Bottom Bracket (That goes on the Front!)

The bottom bracket on a bike is the part that holds the bearing for the crankset (the gears your pedals are connected to). I was all set to start building the bottom bracket assembly for the trike when I discovered that the pipe I got didn't fit inside the main frame tube like it was supposed to. Close but not comfortably close. I thought, and discussed with Grant, my options like extending the slot that is needed to clamp this tube in place or using a pipe expander ($15 at princess auto). For fun I thought I would try just using the existing frame of the donor bike with some UHMW bushings, since if it didn't work, I could still switch to plan b, c or d. I was a bit surprised that it worked out better than I thought. I might just keep it. If you are wondering why there is the piece sticking up at a 60 degree angle, that is to mount the front derailer to and will be trimmed to be about 6 inches long. I can also use it to mount my water bottle (threaded holes already there) and my bike speedometer, head light, tow hitch, coat hook or snow plow attachment. You get the idea.

In the above and below pictures you can see other mounting holes that I could potentially use to adjust the length of the "boom" instead of a clamping system.

One thing I discovered is that although UHMW is great to cut, drill or machine, it isn't the greatest to cut with a hole saw. The saw gums up when it starts to melt. I will makes some better bushings if I decide to keep this design.

I like this picture because you can see the corner of that blueprint. Makes me looked organized or that I am going from a set of plans or something.

Any volunteers to draw some pedals and gears for the Progress-O-Meter?