| Prior
to some frame mods, I built a quick under-seat box to carry a few items when I
used the python as a commuter. It was made out of three pieces of coroplast,
and zip tied together, and to the main backbone and the seat support. I
originally planned to open the right side by loosening some laces so I could load
my gear from the right side. After some more thought, I decided to put a
quick release on the rear seat support and simply raise the seat to load my gear.
It was much faster and worked perfectly. Not
long after this picture, I had a high speed wipe-out and after that, there wasn't
too much, from the pivot back, that still "worked perfectly" :) Amazingly,
the little coroplast box was still pretty much mint, but I had to rebuild the
rear end of the bent, so the old box would no longer fit. | |
| So,
fastforward about a week, and the new bent rear end is built. I started
by using a couple pieces of coroplast to build the front/lower storage section
that would also support the sides. The base is about 6" wide and 10"
long, and the front and rear sections slope up and out to roughly meet the edges
of the seat, at 14" wide total. The plan was, to build the entire thing
out of green coroplast to match the seat, 'cuz I'm ALL about aesthetics. Unfortunately,
it turned out hat I was "all about" not having enough green, and the
store was "all about" being closed at the time, so I had to make the
tailbox red instead. C'est la . . . coroplast. | |
| The piece
to the right will slip over the top of the rear wheel in the shape of an inverted
U, will connect to the front section, and form the insides of the rear/upper storage.
The square hole was cut so the seat support would go through and connect
to the seat. I will tilt the seat up to load this tailbox too. I used
a machinist's awl to poke the zip tie holes, and a utility knife to cut the panels.
Poke the holes from the outside in, becuase the coroplast turns white around
the holesand that way the white stretched areas will be hidden on the inside. |
|
| The
U-shaped piece is zip tied to the front section and I cut one side of the coroplast
so that it would form a neat, relatively sharp 90 degree corner where I wanted
to bend it. At this point, I should mention it makes it much easier if you
take a little time to plan what you want to do and orient the hollow "grain"
of the coroplast so it runs parallel to any long bends you need/want to make.
Also, when zip tieing the panels together, whenever possible, try to get
the zip tie around one of the coroplast's little "walls" that form the
sides of the internal hollow tubes. The plastic is actually fairly tough
and pretty rigid once you get the zip ties around these little compartment "walls".
If you just use the upper and lower skins of the coroplast instead of hooking
a "wall" too, the zip ties will likely pull loose eventually by ripping
the plastic skin. So, for the green front piece I oriented the grain perpendicular
to the bent's center line so I could bend the corners. The rear section
had the grain running fore and aft, again, so I could make nice neat bends. Confusing
enough?? Excellent! Onward then! :) | |
| These two
panels are the sides of the tailbox. The grain is running parallel to their
long side because I'll be putting a small bend in them to make the transition
from angling up to meet the seat base, and then later to running even with the
seat's side. More on that in a bit . . . | |
| Here, the
sides are zip tied on to the lower front section. I added small rectangular
pieces to form the floor of the upper rear storage sections that are about 3"
x 12", but they are hidden behind the side panels at this point. When
I was lining up the side panels initially, I found that two XL coffee cups were
exactly the right height to hold the panels in the right spot so I could quickly
trace the contour of the seat frame. Here, the tailbox is looking rather
Batman-esque, but I planned to have a rounded rear end to form the rear part of
the fender and tailbox. |  |
| This is
the final shape of the tailbox's rear end. I thought that the rounded look
fit the python better than the Batman-style-ear-looking-thing. You can see
the line running down the side of the tailbox where the angled lower section gets
bent, and then goes straight up, in line with the sides of the seat, as mentioned.
That bend line was why I didn't choose to bring the sides of the tailbox
back to a nice point behind the rear wheel. Trying to do that would have
flexed the tail box sides in all kinds of ways and would have produced some fairly
hideous "pregnant guppy" bulges in the side panels. Another thing
I was trying to accomplish with this tailbox, was that I wanted to be able to
lift the entire tailbox off the bent, without having to disassemble it. The
last piece left to put on is the top of the tailbox that will curve down and to
the rear, forming both the top and the rear part of the fender and hold the sides
together. I used a 26" rim to produce the radius on the side panels. |  |
| Here's
the completed tailbox. I used about three 24" x 48" pieces of
coroplast, with a bunch of off-cuts left over. The top section was zip tied
at the front, and as I bent it down and over the back, I used my lovely wife's
hair dryer to soften the coroplast so it would bend easier. The grain for
the top piece runs from side to side because I doubt I would have been able to
bend it against the grain, even with a hair dryer. You can see the upper
rear storage sections, and the opening in the middle will be closed off with a
small piece of coroplast. The whole thing mounts and dismounts by simly
undoing the quick releases on the seat. I used three zip ties around the
lower front frame of the python to hold the front of the tailbox down. The
rear section is tight enough that it holds itself in place with no rattling or
vibration at all. |  |
| The completed
tailbox is mounted on the bent. The only thing left to do now is trim the
bottom of the side panels a bit. I want to get access to the quick release
on the 20" rear wheel, so instead of the bottom edge being parallel to the
ground, it will angle up and to the rear, slightly. |  |
| The tailbox
is trimmed and zip tied onto the bent. I'll go get some red duct tape and
run some tape along the edges to clean up the joint and hide some of the zip ties.
