| Black Max This
is going to be my effort to produce a purpose built performance trike. While
some of the other trikes I've built are fast too, they weren't built with speed
in mind, so I'm going to naively assume that if I actually INTEND to build a trike
for speed, I should get a little bit of a performance boost over the normal trikes
like the 20/20 Heavy. If all goes well, it'll be the prototype for the "Black
Max V", my coroplast velomobile. The main frame design will pretty
much mirror the 20/20 Heavy because it's a nice tight frame, but it'll have a
few small tweaks to it. The vast majority of the "improvements"
or tweaks will not involve spending extra money, rather they will involve just
paying attention to a few details that I haven't made a priority in other builds.
Such as . . . - the main frame rails will be stretched about 2".
This will allow me to lay the seat back to about the 25º mark which
is more than far enough to get a better aero profile, but not so far as to hamper
power output too much.
- I have some 406 aero profile 48 spoke wheels with
14mm axles and some really nice sealed bearings that my lovely wife bought for
me about 4 years ago for Xmas. I have been waiting for he right project
to use them on and this is the project.
- I am up in the air yet over whether
to use horizontal direct steering arms with modified brakes or a center flip-up
tiller with indirect steering. I will need some form of bulldozer-type steering
or a central tiller in the velo version anyway, so I'll likely go that route but
I am loathe to add all that extra pivoting junk.
- I salvaged some old high
quality LH and RH threaded ball joints and will use those to absolutely fine tune
the toe-in setting. According to roll-out and CRR test by John Tetz on his
trike, frame flex putting the toe-in settings out of whack was a big contributor
to rolling resistance. With my usual dual RH threaded rod ends, I am limited
to about 1/8" accuracy which may or may not be good enough, but I'll use
the paired ones to dial it in right to the Nth degree on this baby :)
- tweak
the boom design so the right hand top tube is offset to the left about an inch.
This will allow me to run the chain down and under the cross member where
I can put a single, large pulley with good bearings and clean up the chain line
as much as possible. I'll also use a ¾" lower tube instead of
the ½" I normally use to give it a little more stiffness to compensate
(hopefully) for the offset boom tube.
- Lastly, I'll lower the BB a little
to try to keep the front end lower to the deck in anticipation of the velo version.
I'll also be adding a number of tabs at the back to help mount a more streamlined
coro tailbox than the other two I've made.
Weight?
Not worried about it. For my available supplies, cost and equipment, I'll
be happy with my standard ~40lb trike weight. Hills and acceleration will
be dealt with by getting stronger, losing some "insulation" and making
sure that I ride smart on race courses and pay attention to the lines. I
do not doubt the ability of one of my trikes to keep up with any commercially
produced "race trike" out there. I just hope the engine is up
to the task :) For now, I'll continue to slowly
collect the last few parts I need, and finish up the current 20/20 S. I
should be able to start the trike just before Xmas '07 if all goes to plan. The
Reprise  Dec
'07?? Wow! Anyway, in the period of time from thence until now, with a few very
minor projects in there, I have been thinking about the ultimate trike. While
a tadpole is fine, fun, stable in high speed corners (relatively speaking), while
racing my Speed, and since, I have come to a few decisions/conclusions. First,
I have been a fan of Paul Sims' tilting delta for a long time and is the model
for the rear end of the tilting Python I made. The tilt function worked great,
but afterwards, I decided that for all the effort, what was the point of making
a trike that tilts for normal use? Why not just make a two wheeler instead
that is lighter, cheaper and faster? It's a position I still hold. BUT!! If I
was to build a trike and aim it specifically for racing, but which could also
be used for commutes and general ride buffoonery, no that's a different kettle
of fish. In that case, I would definitely resurrect a tilting delta design, try
to rearrange the wheels in a more efficient manner, and my reasons would be as
follows.
1) All tadpoles plow. That's because of a little thing called "slip
angle". In non-engineer terms, when you corner on a tadpole, the force of
cornering pushes the trike sideways while the the steering is turned trying to
force it in another direction. The difference between where you are steering the
trike and where the trike is actually going, is called the "slip angle".
Obviously, a tire sliding sideways (even a little) scrubs speed and is generally
not a good thing when all you've got to work with is about one third of a screaming
horsepower. There is also the issue of toe-in and to a lesser extent, Ackerman
compensation. 2) Aerodynamics. A tadpole, and to a certain extent, even
conventional deltas are not very aero when compared to their two wheeled brethren. Whether
it's two wheels out front, or two wheels to the rear, they stick out wider than
shoulder width and cause more drag. Additionally, with the exception of 2 or 3
designs, trikes of any flavour have a seat that is much more upright than the
vast majority of racier two wheeled bents. And lastly . .
3)
Camber thrust. One of the race trikes out there has cambered front wheels, the
SLR. While the concept of cambered wheels has a number of functions, I imagine
the primary function on the SLR is to increase the track without adding to frame
width. Adding to traction is a moot point unless the tire has a square profile,
which bike tires do not. The side effect to cambered wheels, especially on a trike,
is that a cambered or tilted wheel wants to turn in the direction it is leaned.
