Revamping one of my deltas

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I,ve decided to revamp my enclosed blue delta. For a few reasons. One is the itch to build has been .. well building up again. The blue delta uses fat tires that I thought would be good for snow and they were OK but the reality is any snow deeper than a few inches is pretty much impossible. Where they do shine is mud and sand but I try to avoid those places. And it turns out that fat tires are quite soft and wear out quickly when used as street tires on a heavy trike. So with the increased rolling resistance and it's weight it is a power hog. It is E assist and I do carry 2 batteries each 17.5 AH so that means I can ride almost everywhere in my city Winnipeg but it's still a power hog. It is 8' long as well. Taking a good long look at it I think it can be shortened by around 2 feet. I have acquired 2 mountain bikes with 26" wheels so there will be quite a weight saving by going from 26" fat tires to "normal" bike tires. Losing about 2' of the length and all the body panels and plexiglass should lop off some more excess weight. First step over the next week will be to remove the body panels.
 
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Nice looking forward to the pictures.
 
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A bit of a mix really. Overhead roof and front windshield frame slanting down to the front, think egg shaped. The sides where my door is currently will be left open. No full enclosure where the rider sits. I was going to shorten the frame but the wheelbase gives it very stable handling especially at speed so still thinking on that. The rear will be open as well. One thing that will definitely be modified is the rear track width. It is going to be narrowed to fit between the bollards that are on many of our bike paths. So far the body panels have been removed and set in storage and the body framework was removed in one piece yesterday. Next step is to remove the Bafang motor and all wires/cables. I did take a photo but will will put up 2 old ones that show where it was before bodywork removal and what it looks like now while it still has the fat tires.
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Well, looking at the second picture tells me the front can be shortened by at least 6 inches. I will simply cut the upright angled piece off the main boom and move it back and then reweld it closer to the pedals. Then remove the fat forks/wheel combo and install my 26" wheel instead. Then slowly over the next couple weeks work my way to the rear area.
 
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One thing that will definitely be modified is the rear track width. It is going to be narrowed to fit between the bollards that are on many of our bike paths.
Hugh

Whats it going from and to ?

What's your seat height looks to be about 18" ?

regards Paul
 
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Right on the money re seat height, it's 18 1/2". The track now is roughly 36" and I,m aiming for under 29". The boat seat is slated to be gifted to a friend who actually has a boat so a new seat is in the works as well. And Emiel I like the fat tire look as well but they are impractical for much street use. They will be set aside for another future build. Assuming I stay healthy of course.
 
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It gits great with that bike, but I understand why you switch.
All the changes make that it will ride different.
 
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Right on the money re seat height, it's 18 1/2". The track now is roughly 36" and I,m aiming for under 29".
This of course depends on your riding ? where you ride and at what speed ?

My Python has 28" between the tyre centres and an <>8" seat height ! however I have lots of tight corners to go around and aim to ride @ 10mph on the flat and anything up to 25 mph when gravity assisted 😁

Canting the wheels inwards a bit can move the centre of the axle inwards also , that will make the trike narrower at the axle for a given track:-



However the down side to attempting this is that unless both axles are at exactly 90' to the central boom you will introduce either toe in or toe out , both undesirable on the rear of a delta as they sap power.

It will NOT increase cornering speeds ! only an increase in track can do that.

Paul
 
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Miscdotgeek the answer is space. Where you live you get lot's of rain. Where i live it's cold and snow. Sometimes in mid winter it can go as low as 40 below, usually only for a few days thankfully. Plus snow that falls in say November stays till March. So to deal with that my detached garage is insulated and heated with electric heat all winter. My car has been banished from the single vehicle garage and roughly 1/4 of it is devoted to an HO scale model railroad. The rest is bicycles and trikes. An 8' long trike takes up quite a bit of room. As I write this my Aurora trike is standing upright in the corner to minimize it's footprint, my wife's bike is in the basement on a cycle trainer for exercise reasons leaving my fatbike and the soon to be modified delta with room to move around. Paul the Aurora fulfills my need for speed in corners the blue delta is going to be my longer distance cruiser. I tend to travel around 20 kph on the flat roads and am quite comfortable slowing down in corners so as not to tip over.
 
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A quick update. The mid drive motor has been removed and it and all of it's components are set aside in a box. The body panels are removed and set aside as well. Much of what I felt was necessary bracing at the rear has also been cut off. Turned out that was mostly overbuilding, something I often do. A drivetrain change is in order as well. On it's way is a geared rear hub motor that will be placed on the right side. The jackshaft system will be retained and it moves power from the center over to the left side. This will give me 2 wheel drive. Pictures to follow in time.
 
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Got my hub motor yesterday delivered by the brown truck guy's. The fat tire's and all their components have been removed. I've started to cut up the 2 donor mountain bikes. It's definitely winter here now but we are having a mild spell so later today I will take the 2 mountain bike rear triangles outside to finish the cutting and grind off some of the paint. That way I can keep the dust level in the garage down a little.
 
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It's been a while but I finally set up the delta frame on stands outside to remove unnecessary parts, clean up welds etc. It was/is a nice mild day, only around 10 below celcius so about 3 hours time was needed which included a couple short warm ups in the garage. From this point forward any work done to the frame will bring it a step closed to being useable and since its only mid Dec theres lots of time.


 
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Actually Popshot it felt like a nice spring day here today. Considering its mid December we only have maybe 10 more weeks of this. Now we just need a couple more feet of snow
 
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Well yesterday and today it got down to minus 35 celcius. Thankfully over the next couple days the temp is supposed to go up to around 10 below. So other than household duties I've been in the garage a bit working on the trike. All 3 wheels have new tubes and Continental tires mounted. The driveline is a 2 piece affair, from the pedals to the jackshaft and then from the other side of the jackshaft to the 5 speed rear. The steering rod is hooked up and the initial steps to install brake and shift cables have begun. That will prob take a week or more then work will be undertaken to connect the wiring for the rear geared hub motor. Once spring arrives and a test ride is possible I will find out if my 2wd concept is viable. If it works and does not cause any odd handling great. If the handling is not good then the motor will be switched over to the left side. Time will tell. I will post up a picture in the next couple days showing the progress.
 
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Hugh

For many years I owned and rode a Hase Kettwiesel trike , probably the worlds best selling Delta trike , all the early ones were sold with a single drive wheel on the ride [ as sat on the trike ].

This caused to effects:-

a) minor annoyance it could not be ridden hands free [ unlike the Python ] on most surfaces the trike had a drift away from the driven wheel , so needing mild corrections all the time.

b) more annoying [ however rarer ] was when going up a steep hill as the front wheel unloaded it would lift of the ground and skip again away from the driven wheel. This was relatively safe in the UK as driving on the lesft the trike skipped to the right into the verge and not into the traffic stream. Generally when it was that steep/bad it was better/safer to be walking anyway ?

good luck Paul

ps strewth -35c I bitch when it is +10c
 
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