Continuing with the process of getting the blog up to date, I thought I'd post the drift trike I constructed, with the help of my mate Dale, who's a whiz with a welder. This was probably the project that cemented my desire to learn to weld for myself, although I'll admit Dale makes it look easier than it really is... :)
I started off with a BMX I got from Trademe, & spent some time disassembling it. Turns out the mechanism for holding the steering column into the neck of the frame is actually a pretty nifty bit of engineering, simple yet elegant. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of the process, seeing as I built it before I had the idea for this blog. I then cut off the upright seat column, & the horizontal bar that joins the steering neck to the top of the seat column. The main reason for this is to lower the height for the new seat, so I could keep the center of gravity as close to the ground as I could. In the interest of a low center of gravity, I also made sure to have a large meal before testing it.
The next step was to head round to Dale's place, with the frame, steering head, wheels, & a hand truck/sack barrow to cut up for the rear wheels. I had planned to use the tubing from the hand truck for the rear frame, but Dale had some superior steel tubing with a thicker sidewall lying around, so we went with that. We decided to go with a bare metal finish, as opposed to painting it, so we proceeded to strip the paint from the frame with wire wheel, angle grinder, & blowtorch. This resulted in shiny metal & also 2nd degree burns on my forearm from said shiny, very hot metal. Once clean, we (Dale) welded up the rear frame to my design, using 2 parallel tubes in order to provide a nest for the stub axles, so as to keep them lined up perfectly. This was reinforced with an angle bar running along the front & bottom of the tubes, so we had more surface area to weld the rear of the bike frame to the axle.
Then it was just a case of welding the bike frame to the rear axle arrangement, a bit of paint for the wheels & sealer for the bare metal frame, & reassembling everything. I obtained a couple of PE sleeves for the rear wheels from Azzman of the D-Trikes.com forums. The PE plastic is quieter, slipperier, & more resilient than PVC, in addition to being much thicker. It's also black, & black is cool. True Story. The way to get them on is to deflate the rear tires, slip on the sleeves, centre them & make sure they're angle just right, & then reinflate the tires. Air pressure holds them on quite tightly. Obviously, the sleeves are needed to make the rear wheels slippery, which is the whole point of a drift trike, ie going around corners sideways at the kind of speeds that make one's instinct for self-preservation throw it's hands in the air & stalk off in disgust.
Of course, testing was mandatory, & as Andy Prentice happened to be coming over to pick some stuff up, it seemed the perfect time. The inevitable result was much yelling, grinning, & a whole lot of sliding - forwards, sideways, & usually ending in a panicked application of the brakes while skidding backwards & looking over the shoulder at rapidly approaching parked cars.
Success all round. :)
I started off with a BMX I got from Trademe, & spent some time disassembling it. Turns out the mechanism for holding the steering column into the neck of the frame is actually a pretty nifty bit of engineering, simple yet elegant. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of the process, seeing as I built it before I had the idea for this blog. I then cut off the upright seat column, & the horizontal bar that joins the steering neck to the top of the seat column. The main reason for this is to lower the height for the new seat, so I could keep the center of gravity as close to the ground as I could. In the interest of a low center of gravity, I also made sure to have a large meal before testing it.
The next step was to head round to Dale's place, with the frame, steering head, wheels, & a hand truck/sack barrow to cut up for the rear wheels. I had planned to use the tubing from the hand truck for the rear frame, but Dale had some superior steel tubing with a thicker sidewall lying around, so we went with that. We decided to go with a bare metal finish, as opposed to painting it, so we proceeded to strip the paint from the frame with wire wheel, angle grinder, & blowtorch. This resulted in shiny metal & also 2nd degree burns on my forearm from said shiny, very hot metal. Once clean, we (Dale) welded up the rear frame to my design, using 2 parallel tubes in order to provide a nest for the stub axles, so as to keep them lined up perfectly. This was reinforced with an angle bar running along the front & bottom of the tubes, so we had more surface area to weld the rear of the bike frame to the axle.
Then it was just a case of welding the bike frame to the rear axle arrangement, a bit of paint for the wheels & sealer for the bare metal frame, & reassembling everything. I obtained a couple of PE sleeves for the rear wheels from Azzman of the D-Trikes.com forums. The PE plastic is quieter, slipperier, & more resilient than PVC, in addition to being much thicker. It's also black, & black is cool. True Story. The way to get them on is to deflate the rear tires, slip on the sleeves, centre them & make sure they're angle just right, & then reinflate the tires. Air pressure holds them on quite tightly. Obviously, the sleeves are needed to make the rear wheels slippery, which is the whole point of a drift trike, ie going around corners sideways at the kind of speeds that make one's instinct for self-preservation throw it's hands in the air & stalk off in disgust.
 |
| Note the rear reflector. Safer Communities Together. |
Of course, testing was mandatory, & as Andy Prentice happened to be coming over to pick some stuff up, it seemed the perfect time. The inevitable result was much yelling, grinning, & a whole lot of sliding - forwards, sideways, & usually ending in a panicked application of the brakes while skidding backwards & looking over the shoulder at rapidly approaching parked cars.
Success all round. :)
Very Nice... down hill we gooooooo......
ReplyDeleteSuch a cool project! I have always loved your 'mad scientist/inventor' creativity. Keep up the good work! Can't wait too see what you come up with next! One day you can teach Asher how to build stuff too. Love your writing - clever & funny.
ReplyDelete