Ball Joint

[Troy Allen]

Has anyone tried to use a ball joint on the end of the front arm tubes. Perhaps they don't make them large enough for a head tube to fit into but if it would work it would eliminate the need to make the complicated fish mouth cuts. Once the it was set at the correct angles it could be permanently welded.

 

[Dale Rider]

Seen a trike go on Ebay using them. Not sure if it was a home build. They do indeed go up in size. I have also come across what we called kyte bearings in the UK. Probably too big and heavy for trike usage, used on ends of hydraulic cylinders. Yes I have thought about this route too. Also thought of different home brew 'headtubeless', solid block machined up with the axle hole and possible camber angle.

 

[Popshot]

If you struggle with notching tubes there is help available.

Tube and Pipe Notching Calculator - Printable Templates - Metric

Calculate, print and cut Pipe Coping Templates. Wrap, mark cut and grind to shape - Metric

www.blocklayer.com

Just print off, tape to the tube and grind.

 

[Troy Allen]

Thank...great comments and resource

 

[Dale Rider]

Is this what you mean?

 

[Thom_G]

The notching is super simple. I just stood up the pipe on paper drew around it, cut out the circle and fold it in half. Place your half circle on the tube to notch and draw around the paper template. That is what you notch out, shine a light in the other end of the pipe as you're matching them together and you can see exactly where you need to file and grind away to get them to fit. There are a ton of YouTube videos of the process.