How to make a homemade cargo trike. DIY drift trike. Detailed instructions How to make a drift bike - detailed instructions

The electric trike proposed in this article will bring a lot of joy to children and adults.

Thomas Edison once said a phrase that can become the slogan of any self-taught inventor: “To invent, you need a good imagination and a lot of junk.”
The electric trike proposed in this article is no exception. It will bring a lot of joy to children and adults, and it is not as difficult to make as it seems. You can see what this miracle of technology looks like in action in the video.

How to do it - read below

For the trike you will need an old Amigo scooter. In addition to its lower part, spare parts from a lawn mower, a couple of wooden boards and a bicycle handlebar will come in handy. And also - 4 rechargeable batteries (12 or 24 volts) and a powerful switch. The higher the voltage, the faster the trike will go. You can use batteries from a lawn mower. Two batteries will be charged simultaneously and will provide 75 minutes of continuous driving on smooth asphalt. Naturally, grass, gravel roads, and uneven terrain will shorten this time.

Manufacturing process

Step #1: Getting Started
First we need a chassis from an old scooter. We remove everything except the aluminum frame, engine and front wheel.

Step #2: Wheels
The original wheels from the scooter are small, they should be replaced with larger ones, 50 cm in diameter from an old lawn mower. In order to secure them to the scooter chassis, you need to drill additional holes in the axle, about a centimeter from the end of each axle. Then secure with bolts. The more wheels you use, the faster your speed will be.

Step #3: Wiring
For electrical wiring, use car wire with plugs as follows:
- One wire with a black battery clamp - into the battery compartment to the black wire coming from the motor.
- One wire with a red battery clamp - into the battery compartment of the terminal or to the switch.
- One wire on the other side of the transition - to the red wire coming out of the motor.
- This leaves one more crossover wire with a red clip on one end and a black clip on the other end. This wire is not needed if you are only using one battery.

If you are using a single battery, simply connect the red clamp to the positive terminal of the battery and the black clamp to the negative terminal. If you are using 2 batteries, then connect the hook with the red clip coming from the switch to the positive terminal of the battery, and the black clip of the jumper wire to the other terminal of one battery. The hook with the red clip on the other end of the jumper wire goes to the positive terminal of the other battery. The hook with the black clip will go from the motor to another terminal of the same battery.
The above wiring should work in all cases, but if for some reason your trike runs in reverse, simply switch the red and black clamps coming from the trike to reverse the motor.

Step #4: Finish work
There is little work left: a seat from a lawn mower and a steering wheel from a bicycle are attached to the chassis using bolts (the steering column of the scooter is exactly the same size). The battery is installed in a wooden box and screwed to the back of the trike. In front, for greater convenience, you can attach two boards of a suitable size - you can place your feet on them while riding. The switch is secured between the seat and steering column.

Step #5: Some Tips
The trike is not equipped with brakes, but if you feel the need for them, the design can be improved.
To increase speed, you can add an additional battery.
It was very convenient to use solar panels to propel the trike. For example, make something like an awning over the seat and place the batteries on it. The only catch is that their price is quite high, but this option should not be discounted.
But no matter what batteries your trike runs on, it will bring great pleasure to both children and adults.

Three years ago I bought a bike trailer that I used to take my son out for a walk. In principle, the trailer suited me with the exception of:

• The trailer is quite low. And although there is a small flag on it, which makes it more visible, drivers in traffic may not see it.
• Since the child is one meter away from me, I can’t see what he’s doing. You have to constantly turn your head, which is not very good while driving.

During a trip to Europe, I saw a large number of cargo bikes on the streets that were used for . At first I thought about buying a cargo bike. But the price turned out to be too high and I decided to assemble the tricycle myself. Since this was my first self-assembled bicycle, during the assembly of the trike many situations arose that had to be solved by trial and error. But in the end I managed to make a cargo trike with my own hands. After searching on the Internet for a reference, I settled on the Christiania tricycle. So, let's try to make a cargo tricycle ourselves!

Step 1: Find an unwanted bike.

I used an old bicycle as a base and cut it in half along the black line. A bicycle must have one! Bicycles with an aluminum frame will not work. You can check the frame using a magnet.

Step 2: Assembling the trike frame.

Let's start assembling a homemade trike by creating the front frame. I decided to make it larger - measuring 100 cm by 100 cm. As it turned out later, the size chosen was not entirely optimal. The photo shows a trike frame welded from steel pipes and the back of an old bicycle.

Step 3: Trike wheels.

Now we have to install the front wheels directly on the frame. If you look at the Christiania tricycle, you will notice that the wheel axle is not located in the middle, but a little closer to the front of the frame. In addition, I wanted the steering wheel to be height adjustable. Therefore, only two steel pipes were welded to the rear of the frame, where the steering wheel is installed.

