Tricycle?

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deronmoped
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Tricycle?

I have a extra Giant LaFree Pedelec and I have been thinking of ways I could change or modify it so it would be useful to me. One idea was to change it into a trike. Has anyone had any experience with tricycles and can explain the advantages or drawbacks? Is there a kit that would work on my bike.

Thanks, Deron.

dogman
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Re: Tricycle?

Somewhere on the Endless Sphere there is a post about a place that sells chopper bike parts that also sells the rear end to make a trike out of a bike. My laptop died, and has the link in the favorites so I can't get you the link right away. I'm rained out of work today so I'll hunt for it later and post here at some point.

Trikes are great for what they can do, and really aren't for other things. Mine is a Schwinn merida one speed, and I really wish I had gotten one with three. I ended up getting it a big front sprocket so I could peadle 15 mph, which is close to as fast as you want to go unless you are on really straigt road, and no glass or potholes to dodge. Above about 10 mph it is pretty much impossible to swerve even a few inches. Real turns have to happen at about 5 mph untill you master the two wheel corner, and then you can go about 10 mph. It also has a real problem with roads with much camber, especially if you are on a shoulder with several layers of paving, so that one wheel is on asphalt that is 3 inches taller than the other. In that case, with one rear wheel high and the other low, the bike will dive to the lower side and run you into the ditch. It's also pretty hard to dodge the occasional idiot motorist who pulls too far into a crosswalk, so cross big intersections in the street, or real slow in the crosswalk.

But I still love my trike! I use it a lot to run my dogs, so I can have a leash in one hand and the throttle in the other. It's great since I cant have the bike fall over. If i need to I just step off the bike and it stands there waiting for me. The same thing is really nice at stop signs and such. No need to balance and try to keep the bike up, or get off the seat. You just sit there comfy as can be till the light changes, or it's your turn at the stop sign. As a grocery getter it is second to none. I hate to buy more at a time than will fit in the basket anyway. It could even go serial hibrid with a gennie in the basket. I tried it, but my generator is a bit too heavy and my charger too weak, but with a golf cart charger I could drive it to California although my max speed would be about 12 mph. And my brushed hub would melt before I got there too.

A trike is a real good second ebike, but I still want the MTB for longer rides.

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dogman
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Re: Tricycle?

I may never find that post again. It was buried in a thread of another subject and doesn't appear when I search chopper parts. But I did google another place with similar trike rear end for sale, bikedesigner.com

Be the pack leader.
36 volt sla schwinn beach cruiser
36 volt lifepo4 mongoose mtb
24 volt sla + nicad EV Global

reikiman
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Re: Tricycle?

I have a bunch of links related to three wheel vehicles here: http://www.7gen.com/website-categories/three-wheeled-vehicles

I've never found a kit to turn a bicycle into a three-wheeler. Many of the things in my three-wheeled-vehicles category are trike motorcycles or kits to convert a motorcycle to three-wheels.

I have found a bunch of different three wheel bicycles for sale, some are pedicab arrangements, others are cargo bicycles.

http://www.milehighpedicabs.com/

http://velotaxi.hit.bg/

http://www.7gen.com/website-categories/cargo-bicycles

deronmoped
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Re: Tricycle?

I have a Honda 250R three wheeler that I ride out in the desert, it works really good out there, you make a three wheeler in town sound like a accident waiting to happen, at least if you try to go over a certain speed.

I took a look at a Extendacycle as another option, it looks OK, but not much different then a regular bike. Maybe I will build a recumbent out of my spare Pedelec.

Deron.

deronmoped
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Re: Tricycle?

We have a ton of those Pedicabs here in San Diego. I did find a great site that sells Cargo/utility bikes. Yeah the three wheel kits are pretty scarce, did find one online and talked to the guy at my local bike shop and he did have a catalog with one, not a very big selection out there.

Three wheeled bikes look like they are perfect for big heavy loads, on level ground not going very fast. I guess the idea uses would be as a grocery getter, dog transport, getting all the picnic stuff to the local park, picking up stuff at yard sales... I would not want to go very far on a three wheeled bike in my area, just too many hills and narrow pot holed streets.

Now that I think of it, I should of had one as a kid delivering newspapers. It would have worked perfect for the Sunday paper. Delivering the daily paper was no problem on a bike, but the Sunday paper was a monster paper and I would have to overload my bike to get all the papers on it.

Deron.

reikiman
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Re: Tricycle?

I should of had one as a kid delivering newspapers. It would have worked perfect for the Sunday paper.

Yeah... For grocery-getting I use a trailer on my e-bicycle but having something with dedicated cargo space is cool. The Xtracycle is a similar idea but a two-wheeler.

Anyway what you said about the sunday paper sure brings back memories. I used to live in Reston VA and had a paper route. To carry papers around I had this cart that I walked around. Most days the papers for the whole route fit into the cart .. but on Sunday only 10 papers would fit. 10! That meant making 6 trips home to refill the cart to do the whole route.

chas_stevenson
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Re: Tricycle?

You might try this link and scroll down to see some trike conversion kits.

Grandpa Chas S.

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