Thinking about building a trike

looks good.
these suppliers have a nice inventory of different mufflers.
www.lowbrowcustoms.com/motorcycle-parts/...ufflers-baffles.html
www.dimecitycycles.com/

leon

These folks have quite a few muffler styles and parts for making custom mufflers. Ed

www.coneeng.com/motorcycle_components.html

coneeng does have all kinds of nice exhaust building material,but they are kinda expensive compared to other sources.

leon

that's looking good Bill. Ive been thinking about running a steering damper on my twin, How did you attach it to the chassis?

DoctoRot wrote: that's looking good Bill. Ive been thinking about running a steering damper on my twin, How did you attach it to the chassis?

Hi DR,
I went through quite a few iterations until I found one that cleared the tank and used all the stroke of the damper. The damper I used is the longest model that Shindy offers.








As you can see I used the motor attachment points on the cam cover. The bolts are 8mm by 1.25 thread. At first I used a simple metric coupling nut but as you can see I ended up having to weld two coupling nuts together, with a bend and an offset, to get the best fit.

Regards
Bill

I've taken the trike out for a couple of test runs and I'm pleased with it mechanically. Now I've got to figure out what the body work should look like.





The steering damper turned out to be the correct choice instead of altering the trail. The bars still want to wank side to side if I take only one rear wheel over an obstacle but the damper keeps it to a minimum.
The exhaust is a little loud but tolerable.
I've also got to find some wheels and tires that don't shout TRAILER.
What do you think?
Bill

Looking good. I think the rear of a trike is the hardest part to get right, are you looking at altering the rear of the frame, or just working around what you have..?

750 R1 wrote: Looking good. I think the rear of a trike is the hardest part to get right, are you looking at altering the rear of the frame, or just working around what you have..?

Any thing I do will have to be supported off of the frame sticking out from the back of the seat and the passenger foot peg mounts. I'd prefer to not alter the frame at all. So far the only thing that I've altered is the swing arm which has turned out to be plenty stiff.
I'm still thinking Steam Punk but I need some ideas.
Got any?
Bill

KZQ wrote:

750 R1 wrote: Looking good. I think the rear of a trike is the hardest part to get right, are you looking at altering the rear of the frame, or just working around what you have..?

Any thing I do will have to be supported off of the frame sticking out from the back of the seat and the passenger foot peg mounts. I'd prefer to not alter the frame at all. So far the only thing that I've altered is the swing arm which has turned out to be plenty stiff.
I'm still thinking Steam Punk but I need some ideas.
Got any?
Bill

The reason I think its hard, especially with the stock rear section is, once you fit the rear wheels it leaves a big gap where the single rear wheel once was, I like the lowered seat look on trikes, it sort of cleans up the rear.. You could always put the rear tailpiece back on and just leave the rest of the rear stock, that would be the easiest fix... BTW, I googled KZ750 twin trike to see if I could find any inspiration for your build, the only trike that showed up was yours....

750 R1 wrote: ... BTW, I googled KZ750 twin trike to see if I could find any inspiration for your build, the only trike that showed up was yours....

The world's getting smaller by the day.
Thanks
Bill

Looking good. I think once you have a different color on the wheels, it will reduce the trailer-ness look (along with different tires).

Nice Bill

Maybe dont over think the rear treatment :S

AS the picture Steve posted shows a clean trike with a pair of leather bags / why not give it a try ???

Go up to a local bike shop that sells bags and throw a set over and take a picture or 3 ...

Keep the rear simple with no fender under seat and add in a tail piece to fill in the gap.

If you want fenders over the tires go minimalist... Just covering the tire tops to meet any local codes

Just a thought to help spur more ideas

Dave