New project trike

[Mussels]

I've been away from pedelecs for a while as I stopped commuting by bike but now I'm back with an interesting project, I know little about its condition and hope to pick it up at the weekend. This will be fun, I wonder what the electrics on a 20 year old trike will be like. I think it is a TGA Tri-Shopper.

 

[D8ve]

Welcome back.
Dead lead acid cells are almost guaranteed.
Lithium batteries make for a lighter bike.
Personally I don't like the upright trike at all. Make sure the brakes are good and slow down for any change of direction.

 

[Mussels]

It's for my wife as she has MS and can't balance well on two wheels, she wants to join in when I go riding with the kids although she won't be coming down any singletrack with us.
The aim is to get it running with car batteries I already have, flog the mobility scooter and use the proceeds to build a battery out of 18650 cells and buy the charger. I'm hoping the bike bits are easy enough to upgrade and if it needs new electrics at least the frame has mounting points for a crank drive kit. The trike is costing £58 so I expect the total build to come well under the price of a cheap new electric trike.

 

[grldtnr]

As D8ve said, conventional trikes wander all over the place, if the missus hasn't ridden a bike ,she might have a chance in controlling it, but I have seen experienced cyclist trying to ride an upright trike ,they end up in the hedge mainly!

Trike are very hard to ' learn', better if one hasn't ridden in many years, recumbent 'tadpole' trikes are more forgiving,but if wifey has MS ,I can't imagine a recumbent would help.

Good luck with that trike.

 

[anotherkiwi]

There are upright tadpole trikes but not at £58...

 

[timidtom]

I've been away from pedelecs for a while as I stopped commuting by bike but now I'm back with an interesting project, I know little about its condition and hope to pick it up at the weekend. This will be fun, I wonder what the electrics on a 20 year old trike will be like. I think it is a TGA Tri-Shopper.
View attachment 14759

It's for my wife as she has MS and can't balance well on two wheels, she wants to join in when I go riding with the kids although she won't be coming down any singletrack with us.
The aim is to get it running with car batteries I already have, flog the mobility scooter and use the proceeds to build a battery out of 18650 cells and buy the charger. I'm hoping the bike bits are easy enough to upgrade and if it needs new electrics at least the frame has mounting points for a crank drive kit. The trike is costing £58 so I expect the total build to come well under the price of a cheap new electric trike.

 

[grldtnr]

There are upright tadpole trikes but not at £58...

True! But I am not sure 2 wheels on the front with a high CG is any difference to the other way, I do own a recumbent 'tadpole' trike ,tremendously ridable fun...but for £ 58 worth a pop. If nothing else it will be a useful trike for the OP to do the shopping with.

 

[anotherkiwi]

True! But I am not sure 2 wheels on the front with a high CG is any difference to the other way, I do own a recumbent 'tadpole' trike ,tremendously ridable fun...but for £ 58 worth a pop. If nothing else it will be a useful trike for the OP to do the shopping with.

Short answer: Physics. When you corner the weight is carried to the front outside wheel. When you don't have one you fall over. When you do have one in most casses the rear wheel will lose traction and slide before you go over the front outside wheel. With a high CG tadpole it will be easier to lift the inside front wheel but people with disabilities don't usually feel comfortable at the speed required to do so, often not even in a straight line.

Yes I have seen the photos of the very fit young people in tadpole trikes lifting the inside wheel but they are going at speeds well beyond those most normal people would be comfortable with in a corner.

 

[Mussels]

I suspect she will ride it far slower than I would, when I've been on motorised trikes before I found leaning into the corner and counter-steering worked well. I doubt this one has a locked diff so trying my method may end in pain, I'll probably not resist the temptation to find out.
I expect the brakes will be my first job as this area is very hilly and I don't fancy the discussion after she can't stop in time for the car/hedge/wall. The forks have lost most of the chrome so they need stripping and painting and I'm expecting most of the parts that make it go to need work as well. I'm hoping my bike stand will hold it and not too many parts are imperial.

