Cutting the Notch in the Main Frame Tube for the Cross Tube

Today I cut the half circle notch in the bottom of the main frame tube. This notch is what the cross tube fits into. The challenge was cutting the notch square . I used the set up below and it worked quite well. Since the tube was too big to bolt down to the table on the drill press, I attached it to a 2'x2' piece of MDF which happens to have my vise attached to it. I clamped the piece of MDF to the table of the drill press upside down and then clamped another piece of wood in the jaws of the vise. I could then get the tube square to the drill by moving where the vise was clamped on the supporting piece of wood. Clear as mud? A picture really says a thousand words.

After I cut the notch, I clamped the two pieces together to see how they fit. Later I will clamp it all square and weld them together.

One Man's Treasure

This weekend I made some real progress getting my shop put together and in order. Maybe after almost a year I will get some more done on the trike. On Saturday, Kirsten and I took our recycling in to Fort Saskatchewan. Kirsten had told me that they had a spot for scrap metal so I though I would take a look to see if there was anything I could use. Re-use IS the ultimate form of recycling after all. To my surprise and delight I found a mountain bike frame. I was still hesitating about cutting up the donor bike I got at the police auction since I liked it so much. As a bonus the frame had two bottle cages, a seat for my other bike and ratchet shifters. I had been curious to see if ratchet shifters would be easier to configure than the grip shifters I was going to use, now I can find out!

The rear triangle removed after I cut it off with the sawzall I got at Princess auto.

The rear triangle mocked up with the rest of the Road Rooster frame.

The Donor Bike

Here is the donor bike I bought for the Road Rooster project. I got it for $20 at the police auction in Winnipeg (but with no seat). I need the rear wheel, crank assembly, both brakes, derailers and grip shifters as well as cutting off the rear triangle. I like the tires it has too!
But here is a problem. I took it for a couple rides and I think I like it better than my good 2 wheel bike... but I am not about to cut up my good bike for the Road Rooster... decisions, desisions...




Total cost: $20.00
Total project parts cost to date: $131.10
Total project cost to date: $138.29
Project budget: $200
Remaining budget: $61.71

Wire Feed Welder

I love Princess Auto. I went there to look at their wire feed welders and sure enough they were on sale for a ridiculously low price. Also bought a welding helmet and gloves. Where else can you buy a welding helmet for $7?

I got pipe!

Yesterday I got the tubing made for the main frame of the "Road Ruzter" (as Bruce calls it). I was a little nervous because the main tube has 2 bends that must be made on exactly the same plane. The guys at Midas did a great job, the bends are bang on! 3 of the tubes are 2" exhaust tubing and the 4th is 1 7/8" so that it slides inside the 2". This allows the pedals to be adjustable for the rider's height. I chose exhaust tubing instead of aluminum because I don't have any way to weld aluminum myself, even though it is much lighter.

The 2nd picture is the mock up with the seat frame.

Total cost: $49.02
Total project parts cost to date: $111.10
Total project cost to date: $118.29
Project budget: $200
Remaining budget: $81.71

Seat Frame

This is the assembled seat frame. It is comprised of 3 pieces of 1" aluminum, the 2 sides and the top hoop.

Total cost: $18.47 CAD
Total project parts cost to date: $62.08
Total project cost to date: $69.27
Project budget: $200
Remaining budget: $130.73

Tube bending jig

These are the 2 tube bending jigs I built to bend the seat frame. The tubes are shown after they were trimmed for length. I had to heat the tubing to get it to bend properly because of the "spring back" when bending. 

Success!

I cut a new bending surface, this time with a 5.5 inch radius instead of the previous 3.5. As you can see no kinking and I didn't even use a groove! I may have to adjust the seat design slightly to accomodate the larger radius bends.

Failure!

Sadly, both the plain curve and the grooved curve both kinked the tubing. I suspect it has to do with the tight 3 inch radius I am trying to bend!

Making the bending jig

Here are some quick pics of me making the jigs for bending the seat frame. These will get screwed to the plywood layout I showed in an earlier post. The last photo shows routering a groove, I only did one this way, I will try it both ways to see if the groove is necessary to stop the tube from kinking.

More Rod Ends!