From axle to the point it touches the ground, the inside of the contact patch
is actually a smaller radius than the outside of the contact patch. As a smaller
wheel turns faster at the same speed than a larger wheel, that means that the
inside of the contact patch is trying to turn faster than the outside, but it
can't. So, the tire drags, and is pulled to the inside, in an arc, just like riding
a boat and dragging one oar in the water while rowing with the other. Even going
straight, both wheels are dragging and fighting all the time. The left wheel wants
to turn right and the right wheel wants to turn left. That's why trikes and velos
with cambered wheels exhibit such crazy tire wear patterns. Even the best trike
geometry still causes these tires to drag a little, and that too scrubs speed.
So
what does all this have to do with my new and improved Black Max? Simple,
it's going to address these shortcomings, and in the process, (hopefully) totally
rock! :) 1) Slip angle. Two wheel bikes have slip angle too, but it is much
less than a trike because the lateral force that pushes a trike sideways can be
redirected by leaning into a corner. The redirected lateral forces can be used
to push down on the contact patch and actually increase traction, and in that
way, the amount the tire slides sideways is reduced. So, a tilting delta trike
not only reduces the number of steered wheels from two to one, but it will also
lean into the corner, so it can take advantage of two wheeled cornering characteristics. 2)
Aerodynamics. The front end of the tilting delta will look much like any two wheeled
lowracer. It will be FWD, have a low BB height, a low seat angle and the rear
wheels will be tucked in behind the seat, narrower than shoulder width. "Hold
on there!", one might think, "that's going to be unstable - a trike
with a narrow track!?!?" Read the fine print - TILTING TRIKE. So, the CoG
is moving to the inside of a turn, plus it's tilting, so it's not unstable like
a "normal" trike, delta OR tadpole. Additionally, the narrow track should
help when I go to put a tailbox or complete fairing on it. Oh yeah, baby . . . 3)
Camber thrust. None of the wheels will have camber on the new trike, so let's
get that out of the way. Where camber thrust comes into the picture and actually
HELPS my new trike, is because as the trike corners, and leans into the corner,
and the front wheel turns, camber thrust actually HELPS the trike turn, instead
of fighting it. Camber thrust helps any two wheeler turn as well. Additionally,
the two rear wheels don't need to worry about plowing or understeer because they
too are getting a little help from camber thrust and are just following the front
wheel through the turn. So, that's it. Class is over. Recess time. Go warm
up your coffee, or cool down your beer. On to the build.
| 4 Feb 09 So,
nothing fancy here. Plain old mild steel, box tube, 1½" x .063"
wall. The rear end pieces are not in this picture yet as I want to make
sure the frame is riding where I intended. | | After
such a long hiatus, I was concerned my welding skills might not be up to snuff
AND I was using a new welding gas that meant I had to tweak the MIG settings a
little. I got a little more wire on it than I would have liked, but I wanted
to make sure the penetration was there. I can always grind the excess off.
The fork jig worked great, the forks came out good and square, but a little
wider than I would have liked. Minor issue though and after cleanup, I'm
happy with them. I still need to add the disc brake boss on the left leg
and the derailleur tab on the right. I had to slice and put a kink in the
left leg to clear the 180mm rotor, and a kink in the right leg down near the dropout
so that it would clear the 11T sprocket. So, I know what you're thinking,
"What's with the 180mm disc??" The idea is, I'll be ripping along
SOO fast that a standard 160mm rotor will not be sufficient to slow me down. I
am also more than willing to install a drogue chute if necessary. 4½
hours into the build so far. 
| | | | 5
Feb 09 A pre-threaded shell was added to the
boom using my boom jig. I'll sort out the FD post once I get the rings made
and installed. The FD post angle will change depending on the chainring
size, unless I mod the FD cage and lengthen it. | | There
is the whole front end welded up. I left about 1.25" space around the
front wheel because I don't know how much the downtube will flex with my fat butt
on it, and I don't know how much the longer boom will flex. The idea was
to get the BB out and down so that I could lower the seat to the NoCom level,
but still hide my body in the wind shadow of the pedal box. 7½ hours
into the build. The biggest time sink is cleaning up the beads a little. | | | | | 6
Feb 09 Not being sure whether I actually need
to add gussets to the top and bottom of the downtube or not, I might as well play
it safe and just add them. Those two joints are pulling my fat butt and
the rest of the trike down the road, so better safe than sorry. I'll need
to clean up the beads a little as my finesse level has definitely dropped. Or
maybe it's just my interest in cosmetics . . . | | I
managed to salvage some small bits off the old trike, like the tie-rod arms, head
tube, etc, and fabricated the axle assemblies. It was sort of slow going
because I needed to make sure the wheels would end up as close to parallel as
possible fore and aft. I can tweak the tops and bottoms in and out with
the tie-rods, but the fore aft is pretty much a lock after welding. I wanted
a track that was narrow enough to fit behind my shoulders and be in my wind shadow,
so I wanted the track somewhere in the 17 to 18" range. Narrow, but
it tilts so I'm not concerned about relying on it not to tip over in corners.
I took a friend's advice (Larry) who suggested clamping the wheels to a
piece of angle iron because the "V" groove will automatically align
the rims. Worked like a charm and with careful, small tacks, but lots of
them, I managed to get the wheels less than 1/32" out of parallel. The
tie-rods will point down, and the tie-rod arms are made out of ½"
x .063" square mild steel. The cross members are 1¼" x
.063" square mild steel because the larger dimensions work out to about 60%
stronger than 1" that I used before. 2 more
hours for a total of 9½ total. | | | | | 8
Feb 09 Over Sat and Sun I got a fair amount
accomplished, but a lot of bead cleanup as well. Lots of little fiddly things,
but I did get the mounts installed for the front disc caliper on the 180mm disc.
