JoeKR
New member
"Hey Dad, we gotta build some of these!"
So how many of you got in over you head with a sentence like that? Now I've wanted to build a drift trike for a long time, but my original vision was a pedal powered machine. But age has set in and I haven't build anything with a gas engine yet, so this will be my last hurrah into youthful exuberance.
As I've mentioned in a previous post, My experience with Karting and mini bikes is limited. But I've build many varieties of pedal bikes over the last decade and I also was a BattleBots! contestant, so I'm no stranger to drivelines and creative assembly.
I've got a few minutes of drive time on my sons machine and I have a few observations.
There seems to a tendency to overpower these things, my sons trike has a 5.5hp motor on his and it just feels like overkill. I understand that the powered drift trike came primarily from the karting community and that knowledge was used for the back half. I just feel that 1" axles and other karting accoutrements are too much for the front half, so I'm building with some lighter gauge stuff. And a much smaller motor.
I've also seen many people say that the PVC is too slick, not true. I'm going to have to cut down the sleeves I'm using to reduce the amount of bite we're getting.
For me, drifting is more of a style thing and less of a speed thing, my advice is don't build a drift trike if all you care about is going fast.
My frame was designed around triangles and minimum use of materials. Donor bike was a '54 Roadmaster from Cleveland Welding Company. I've sorta created a bad flex spot where the "X" crosses, but "X" frames have been done before and the only bad thing I've ever heard about them is a lack of leg room. Kinda' works the opposite in this case.
So here's some pics.
Redesigned throttle, governor is completely gone.
The FrankenJig, has served me on a couple of bikes, came thru once again!
The center support bearing. A part time bearing made to keep the long thin axle from flopping around too much.
Brake mock ups. I thought rear brakes would be useless on these things,WRONG!
These are a bit unproven, this is the "Slug". It fits into an 8" PVC pipe coupler. I want to create a lighter wheel, but this is some stuff I had lying around. Did I mention I'm tryin' to be cheap?
Currently the shop has been crippled by cold weather. I'm just about ready for initial assembly. No paint this go round, I like to make sure stuff works before I paint something, made that mistake too many times.
So how many of you got in over you head with a sentence like that? Now I've wanted to build a drift trike for a long time, but my original vision was a pedal powered machine. But age has set in and I haven't build anything with a gas engine yet, so this will be my last hurrah into youthful exuberance.
As I've mentioned in a previous post, My experience with Karting and mini bikes is limited. But I've build many varieties of pedal bikes over the last decade and I also was a BattleBots! contestant, so I'm no stranger to drivelines and creative assembly.
I've got a few minutes of drive time on my sons machine and I have a few observations.
There seems to a tendency to overpower these things, my sons trike has a 5.5hp motor on his and it just feels like overkill. I understand that the powered drift trike came primarily from the karting community and that knowledge was used for the back half. I just feel that 1" axles and other karting accoutrements are too much for the front half, so I'm building with some lighter gauge stuff. And a much smaller motor.
I've also seen many people say that the PVC is too slick, not true. I'm going to have to cut down the sleeves I'm using to reduce the amount of bite we're getting.
For me, drifting is more of a style thing and less of a speed thing, my advice is don't build a drift trike if all you care about is going fast.
My frame was designed around triangles and minimum use of materials. Donor bike was a '54 Roadmaster from Cleveland Welding Company. I've sorta created a bad flex spot where the "X" crosses, but "X" frames have been done before and the only bad thing I've ever heard about them is a lack of leg room. Kinda' works the opposite in this case.
So here's some pics.
Redesigned throttle, governor is completely gone.
The FrankenJig, has served me on a couple of bikes, came thru once again!
The center support bearing. A part time bearing made to keep the long thin axle from flopping around too much.
Brake mock ups. I thought rear brakes would be useless on these things,WRONG!
These are a bit unproven, this is the "Slug". It fits into an 8" PVC pipe coupler. I want to create a lighter wheel, but this is some stuff I had lying around. Did I mention I'm tryin' to be cheap?
Currently the shop has been crippled by cold weather. I'm just about ready for initial assembly. No paint this go round, I like to make sure stuff works before I paint something, made that mistake too many times.
