Not sure if this is the correct forum for this kind of stuff. If it gets moved let me know. I usually don't really do build threads. Most of the time I post what i want to do, then a few months later I update the thread that whatever i was building was finished, and it was fun, and now its sold. haha.
I'll try and update this one. This one is a little different because I'm building it in the basement and my wife as no idea. I feel like I'm pretty incognito here so I can share my progress aside from some of my friends in our group chat.
It all started in early March when I was at an auction and saw a go kart. Bidding got heated because I think a lot of guys were bidding emotionally because they never got to have one as a kid like myself. Anyway, some poor soul over payed for it and I was sad so I went on craigslist to find one. Then I discovered drift trikes since they are mostly go kart rear ends with bmx front forks.
There was a couple styles, but I was set on doing a 26x4 fat tire front and a bit stretched out like these.
Most of the trikes i saw were running the 212cc predator motors. They didn't seem to have the torque i was looking for unless you were running a converter and they didn't rev very high either.
ColinFurze on youtube built one with a pit bike motor with a semi auto 4 speed trans. but his trike was a smaller with a bmx front end.
It looked like this
I decided to build something of a hybrid between the two styles.
Source parts was pretty easy. They sell a trike axle kit on ebay. I bought a set of used racing wheels and tires on ebay as well. The front end was tricky. It was cheaper to buy a whole bike and chop it up than buying the forks, rim, disk brakes and inner tube and tire.
This was $200 on amazon and comes with disk brakes.
Took it for a lap and it was pretty fun. It was shame I had to cut it up. Oh well! no turning back
I got a Lifan 125 on ebay for $300. Its kick start, but lifan 125s with electric start and semi auto trans is a rare find. I didn't want to be messing with clutches.
Here is the bars, axel and engine to get an idea for space.
I wanted the motor so sit forward as much as possible to distribute the weight as well as make the jockey shifter more accessible. This is about as much engineering I did on this build. I have an engineering background so i did measure and stuff, but as far as design, i had an idea in my head and now i'm just winging it.
here is i bent some DOM tubing to do the frame. I was just getting an idea on the angle since i wanted to go around the cylinder head and clear the spark plug and exhaust. I did not like the how steep the angle of the headset was so I had to go for more stretch. Side note - I only had a tig welder, but i decided since i was tacking so many parts I bought a 140 amp mig off amazon. I own a business so the motor, welder, and bike were purchased with points. This is how I got away with keeping this a secret from my wife so far.
Something like this
the rear sprocket interfered with the tube so I had to flare the rear end to make room for the sprocket and brake disk. Where I joined two tubes I machined a pipe to fit the ID to give the joint more strength and plug welded it as well as weld the seam
Piping was notched using a notcher I bought as a garage sale for 10. I had to machine a new bronze sleeve bearing for it, but over all it does a nice job.
The headset tube off the bike frame I cut off was was super long and the material was pretty thin. I machined a new one from DOM tubing to accept the bearings and chopped the whole assembly down. Also flipped the bares and headset.
How it sits now.
This is like my 5th string of mig welds I've done in my life. I was going to just tack most of the trike and tig all of it. I've found this triike is given me a good opportunity to play with the welder.
This is the motor mount plate. Gonna install some studs on the motor and maybe order some poly isolators.
Thats were I am so far.
To do list
-foot rest/pegs
-brake pedal
-rear disk brake mount
-machine sprocket adapt for motor.
-Finish welding
-fabricate/buy a seat
-build fuel tank
I'll try and update this one. This one is a little different because I'm building it in the basement and my wife as no idea. I feel like I'm pretty incognito here so I can share my progress aside from some of my friends in our group chat.
It all started in early March when I was at an auction and saw a go kart. Bidding got heated because I think a lot of guys were bidding emotionally because they never got to have one as a kid like myself. Anyway, some poor soul over payed for it and I was sad so I went on craigslist to find one. Then I discovered drift trikes since they are mostly go kart rear ends with bmx front forks.
There was a couple styles, but I was set on doing a 26x4 fat tire front and a bit stretched out like these.
Most of the trikes i saw were running the 212cc predator motors. They didn't seem to have the torque i was looking for unless you were running a converter and they didn't rev very high either.
ColinFurze on youtube built one with a pit bike motor with a semi auto 4 speed trans. but his trike was a smaller with a bmx front end.
It looked like this
I decided to build something of a hybrid between the two styles.
Source parts was pretty easy. They sell a trike axle kit on ebay. I bought a set of used racing wheels and tires on ebay as well. The front end was tricky. It was cheaper to buy a whole bike and chop it up than buying the forks, rim, disk brakes and inner tube and tire.
This was $200 on amazon and comes with disk brakes.
Took it for a lap and it was pretty fun. It was shame I had to cut it up. Oh well! no turning back
I got a Lifan 125 on ebay for $300. Its kick start, but lifan 125s with electric start and semi auto trans is a rare find. I didn't want to be messing with clutches.
Here is the bars, axel and engine to get an idea for space.
I wanted the motor so sit forward as much as possible to distribute the weight as well as make the jockey shifter more accessible. This is about as much engineering I did on this build. I have an engineering background so i did measure and stuff, but as far as design, i had an idea in my head and now i'm just winging it.
here is i bent some DOM tubing to do the frame. I was just getting an idea on the angle since i wanted to go around the cylinder head and clear the spark plug and exhaust. I did not like the how steep the angle of the headset was so I had to go for more stretch. Side note - I only had a tig welder, but i decided since i was tacking so many parts I bought a 140 amp mig off amazon. I own a business so the motor, welder, and bike were purchased with points. This is how I got away with keeping this a secret from my wife so far.
Something like this
the rear sprocket interfered with the tube so I had to flare the rear end to make room for the sprocket and brake disk. Where I joined two tubes I machined a pipe to fit the ID to give the joint more strength and plug welded it as well as weld the seam
Piping was notched using a notcher I bought as a garage sale for 10. I had to machine a new bronze sleeve bearing for it, but over all it does a nice job.
The headset tube off the bike frame I cut off was was super long and the material was pretty thin. I machined a new one from DOM tubing to accept the bearings and chopped the whole assembly down. Also flipped the bares and headset.
How it sits now.
This is like my 5th string of mig welds I've done in my life. I was going to just tack most of the trike and tig all of it. I've found this triike is given me a good opportunity to play with the welder.
This is the motor mount plate. Gonna install some studs on the motor and maybe order some poly isolators.
Thats were I am so far.
To do list
-foot rest/pegs
-brake pedal
-rear disk brake mount
-machine sprocket adapt for motor.
-Finish welding
-fabricate/buy a seat
-build fuel tank
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