Maybe a little better view of the contours of the fork.. | | | To
the right is a side view of the beast. It's long, low and narrow. The
specs are listed below. The quick numbers are the BB is 4" lower and
2½" further forward than on the Raptor 74. I did that so the
seat could be lowered and laid back, but it moves me forward to try to minimize
the wheelbase. The frame is dropped 5" and is now 5" off the deck.
The seat to BB distance is theoretically increased by 1" from the Raptor,
but I'll know for sure when I get the seat built tomorrow and laid back to the
~20º I want. In a test-sit on it, I think I can lay out as much as
I planned to more maximum aero effect. With the 140mm cranks and seat on,
I'll know for sure. | | | To
the right, you can see the extent of the narrowness. Prime consideration
was that the tailbox (and possibly future fairing) I'm putting on this one (or
its clone) will be widest at my shoulders, and then start tapering back towards
the end. I don't want a long box/fairing on it and plan to lop it off in
accordance to the Kamm
effect (roughly :)). So, the plan is to immediately start bringing the
tail back at about 12º of slope on each side, and when the tailbox gets to
about 12" wide, she's getting the axe. I should also be bringing the
top down towards the ground at the same time, but that depends on my skill with
the coroplast. | | The
business end. Tie-rod posts are mounted but the rods will be made tomorrow.
The axles will lead the pivots because the tie-rod arms need to be lined
up left to right. The middle tie-rod post is mounted to the frame, while
the wheel posts are mounted to the axle housings. The hi-ten steel steerer
tube needs to be trimmed now that I've cut the thread back so it only needs to
be about 3½" long. As a note for future projects, I should have
gotten 2 front calipers and one rear, instead of 3 fronts. At this time
of year though, choice is limited so the one caliper post is a little long, BUT,
it has a bunch of cool lightening holes instead. The posts are mounted down
below (where they could be damaged) because I wanted to maximize storage space
behind the seat. The idea is that the wheels will stay roughly parallel
to the sides of the tailbox, so I should be able to keep the box close, and make
wheel wells around the wheels to act as the tailbox inner side panels. Again,
that's the theory. 6 more hours to the total,
which makes it 15½ hours. | | | | | 9
Feb 09 Made some satisfying progress, but
not a lot visually. I made the tie-rod ends and used ¼" high
grade heim joints for the ends. I have no doubts about their ability to
take the forces. To the right is also a bit of a close-up of the brake caliper
bracket. A rear bracket on that side (the left rear) would have meant a
smaller bracket, but it still works well and the BB5s are smooth and controlled.
Very easy to line up. | | |
This shows the tilting action of the rear end. With
only the front seat brackets on, the rear wheels look like they'll line up quite
nicely with sides of my projected tailbox. I just may need to put some small
lateral slots for the tie-rod posts to come through the bottom. It'll definitely
have a tilt lock, but that is a consideration for after I get the seat finished,
then the handlebars, and then the chain idler. Work out the details on the
seat, then controls and then make sure the pulley isn't in the way of my right
leg. I'll put the tilt lock on when I do the stop. | | The
seat is made and the front seat mounts are on. Once the rear mounts are
on, I'll put the seat mesh on and see where I need to put the holes in the frame.
I have to shorten the Truvativ cranks too. I am undecided as to whether
I'm going to make them 140 or 135mm. After the cranks are made, I'll mount
the chain idler, and then I can run a test chain and see what kind of angle I
need for the offset of the elliptical rings. Slow, careful steps, and I
shouldn't screw too many things up :) Up to 18 hours. | | | | | 10
Feb 09 Tonight I didn't get as much time on
it as I would have liked, but I managed to get the upper seat brackets welded
on, I welded the derailleur hangar on the fork and rearranged the 9 speed cassette
as planned. I bought a few extra sprockets so that I'm running 11T to 17T in single
steps, and then a 21T and 28T for the last two. I spend the majority of
my time in the smaller sprockets anyway, so I want to keep the gear jumps as small
as possible to increase the chances I'll hit the sweet spot regardless of the
gear I'm in. The 1 tooth steps combined with the 66/63/38T triple up front
mean the two big rings (where I'll spend most of my time) will allow me to half
step the gear changes down to a 3 to 5% gear inch change instead of a 7 to 9%
change. Might not seem like a big deal to some, but when you start getting
into the 60T+ rings, even a single tooth change at the cassette means a big gear
inch jump at the wheel. With my creaky knees, the bigger rings make that
a painful jump at times. The seat mesh is also done using scraps of black
and yellow that I had. 2 more hours for a total of 20. | | | | | 12
Feb 09 Spent all last night trying to get
a security camera working, but it was busted and refused to cooperate, so back
she went for a newer, better one. Tonight, I managed to get the seat squared
away and the mesh punched and laced onto the seat. The seat is just about
perfect for position and angle. I mounted up the 135mm Truvativ Isoflow
cranks I just shortened so that I could get an idea of fit and heel - RD clearance.
Right now, it looks/feels close. Once the chain is on, the RD will
be in a different orientation and may not be an issue, but I have to wait for
that until I get the chain pulley made and the chainrings. If it looks like
I might inadvertently hit it with my heel, I'll just cut the boom at its rear
joint and start by raising it an inch. That will lift it, and move it forward
so I should get double the action for my effort. 22 hours total now. | | | | | 13
Feb 09 Next on the list is the chain pulley.
