Mk IIIb

     First, pardon the "snow" in the pictures as it was raining slightly at the time.

     First picture is of the frame right after I got it back from the powder coating shop(The Finishing Center).  This is the time I like best as the "beasts" start to come together.  After a bit of the powder coat is cleaned off of a few areas, in turns into a trike with a couple hours worth of assembly.

Frame

     Standard construction and dimensions (for the most part) with this one too.  I was very happy with the Mk IIIa and the only things I wanted to change were the steering arm angles and how I routed the gear change cables.  I lowered the bottom bracket from 16" to 15", and lengthened the boom from 17" to 18".  The handling on this trike is very neutral, has a comfortable weight to it, even though it is initially a little stiff due to bushings being used instead of bike headsets.  A friend test drove it while I rode along beside him and he had no problems and no complaints.

     The steering arms are 3/4" box tube instead of the usual 1" as the owner is not a heavy guy.  On subsequent tikes, I'll raise the steering arms by another 15 degrees and see if it gives as nice of an "open" feel to the cockpit as this one has.

     The trike has the standard mounting tabs at the rear for racks and fenders, as well as the flag tube on the left chain stay.

     Due to the length of the gear cables, especially the rear one, and my dissatisfaction with the drag, I used the same/similar technique as what I'd seen on other bikes.  I used a small piece of stanless steel tubing with a 30 degree bend in it to route the cable instead of running long lengths of drag inducing cable housing.  A short piece of cable housing runs from the shift housing to the frame near the front of the seat, then the bare cable runs all the way back to just in front of the rear drop outs where another small sectiono of housing takes the cable down to the rear derailleur. (Pardon the dirt - just came back from a test ride :))

     The cable runs very freely now, and there is no lag when changing gears.  The cable housing runs are so short, I think there is next to zero influence from housing compression either.  Plus, I got to use the nice, already short, Shimano stencilled cable housings :)

     The same technique of using a small piece of stainless steel tubing was used on the front.  Bent to match the angle of the FD post, and welded to both the post and the boom.  Smooth drag free shifting and the front cable housing is short and only runs from the shifter housing to the cross member.

Seat

     The seat is the same one as on all the flying crosses.

Wheels

     The rear wheel is a 26" aluminum wheel, IRC road tire, an 8 speed cassette and a "Rapid Rise" derailleur.  The front wheels are heavy duty 20" BMX wheels with 48 spokes and 14mm axles.

Misc Hardware

     The paint job is semi-gloss black powder coat.  The chain tube is ½" plastic irrigation pipe with flared ends to help guide the chain and reduce noise.  There's a mounting point for a speedo's wheel sensor on the right front steering arm, and the remote computer is mounted on the chain tube mount.  Twin water bottle mounts are behind the seat, one each side.  Cable lock is mounted on the seat frame.

Specs:

Next time . . .

• raise the steering arms another 15 degrees and go back to 1" box for them to simplify handle bar mounting
• maybe shorten the center frame section by 1" to 2"

more trike info as they are built

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