Well Nice Knowing U All I Just Threw My Bike In The Garbage So See Ya!

[SimpleSimon]

I don't own a camera, so no pictures have been taken.

Right now I have a tadpole trike of my own design and construction which cost me $68.19 for wheel/tires - front two are 5 spoke resin 20" wheels with 1.5" tires I got for $25 each, the rear is a 26" wheel from a donated salvage bike with a $14.50 Walmart 2.125" tire and a $3.69 tube. I spent $12.89 on a box of 3/16" welding rods, about half used up. The 1.5" x 1.5" x .125" angle iron in the frame was "found" materials (old bed frames). The two headtubes came from salvage bikes (thanks, Dave!), the steering linkage is a combination of parts from a salvaged four-wheeler and a disassembled "found" chrome floor lamp. The Shimano three-speed hub mid-drive I already had ($20, used, 5 yrs ago). The GEBE drive ring and R/S EHO-35 engine I got from a friend, used, for $50. So far, that's !51.08. The rear shock came from a salvage mountain bike.

*"found" - items acquired by picking them up curbside before the garbage truck comes down the street.

I have no lights on it as yet. The fuel tank started life as a Heineken beer mini-keg - I might have $5 in it, as the keg was a donation. The seat began life in an office as a reclining executive swivel desk chair - it was given to me as useless by the owner when the shock in the seat column failed. The steering yoke came out of a Cessna 152, gotten from the local airport mechanic for free. I might have $10 in chain links to bring together the various salvaged chains. The pivot point jackshaft and two freewheel 12 tooth sprockets I salvaged from a previous build.

So, well under $200 invested, plus who knows how many hours spent fabricating it - cutting angle iron with a hacksaw is tedious, as is grinding/filing joint surfaces. The sheer enjoyment of building it and riding it is priceless. Freaking out cops is worth the $200 by itself - I have a prescription letter for it from my Dr as a "handicapped mobility device", so they can't ticket me.

Yes, it is pedalable - I always start it by pull starting the engine, then getting to about 3-5 mph with my legs before running up the throttle (thumb throttle, also salvaged). Front brakes are discs I salvaged from my previous delta trike conversion (fabricating the mounting hubs to mate them to the cast resin wheels was a REALLY tedious task) , as of right now there is no rear brake.

It will hit 28 mph, but I mostly cruise under 20.

Steering geometry is full Ackermann and zero point - at speed I can make a square turn on a street corner with no wheel scrub at all.

I suppose I can claim it is an under $200 custom trike. I could also (if I claimed the hours I spent researching, designing and building it, at $15/hr), claim it is at least a $30,000 custom trike. All any of us has to invest is our time and efforts, in the end. If we count the hours and begrudge their cost, none of us will ever build anything.

 

[perilous]

I must admit I see the Happytime engine as the budget conscious choice, for me the vibrations put me off with 2 strokes in general.

Basing a bike on a quality kit is always going to cost significantly more unless you go the friction drive option and I can appreciate that for some people it's not worth it. If you have a busy routine and free time is worth $$$ it's probably the only way to ensure out of the box reliability.

A few people who have seen my recent build up close have said that it's over engineered and that I have added unnecessary weight etc.... I tend to disagree there are some places where a bit of over kill is worth it to minimise or eliminate a potential point of failure. I'm starting to see that the people who have good success with the HT engine kits appreciate that and only use the kits as a starting point and improve where necessary.

My first MB saw no end of trouble, I had welds fail, broke free sprockets, broke chains, buckled wheels it didn't matter what I did something else would always go wrong. In fact it was such a POS that I got a better quality bike and started all over again. I learn't from my mistakes and the second build was much better and had it not been stolen I never would have built a 3rd, but I'm so glad I did.

I'm sure if Death proof had of persisted he would have got where he wanted to be with it eventually. He definitely should have put it on eBay, I hope he changes his mind and builds another bike, maybe with a GEBE or staton kit next time.