With that made, I can figure out how high and how far forward it needs to
be so it both clears the back of the right fork leg and the inside of my right
thigh clears it. I have a 24T and 32T sprocket as leftovers from my cassette
adjustment so I have decided to use them for the idler pulley. I some 10mm
sealed bearings and machined two AL adapters. Each adapter has 2 bearings
pressed into them with ~.125" spacer between the bearings. The centre
hole of the sprocket slides over the 'hub" of the adapter and I will use
the small holes in the sprocket to screw it to a flange on the adapter. I'll
use a thin piece of .040" or .050" AL sheet to mount to the other side
of the flange. The AL disc will act as both leg shield and chain guide to
keep the chain on the pulley. I made the flange .150" thick so that
the disc will already be spaced so allow for the chain. I don't think I'll
need a piece on the inside of the pulley. The 2nd adapter is for the lowracer
that I need to make next, so one way or the other, both spare sprockets will get
used. | | To
the right are the start of the chainrings. It's a 62/59/34 triple with 12%
ovality and a 5º offset. I knocked half the teeth off them because I
don't think they need more than half the teeth, and I don't think I need to file
and shape and more than half the teeth :) The lines of ¼" holes
are to show me where the long axis is. Sometimes I have a hard time seeing
them because I'm old the offset is pretty subtle on these ones and I don't
want to get it backwards. I have to cut out the centre holes and shape the
teeth yet, but I don't think I'll put any lightening holes in them, at least not
yet. Some of the hard-core guys are taking their chainrings and trying to
actually fill IN the holes in their rings. Ha HA! Just had a funny
mental picture there :) Anyway, I'm not sure what the aero benefit would
be, but I think I'll leave them solid for the time as they are only .090"
thick and fairly light. I can always drill holes in them later and someone
clever (like Jim or Larry . hint hint . .) could make me some trick CF covers
to close the holes back up. I imagine I'll likely cut holes later once I
come up with some lame very cool pattern. :) Oh, and yes Virginia,
the red marks are actually blood. I hack myself up pretty much every time
I make rings. I liken it to putting a bit of myself into/onto the project. 25
hours total. | | | | | 1
Mar 09 Was busy with another project for a
few days, so ol' blacky had to sit tight. I mounted the tilt lock brake
caliper. It's an extra BB5 I had, so that makes a total of 4 of those babies
on this trike :) The handlebar is going to be freakin' busy - hope there's
room. Anyway, I have an extra rotor that I cut down and I'll weld some mounts
to the crossmember and mount the rotor. I have a locking brake lever that
will control the tilt lock. It's entirely possible that I didn't think enough
about all the details and that tilt lock caliper is going to be in the way of
something. There will be lots of wheel well clearance in the tailbox so
there should be ample room. I guess we'll see though. |  | |
It was possible that in certain gears, I would
get heel strike on the RD. Last thing I want to do is inadvertently hoof
it off the bike, so I notched the top bead on the boom and raised it up. I
was aiming for an inch and got an inch and a bit. No heel strike issues
now. Sweet :) I also tacked the power and return side pulleys in place.
The power side pulley is up and back far enough to minimize chain deflection
and the desire to derail all the time. It is also spaced pretty much in
the centre of the cassette - where I plan to spend the most time. I anticipate
making a small Al chainguard that keeps the chain off my inner thigh when I'm
in 8th and 9th gear. The return side pulley is made from HMDP with two 8mm
sealed bearings. It's also spaced out so it's pretty much over the centre
of the cassette. There was another idea I
had on the power side pulley. FWDs I've ridden tend to all pull to the
left because the chain is off to the right of the steering axis. The pull
of the chain makes the wheel want to rotate to the left. Not a lot, not
uncomfortable, and very manageable, but it still pulls. Put the power pulley
in front of the headtube and now on top of the chain wanting to rotate the forks,
it also pulls the right side of the fork forward. Makes it want to go left
even more. Get the power pulley just behind the headtube and the chain pulls
along the same angle as the headtube, so left-turn is minimized. NOW, move
the chain pulley further back and the chain wants to pull the fork backwards and
turn right, but at the same time the pull on the chain wants to make the fork
still rotate to the left. In theory of course, if you I get the pulley
in the right spot, maybe/hopefully/possibly the forces will cancel each other
out. I still have the front wheel offset to the left by 1/8" too, so
we'll see how it all works out in the end. 4 more hours for a total of 29. |  | | | | 3
Mar 09 Tonight on the chopping block was the
headrest and the handlebars. I'm using some AL handlebars that didn't work
for another project, and chopped down a steel handlebar stem to mount the handlebars
to. There will be a bolt that can be turned to adjust the ride height of
the bars. The top brake is for the tilt lock. The two Avid levers
are for the brakes. I'll make a splitter for the rear lever so it pulls
both rear brakes at once. I wanted to use MTB trigger shifters but they
take up a lot of room and real estate is tight on the bars, so I'll go with some
small twist shifters instead. That leaves room for my speedo and HRM on
the bars. If/when I add a nose fairing, I can adjust the bar height as needed
as well as raise the back of the seat so I can see something closer than about
40' away. |  | |
'Ol blacky is starting to look like a bent, no?