 

[grldtnr]

Recumbent 'tadpole' trikes can do more than lift wheels,,3 wheel drifts round corners, riding along the straight on two wheels, if disc brakes on front, you can lift the back wheel & pirouette round, then there's riding on ice!

I miss being able to ride the trike to extremes, but be able to do shows how safe these machines are.

 

[Mussels]

OK, picked the trike up and it's in better condition than I expected. The previous owner had a bash at getting it roadworthy and paid for a couple of bits to be done, although one of the rear wheels is decidedly wobbly considering he paid Halfords to true them. He also had a bike mechanic get it running and service the motor, so I bought a pair of golf buggy batteries (wow they're heavy but they will do for now) and the go part of the bike works very well apart from the gear stops being way off. It's also more stable than I expected, I managed to corner quick enough to make the inside rear wheel lift and it didn't dump me on the pavement.
Unfortunately the stop part is not so good, the front drum brake probably works as well as it ever did but the back drum does nothing. The back is integrated into the freewheel and welded to the axle so I think replacing it for a new drum brake isn't going to happen, I'm amazed I even saw these new on eBay. Once I'm confident of the l/h r/h thread arrangement in the rear I'll have a go at pulling it apart as it may only need adjusting.
The chrome has almost completely peeled off the front forks so rather than try to renovate them I'm searching for 1" threaded fork with disk caliper mounting points, if needed that will leave me with a spare wheel with a drum brake that I could maybe use on the back. That's the first big job on the list, time to go hunting parts.

 

[Mussels]

I was impressed I managed to find unsprung forks with V-brake and disk brake fittings, that solves the rear brake issue as I can have two on the front. I found a wheel with a disk rotor and rims for v-brakes so all set.
They both arrived today but some idiot has dropped the forks, when I tighten the wheel nuts the wheel goes out of line.

 

[Mussels]

Progress made - forks and brakes fitted and working, I have a trike that can be ridden.
Now I've ridden it I have discovered the chain comes off easily when changing into 1st gear, I can't see that the rear mech is bent and the low stop is at it's limit. Then I spotted the hanger has about an inch of sideways adjustment so I've moved that and hopefully it will do the trick.
By penny pinching I've created more trouble and expense for myself, I never learn. I wanted a Hydraulic disc brake and it was cheaper to get a combined Shimano brake/9 speed shifter then a lower spec brake only, my wife agreed that the redundant part would just sit there and do nothing. Now it's on I realise it would be easier for her to use than the old shifter already fitted, the only problem was Shimano don't make a 9 speed freewheel. After working out I wouldn't be able to convert it to cassette I found the Sunrace 9 speed freewheel should work with Shimano shifters, game on! Being a trike I don't have the problem of dropout width but I do have a limited space between the axles, the gap is about 15mm wider than the 9 speed freewheel, too narrow to make it easy but wide enough that I've not given up.
Once the 9 speed is in I won't be able to get a freewheel removal tool in there so I've been working out what I can do. One option is to fit the new freewheel leaving the removal tool in but I don't think there's enough room for that, if there isn't then I'm going to put it in without and disassemble the freewheel in place to remove it. The worry is there won't be enough room for that and I'll need to disassemble the freewheel to fit it and then assemble it in place, there's a chance it won't go in at all but I don't like to think about that.
I've ordered the removal tool as I need to take the freewheel off to get to the insides of the drum brake, it's binding so I need to sort that out anyway. When I've got it off I'll reevaluate the whole 9 speed thing.
Another job I wasn't expecting is the wobbly wheel, I thought it just needed truing but closer inspection reveals the axle is bent. I don't know what I'll find there or how to get it out but I'll have a closer look when I get the freewheel off.
As far as stability goes nobody has fallen off yet although I wish I had filmed a visitor trying it yesterday as it looked like a comedy sketch and he ended up in a hedge. I've found two unexpected issues with this setup, the single wheel drive means it wants to steer to the right under power though I don't think this will be much of a problem. Another problem is braking uphill, because both brakes are on the front then the brakes don't hold it as the front wheel slides back down the hill. This can be countered with the pedals but I'm not over the moon about it, I may try getting the rear drum brake working and fix up a handbrake arrangement.