Still building the recumbent trike :-P

[Disillusioned]

It's taken a lot of welding to make the trike's parts thus far, and will take much more.

 

This weekend I expect to have the rear wheel subframe welded together and painted. This part will be hinged to the main frame by a stainless steel pin the size of a cigar. Then I'll work on the steering mechanism for the 2 small front wheels, and a mount for the seat.

 

The seat did not work out as I hoped... it's a fiberglass seat for a Cessna small plane and it cost me $80, but it's too narrow for my big butt. Luckily I know how to work with resin and fiberglass cloth... I'll just coat the seat with resist and make a copy of it, but with a stronger back instead of sides that come up. I'm going to color the resin blue to match the rest of the trike.

 

When it's ready to hit the road, I'll paint "don't laugh---I built it" on the back of the seat. It will be heavy because I can't afford light chromoly tubing, but I'll be able to ride it for hours on end without getting tired, and hopefully I can use it to get down from 390 to 250 lbs in 3 months.

 

BTW if you hate regular narrow bike seats, you should get one of those Hobson Easyseats and attach it to your bike. Especially if you're male and you want to avoid prostate problems. I got one and put it on my bike and believe me it's a lot more comfortable than the run-of-the-mill "ball cracker" seat.