The Marengo "Loki" Thread.

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For a stop gap can the 'block ' be transferred between trikes ?

all the best Paul
Paul,
Probably, is the answer. But I am also seeing that the extremely limited range of the extremely clever internal clamp means there is a great deal of fine-tuning involved in order to get the darn thing to "lock" at a set length.
The draw-bar's pull exerted on the 4-way wedge affair seems to be less than 5mm and this means that the clamping force is rather limited. Too clever by half ;) and currently ineffectual in its grip on the inside of the keel tube. I suspect that I shall have to slacken it all off and set the wedges initial position with the adjuster nut so that it is then VERY DIFFICULT to insert it into the outer tube. Then ram it home to the desired position and only then try and tighten it up. It may then "fix" to a length, and then I can pack the sides to prevent the "waggle". I am mindful that I cannot do anything that prevents dis-assembly, as it all has to come to bits for final powder-coating.
 

Twinkle

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l can remember chatting to John when he was designing the " hidden " adjusting device , then it sounded ingenious but too complicated, John had so many ideas and he is sadly missed
 
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l can remember chatting to John when he was designing the " hidden " adjusting device , then it sounded ingenious but too complicated, John had so many ideas and he is sadly missed
It is incredibly clever, but with that cleverness comes a level of complexity that you would rather not have. :D
Still miss the old scoundrel terribly, it was such a terrible loss.
He was planning to have his 360Watt Bafang on LOKI and he had cleverly contrived a dual chainring for it and I think he knew it would tax the hidden clamp so welding it up was on his list of mods.
I do think I can get it to wedge a bit tighter (certainly tight enough to withstand pedal-power).
 

Twinkle

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What about a slot cut under the boom allowing a sliding adjustment with 2 securing bolts with penny washers and packing on the other 3 sides or hold a seance and get some spiritual guidance from the Welsh Wizard.

regards Emma
 
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Friday 4th October 2019

The tasks I set myself for today were:
  1. Remember to put out the "Happy 44th Anniversary" Card on the mantelpiece where herself would find it.
  2. Do the plumbing in of the front hydraulic brakes.
Plumbing in the brakes isn’t a difficult task (apart from having to stand up bent-double). I was hopeful that the “Clarks” (no relation) hydraulic line shortening kit and the “Total Bleed Solutions” (no prizes for guessing what this item is) would make it relatively painless. It was disappointing that the supplied Clarks dust covers to go over the hydraulic line at the cut end did not actually fit onto the Clarks brake levers. However, the dust covers that came with the levers themselves were able to fit the re-terminated lines and their ferrules. Eventually, after an initial hiccup doing it the official way I reverted to type and did it "my way" and the job was jobbed.

Here it is all done. The weather was closing in so I put everything away. If there is no rain tomorrow, I might venture out for a first trial ride on LOKI.

 
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Sunday 27th October

It has been a long time since I have been able to get anywhere near the trike due to other commitments and the weather. But today was a lovely bright, cool, calm day (instead of blowing a gale and teeming with rain). The trike was unusable with the existing front-boom clamping arrangement; the 4-way wedge operated by a hidden slide mechanism. If you put any real pressure on the pedals, the boom pushed out and away from you. It had to go.

This presented something of a problem, the boom insert is so much smaller than the square tube of the main keel that there was more than 3mm of space in both side-to-side and top-to-bottom between the insert and the keel-tube. To begin fixing this I looked at a couple of options:
  1. Cut-down long-nuts on one corner of the keel tube and bolts pushing the corner of the insert towards the opposite diagonal corner.
  2. Pack out the insert tube with external plates welded on to increase its width so that a standard “pinch-bolt” arrangement can clamp the tube.
Having a gap of 3mm or greater on 2 sides of the boom insert all the time sounded like a recipe for collecting rainwater to me so I rejected option 1 and cut some pieces of 1.5mm plate to weld to the sides of the insert.

Shown below are the two pieces of 1.5mm plate inserted into the keel tube along with the front boom so you can imagine what a terrible loose fit it had been.




I am NOT sure whether to just weld these plates on every few inches (top & bottom) or to try and weld along the entire length of the plate’s edge. A Continuous weld might induce a warp/bend/twist in the insert tube so for the moment I have just welded every few inches.



Here it is in the keel tube, the fit is not bad at all. I may opt to fully weld these edges as equal and opposite welds ought to balance out in terms of inducing any bends in the insert tube.



The next task will be to make some pinch-bolt sleeves and weld them onto the underside of the keel and cut a slot to form a clamp arrangement.
That's all for now.
 
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Monday 28th and Tuesday 29th October

Monday
I got a bit “Gung-Ho” on the TIG sparkle stick and melted all the edges of the steel plate tacked onto the boom insert into the metal of the insert tube itself. A bit of overkill and to be honest it looks a bit horrible. Never mind I can replace the whole thing if I don’t like it.

Tuesday - The 12mm steel rod arrived for me to make the pinch-bolts with.

Drilling through a round bar “end-on” is always fun and the reverse “upside-down” drilling process is always a giggle. One of them went a bit awry, so I made a third.

You need a longer than usual M6 tap to thread them right through and after fixing them on the frame I will drill one side out.

