Popshot- Thanks for the insight. It's been a long time since I got on here trying to research the inns and outs of recumbents and I know you have been at this for quite a while, so your opinions are highly valuable to me. I can see how having a fully suspended machine of any description would necessarily add some weight and complexity. There is no getting around that. And another factor that we all have to consider at some point is that we all age and eventually will not want the wear and tear that a heavier machine would impose on our bodies.
So that being acknowledged, the next obvious step is to go electric.
I'm just guessing, but that change would probably add 20-40 pounds of weight to the frame in some fashion. At least that is what I have seen with the one home brew example that has temporarily crossed my path.
This was in the form of a Hyper Havoc bicycle with a 1000 watt rear wheel motor and a lipo battery that was heavy and mounted high on the rear luggage rack. This made riding fairly risky on the mount and dismount because of the strange center of gravity being so high and far to the rear. I'm sure that the motor in the rear wheel had to weigh 20 pounds and the batttery was about the same. It would have been much better if there was a way to mount the battery down low, but on that small bike (26") aluminum suspension frame, there just was nowhere else to mount such a beast. The battery was approximately 12" long, 8" wide and 10 inches high, almost the same size as a car 12 volt lead acid, and it weighed almost as much.
However, it was powerful and fast, so I did not want to just throw it in the trash bin. I had all but sworn off "wedgie" bikes so I gave it to a friend who fabricates electric wedgies and pretty much had forgotten about it.
In the meantime, I had been minding my own business and tweaking the seat on my own non-electric delta, trying my best to cure my aching arse. The tweaking on the seat frame was s-l-o-w-l-y showing me that there is no substitute for a more laid back seating position regardless of what form the seat base took. Right now the seat base is a foam pad over plywood and this combination is supported inside the chromolly seat frame which is also the backbone of the delta trike, so there is little to no way to get this combination laid back short of getting out the hacksaw and welder, moving the shock mounts and trying again. This is about the third time I have done this, and this last iteration reclined the seat back another 1 3/4" which is starting to make the body weight feel more evenly distributed. I have not had a chance to do any rides with this configuration as yet except for a very short trip to the mailbox, but even that was a big improvement.
As the weather is changing rapidly here in North Idaho, the good riding times are shrinking fast, so I will force myself to brave the cold and get in a more serious test ride as soon as possible.
If that new reclined position is still not enough, I'm just about frustrated enough to start over and build another delta trike frame similar to the Timberwolf just to get the seat I discovered. Like I said before, that sling seat design from the Recycled Recumbents is the ultimate invention of the 20th century! I know that seat works well on a tadpole trike as well as it is also used on the ICE series of tadpole trikes. Of course they have their own aluminum frame, but the shape and size is the same.
Which brings me to another question! Why don't we pool our design talents and build an electric trike that is fully suspended and designed to work with a hub motor? It could be a tadpole or Delta or one of each.
The only issues I see for the designs are where to put the battery and control box. I just have never seen a home brew machine that really addressed those issues and ended up with something that is "if not beautiful- at least not ugly" and uses off the shelf components.
The addition of the battery and motor are not inconsequential and need to be designed in from the very beginning.
