2nd homemade delta

I took my failed 2 wheel recumbent apart and decided to build another delta trike. This one's donor bike was a kid's CCM mtn bike with 20 by 3" wheels. The frame was cut up and the rear triangle saved for the left rear wheel. An old BMX front fork was also cut up and modified to make the right rear triangle. Also disc brakes on each rear wheel.

Front forks are from the kid's CCM and they now hold a BMX 48 spoke 20 by 2.125 wheel. The trike has a Bafang BBSO2 motor. It has underseat steering. Still a work in progress but has been ridden around my city to make sure all is good.

 

Almost forgot, a jackshaft reused from a previous project is used and eliminates the need for any pulleys.

 

Very cool project. Did you make from plans or just came up with on your own? I attempted to build a recumbent years ago…never finished wife got tired of the mess in the garage. Enjoy the ride!

 

I have bought some Atomic Zombie plans, and did build the Warrior Tadpole trike as my first project. Then delta's were tried and I've built 4 now. So the plans gave me a good working knowledge of the angles that worked for steering etc. Now I build from scratch. I will be stopping further builds as my garage is quite full, now it's refinement and looking into a covered body for one of the 2 trikes for the fall rain and early winter season.

 

I did make a couple changes to the trike in the picture. A platform was built down low to hold to 48V rack mount type batteries. All but 1 of my BSO's (bicycle shaped objects) use e assist and most of my good rides are 60 KM's and up so 2 batteries and no range anxiety ever. And yes I always peddle, the only time I rely on the throttle is to get across intersections when the light changes or when chasing one of my friends in his homemade coro Velomobile.

 

How much does that beast weight???

 

I can only give an estimate based on me lifting the back end to move it around in my garage but with the 2 17.5 AH rack mount (flat) batteries mounted in the back prob around 70 LBS. It can be pedaled with no power but I usually keep it on Level 1 or 2 assist. The rear 20 by 3" tires were set to 20psi in order to see how much they would soak up the imperfections on the roads and that made the ride pretty smooth but also very hard to ride without some power. It's been bumped up to 40 psi which makes it roll better and somewhat easier to ride without the assist. But honestly it always get's use with some level of assist.