On Christiania tricycles, the wheel axle is moved slightly forward, but it remains behind the head tube. First I installed the axle in front of the head tube. After a few months, I had to position the axle like the original trike, which made the bike much easier to control.

It is better to use 20-inch wheels at the front. Thus, we lower the center of gravity and improve the control of the trike on and off. But this raises a problem - a regular head pipe is not suitable, since there is simply not enough space between the ground and the cradle. Therefore, you will have to abandon its use. Instead of a head tube, you can use tapered roller bearings, which are used in cars.

Placing the wheels at a slight angle improves bike control.

Step 4: Test the front frame.

The front frame for a homemade trike looks pretty good.

Step 5: Welding the components of the homemade cargo bike.

We weld the head tube to the front of the frame.

Step 6: The back of the homemade tricycle.

Next we will start assembling the rear of the cargo bike. The head tube from an old bicycle, welded to a steel pipe, will in turn be welded to the rear of the bicycle. You can see in the photo above that the angle at which the steel tube connects to the head tube is different from the angle on the original bike. This was my second mistake that I made.

At this stage, the homemade cargo trike looks good. But as soon as I tried to ride it, I found that it could hardly turn in any direction. After thinking a little about the reasons for this, I realized that the problem most likely arises from the angle of the head tube.

After riding this tricycle for a while, I realized that I had chosen the worst angle of all possible options. On the Christiania bike the angle is 9.5°, which is the opposite of the standard caster angle on a bicycle.

In addition, by law, pedal-powered vehicles with a width of more than 80 cm require permits. Based on these considerations, I had to slightly reduce the size of the tricycle.

Consequently, the front frame had to be cut, reduced in size and another head tube taken from another old bike.

It turned out just great!

Step 7: Strengthen the back of the trike.

But the back doesn't look strong enough. Therefore, it is necessary to make another steel pipe with fastening.

Step 8: Trike handlebars.

The steering wheel consists of three pipes connected at an angle of 90 degrees. curved rather than straight. This will save space and allow you to sit more upright.

Step 9: Brakes.

To install the brakes, which I took from another old bicycle, I had to bolt a plate with holes to the frame.

Step 10: Completing the frame.

There are two other improvements you can make:

Step 11: Brake Adapter.

But there was still one more issue that needed to be resolved - controlling the two front brakes using one handle. While talking with a friend, he found an interesting solution - an adapter that redistributes the force from one handle simultaneously to two brakes.

You don’t have to make an adapter for the front wheel brakes yourself, but simply buy a “double brake lever.” It is quite cheap and allows you to control two brakes at the same time.

Step 12: Installing the cradle.

And the last thing that should be added is a cradle for transporting the child and things.

Choose the carrycot size according to your needs. The chosen size of the cradle suits me quite well, since I need to transport two children and luggage. Sometimes there can be four children in the cradle with their things. If you don't need that much space, you can make it smaller. Because even with a slight headwind, a large cradle will create noticeable aerodynamic drag. You can first make a mockup out of cardboard. And only after you are completely satisfied with it, move on to the tree.

You will also need to install others.

Step 13: Adjustable Steering Damper.

The last thing that needs improvement on this awesome DIY cargo trike is the addition of an adjustable steering damper. Since it is quite expensive, I made it myself from a spring and a screw tie. I am completely satisfied with his work.

Step 14: Some blueprints for a homemade trike.

M 1 =(D 1 +D 2)/2.3;

The dimensions in the drawings correspond to the actual dimensions of my cargo bike.

We hope that you will be able to make a three-wheeled cargo bike with your own hands. Perhaps you will be able to make your own improvements to the design of the bicycle. Good luck!

How to make a trike
The question of how to make a trike with your own hands arose unexpectedly after a trip to the moto festival Maloyaroslavets 2011. It turns out that making a trike with your own hands is not so difficult. The most difficult thing is to register this miracle of motorcycle construction! However, if you don’t register, then... everything is simpler...
Initially, there was no clear concept of how to make a trike with your own hands and what to make it from.
Three options were come up with how to make a trike with your own hands.
The first option is to make a trike from Zaporozhets. "Constipation" was found. But the option somehow didn’t catch on... It was a pity for “Constipation” and in general...
The second option is to make a trike using an old Zhiguli (Kopeyka). We planned to take the engine, instruments and rear axle. But at the last moment, the owner of the Zhiguli, having learned that the car would be cut up, refused to sell.
The third option is to make a trike from an old Ural motorcycle and a Moskvichevsky bridge.
We ultimately chose this option because of its low cost.
The search for the Moskvichevsky bridge took some time. It turns out there is a shortage. In the end, we found a person who was selling used spare parts for the 412 Muscovite. His garage was being demolished, and he decided not to throw away the parts, but to sell them. Along with the bridge, we also bought a master brake cylinder from Moskvich and all sorts of little things. They brought all this to the garage and began to put together the “puzzle” so that it would look like in the picture - two wheels in the back, one in the front.