 

[motorpsycho]

Like i said earlier, it's not the type of engine kit that causes the problems most of the time. (yes there are bad engines no matter who you buy from)
It's the lack of knowledge on how to build one right.
you have to learn somewhere and giving up right away isn't the way to learn.
anyone who has done their research should know that these things take tinkering, tuning and some re-engineering to make them right.
sure you can just bolt a kit to a bike right out of the box, but the people who do that, are the ones who claim that ALL engine kits are junk because theirs failed due to incorrect installation.
yes, the bike you use has a lot to do with it as well because if you get a cheap bike, expect it to give you problems at one point or another.
I just love the guys who jump in, buy a cheap bike off the shelf, and throw and engine kit on it and expect it to go 50 mph and to last for 1000 miles.
you not only need to put the engine kit on correctly, and tune it to run right, but you also have to re-build the bike itself before you even start putting the engine on it.

 

[Big Red]

$200 Tadpole?

Hey SimpleSimone, How about some pics?
I built a tadpole even cheaper than that though. I got a go cart frame for $15, took an old goped someone left at my shop and they got married. Chopped the rear off the go cart, chopped the front off the goped and bolted it together. Welded a freewheel sprocket to the goped rear sprocket to hook up the pedal chain. I used a little mermaid kids bike I got for $5 and chopped it up for the pedal frame assembly. It dont pedal worth a s**t but I DONT PEDAL. Of course I added lights later, but the whole build cost me under $50. I will admit that I had a lot of the stuff I needed just laying around the shop, wheels, nuts and bolts, ect. I began with the original 33cc engine that took it all the way to 22mph. I later put a 49cc on it and it's hitting close to 30mph now. I've been riding it for almost 3 years now with no problems except a couple flat tires. SO, put it together right the first time and you wont throw yer bike in the garbage.
Big Red.
Just noticed ya said ya got no camera. So borrow yer neighbors fer a minute. I gotta see yer bike bro.

 

[Big Red]

Luck!

Like i said earlier, it's not the type of engine kit that causes the problems most of the time. (yes there are bad engines no matter who you buy from)
It's the lack of knowledge on how to build one right.
you have to learn somewhere and giving up right away isn't the way to learn.
anyone who has done their research should know that these things take tinkering, tuning and some re-engineering to make them right.
sure you can just bolt a kit to a bike right out of the box, but the people who do that, are the ones who claim that ALL engine kits are junk because theirs failed due to incorrect installation.
yes, the bike you use has a lot to do with it as well because if you get a cheap bike, expect it to give you problems at one point or another.
I just love the guys who jump in, buy a cheap bike off the shelf, and throw and engine kit on it and expect it to go 50 mph and to last for 1000 miles.
you not only need to put the engine kit on correctly, and tune it to run right, but you also have to re-build the bike itself before you even start putting the engine on it.

Then again Moto, A friend of mine bought a kit, just slapped it on quick as he could, and rode it HARD for a year and a half before leaving it in my backyard when he left the country. The engine still ran great but the frame was trashed, so I put the engine on another bike and sold it. Talk about LUCK!!!
Big Red.

 

[graucho]

My opinion only. I know there are mixed feelings. To each his own.
The reason the manufacturers of these P.O.S. motors don't spend an extra 35.00 and make a quality product is because out the 40 people who join this site a week, 36 of them buy these P.O.S. kits. Why change a thing when they know the customer will buy them the way they are and spend their own money to improve them. (Or get so fed up they throw them in the trash) Bad bad business practice in my book. I've been waiting 4 years for changes and am very disappointed in their lack of improvements. For the Newbies out there... Settle down, cut a few corners, stash a few bucks away for a few months and buy a quality kit.
I currently own 2 HT's. Ones a 4 year old orig with 1700 miles on it the other is a "fix or repair daily". Both purchased on the same day. I've bought 5 after that which took a cr@p before 400 miles. (With modifications) Thats around $800 in the toilet. Who's the dumb a$$ there? Never again will I support the China Girl lack of integrity and pride in what they produce.

