| My thanks go to Paul Elkins (USA) for these photos of his 3-wheeler. Paul writes: The cal commuter inspired me 25 years ago and I have just now had money, tools, space and time to carry out my rendition, (although a little safer) I
would like to be able to keep up with faster freeway speeds and survive a crash, especially with the increased size of vehicles these days in the good old glutinous USA.
A friend donated an old blackberry covered honda cb 350 to me, that's the mule. ATV 'a' arms and wheels with old honda cvc tires is all that the tire man could find to fit on the rims. I'm almost ready to fire it up for a test run, maybe in a week or so. If the chasis design proves out, the body material will be either aluminum sheel or colored falluted coroplastic. the pic with body was cardboard then edited in photoshop. The nose and top of cockpit will be the only fiberglassing. The windshield will have a wiper pivoting from the steering shaft. It's been great fun putting this thing together, rather simple tools were used (no milling, just a wire feed welder, angle grinder drill and an occational small drill press) the bent tubing was done using curved plywood as a break, clamping the tube to one end and hand forcing the square tube across the curve, all done on a waist high plywood table.
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| Update: The first test run was last week, and here are a few pics. Due to the engine needing a tune I didn't make it over 45 mph, but in that run I was quite pleased with the corner
handling. The steering is getting a 2 to 1 chain reduction, a bit twitchy for my liking. The 350 seems to have the power needed to propel me over fast highway speeds which was a concern. All in all, I was pleased with the beast. |
