As many of you will remember, we lost Sandman (John Price) in April.
Part of his legacy that I inherited consisted of his two folding trikes. "Nicor" his own personal touring machine with full e-assist; and "Loki" the other folding frame that was unfinished in many respects.
This thread is to document/blog (call it what you will) the process of completing this second trike into a fully working machine.
The story so far:
Loki arrived as a basic rolling frame but without working brakes, gears chainrings etc.
Like the "Nicor" trike, John had originally intended to make it e-assist with a captive "hub-motor" mounted within the rear triangle and driving an intermediate layshaft in the BB-Shell of the triangle.
This e-assist design necessitated the trike having the riders pedal input (chain-ring, primary chain and diverter pulley) all on the left-hand of the frame; and the hinge-pin side of the hinge also being on the left of the trike's frame.
As I do not intend to use the same e-assist method (if any at all in the first instance) I need to make some changes to the basic machine. The gearing John had implemented on "Nicor" mandated the use of e-assist and it is far too high for use without the e-assist being available (I did try, and it made my ancient knees explode and swell-up something fierce) and "Loki" was intended to be exactly the same when John originally made the 3 frames.
Firstly, I have split the frame into its two halves at the hinge (so I can work on it in a more manageable way and then removed the fixed “welded in” 12mm axle for the chain diverter on the left-hand side of the main keel on the front section and replaced it with a crush-tube that can accept a 12mm bolt instead. This will mean that the chain can be run down either side of the trike by inserting the diverter pivot-bolt from one side or the other (this provides me the option to mount the primary drive for the trike on either side (should it prove impossible to fold the trike with the chain on the right-hand side)).
I have already removed the 7-speed cassette rear-wheel and changed it for the Nuvinci N380 wheel that I found (along with a Bafang mid-drive and 2 new battery packs that were packed away in a crate that came from Johns old Engineering workplace and I had just dumped round at my son’s garage (I ran out of room here)).
Next, I will add a front changer post to the front boom’s BB-Shell so that a triple chain-ring can be fitted.
All of this work is rather detrimental to the existing paintwork, but it must be done and once it is completed I may disassemble the whole thing and send it off for a proper powder-coat finishing. In deference to John I think I would keep it as “Dyno-Rod” Orange because he loved the colour.
The one thing I will say about e-assist is that it is typically a rather heavy addition to a trike (especially the battery packs), so I want to see how easily (or not) the trike can be ridden without such additional items being present.
The great thing is that John made provision on the main frame for mounts for the separate carrier-frame that holds the battery packs, so adding e-assist and mounting the batteries to the LOKI frame will not be destructive or intrusive.
More later ...... as it occurs.
Part of his legacy that I inherited consisted of his two folding trikes. "Nicor" his own personal touring machine with full e-assist; and "Loki" the other folding frame that was unfinished in many respects.
This thread is to document/blog (call it what you will) the process of completing this second trike into a fully working machine.
The story so far:
Loki arrived as a basic rolling frame but without working brakes, gears chainrings etc.
Like the "Nicor" trike, John had originally intended to make it e-assist with a captive "hub-motor" mounted within the rear triangle and driving an intermediate layshaft in the BB-Shell of the triangle.
This e-assist design necessitated the trike having the riders pedal input (chain-ring, primary chain and diverter pulley) all on the left-hand of the frame; and the hinge-pin side of the hinge also being on the left of the trike's frame.
As I do not intend to use the same e-assist method (if any at all in the first instance) I need to make some changes to the basic machine. The gearing John had implemented on "Nicor" mandated the use of e-assist and it is far too high for use without the e-assist being available (I did try, and it made my ancient knees explode and swell-up something fierce) and "Loki" was intended to be exactly the same when John originally made the 3 frames.
Firstly, I have split the frame into its two halves at the hinge (so I can work on it in a more manageable way and then removed the fixed “welded in” 12mm axle for the chain diverter on the left-hand side of the main keel on the front section and replaced it with a crush-tube that can accept a 12mm bolt instead. This will mean that the chain can be run down either side of the trike by inserting the diverter pivot-bolt from one side or the other (this provides me the option to mount the primary drive for the trike on either side (should it prove impossible to fold the trike with the chain on the right-hand side)).
I have already removed the 7-speed cassette rear-wheel and changed it for the Nuvinci N380 wheel that I found (along with a Bafang mid-drive and 2 new battery packs that were packed away in a crate that came from Johns old Engineering workplace and I had just dumped round at my son’s garage (I ran out of room here)).
Next, I will add a front changer post to the front boom’s BB-Shell so that a triple chain-ring can be fitted.
All of this work is rather detrimental to the existing paintwork, but it must be done and once it is completed I may disassemble the whole thing and send it off for a proper powder-coat finishing. In deference to John I think I would keep it as “Dyno-Rod” Orange because he loved the colour.
The one thing I will say about e-assist is that it is typically a rather heavy addition to a trike (especially the battery packs), so I want to see how easily (or not) the trike can be ridden without such additional items being present.
The great thing is that John made provision on the main frame for mounts for the separate carrier-frame that holds the battery packs, so adding e-assist and mounting the batteries to the LOKI frame will not be destructive or intrusive.
More later ...... as it occurs.