:) Pretty happy with it so far. Trying to make such an extreme rig
means you sort of have to go slow and really keep track of things or I start running
into glitches. One of which was the heel strike, but that's solved. The
next was to make sure I could adequately see over the bars and stem, which seems
to be OK. Lots of room for my knees and the hands seem to be in a comfortable
position similar to my other bents. The headrest worked much better than
I hoped it would. Very simple. I just took some small EMT and bent
it into a "C" shape, and got it right the first time. NOT! I
only had to cut off a small piece to get it to fit :) I made two small AL
adapters that went from the small EMT ID, to the big EMT ID. I pounded them
into the C tube, but won't pound them into the seat just yet . . just in case.
I'll drill some holes front to back and bolt through the EMT and adapters
to keep them together permanently when I'm ready for paint and final assembly.
The headrest is 6" above the top of the seat with a small piece of
foam pipe insulation in the middle. I have to drop my head back about 1"
or so from vertical, which was sort of what I was aiming for when I need to stand
the seat up a little to see over the nose fairing. The headrest sits extremely
comfortable right at the bottom of my pumpkin, where it meets my spine (or where
my dear wifey says it should be . . ), or, if you are a WWF fan, somewhere in
the vicinity of my posterior occipital lobe. I can tweak the comfort zone
by adding or removing foam and I made sure it's low enough to not cause grief
with the bottom of my helmet. 2 more hours, up to 31. Might even be
able to test ride it for the weekend. |  | | | | 7
Mar 09 Well, I've been slowly plugging away
at it over the last few days. At this stage, progress is painfully slow
and barely noticeable. I hate this part of the building. I just want
it to be over so I can ride it. Anyway, the trike is rideable - it was just
raining all day so I couldn't take it out. I did however manage to get it
on the rollers and try everything out. The tilt lock works really well and
locks it up tight using just a simple old friction shifter. My single-to-dual
brake setup for the rear also works like a charm. The FD and RD are working
great and not tossing the chain, but the rollers are a poor test for a FWD. Even
worse of a test for a tilting FWD delta. Even with the rear wheels locked,
it still dragged my wheel stirrups all over the place and the front wheel was
seeking left and right really badly. This doesn't make me worry about the
trike performance because my pythons, the other FWD delta I made and the Nitro
all handled badly on rollers and the experience was more work than fun. I'll
see if I can mod my trainer to take a 20" front wheel. Should be fairly easy
to do for training. Anyhoo, I have a couple
small tabs I need to add to support the future tailbox. I have a couple
tabs I need to add to the right fork leg to mount a small AL chain shield for
my leg, and I have a mental picture for the nose fairing I want to build for the
trike for Calvin's
Challenge but I need to check on what kind of PVC fitting I'll use to fasten
the hinge and fairing to the front end. After that, I'll know where to mount
the tabs. To the right is a close up of the
tilt lock. It's got a BB5 disc caliper and an old centre lock disc that
I chopped up a bit. I've also laid out the holes for the 20º seat angle
I want to use, as well as a 30º seat back angle for use with the nose fairing.
I'll make some 4" seat back extensions out of AL to raise the seat
back, and maybe add holes for 25º too, just in case. I also added a
fatter piece of foam (pool noodle) for the 20º position and it holds my head
up a little higher in a little better position, I think. Amazingly, so far,
the trike is coming in about where the normal weights are for my tadpoles, and
I thought it was going to be a little heavier. About 7 more hours for a
total of 38, and hopefully a test ride first thing. | 
| | | | 8
Mar 09 No real change as far as appearance
goes. First thing, I took it for a test ride. Starting out was sort
of shaky because I couldn't decide if I should start like a trike or start like
a lowracer. I decided to just get going and then knock the tilt lock off,
and not worry about it. That worked the best. So,
first impressions were that the drive pulley wasn't out far enough, but only by
about 1/8". I came back and fixed that with an extra flat washer. The
first couple rides were different so I forgot to relax and use the headrest, so
I went out using the headrest. I just needed to check one thing at a time
because there are a lot of things that feel new. Brakes worked well front
and rear, but the thin fork gives a little braking feedback in the form of a vibration
because the front disc has holes in it. It doesn't bother me, just an observation.
The one thing that was really noticeable was the torque steer. I moved
the chain pulley back to try to balance the left turn effect, and now I had a
fairly pronounced right turn effect. So much so, that I questioned my ability
to hammer really hard on it. Back to the shop. I
took a small piece of 1" x .25" flat steel and drilled a hole in the
centre. I welded this on the front of the current chain pulley mounting
tab in the hopes of moving the pulley forward enough to minimize the torque steer.
I also drilled all the extra holes for the seat locations and made two small
4" Al extensions for the seat back. With no extensions, the seat back
is 20º and with the extensions, there are two holes for 25º and 30º.
That is to give me front fairing options for later. With the seat
set at 25º for testing, and the pulley moved, out I went again. Wow.
Fast, smooth and the headrest felt great too. With all the other little
things taking my attention, I was hoping that I wouldn't have some kind of "draggy"
feel once those were sorted out. No drag at all. I was amazed how
smooth it felt and how fast it went so easily. Now, this might just be first-ride-affection,
so I need to finish up the last few tabs, get it painted, install the proper HMDP
bushings, tighten everything up, and THEN see how she runs. It corners really
well too. I can do a U-turn on the road no problem and all I have to do
is get used to how much and how hard I can turn before pushing out the front wheel.
It doesn't feel like a trike until I put on the tilt lock. I also
bought a few PVC fittings to make sure I can test fit the front fairing pivot
so I'll know how and where to make the mounting tabs on the frame. 42 hours
total. | | | 18
Mar 09 Not much going on with the Black Max.
