jmlcolorado
Well-known member
First off, the trike is not mine, I take no credit for it, though I wish I could 
There aren't many trikes I really care for, but this is one I do, despite how impractical it might be.
It got my gears turning though.
They used a flathead and an old 3 speed trans. It looks to me like the rear end might be mated directly to the output shaft of the trans. This really seems like an easy drivetrain! Maybe just an adapter to bolt the rear end and trans yolks together.
In one photo, it SEEMS like they have a buggy spring holding the rear end. Can that be?! I suppose the buggy spring would allow the rear end to rotate left and right, but without a driveshaft of some sort (and the longer the better) it seems there would be serious bind!
Maybe the buggy spring is just for looks. That's all I can think of.
Even if you had a 6" driveshaft, if the rear end went through ANY flex at all, the u-joints would bind up! And if your 420 lbs, you've officially moved the working angle of the u-joints way out of spec!
I think the best way to use this kind of setup would be to hard mount the rear end to the frame, and hard mount the trans and engine to the frame, and have a hard tail.
Interestingly enough, in a couple of the photos, it seems the spring has been removed, and the bike seems to be sitting lower. Maybe they ran into issues with the springs and decided to rid the bike of the rear suspension.
Regardless, its a beautiful piece of art, and I can truly appreciate the work that has gone into it!
There aren't many trikes I really care for, but this is one I do, despite how impractical it might be.
It got my gears turning though.
They used a flathead and an old 3 speed trans. It looks to me like the rear end might be mated directly to the output shaft of the trans. This really seems like an easy drivetrain! Maybe just an adapter to bolt the rear end and trans yolks together.
In one photo, it SEEMS like they have a buggy spring holding the rear end. Can that be?! I suppose the buggy spring would allow the rear end to rotate left and right, but without a driveshaft of some sort (and the longer the better) it seems there would be serious bind!
Maybe the buggy spring is just for looks. That's all I can think of.
Even if you had a 6" driveshaft, if the rear end went through ANY flex at all, the u-joints would bind up! And if your 420 lbs, you've officially moved the working angle of the u-joints way out of spec!
I think the best way to use this kind of setup would be to hard mount the rear end to the frame, and hard mount the trans and engine to the frame, and have a hard tail.
Interestingly enough, in a couple of the photos, it seems the spring has been removed, and the bike seems to be sitting lower. Maybe they ran into issues with the springs and decided to rid the bike of the rear suspension.
Regardless, its a beautiful piece of art, and I can truly appreciate the work that has gone into it!
