Scott's Reverse Trike: First Post

I'm setting up this blog to document the construction of my reverse trike (RT); that is a motorized three wheel vehicle (officially a motorcylce) with two steerable wheels in the front, and one drive wheel in the back. The drive wheel is powered by a motorcycle engine - essentially by everything powertrain related on the bike. Please forgive any stupidities in the construction of this blog - its my first time (be gentle). There's alot of stuff in this post to catch up to where I am now.

Here's some pictures of the kit I bought in Kentucky last month. It included a body, front axle, steering rack, frame (minus the motorcycle parts), wheels, construction manual, and some various controls and other hardware.

I'm told it was a kit that was produced in the 80's, but never completed. It was made for a Honda CB 750 to bolt up.

I have a 1990 Kawasaki Voyager XII with 104,5xx mile on it that I essentially totalled April 2008. I've already made sure it is still running good (removed and cleaned carbs, replaced plugs) and stripped it down. I will use it to power the RT.

So far (after getting the bike tuned up) I've spent about 40 hours stripping the bike and modifying the back of the frame to mount the Voyager to it. Most of this was on frame modifications and welding - I'm not that proficient of a welder.

I removed the front axle from the frame to make handling easier.

Lined up, not quite finished or bolted together yet. It took quite a bit of time and measuring to ensure the bike frame and the RT frame would be mounted level.

The diagonal upright piece of flat stock needs to be cut, drilled and welded to the frame yet. It will stiffen it and provide one more mounting point to a boss on the bottom of the engine mount. You can see the boss on the picture above just forward (left) and slightly below the "Kawasaki" label on the side of the crank case (the boss is a little rusty).

This will give me four mounting bolts per side - two where the pegs mounted (back two), and two where the engine guards and fairing frame mouned (front verticle two). There is also a U-bolt clamp on each side at the top that hooks to the down tubes. There is a 3/4" oak spacer between the bike and the RT frame since to angle between the two is 5 degrees off. It also works to spread the clamping load more evenly.

Here's some samples of my welding job. It was all done with an old Lincoln AC stick welder that my dad gave me years ago. Although not pretty, I think it's sufficient for strength - I'll take any thoughts, comments, or suggestions from any experienced welders out there.

There's a 1x2" spacer piece (re-used from the original frame mounting arms) being used as a spacer and welded into place (top, bottom, and sides where accessible).

Upstairs in my shop I'm storing most of the unused parts removed from the Voyager. If anyone is interested in some of these, I'm looking to get rid of them. I'm hoping that I've reduced the bike weight to under 500lbs.

Front and rear fairing frames.