Finally got all the rest of the tabs on it and it's ready to be torn down
for paint. A friend of mine stopped by and no build is complete until he
gives things a test drive first. I was going to move the seat up, but he
said don't bother so he slide his butt forward. I think he's about 4'8"
5'8" tall but he doesn't mind stretching out on most of his bents either.
I'm waiting for him to send me the pictures of his finished lowracer too.
Anyway, the ride look smooth and on the way by, the frame looks like its
parallel to the ground, which was what I wanted. It was good to see him
again, and he gave the trike a thumbs up (not entirely because I was holding his
car keys and wallet either) so I think the trike is a keeper. About 45 hours
now. 
| | | | 28
Mar 09 So, the trike has been pretty much
completely disassembled and all the bits and pieces are being painted. I
should have the seat and main frame painted on Tues, and then it's reassembly
time. I'll make the wheel discs, which should be a fairly
fast process now, and get them painted flat black. I would use the spandex
again, but I want to make completely sure that the air bleeding in and out of
the spoke space is minimized, so I'm going with plastic. I'll just be smarter
with the valve holes this time. Below is a small selection of parts that
are hanging up and drying. 
The
last thing I took off was the front fork and wheel, because I wanted to get the
tabs on and make the front fairing hinge point. I'm strongly copying Lee
Wakefield's design and from the description, what I think he did for
the front hinge. Lee's coro fairing is to the right. He has made a number
of fairings, including the one I also pretty much copied for the Raptor 74. He
also made a red streamliner fairing for his trike, which was absolutely brilliant.
The way I figure it, his stuff is so clean (IMONSHO) even if I get close,
I'll be happy. So, based on the description on his listing, I think he made
a hinge something like the one I made, to the right. Nothing
fancy, I used PVC plumbing pipe, a couple T's and a 45º elbow and mounted
it to the bottom of the boom using (currently) two ¼' bolts. I can
switch them out to quick releases from a seat later though. The T section
at the bottom is the business end. A small diameter piece of PVC pipe slides
through it, is nice and tight ,and that small piece will stick out a little on
either side through holes in a coroplast box section, and will act as the hinge
pin. I'll use a couple spring clips to hold the PVC hinge pin in place so
it's easy to remove the front fairing when I want. I mounted the hinge much
lower to the ground than Lee did, because I am much lower to the ground. Also,
I won't have to lift the fairing as much to get into it and you can see where
the BB is directly above it, so I'm thinking hoping wishing that
there will be sufficient clearance between the bottom of the nose and the ground.
The PVC is pretty tough and should take minimal loading, but if something
does happen and it breaks, it's easy enough to replace/repair. Also, If
I do it right, my nose and future tail fairing will mate nicely, like Lee's does. | | | | 6
Apr 09 After about 4 hours of fabricating
plastic wheel discs, like these,
and then another 3 hours of assembly, it pretty much looks like this now. The
paint job is really lousy due to lack of adult involvement the paint probably
being frozen one too many times in my partially heated garage. The paint
wouldn't hide very well, it went on like water and there are a few sags in it
too. I'll likely powder coat it this fall after all the racing and riding
is done. Some things I'm not happy with: - front
wheel discs and inner left rear. When tightening the zip ties, sometimes
things go slightly askew. That definitely happened with the inner left rear
one, and partially to the front left. I just need to tighten up the right
front one, definitely make a new rear one and hopefully can just tighten up the
left front.
- The small AL chain guard. I added this as I felt my
inner thigh might touch the chain in the higher gears. Once I get this thing
on the trainer (until the freakin' snow clears) I'll see how much of an issue
this is. I might move the top bracket up and make a longer guard.
- The
large and middle rings are too close in size. I wasn't aware of this, but
there is a minimum size difference as well as a maximum, in order for a FD to
work properly. Right now, the 59 and 62 are too close in size and the FD
cage sits up against the side of the 59T and doesn't let the chain get up on the
62. Somehow I got it to work prior to tear down, but I can't find that sweet
spot now. I think I'll hit the gear calculators, make a new mid ring in
the high 40's, promote the middle ring to outer, and save the 62 for another project.
Aside
from that, I'm pretty happy with it and hopefully can take care of the little
details this weekend. If I don't get the new ring made, it still works fine
on the middle and small. I'll take some more detailed photos later with
final measurements. | | | The
rear view of the tilt lock shows the BB5 caliper and the chopped up, and extra,
disc brake rotor I had kicking around. Turns out, I could have just trimmed
the rotor half down to the area where the caliper could grab it when the trike
is upright. No point in it being able to grab the disc when the trike is
tilted unless I park it on a crazy incline. | | To
the right is the dual pull brake set up. I could have used the dual pull
brake lever but I liked the Avid ones so decided to convert the single pull into
a dual pull by connecting the 2 rear brake cables to a centre pull cable bridge.
The pull feels a little heavier, which is to be expected, but it still has
enough power to apply the brakes. Completely by accident Cleverly,
the two-into-one setup also equalizes the pressure on each brake caliper. Sweet.
