Jon's Warrior Build

[JonHylands]

Hi everyone, new to the forum and bike building in general, although I've been building stuff (either with my hands or on a computer) since I was a kid (a long time ago). I decided to build a Warrior because I like the look, it seems reasonably straight-forward, and I have enough money available that I don't have to use junker parts for the most part.

I'm using 14 guage square tubing, since I currently weight a bit over 300. I've ordered most of the parts, and received some of them, still waiting for the rest. I've started welding the frame, and I'm working on the steering parts right now. Since my real job is doing software development, and I build robots as a hobby, I'm very interested in building some kind of a simple dashboard with a small display showing interesting things. I might just end up writing an app for my phone instead, we'll see what happens.

Here's the back forks, welded...

Next up is setting up to weld the seat tube:

Seat tube and a bit more welded:

Frame with back tire installed:

Misc. steering parts, including a crazy-big (and yes, its heavy too) M20 bolt:

I'll continue to update as I go, hopefully I'll have it more or less usable in a month or two.

 

[stormbird]

Great progress and nice looking welds

It would be a good idea to triangulate the rear fork legs with your current weight ?

in the past there have been some reports of failures at the junction of the fork legs and the rear frame.

regards Paul

 

[JonHylands]

Yeah, I've been thinking about doing something like that. Thanks for the heads up though. I'm also thinking about other areas that could use a little reinforcement.

 

[Hugh]

One spot I added bracing to was a few inches from the rear axle to the seat back tube. I used a couple chainstays cut from an old bike frame. Another was 2 triangular gussets at the bottom of the seat back tube. I,m only 200 lbs but was running a 500 watt rear hub motor which put quite a bit of strain on the frame.

 

[maddox]

Battlebot robots?

 

[JonHylands]

Definitely not. Those are radio controller cars on steroids. I build autonomous robots - you can see some on my YouTube channel (just search for my name).

 

[maddox]

Seems you look down on Battlebots. But the describtion is apt.

 

[JonHylands]

Naw, it's just a little joke I use. I think battlebots are really cool - it takes a lot of effort and skill to build something that doesn't fall apart at the first whack.

 

[JonHylands]

So I wanted LH/RH thread rod ends for the tie rod and the steering rod. I started looking online, and almost everything was shipping from China.

I finally found a quasi-local place (Bearings Canada) that sold a set of four (with 2 LH and 2 RH) for $32 CAD, so I sprung for those. Right hand M8 nuts are easy to find (Home Depot has them), but hardly anyone has left hand M8. I finally found a place in Kitchener (called Spaenaur) that sells them, and has them in stock. Box of 100 RH M8, $7.92. Box of 100 LH M8, $20.55... Oh well, better than waiting for a month for stuff from China.

So, if anyone in Canada needs a few LH M8 nuts for their trike, let me know, and I'll slip them in the mail.

 

[DannyC]

Wow!
My local e-bay place sell LH/RH M8's in low Qty's
I have a fair few, could have sent you a pair + spares.

 

[JonHylands]

It would take a long time and quite a few dollars to send from England to here.... I'm planning on eventually building two or three trikes, so I needed a bunch of them myself.

Thanks for the offer though!

 

[JonHylands]

Working on the seat and seat mounting - decided to do some work in CAD first, before I commit to cutting and welding. I want a slightly adjustable backrest, but it needs to be fairly strong and sturdy given my weight.

The bottom of the seat back will be hinged, and the top adjuster will allow a few different offsets, from almost nothing up to about five inches.

My phone camera focused on the wrong thing, but this is half the bottom seat back bracket, cut and welded to the frame. The seat will be made from a nice piece of 11.5mm Birch plywood (basically the nicest stuff they had at Home Depot). Right now I've got a piece of crap waferboard cut out so I can experiment with different sizes/shapes - once I'm happy, I'll cut the shape out of my piece of birch. At $25 for a 2' x 4' piece, its too expensive to mess with. The seat back frame is welded together from 1" square tubing (16 gauge wall), with threaded inserts welded in place.

Once I get the other side bracket welded in place, I'll attach the seat back frame, and it will hopefully be much clearer. I want to bolt the seat back frame in place, rather than welding it, so I can remove the seat back while I'm working on the trike frame.

 

[Popshot]

Your adjustable seat design adds a fair bit of extra weight.

 

[JonHylands]

Yes indeed it does. So does the fact that I am something like 100 lbs overweight. Right now, I'm not really concerned about adding a bit of extra weight to the trike. If and when I get my body down to a reasonable weight, then I will build a new frame and pay a lot more attention to weight. That's the thing I love about building a trike - you can just move all the expensive components over to a new frame...

 

[DannyC]

5" of travel is

Yes indeed it does. So does the fact that I am something like 100 lbs overweight. Right now, I'm not really concerned about adding a bit of extra weight to the trike. If and when I get my body down to a reasonable weight, then I will build a new frame and pay a lot more attention to weight. That's the thing I love about building a trike - you can just move all the expensive components over to a new frame...

I'm totally with you in this regard Jon. I have dropped about 40# so far this year and being a "weight-weenie" on my builds has been the least of my concerns.
Get it made and ride it like you stole it to burn that weight off!

 

[stormbird]

I have ridden a warrior built by someone else to Brads plans , the seat was slightly problematic ?

There was almost no roll of the trike when it cornered , so you rolled instead ! Brad's seat design has no side support and so you are struggling to stay on the seat when cornering ?

i have 3 of these seat's can you see that there are side supports to stop you rolling off the seat ? my back problems also require ' some ' lumber support hence the blue camping mat cushion

 

[JonHylands]

Yeah, I haven't decided yet what the seatback padding will look like. I've been considering using some styrofoam to shape it, and then covering that with some thin foam for padding. Not sure yet, and of course I'll see how it ends up working in practice.

 

[JonHylands]

I finished up the seat back mount, at least welding the second cross-piece in place, and drilling and tapping a couple 1/4-20 holes to hold the hinge down. The outer holes will be held in place with a machine screw and a nylock nut instead of tapping the holes, since there is only a few threads holding in the 0.085" wall thickness tube.

I cut, drilled, and shaped the two 6" long straps (1/8" thick x 1" wide) that will form the adjustment for the seat back - next up is to drill holes in the seat back frame and mount them (with 1/4" spacers to bring them out level with the side of the 1.5" chassis tube). I plan on bolting them at the top, and using an easily removable pin of some kind on the chassis tube.

 

[JonHylands]

Here you can see the seat back frame, installed with the straps mentioned in the last post.

Here's a close up on the straps with the retaining pin (I'll be drilling more holes in the straps eventually to give some adjustment):

And here's the seat bottom support, welded in place:

I ground the top welds flat, since the seat bottom will be supported there.

Next up is drilling the holes for the seat bottom.

 

[SirJoey]

Man, I'm lovin' the adjustable seat back! That's the hot setup!
If I ever get to build this one, I'd do the same thing, or else modify the frame,
cuz I like a seat angle of about 45 degrees. That's just my personal preference, YMMV.
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