New Trike Part 5 - a shakeout ride

At Docklands with Graham S's low racer

Graham and Dale

My Wife Christine at Home

Hi, Tonight I am catching up on my blog posts, here are a few photos from last Sunday when I took my mark 7 trike out for a shakeout ride of about 20k.  Its still not fixed completely, the brakes are rubbing and there is a "waggle" in the wooden plug at the front which holds the steering and bottom bracket.  I will work on these and reort back,

Regards

Steve Nurse

ATRF 2016

Following on from a tradition started last year , I rode to the conference venue.

Autonomous Vehicle Go Home!  This driverless vehicle was on display, but it.......

didn't have any windows.  I would be reluctant to get in it and close the door.

Free!  Bling!  All these badges were free, gratis and for nothing from the Vicroads stand. I gathered up a few and my wife Christine passed them on to my nephew Fraser.

Title page from one of the presentations on active transport, I had a poster presentation.

Hi, This week I've been at a conference, the Australasian Transport Research Forum.  As far as academic junkets go (free overseas travel, all expenses paid in swishy hotels, that sort of thing) , its fairly pathetic being only 9 or 10k away in my home town of Melbourne.  But they feed you quite well and yesterday there were even free ice-creams.  Back to the conference today, another day at the salt mines.

Regards

Steve Nurse

26 November.  Unfortunately, I left the SD cart at home on the last day of the conference so couldn't take more photos.  That's all from the conference!

New Trike Part 4 - On the Road

Trike Without Seat and with temporary Handlebars

Front Plug

Finished trike with temporary seat

Side Panel assembly

Oversize holes in fork (circled red) are paths for brake and gear cables. 

New left lug for mudguard and front fairing

L to R, My Nephew Fraser, Brother Richard and Me.

Richard's partner Sarah.

Hi

The trike I'm working on is on the road now, and I spent about half an hour riding around on it this afternoon and took a short video.    Saturday morning was spent attaching the wheels and steerer and connecting the cables.  Then I left to visit my brother and his girlfriend, and my mum, dad and nephew.  I went for a few surfs with my nephew Fraser.  Sunday (today) I came back and finished it off - well almost!

The steerer isn't finished yet, and the seat isn't either.  The lasercut timber looks quite good and I think it will look even better when all the parts are finished on the trike.  For now I haven't bothered trying to keep the cable runs tidy. Will post more later.

Regards

Steve Nurse

New Trike Part 3

Back Axle Insert

Front Insert

Drilling the frame - a few bolts hold the inserts in.

Frame Finished

Hi

The bike frame I've been working on for a week or 2 is finished but I still need to make the seat and add the front fork, steerer, wheels and handlebars.  Today I glued on the plates for the steerer bearings, fitted the bottom bracket shells and fitted the bolts for holding the inserts to the frame.  Looking forward to the nex bit, on the road soon I hope.

The seat will be quite a bit of work but I can cheat a bit by using a seat made for another machine.

All for now, Bye!

And the flower of the month is......

Nasturtium!

Hi

I've spent about 56 years living in Melbourne and until a few years ago was blissfully unaware that certain flowers came out at certain times of year.  This post is hopefully the first in a series that will attempt to fix that, I will photograph some flowers in bloom and attempt not only to name them but to spell their names correctly.

This series (sort of) started a year or so ago, here.  Guess I have next month's post sorted!

Regards

Steve Nurse

Here is another photo from a little further down the bike track.

New Trike Part 2

Joseph from Joseph's workshop with mk6, I was picking up the parts for mk7 from Joseph's Workshop.

And these are the bits

Part-Assembled at the front.

Setting up for cutting aluminium on 45 degree angle.

Part-Assembled at the back.

With some B-Spon riders.....

at Port Melbourne

Painting the bottom brackets

Clamping the front plywood assembly.

Setting up to braze the front bottom bracket.  The laser-cut parts underneath are for propping up the part to be brazed on and are 7mm wide.

Hi, here are some photos of the progress made making the new trike.  I picked up some laser-cut ply parts on Monday, and have been working on them on and off ever since, gluing parts, brazing and painting parts and sawing the aluminium for the frame.

There are a few mistakes in the file I sent to Joseph to have cut, the steerer holes were missing and I only got 2 of one part, where 4 were needed.  So I'm working around those things and have made the missing parts manually.  Will keep going, both with the building and the blog.

Regards

Steve Nurse

New trike Part 1

Ride to Work Day at Monash Caulfield

Brazing Jig for V-brake Bosses on 24" bike fork

After brazing bosses in place

Chainring with 42t biopace ring and guard plates each side.

The parts have been painted and are drying inside now. The fork dropouts are custom made from 4mm steel and have mounting points for mudguards, derailleur and a front fairing.

The back yard photo studio has improved a bit courtesy of some renovations next door to us

This shows some changes to one of my current trikes, I have simplified the handlebar arrangement by using a one-piece bullhorn handlebar.  Its not really wide enough (40cm) as my legs come up in between the handlebars while pedalling.  They should be about 44-48cm wide.

Met my friend George down the road, this has the old handlebar arrangement.

Hi

For a few weeks I have been gathering parts for a new trike and this post shows a few pictures of the parts plus a few photos taken around town.  Within a few days I will receive the frame and seat parts but putting them together will have to fit in around a full master's thesis redraft due in a week or so.

This time I am using a 24" fork for a 24" wheel (shock horror), and adapting the frok came quite easily as there is only one set of brake bosses to braze on and none to take off.  I plan to run brake cables up through the threaded part of the fork, and hopefully there will be room at the top of the tyre for this.

Regards

Steve Nurse

New Tailbox Part 3

The bike with the new tailbox installed  on part of the Yarra bikepath.

The box has side-panels which are held on by bulldog clips. Some more construction details are shown in photo 5 of this post.

The fit of the seat to my back and bottom are not perfect, and I took this photo yesterday to assess how I can change the design to make it more comfortable and aerodynamic. The shoulder rest will  move back 30mm and the tailbox top will be raised 30mm.

In this photo (click to enlarge) you can see the piece of ply between the 2 seat supports, right above the back wheel.  This stops the supports from failure by buckling, something which happened with a previous box.

 

Hi

For 3 few days now, I have been riding a trike with a new tailbox and curved plywood seat fitted.  My quest for the perfect tailbox takes another step, but is not over!  The timber panels of this 'box can be replaced with corflute or cloth versions, but I haven't made any of these yet.

Regards

Steve nurse