Also in the picture is the rear set bracket. It has holes for 30,
25 and 20º seat back angles. 20º is for when I'm putting my thang
down in ultra-lowracer mode. 25º is for when it's in superstock/commuter
mode with the tailbox. 30º is for when I get the nose cone on it just
in case I won't be able to see out the front at 25º. | | | | | 27
Apr 09 On the 25th and 26th was the first
HPRA
race at Indianapolis. Day one was a flat lap race for the trikes and
velodrome racing, and day 2 was a road race. On both days, the trike worked
excellently. Due to the issue with the large ring, I was stuck using the
middle ring for all the racing so the acceleration was not as crisp as I would
like, but after I got going, the trike worked very well. One other thing
I discovered was that the tilt lock caliper ended up being a tilt stop on hard
and fast left turns. This was a little problematic on a couple corners in
the one lap race, so the chances are pretty good that I'll remove the tilt lock
all together because the HMDP bushings are more than sticky enough to hold the
trike upright and I really doubt, now, that I'll ever use or need the tilt lock
on hills or while riding. That's good. Lighter, and simpler. The
trike was pretty fast, considerably faster than any tadpole I've ridden and it
was really evident in the racing that I could maintain much of my speed through
the sweepers while the other trikers had to slow and lean heavily. I managed
to win all the trike races over the weekend, and also had a pretty good 200m time,
which was comparable to some of the faster two wheelers on lowracers. On
smooth sweepers I could feel the rear end very gently trying to slide, so it appears
the rear end is a little light. I can shorten the frame a couple inches
to help redo the weight a little, but I'll leave that for the next trike. Another
thing that was evident was that the chain's return side is interfering with the
top of the tire to the extent that one test rider ran over the chain on a hard
right turn and tore the RD off. Not good, but not terminal and the racing
was all done anyway. Come to think of it, I don't remember why I mounted
the return side pulley so low. At some point there was some conflict with
the upper and lower chains on the small chainring, but not anymore, so . . . .
?? Calvin's
Challenge is coming up next Sat in Ohio so I need to straighten the RD hangar
and replace the RD. I also need to finish up the tailbox and get it mounted.
The work is quite doable to be ready by Friday. | | | | | 4
May 09 So, I got the new SRAM 5 RD mounted,
the hangar straightened out . . . mostly, and installed the 48T middle ring and
promoted the old 59T ring to the large ring. Turns out, the hangar was more
than just twisted, it is also bent out to the right about 1/8th of an inch. Just
enough so that the RD won't shift all the way to the big sprocket on the cassette.
I didn't have time, and didn't want to take the chance, of trying to straighten
the hangar before Calvin's and possibly snapping it off, so I rode with 6 of the
9 gears. The route had a few hills on it but not enough for me to have to
stop and push the trike up the hills, but it was close :) To
the right is the trike with the tailbox fitted. It has quite a bit of room
in a large rectangular pocket right up the middle. 4 small wing nuts hold
the tailbox down to the frame tabs, same as the Raptor 74, so it can be installed
and removed in less than a minute. I have a bidon on each side, at the front,
down beside the seat, and there is storage for a large water bladder inside at
the front. I only needed to stop once every three hours to top up my fluids.
The tailbox sides just clear the wheels when the trike is vertical and I
can grind the bottom edges on the ground a bit on hard, fast turns :) Fun,
but a little disconcerting the first couple times it happened. Once
at Calivin's, all bombed up and ready, the trike,tailbox, fluids and gear likely
weighed in somewhere around the 60 to 65 lb range. I'll have to weigh it.
It wasn't a big deal at first, but the roads were pretty rough in places,
and the weight plus the hills plus the lack of low gear meant the hills and course
were getting pretty challenging as the day wore on. The picture to the right
is likely on the 2nd 50 mile loop. I know this because I am on the granny
ring at the front. I didn't need to use the granny on the first 50 mile
lap, and I took the gray shirt off for my third 50 mile lap. Nice deductive
reasoning, wot? :) Anyway, even with the gearing issues, the trike worked
admirably and I managed to set a new trike record at 185 miles. If I did
it again, I'd lose the tailbox and make a smaller, lighter container to hold my
goodies. A ride write up is here. | 
| | | | 3
June 09 Time to fix a couple small glitches.
First things first, move the chain idler up and out of the way so the return
side doesn't have nasty meetings with the tire anymore. At one point, like
I said, I thought the two chain lines would hit each other when I was on the small
chainring. Apparently, I was wildly mistaken because after I moved it up
above the boom, it worked like a charm. After moving that, I flattened,
straightened and reinforced the RD mount. It got busted up good and needed
some love, and now, it works like a charm and I get all the cassette gears again.
Next glitch was to get rid of a little bit of play in the power side idler
that allowed the idler to be slightly canted forward and down which grated on
the chain and my nerves. I used a 10mm bolt instead of a 3/8" bolt
and the problem was fixed. I also rechecked the alignment with the chainrings
and the FD and made sure all 27 gears were doing what I expected them to. They
do. | | | Next
was the tilt lock. First, the caliper prevented me from cornering fully
to the left, and the tilt lock was basically un-needed except for when the trike
was parked. I decided to get rid of the tilt lock and just tighten up the
tilt bushings a little so there was a little stiction to help keep it upright.
I pulled the caliper, cut off the caliper mounts, pulled the cable, took
the chopped disc off and removed the friction shifter that controlled the tilt
lock. If there's a problem with it tipping over too often, I'll just put
a kick stand on it. Imagine that, a trike that needs a kick stand :) A
few paint touchups here and there on the front and back, and she's ready to rock
and roll. Official test run will be the Ride
For Heart 2009 in Toronto. | | | | | 8
Jun 09 The Ride for Heart 2009 went off without
a hitch. The Black Max worked like a charm. Rolled smooth, shifted great.
