Our first project as mentioned in the introduction is a tadpole trike with a Steampunk theme. For the uninitiated, a "tadpole" trike has two wheels in front and one trailing tail of a third wheel. A "delta" trike is the opposite- one sexy wheel out front. Supposedly a tadpole with two wheels in front is more stable in turns and such. I must say though there's a certain fly by the seat of your pants charm to a delta.
Our budding interest in all things bicycle started fairly recently, just this past October, 2007. Since then we've looked at and read so much bike related info our collective eyes have ceased to function for short periods. This includes a great deal of DIY stuff, because it sounded like a fun project to do together. A couple of good resources are The Human- Powered Vehicle Association and Atomic Zombie.
The HPVA's labyrinthine website contains a wealth of builder's info including plans, photos, and theory such as steering geometry. Atomiczombie.com is home to Brad Graham, a longtime DIY bike guy who sells plans and has a few books under his belt. The support forum there is friendly and responsive. Our tadpole trike is based on Brad's Streetfox plans.
But enough chitter- chatter! Here's some photos of the beginning of our trike build.
In the photo at the top of this post head tubes are extracted from old bikes with the help of a grinder. Sorry for the lack of focus- the flash failed to go off.
Below, the head tubes are ground clean.
Tabs of metal plate are welded together as part of the steering system.
In the photo the tabs have only been tack welded. They were completely welded after the photo.
That's all for now, tune in tomorrow for the next exciting chapter!
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