 

[darwin]

HTs aren't for me but thats a personal choice. I was hoping the OP would see some of your comments and maybe see that they can become dependable and fun.

 

[SimpleSimon]

My neighbor has a camera phone, maybe I'll get him to take a couple of pics. It's just that pictures, to me, are zero priority. I do all my design work in SketchUp, then generate a dimensioned 3D model of each part of the design, then start fabrication. Before I ever apply a tool to metal, I know exactly what I want the end product to be, and can clearly see it in my mind's eye. All of my design work keeps my limitations in mind - I have one hand, with two functional fingers and a thumb, plus what amounts to a pair of bent-nose needle nose pliers for a left hand. I do most things slowly, carefully, by hand - in part because machinery is mostly outside my budget.

Fabricating the trike was mostly hand work, with the help of an electric drill, a Dremel tool, and a welder. Scrap wood for mounting jigs, hand clamps, and patience were a big help.

I'm working on an electric runabout now, with a pair of moped wheels at the rear and an 8" turf wheel and tire at the front. A friend gave me a bunch of 1.25" square tubing he had cluttering his shop, so that will be the frame. Power will be from a commercially built three wheel mobility scooter I inherited (2 hp 24V motor) with six marine sealed gel type SLA batteries which should give it about a 30 mile range at 18 mph. That will be legal on sidewalks, and I'll be able to just ride it into stores. I plan to put a 12V Coleman 40 quart cooler on the rear, so if I purchase items that need to stay cool, they will. I've had that thing for about 10 years now, works great.

Basically, I'm trying to move away from using my pickup for much at all. I rode the trike to church yesterday - it was a big hit with the kids there. My attitude is very straight forward - if I want something and cannot afford a commercially built item, then I'll make it myself. So far, I haven't found a task outside my capabilities, and I've built a lot of things in my life. If I can do it one-handed, then so can anyone else.

 

[Lunardog]

Love your attitude Simon and I agree 100%. **** few things can't be solved with some patience, effort and ingenuity. (Well a little luck never hurts from time to time either)

 

[motorpsycho]

My opinion only. I know there are mixed feelings. To each his own.
The reason the manufacturers of these P.O.S. motors don't spend an extra 35.00 and make a quality product is because out the 40 people who join this site a week, 36 of them buy these P.O.S. kits. Why change a thing when they know the customer will buy them the way they are and spend their own money to improve them. (Or get so fed up they throw them in the trash) Bad bad business practice in my book. I've been waiting 4 years for changes and am very disappointed in their lack of improvements. For the Newbies out there... Settle down, cut a few corners, stash a few bucks away for a few months and buy a quality kit.
I currently own 2 HT's. Ones a 4 year old orig with 1700 miles on it the other is a "fix or repair daily". Both purchased on the same day. I've bought 5 after that which took a cr@p before 400 miles. (With modifications) Thats around $800 in the toilet. Who's the dumb a$$ there? Never again will I support the China Girl lack of integrity and pride in what they produce.

yes, i agree with you on this one.
but think about it this way...why should they make improvements? (to the typical h.t. engine kits)
they know the kits are cheap and that they will break, which opens up the market for spare parts (which are the same low quality).
this is also good for the aftermarket which makes better parts.
they know that people will buy these engine kits because they're cheap, they know that eventually something will break, which will lead people to buy spare parts (more money in the manufacturers pockets).
and then there's the aftermarket who knows the same thing, and that there are people out there looking to improve the engines or build them to make more power.
so in reality, cheap manufactured engines, cheap spare parts and the aftermarket, puts money in a lot of pockets (which is a good thing for them).
if they made quality and reliable engine kits that would last for 10,000 miles, the initial price for a h.t. kit would be 10 times what it is currently. Spare parts inventory and sales would be a lot lower than what it is now.
the aftermarket would still be able to sell parts, but i don't think they'd sell as much if the engines were real high quality (except for the speed parts.)

This is just my opinion, and there is a reason for the cheap, low quality of the h.t. kits....cheap engines, cheap parts, and low quality puts more money in their pockets in the long run.