I have moved onto assembling the cargo box and the list of materials i'm using is below...
22.2mm x 1.2mm square tube steel... for the frame
3mm steel plate... for the mounts for axels etc
38mm x 2mm round tube... for the head tube and down tube
28.6mm round tube... for the steerer tube
4mm Alloy checker plate... for the floorpan
I started by drawing a scale floor plan on the garage floor. I cut and laid out the square tube base and welded the tube into place checking that everything was square and true. After double checking all the measurements and alignment I preceded to create another to the same dimensions for the top.
Looking around there were a lot of different heights/depths commonly used for the cargo boxes but I choose to go with a 550mm so I cut the uprights and squared them up and welded them in along with a bit of bracing for the base.
Now that I have made a decision on the cargo box size/shape it's time to move onto the 2 front wheels.
There are a few considerations when it comes to the wheels and they are as follows.
What size?
20" 24" 26"?
What hub type?
What braking type?
Disc or Rim?
After looking at most of the varieties of cargo trikes out there 20" seemed to be the weapon of choice as they offer great strength. The christiania trikes have successfully moved from a 20" to a 24" wheel without any hassles and very few offer 26" wheels.
The biggest problem as I understand it is the lateral loading when cornering, a good set of 20" wheels handle this well and a lot better than the 24" wheels and your standard 26" wheel is likely to fold over. Being that I'm over 6ft I really would have liked something up front that was a bit bigger so I didn't look like I was riding a child's bike.
I toyed with the idea of building up a super strong set of 26"mtb wheels for the front, maybe using some downhill rims etc as weight is not that much of an issue, but after talking to a few engineers (when buying the steel tube for the bike) I opted for the safer more robust option of the 20" wheel size... for now anyway :)
Wheel size sorted, moving along. Hubs and brakes kind of go together, if your using mtb hubs laced to bmx rims you can use disc or rim brakes as opposed to a bmx rim and hub which unless you make or buy an adapter here http://www.atomiczombie.com/DIY%20Parts.aspx you can only use rim brakes. From the start I wanted to use disc brakes on the front due to having a few sets in the garage already and as I intend on using the trike in all weather I wanted the safety of running the disc in the wet, especially with the extra weight up front.
So I thought I'd give the mtb hub laced to bmx rim a go only the standard 9mm QR was probably not going to cut it so I've gone for an overkill and am using 20mm mtb hubs.
Alex 303 wheel and standard hub... Before
Alex 303 rim with a Shimano XT 20mm 32h centerlock disc hub... After.
I was lucky in that the spoke length was correct for the new hubs given that they are slightly taller but also slightly wider.
Next on my list of things to do is to start assembling the frame.
As mentioned in the last blog I thought I'd go over a few of the reasons why I went for this particular design.
I guess the main factors to consider were...
Practicality, stability and simplicity
How well the design works on the road(of which I can't test)
And last but not least how it looks
Seeing as though I have never ridden or even been up close to a cargo trike I can only loosely base my decision on others reviews and their experiences with them, along with my own ideas and thoughts on how these things might work in reality.
As I intend on putting my son in the front and tootling him around town, stability, safety and handling were probably my number one concern followed by cargo space and looks.
I really like the simplicity and squareness of the Haley and Christiania trikes and they seem to glide around corners, even though the weight shifts with the box but the main reason I choose the Nihola style was because of the weight staying centralised and that hopefully translating into a more stable ride... providing I can get the steering geometry correct that is.
Because the style I choose requires the wheels to turn, to get a half decent turning radius the wheels have to be spaced a reasonable distance from the cargo box it'self or at least have the room to turn, so this in some way affects the size of the cargo box. The Nihola has over come this by having the front and rear of the box tapered to allow the wheels to turn in without rubbing against the side of the box.
So I am going to mix the squareness of the Christiania and the tapered style of the Nihola.
This is using 22.2mm x 1.2mm square steel tube, the length is 900mm and the width at the widest part is 700mm.
Up until this point I thought I had done a reasonable amount of research on the various types of cargo trikes and ended up having more unanswered questions than when it started... typical.
How much cargo space is too much or too little?
What type of pivot?
What size wheels for the front?
