Mesh Seat & Bell Flag

I did another 12-miler.  That original design seat just isn't comfortable enough for me to ride long mileage on it.  So I decided to pull a mesh seat off another one of my recumbent bikes.

Here it is with mesh seat and Bell flag ...

A closer view of the seat.  Need to make a newer mesh cover for it.  I need to make those EMT bars that are wider horizontally and then come up vertically instead of at a slant.  That's so I can get a little tighter turning radius.

I welded some tabs on and bolted the seat to them where the rear fork meets the main frame.

Here's the bracket I made to attach the bottom of the seat to the frame main tube.

Heel Strike, Warrior Flag4

The front portion of my main frame tube was parallel to the ground.  From the top of the tube to the ground was 12".  I found that I was have periodic heel strikes with my size 10 (EU 43) clipless sandals.  I decided to cut from the bottom up the joint where the two tubes are spliced together ... leaving the top weld in place.  The hacksaw removed some metal, then I lifted up the tube so the bottom opening was about 3/16" wide.  That isn't very much, but it resulted in about a 1-1/2" rise to the top of the front tube.  I then brace this with some metal chips, and welded it all back together.  This has pretty much eliminated heel strike.  Other than a short, high, bump (speed bumps).


This is that seam where I cut up from the bottom.

Here you can see that the front section of the main tube rises slightly.

 

The tip of the flag pole is in the same plane as the left front wheel.  Yes, I pulled the support brace in another 7/8".