LocostUSA.com

And so it begins.
Its going to have an 08 R-1, six speed, and yes its still a single seater.
I started on the temp jigs just to see if everything fit and get a 3d-ish look BEFORE I screw up the actual DOM.
CANT WAIT!!!!
PooK

All I can say is that the drawing looks HOT!

Assuming you ment this one......

Gonna sticky your thread Pook

Thank you, I've been bending and changing things as needed and as parts arrive, so I tried to update my photobucket pictures and needless to say I've screwed everything up.....I'm shocked we're not seeing pics of my sons birthday on here instead
A few changes to the rear axle mounts and I've decided to curve the bottom of the chassis up into a diffuser after the engine and suck the air out.
Latest drawing, and the build pics soon I hope as the rest of my steel arrives.
PooK

You've bothered me. For the last 2 nights I've literally had nightmares of trying to get the tubing bent to build that bike.

I wake up after spending what seems to be hours trying to get the top tubing bent to match the bottom and to meet up with the side pieces. I can't do it myself and I've found in my dreams I can't even explain myself well enough to get someone else to do it. Drawing the plans with the proper notation of the up and down curve while also getting the proper side to side curve around the driver and back towards the single rear wheel is the part that finally wakes me up.

What's wrong with me? Why am I dreaming about someone else's Locost - and a trike at that!

Each tube actually only has one arch or radius then the tube is rotated upward to give the apperance of a dual bend...I "think" thats what your talking about??
and by indexing Hempy's roller...(Not permanent I swear ) I can roll pretty well matched tubes, ie. ten full turns on the upper screw and equal length tubes run through to exactly one foot from the end for example, comes out about the same each time.
PooK

The FIRST bend however is a bear! counting, checking to see if it matches, roll some more, check, etc....
The temp wood jig helps me compare the bends to the pvc and let me sit in it before I started wasting tube.....

Relooking at your picture I see that you have no side to side bend as in an At-om. The managing of the side to side and the up and down bends all at the same time is what's been in my head.

I don't know why this has bothered me. I'm not building anything like it, but it has woken me up for the past 2 nights so you must be onto something good for it to stick in people's minds.

no, it does tapper from 19ish" at the nose to 30" at the seat, then back again to hold a 15in wide wheel
very bad picture below. and a drawing that I'm playing with for the susp....dont look to close its a work in progress. but the bulkheads (wood jigs) are taken and measured from this drawing.
Later
PooK

MAN-O-MAN, I do not recom the HF tube bender for 2" tube! It took all I had each night to roll one tube, I still cant move my arms
anyway I have been working and parts are a rollin in
I'm not sure about the rear wheel though....looks small!
PooK

Leverage PooK, leverage! Second best "invention" after (or was it before) the wheel. Just put a bigger wheel on the tube roller, turn it easier...

Sure looks good, that drawing is killer.

No, the 15" wheel doesn't look too small at all. I recall sometime in the late '70's, early '80's reading an article in PopMech, PopSci or MechIllustrated about three wheelers (betch it was RQ Riley) that there should be approx the same width of rubber on either end, ie, if you had 6" wide contact patch on each of the two wheels, then you should have 12" contact patch width on the single wheel.

Mikey Bynum

Thanks! I'll tell you though had that been my roller and not a loaner I would have had to pull a Beverly Hillbillies on it and hooked it to the wifes mini van!!! "Put it in drive honey, now throw her in reverse"
PooK

OK, I got to work a bit on Sat.
The build is going smooth but I have to keep a level across the top and middle main bars the whole time, I guess where everything has a radius it's easy to slide a brace in a tiny bit to far and throw everything off.
PooK



This one shows where the lower control arms will mount, I haven't braced the front most pick up point because I plan to have the pedal mount pad movable and want to tie it all in at once.

See, I'd have never thought about that. What else is different about building like this vs the book way?

BTW it's really looking good.

Cheapracer was right, the rear shocks went into falling rate with any susp travel. I re-designed the back (again ) this time I think Ive got it?? luck for me there is a ton of room back there as I WAY over estimated the size of the R-1.
Carguy123,
Ive never built a book chassis (I dont follow direction very well anyway) so I have no clue whats involved? I can tell you a few things Ive learned, First the arched tubes have to be damn near perfect, I was off on one because I didnt unload the roller and allow the spring back before I measured, so when I put it in the partical board jig it didnt line up? I figured well its just a half inch off Ill push it into place....WRONG! blew up my partical board!!!!!
I snapped a line to center the jigs bulk heads but I wish I would have snapped a line every inch out on both sides of center to use as a visual guide (hard to measure arched tubes!
PooK