You can see the zip tie pattern of the inner structure. Sort of looks
like a Frankentailbox. I could have done something cool and aero with the
front of the lower section, but that would have actually required some ability,
so it is the way it is :) | |
| Overall,
I'm pretty happy with my first official tailbox. It holds more than what
I wanted it to, it's quiet and gives the bent a sort of retro look, I think. I
might see if I can't paint it black to match the rest of the bent. If the
paint isn't sticking well, I'll make new sides nad top out of either green or
black to make it match better. Total cost was maybe $20 Cdn in coroplast
and maybe about 70 small zip ties. It's much stiffer than I thought it would
be, and it's lighter than a fender, rack and saddle bags combined. I think
I'll be making a few more. Last thing
to do is mount a tail light and run a flag mount out the back for visibility. |
| I spray
painted a scrap of coroplast, and the paint seemed to stick really well to it,
so I decided to do the whole thing. I used flat black so it would hide repair
touch-ups better than the gloss black. I access the storage by undoing a
quick release on the seat back and simply hinge the seat up. I've got a
little over 100km with it now, and there is no drumming, or rattling and it's
only held on with 2 zip ties. Very happy with it. |
|
|
| Catrike
Speed's Tailbox 14 July 2006 I
finished building a new tailbox for my Catrike Speed. While aero benefits
were a bit more of a consideration than with the python, #1 was storage, then
fender functionality, and lastly aerodynamics. After installing the tailbox,
my friend on his Python
said he got just about nothing anymore while drafting me. I still need to
tape some yarn to it to do a little ad-hoc tuft testing and see how it's performing.
A little notch was cut in the edge of the lid to allow the flag pole to
exit. Full details here. |
|
| |
|
Raptor
74 Tailbox 10 May 2008 Tailbox
time for the Raptor so I don't need to ride the highracer with the backpack and
I don't need to cram everything in the Speed's tailbox (which is getting too small).
Plus, the Raptor is so much faster than both the other two bents. So,
criteria: - Must have more room than Speed's box and the old Python's
box
- Obviously, must act as rear fender
- I want it
to come out to shoulder/elbow width and see if it'll provide a little better aero
profile while giving me the extra space that I wanted for point #1
First
things first and I need the supplies in the form of my pile of coroplast (~6mm)
and a thousand zip ties, little ones. The coroplast amounts to two 4' x
8' sheets plus some smaller odds 'n sods. | |
I
used two pieces of .040" 2024 AL and bolted them to the tops of the chainstays
using the tabs I included during bike fabrication. I'm going to use the
homemade anchor nuts and the ¼" thumbscrews so the tailbox will go
on and off without any tools or tailbox disassembly. I welded ¼"
nuts to some small pieces of 1/16" mild steel, and will rivet those to the
underside of the AL plates once I decide where the hold-down bolts for the tailbox
need to be. 
| |
Basic
height and width of tailbox front. Bottom edges will be trimmed in later
when a better idea of the final shape is reached. The width and height is
equal to my shoulders while the lower area where it starts to angle in is where
my elbows are. | |
| Cargo
area floor pieces. They're sitting on the AL plates right now, but I'll
screw them down when it's finished. |  |
| The
cargo floor pieces also form the shape of the tailbox sides. I got the arc
by simply bending a piece of coroplast and tracing the curve. I'll have
a flat back on the box to limit the length for transport ease. | |
| The
inner cargo walls and top section form the fender. It's tall enough to clear
the top of the tire by about an inch. I plan to use the opening at the front
of the fender as a type of lock for the front of the top so I only need one fastener
at the back of the lid to keep it down. We'll see how that goes :) | |
| This
is where things get a little dodgy. The side panel was trimmed to roughly
match the contour of the seat sides, and I'm running it back and clamping it so
I can find out where I need to trim the lower skirt. I think I can manage
to make the side sections out of one piece with a pie shaped cut to let it form
the curve and meet at the rear end. | |
| | |
| |
|
| There
will definitely be more tailboxes, and hopefully some nose fairings, splitter
plates and maybe even a full body or two. Details when they are built .
. . |