My eBay purchase of 8-1/4" rod ends arrived today. They will be used in the steering linkage for the trike. I love eBay, this project would definitely be done differently otherwise as parts like this bought locally would blow the budget :)

Total cost: $13.48 CAD
Cost if bought locally: $89.99
Total project parts cost to date: $43.61
Total tool cost to date: $7.19
Total project cost to date: $50.80
Project budget: $200

Remaining budget: $149.20

Laying out the seat bending jig

Today, Jack and I drew out the seat profile on a piece of plywood. This will later help align the bending jigs. I was surprized, the seat is smaller than I thought it would be, just like the frame. I have heard before that you can't lay out angles accurately with a protracter, but now I believe it. I would first measure the angle with the protractor, then have to adjust it after I measured it with a ruler. To measure an angle with a ruler I used:

Tools!

I received my router bit I bought on eBay today. "What does that have to do with trike building?" you may ask. To fabricate the seat frame I have to do some somewhat complex bending of 1" aluminum tubing (LINK). I could buy a conduit bender but as Grant points out, I am too cheap ;) A bender (LINK) costs at least $33.00 and I would probably need 2 of them. I can make my own bender like this LINK or an alternate method is to build a bending jig out of wood. Here is a LINK to an example. I am probably going to build a jig but add the curved trough that the bender has to lower the possiblity of kinking the tubing. THAT is where the router bit comes in. I will assemble the jig, then cut a groove for the tube to sit in as it is being bent. Clear as mud??? I will post some pics when I start bending some tube.

Cost = $2.10 for the bit, $5.09 for shipping from the UK for a total of $7.19 CAD ($45 at Lee Valley). Total project cost to date $37.32

Steering Knuckle Mock-up

This is a mockup I did today of the steering knuckle. The real knuckle will be built out of welded flat steel but this aproximated the shape nicely, plus I got to play with the rod ends I got on eBay!

My 1st Purchase for the Trike Project

I guess I am actually committing a little bit to this project. I bought 4-3/8" rod ends on eBay, they will end up being the "ball joints" of the steering system.

Total cost = $30.13 CAD
Cost if bought locally: $63.79
Total project cost to date: $30.13
Project budget: $200
Remaining budget: $169.87

The Red Greene Recumbent

I decided to do a crude mock up of the trike to get an idea of the size and where things would end up. The front has 20" wheels I "borrowed" from Jack's bike trailer, they are exactly the size and type of wheel I need. The read wheel is a 26" but the real tike would probably use a 24" wheel. Yes, I know the seat is too high ;) and yes, that is a crutch used as the rear fork.

Frame Design

This is the frame design I am going to use with some modifications. It is a Spitfire which is a later version of the Thunderbird, both designed by Rickey Horwitz. Rickey makes his frames from 6061-T6 aluminum, but I will build mine out of a combination of mild steel and aluminum. The all aluminum bike weights only 28-32 pounds (bare frame is 18 lbs)!!! Mine will be heavier, most home builds are around 50-60 lbs. I decided to draw on other people's experience and not re-invent the wheel for a change. I think there is a pun in there somewhere... Check out the Links section of this blog to see more detail about this and other designs.

P.S. This model of trike sells for $3500 US! Most trikes are at least $2500.

Welcome to the Ruzter Trike BLOG

For the past month, I have been enthralled with the idea of building a recumbent bike, specifically a recumbent trike in the tadpole (2 wheels in the front) configuration. My great friend Grant and I have spent many a late evening discussing all aspects of trikes related to building design and astetics. It has been GREAT fun.

Then I stumbled across a series of websites with tadpole design information from Rickey Horwitz. These are, by far, the most compehensive sources of info I have found so far. The more I read the more I thought I could build one myself and the more I knew how I would build it. This week I made several small purchases of parts and tools that I would need to build the trike, so I guess I am actually going to try. I am starting this blog to document what I am doing, show off my sucesses, make fun of my failures, but most of all just share with my friends and family. Wish me luck, I don't always have the best track record finishing these things, but finish or not my goal is to have fun and enjoy every single minute I am doing or thinking about this project.

It's not what you can buy, it's what you can build.

BLOG on...

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