hand grinder.  It makes the welds look good.

Between the bench and the cabinet on the right ... mostly smaller front wheels.

Additional parts and tool storage.  I even have a bicycle maintenance book!

Here is a TE Clone (upside down), a couple of parts frames, and a stack of rear wheels.

On the left, my warrior trike frame (upside down).  A Sun SWB Speedster.  And a SWB Bentech (upside down).

Boxes of cut up parts, a wind chime, and a couple of wheels.

A cargo trike and a couple more donor bikes.  (not seen in the background is a LWB Mach3.

A Long-Tom cargo bike that still needs the steering bar to be bent and hooked up to the front wheel.

There are a few more frames hanging around, but that is about it for my current crop of "projects".