Because I'm That Kind of Crazy

Something I've always been fascinated with are those people who build wooden bikes and trikes. It's something I've wanted to do for a while, too. So, while I wait for other projects' parts to arrive, plug on with yet other projects and generally mess about while I wait for reliable weather to weld my lean steer, steel trike, I decided to design an Ackerman steering plywood trike. This one...

The core of this baby is the curved crossmember, or the "wing", as I call it. This render doesn't yet have its brace developed, and the main frame is still the crude draft and needs shaping, but you can see the idea taking shape. The curvature of the wing gives 12 degrees at the steerer head hole centres. It also allows for a single piece wing without having to angle two sides, having a weak point in the middle or having to drill complex angle in flat pieces of wood. All of the correct angls are developed in the shape of the spar and the curvature of the wing.

Other features will include being able to directly fit a US bottom bracket sealed bearing set at the front bracket (my original "inspiration" for this design exercise) and being able to directly seat the steerer head cups and bearings for inch and a quarter threadless. Rear axle dropouts will be holesaw cut aluminium disks, notched for a bolt-on fixie rear, but with a cassette and extended axle. The idea being, a trike should be reversable, so a fixie 1x7 speed makes that possible. Yeah, I see there may be problems. I'll be using a flip/flop hub, just in case.

There's way more work to do before I can cut wood, but it should be cutable from a single sheet of 2400x1200x12 marine ply, when ready for that stage. Only problem, really, where will I store the thing when not riding?!