My 1st recumbent

Joined
Feb 7, 2008
Messages
4,573
Location
Nottinghamshire England
I'm back on track with adjusted pedal height. I may be crazy but the seat seems more comfortable now.
maybe report back on that after 25 miles ;)

Oh and i was wrong, the chain is so dam long that even with full tension it has some slack and even though i tried very hard to give it a straight path, the top chain will need a little assistance to not touch the front fork.
Just need to tweak your terminology here ?

The chain running from the top of the rear cluster to the top of the front chain ring is called the ' power side ' chain
The chain running out from under the rear cluster going to the underside of the front chain ring is called the ' return side ' chain.

Saves the confusion of adding some chain management where they cross causes the top chain to become the bottom chain and the bottom chain becomes the top chain ?

as you say there is considerable tension on the power side and this needs a beefy mount and large diameter pulley/sprocket and a chain keeper to stop the chain being bounced off said pulley/sprocket.
bearings also help in the pulley/sprocket on the power side , the return side can be a simple piece of tubing , black garden water tubing [ in UK ] is perfectly adequate.

Don't do this !!!



They comment in the blog that the upper tubing only lasts a season ! if they had swapped the pulley and tubing round it would have been fine !!!

From the same source a skateboard wheel and notice chain keeper on bottom



both from here Inexpensive recumbent

this is how Pashley did it :-



another good diy example



anyway plenty on the web

by the way this is the hardest part of a SWB recumbent as the chain has to avoid all the hardware and arrive at the back in the right place.

whilst FWD simplifies this problem you made a good choice of avoiding a MBB for your first recumbent , there is a very steep learning curve and some ' normal ' recumbent experience is a great help [ by that I mean miles and miles ] on something like you are building now :sneaky:
 
Joined
Feb 3, 2017
Messages
102
Location
australia
maybe report back on that after 25 miles ;)

power side beefy mount and a chain keeper

Don't do this !!!

...avoiding a MBB...
😅I don't know if I'll be doing 25 miles on this bike in its lifetime. As this project comes together (and falls apart) i don't think I'll trust this bike for getting from A to B.

Thanks for the terminology. But it seems to work fine with just a 'slack catcher' locator for the powerside chain. I made this:

derailer wheels and spacers. In testing only the powerside jumped off the wheel, but im using a crappy damaged chain, and it lands on a free-spinning spacer anyway so looks like this will work fine.

I'm all for cheap n easy but that taped on hose is awful haha.

I'm up to test riding my bike today and yeah it is...a new feeling. I'm thinking about FWD for a trike maybe.

The pedals falling off was a new feeling too. I hadn't put in the boom brace and my welding is bad, but i wonder if it might be because i was using galvinized or stainless steel or something for the front boom. I assume it doesn't weld to regular steel as nicely.
 
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Joined
Oct 19, 2012
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2,384
Location
Wakefield, UK
Both galvanized and stainless should attach to mild steel perfectly well. Be aware that fumes from welding galvanized steel are quite toxic and deadly in sufficient volume. I've welded the odd bit of galvanized in a well ventilated area and haven't died yet but I wouldn't make a habit of it.
 
Joined
Feb 3, 2017
Messages
102
Location
australia
Well, i had the paint out for a different project today so i couldn't resist. Ive done the 2nd front boom and put on a kickstand now. Still need to sort ass padding, weld on the bottom bracket 😅, backrest supports, chair L brackets... and maybe that's all.

Hard to take a good photo because of the afternoon sun, but here is the fake finished product:
 
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Joined
Feb 3, 2017
Messages
102
Location
australia
A nice looking ride, came together quick!
If you can get a photo of you riding it, it would be great to put this in the next newsletter.
Thanks. I'll see what i can do, I'd have to get my hair done and geez what would i wear!? ...Also i think i really have to finish a couple of things on the bike first. When's the deadline?
 
Joined
Feb 3, 2017
Messages
102
Location
australia
If my nephew asks anyone where his kickboard is, you saw nothing.

I needed some padding, my posture corrector wasn't working for me.

Anyway the kickboard is a bit firm so i tried to make it a bit better, but i dunno if i really did anything.

I covered the seat with material from a tshirt i barely ever wear. It's not weather proof or anything, but as I've said before, this bike is more for novelty than transport. It looked so wrong when i painted it but still had a faded green kickboard glued to a worn skateboard.
I finally welded on the BB (i had it just bolted on for testing)

So... i think.. I'm finished.. for now?
It was a good project. Zero cost i think, (unless you count welding rods) which i always aim for. And i used up some stuff from my bike/junk pile that may get binned soon! Oh and i finished this within weeks of beginning!! Really proud of myself for pulling the trigger and starting and then sticking with it constantly and consistantly. I still have another bike project to finish from years ago sitting around.
It's a nice (free) first taste of a recumbent bike. It gives me some more idea of how to plan a better one if i want to.
This one's seat was a complicated equation (but always better than the torture i get from an upright bike seat). i hate buying things i can make, but a quality seat might be worth the cost in the future.
My heels hit the front tyre only if i pedal with the balls of my feet, and this is more than annoying to have to work around, its okay on this bike because i can pedal with the arch of my foot on the pedal and clear, but next time no comprising, i want total clearance (probably trike or fwd).
The handlebars bump into my stomach with very sharp steering (what a way to find out I'm fat), i could shorten them pretty easily but i don't think that'll totaly fix it, it'd just make the bars too short for non-sharp steering. I'm not interested in a full handlebars redesign so suck it in.

I hope others got/get something out of my build log, even if only some mild curiosity. Thanks for all the comments n tips.
 
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