Here they are:

 
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I know making things is fun but why not just buy an M6 insert for the sake of a couple of quid? In reality it's even probably as cheap as the round bar though.
Something like these:-
I fully understand what you are saying and it is very true. But, I like making things myself........ and primarily because I can. Nothing more. Cost I am not too bothered about TBH, its more the making that I enjoy.
If I just "bought" everything tailor-made (which I could) I might as well go and buy an ICE trike or whatever and learn nothing about this type of metalworking or engineering.
Call it "therapy" if you like. 42 years in the computer & comms space means I missed out on a lot of the "craft/Shop" side of learning. Its just me being perverse. :D
 
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42 years in the computer & comms space means I missed out on a lot of the "craft/Shop" side of learning. Its just me being perverse. :D
I'm 43 years old and have been in IT since I started building and selling used XT's and 286's when I was 15. I feel your pain.
 
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December 7th & 8th 2019:

After far too long a break I returned to the rework. I welded the pinch-bolt sleeves to the underside of the main-keel where the front boom is inserted. It is an awful job to do (IMHO) the angles are all wrong and you are trying to place weld-material into a tight angle between the 12mm rod and the flat surface upon which it is sitting. It most certainly is not the prettiest welding I have ever managed but they are on there and they will not pull off. A 12mm hole was cut and a long-slot formed by cutting down the centreline first with a 1mm zip disc and then a 3mm disc.

One side’s pinch sleeves were drilled-out to accommodate the M6 bolts.

AND…..It seems to work. Unlike with its predecessor I am unable to move the boom insert when the bolts are done up.

Here it is in its raw state.

So now we at last have a standard RH Driveline with a MTB 150mm crank triple up front and an N380 CVT hub at the rear. No excess weight (batteries or motors) except on the rider (plenty on there), but provision exists for them to be added very simply.

I still have a lot to do (rear rack for carrying some emergency tools) and a rear mudguard; I also need to split the chain tube runs and insert the clear silly-cone tubing in the middle to accommodate the folding feature.

But it is coming along OK and I am pleased with it so far.




 
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Well done Danny , l love the shape of the handlebars , looks very nice , worth the wait until completion.
I can't lay claim to the bars I'm afraid, it is "as delivered" in that department.
The Left to Right swap-over work is me as is the boom clamp and boom mod.
It won't be too much longer before it is road-ready.
 
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Update January 9th 2020

After a difficult start to the year and a little “encouragement” from the ‘Mansfield Mafia’ I restarted the re-work.

First step was to put the seat on and as it wasn’t raining, try a run up and down the road. OUCH! – it felt like I was riding in a sea of treacle, and that’s no good is it?

It was evident from the “Thrumming” noise from both wheels that there was some permanent pad-to-disc interference going on; so back to the hardstanding for an examination and a “tweak”.

I have no idea how you “are meant to do this” so I did the following:

  • Jack the wheel up on a stand.
  • Slacken the caliper mounting bolts so the caliper could be really easily moved.
  • Slam the brake on hard and fast a few times while checking that both pads move and retract.
  • While holding the brakes on firmly each time, progressively nip the bolts up and give it a trial spin.
  • Rinse-repeat until the wheel appears to be spinning as freely as possible.
It seemed to work very well as a process for the Left Hand wheel, but the right seems to still have a bit of a bind in it somewhere (although you cannot feel/hear any brake pad/disc interference). I am hoping this will wear off over time. For all I know, it might be a dodgy/sticky wheel-bearing.

Here is the videos of the Good & the Bad.

Good:


Bad:
 
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Ok a couple of observations ....

Which are worth diddly squat !

No drag video ended before you could see what the wheel actually does before it stops ?

In my view it is no drag if the wheel rides up so valve is horizontal then swings in opposite direction and continues these oscillations till it stops valve down at lowest point [ old skool ! ]

The drag video should have been filmed with the caliper hanging off altogether , otherwise you have not eliminated it at all ?

I think in some ways :-

' While holding the brakes on firmly each time, progressively nip the bolts up and give it a trial spin. '

I think this is fatefully flawed unless both pistons are operated when the brake lever is pressed.
If they are NOT then for the caliper to work it moves one pad to the disc and then bends the disc over to the other pad ?
So you do the above and are assuming the mount is in the right place for the caliper ? if it isn't then tightening the caliper bots just bends the disc till the bolts are tight and will cause rubbing that cannot be got rid of ?

I think you have some SA 90mm's un-purposed ? time to dig them out ?

Keep at it , can't be as bad as my SA problems can it ?
 
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In my view it is no drag if the wheel rides up so valve is horizontal then swings in opposite direction and continues these oscillations till it stops valve down at lowest point [ old skool ! ]
I know what you mean, and yes I could do that to see just how "free" it is, but I am not sure that the weight of the valve & stem is enough to overcome the resistance within the bearings anyway. But happy to give it a go.:D
I think this is fatefully flawed unless both pistons are operated when the brake lever is pressed.
These are 2-pot calipers and I can see both pads moving in & out as the brake lever is gripped/released.
I will persevere, the LH one seems fine to me at this time.
The RH one will have the whole caliper assembly unbolted and swung free and spun to see if the "bind" is in the custom-made "Marengo" hub itself.
The SA Hubs are reserved for the Delta/Python. :ROFLMAO:
 
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I'm with Stormbird on this one. Mounting instructions for new ones indicate some sort of required clearance but I have also used the keep-it-loose-and-squeeze-the-brake preliminary adjustment method as a quick fix. As you undoubtedly know, there are many things that contribute to drag (which has to be overcome by your pedals) and noises - dust seals, grease thickness, temperature, grit that has fallen into the caliper, bearing tightness, and the list goes on. The valve falling to the bottom is a good test. Have seen it happen on a bike but I have never applied it in anger.
 

Twinkle

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Try loosen both bolts
clamp caliper to rotor ,
Tighten bolts ,
spin and check.
Check rotor does not move sideways when brake applied .
If it does redo the above .

Regards Emma
 
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