Very happy with it. Takes a load off my mind with the Northbrook
and Kenosha HPRA races coming up. I really should be making sure I get
lots of seat time on the Max as that's the best way to make sure I am ready -
train on what you race. It's a pretty busy time, so I'll just ride hard
on whatever I ride and see how it goes in the races. More on the Ride For
Heart here. | | | | | 20
Jun 09 Northbrook IL and Kenosha WI HPRA racing
was a blast. A good time was had by all, and some great, close racing was done
too. A dude named Dennis Grelk also showed up with a tilter and he was wicked
fast on it. I had to draft him the whole race and only managed to pass him
on the last lap in an all-out sprint that nearly put me in vapor lock. Pictures
and results are here. | | | | | 25
Jul 09 The first Ford Human Powered Challenge
was held at the Ford proving grounds in Romeo MI from the 17th to the 19th of
July. Some of the fastest riders from all over the world, and some of the
most unique vehicles you could imagine were in attendance. I hurt my achillies
tendon in June, and it still wasn't recovered enough to do much of any racing
at all, so my plans for some good 200m, 1km, 1 hour and metric century races was
pretty much hosed. Met lots of new people though and multiple new world
speed records were set. Cool event and I'll go back home and try to get
healed up. Event results are here. | | | | | 20
Aug 09 Last weekend, I went to the HPRA race
in North Manchester IN. To the right is the aerial view of the .36 mile
course. The start/finish line is on the right side of the picture and we
raced clockwise. Weather was blazingly hot and the course was set up around
a highschool with a very nice, new pavement to race on. I was fresh, the
day got hot fast, and on the first 1 lap sprint, Iover-cooked corner #2, lowsided
the trike into the grass, took out a barricade, one spectator (sorry Rena!), trashed
my bike shorts and gave myself some really excellent road rash on my right butt
cheek. Aside from a little dust, the trike was ok and after a 2nd run, where
I was still a little skittish, I managed a 2nd place finish. A little while
later, I overcooked the same corner on the last lap of the superstock race, and
went down again on the same butt cheek and elbow, and now the shorts were TOTALLY
hosed (they just had a small hole before). Right after that was lunch, so
I went back to the hotel and had a quick shower to try to wipe out all the dirt
and get some new bike shorts. After lunch,
about 3/4 of the way through a 30 min TT on the trike, coming into corner #4,
I must have dozed off or something, overcooked the corner and was heading for
a HUGE curb. I managed to grab the brakes and get the trike mostly sideways
but hammered my left thigh into the top edge of the curb at well over 30kph. Wow
. . . extreme pain, but I managed to mostly save the trike. My eyes were
closed and I was laying in the grass in extreme pain and I didn't want to open
my eyes because I was SURE I had broken my thigh in half. I had also managed
to jam the handlebar end into my ribs and knock the wind out of myself. A
good thing actually that I couldn't breathe, because if I could have, I would
have been screaming and crying like a little girl. I opened my eyes, and
there was no blood, my thigh still looked relatively whole, and there were no
bones sticking out anywhere. Cool. I figured I had just given myself
the worlds's worst Charley horse. By this time, people started running over
to see if I was ok, but still being a little rattled, I was thinking they were
going to yell at me and tell me to get my trike the hell off the corner!
While I was laying there convulsing, I looked over at the trike to take a quick
assessment on what I had destroyed on it. There it was, gently leaning up
against the huge curb that I had just nailed, and all that I had done was scrape
some paint off the left fork leg, break teh zip ties that were holding the computer
sensor on the fork, and bent the disc rotor. Nothing else appeared destroyed.
Awesome. After what seemed like an eternity,
but likely only 2 or 3 minutes, I tucked the speedo pick-up out of the way after
limping back over to the trike, gently sat down on it and got my left leg back
up on the pedals. I figured I'd just try to ride slow and ride the Charley
horse off. I managed to finish the race in 5th, but my leg was feeling pretty
sore and starting to stiffen up and swell. I had to bow out of the final
trike race for the day, but over night, it felt a little better teh next day,
even though it had swelled up more. I managed to do the last two races of
the event, and then home I came. Turned out I had badly injured the muscles
on the side of my thigh and there had been a lot of internal bleeding. After
about a week of rest I could slowly start to pedal again because the muscle felt
fine, it was just this huge pocket of blood bouncing around that really hurt if
I moved too fast. I fixed the computer, put a new rotor on and in a couple
weeks I was back to riding and training again. | | | | |
The specs are the following:
| | Stock | Superstock |
| Length: | 82" | |
| Height: | | | | Track: | 17" | |
| Width: | | |
| Wheelbase: | 53" | |
| Seat height: | 9½" | |
| BB height: | 18½" | |
| Ground clearance: | 5" | |
| Headtube angle: | 72º | |
| Trail: | 1" | |
| Seat angle: | 20º (adjustable) | 25º |
| Weight: | 42lbs | |
| Front wheel: | M475 36H disc hub,
Alex DR13 451 rim, 180mm rotor w/Stelvio & 9 spd cass | |
| Rear wheels: | M475 32h disc hub,
Alex AL-VP15F 451 rim, 160mm rotor w/Stelvio | |
| Gear inches: | | |
| Weight bias: | | |
Main |
