My journey into trike building

That Final Push – Days 5 6 and 7

As the days countdown I now have only 2 build days to go till the trike goes for MSVA. This deadline has started a bit of a panic and I am getting worried. But I have a great team helping me and I know it will be ready for test!

The work list is slowly being ticked off

  1. Mud guard supports and mud guards
  2. The lights to be mounted on the mud guards
  3. Front light bar
  4. Headlights fitted. (started)
  5. Modifying the engine cage.
  6. Fit wiring into cage.
  7. Mounting the reverse light and fog light to the engine cage.
  8. Fitting battery isolator switch
  9. Replacing engine temperature sense wire that I cut
  10. VIN number to stamp on frame
  11. Place wiring in protective sleaving.
  12. Fit tank cover
  13. Fit various services to the tank cover
  14. Polish the tank.
  15. Connect the hand brake (started)

As far as I can tell the above can be summed up like this, some of the stuff doesn’t need to be done for the test but are nice to do’s. Item 13 can wait till after the test as can the fitment of the fog light.

In the last three days the creation of the mudguard brackets, the modification of the engine cage and the fitting of the wires for the fog and reverse lights have all been completed.

To start with the engine cage had to be modified and this involved me sitting on a bar on a tire whilst the angle on the bottom horns where increased so that the top mounts would clear the mounts for the shock absorbers.

Spot on!

The original mount points we where going to use had to be extended up and this was done by welding in a 4 inch bar with a nut welded to a washer then welded to the frame.

initial test fit after bending the tube

Cleaned up mount points

The extension bar

As you may notice the bar is a fair way from the mounting point, but with the judicious use of a ratchet strap the bars where pulled inward ready for welding.

Big blue spark!

The process was repeated for the the other side, and hey presto we have the engine cage installed!

Finished modified cage!

The other side

The post and fitment

We will be painting the posts (but not before the MSVA), and I will be smartening the wiring up for the test.

That’s the engine frame fitted, just some brackets to fit for lights and the number plate and some minor wiring to hook it all up and that will be the frame complete.

I will be covering the mudguard support fab, and the wiring, in a second part to this post.

, , , , , , ,

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.