What type of steering?
And for each of these questions there were five more and then 10 more, hmmm and then came what about or what if?
I felt like I was going backwards, so...
I started with one fundamental decision.
Cargo space... I wanted to be able carry my son home from daycare along with my work gear and his bag plus a couple of extra bags for good measure. I grabbed some chalk from my sons blackboard and started drawing an outline of roughly 900mm long x 700mm wide and what do you know there's plenty of space for all that and more. So with the cargo box at roughly 900mm long and add to that the length of the bike frame the overall length would work out to be just over 2m. I'm happy with that.
On to the next decision or so I thought, I hoped everything else would just flow on from there but alas no. You see the pivot or steering type and wheel size are all connected in one way or another and that's where I found it difficult to make a decision.
Do I want to turn the whole cargo box like the Haley http://www.haleytrikes.com/ and Christiania http://www.christianiabikes.com/ or do I want to keep the cargo box centered and turn the wheels like the Nihola http://www.nihola.com/ and Carryo http://www.carryo.info/de/carryo-bikes
I pondered this for a good four or so weeks before committing to a decision, weighing up all the pros and cons for each style/design. (I'm about 8 weeks into the build since making the decision to build and not buy and at this time I'm writing the blog in a sort of catch up fashion).
As you'll see further down the track I have opted to make a keep the box centered and turn the wheel type... what these are called I have know idea?.
Tomorrow I'll go over a few of the reasons why I went for that design.
Being that I'm over 6ft5 finding a frame that fits is a bit of a challenging task.
Here's the sort of questions I asked myself...
New or used? Seeing as though the frame is going to be cut and only the back half used it seemed to me used was a good choice.
Steel or Alloy? Given that I intend to weld to the frame and a Tig welder is out of my price range, steel was the choice.
Disc brake or V brake frame? After a good few web pages and reading numerous reviews of different makes & models of cargo trikes it had become apparent that most people only used the front disc brakes for stopping and the rear brake for a park brake. So for me a V brake frame seemed a good option.
MTB or Road Frame? This was an easy decision as I already had a rear MTB hub and 700c rim that I intend to use.
I bought a couple of cheap second hand frames just to play around with an look at the differing geometries to see if one would work better then the other and settled on a Giant Yukon SE 20" pictured below.
It's not a pretty frame but it has a good solid rear triangle and slightly oversized top tube and seat tube. It's solid and true.
If you are contemplating building something similar but think you don't have the skill or technical know how you may want to rethink that... I don't have anything more than an average skill set when it comes to bikes and a basic understanding of metal work.
Some points to consider.
Can I strip a bike and put it back together without having parts leftover... Check!
Can I weld... no but I can learn! Ahhh Youtube.
Can I spend endless hours researching on the net... no but I can spend a few hours a week!
Will I enjoy the process... heck yes!
Will I make mistakes... you bet I will!
Am I going to be an expert when finished... no but I would have enjoyed myself (I hope) and learn't some new skills!
Tomorrow I'll start by showing you how I went about choosing a frame etc.
It started out like most probably, a bit of road riding and a bit of mountain biking, commuting daily. Here in Christchurch New Zealand it's predominantly flat plains but the hills are on our doorstep which makes for a great lifestyle for cyclist's.
After a couple of years and many different bikes it seems this cycling thing has taken a hold on me and I now wanted more, I wanted to be able to carry a few extras other than just a backpack or satchel. So I started on a journey looking for my ultimate cargo cycle, there's numerous incarnations out there and from what I saw on this interweb thingy most have European origins.
Bakfiets, Panniers, Trailers, Freight Cycles, Carrier Cycles, Cargo Bikes, Cycletrucks, Long Johns and of course Cargo Trikes and much much more. The choice is almost endless.
I spent the better part of 3 months looking at all the options and with that all the pro's and con's for each. The final decision as you can see(or not quite yet anyway) is the Cargo Trike (how I came to this decision is another story all together to be told another day).
Over the next couple of weeks or months i'll post my journey on here.
When I started researching about building one these cycles I came across a handful of blogs and found them to be very helpful so I thought I'd add my 2 cents.
Welcome aboard I hope you enjoy the ride.