Attaching the Moskvichevsky bridge to the Ural frame so that the suspension is not rigid is not an easy task and can be solved in different ways. You can put it on traction rods like a Zhiguli, or you can put it on springs from the same Moskvich, as they did at Irbit when they produced tricycles. We decided to do it like the Zhiguli.

We bought a set of rods and bolts for them, and welded fasteners from a 6x6 square pipe, cutting off one of the walls of the pipe. Then they tried to install car shock absorbers, but then abandoned this idea.

We installed an engine from the Urals. The frame had to be sawed, welded and extended. We lengthened the Ural frame from available material (metal angle and pipes).
From the very beginning, we decided that we would not formalize the Trike or register it in any way. For this reason, we didn’t really worry about the choice or design calculations. We assembled the Trike just to ride through the forests and fields.
The urgent question arose about how to make a cardan transmission. We thought about making a transmission using CV joints, like on front-wheel drive cars. But we realized that in the garage on our knees, we can’t weld the driveshaft like that. Then we decided to use an old-style driveshaft with large splines. We had two Ural cardans. We decided to try to insert these splines of the Ural cardan into the bushing that is inserted into the gearbox (attached to the other side of the cardan). The cardan with large splines fit into the bushing on the second cardan, it turned out like on a VAZ classic - transmission to the rear axle from two cardans. And there is no problem of cardan skew due to the displacement of the axle gearbox towards the center.

The cardan out of the box is almost level (the rubber coupling was left in place), and the second cardan goes to the bridge at a slight angle. The first cardan is mounted on a rubber coupling with a classic suspension bearing, which plays the same role in the car - it holds the cardan.
The diameter of the bearing is larger than the diameter of the Ural cardan, so we took a silent block from the Ural shock absorber, which is inserted into the upper part of the shock absorber, cut it lengthwise, put it on the cardan and, together with the cardan, hammered it into the clutch bearing. Now the cardan rotated with the bearing and the coupling was attached to the frame. On the second cardan we welded a crosspiece from a Moskvich cardan, but here we had to try to make sure everything was in the center.

That's practically all. The rest is as standard! The front fork, fender, six-volt electrics, brake discs on the axle and hydraulics are all original. We also attached the main brake cylinder to the frame and made a drive to the brake pedal, well, this is quite simple.

Everyone knows that for good support you need only three points, but for some reason three-wheeled vehicles are not as common on our roads as four-wheeled cars. Although the first tricycles appeared in the 18th century. It was on such steam engines that it was proposed to transport cannons and heavy weapons for the army.

A homemade tricycle is the transport of many generations.

At one time, tricycles were much more common than their own, but today we don’t often see three-wheeled vehicles on the roads. Photos of trikes - this is the second name for tricycles can be seen on the websites of bikers or car enthusiasts. It is worth noting that a tricycle can be both a type of motorcycle and a type of car, so if you are planning to make a tricycle with your own hands, immediately decide what kind of tricycle you imagine.

Of course, before building a trike with your own hands, you should study in detail the operating principle of such a vehicle and have drawings. You can make the drawings yourself if you have the necessary education and good knowledge of the operation of all components. But if you don’t have such skills, and you really want to create a homemade trike, you can find ready-made drawings of homemade trikes that other craftsmen have designed.

By the way, you can watch videos of tricycles that you made with your own hands as garage Kulibins on remodeling sites or YouToube, where videos of testing garage inventions are posted.

DIY trikes: where to start

Donors for a tricycle can be any kind of vehicle, but the most often collected is a tricycle from the Ural or a tricycle from IZH.

In this option, you have to do the least amount of modifications, because the motorcycle base is most suitable for trikes.

Many people make Ural and ZAZ trikes with their own hands, putting these two vehicles together.

The first stage of work on the trike is the creation of the frame and rear axle. The axle can be attached to the frame using rods, similar to VAZ cars, or mounted on springs, as is done in Moskvichi. Naturally, the frame will have to be extended, but this is easy to do with the help of pipes and profiles. If you are planning to make a homemade trike from the Ural with your own hands, almost everything will remain original - the fork, brake discs, hydraulics, fender, etc. By the way, such homemade tricycles look good in the chopper style with elongated forks and a low seat. On the Internet you can see photos of tricycles -

Re> due to the design, it is impossible to place the motor in the middle of the wheel (the axis is in the middle of the motor)

As always, the main dilemma of trike construction is that the motor behind the axle causes “swinging”, the motor in front of the axle (and especially in front of the pilot) causes a poorly predictable (and often progressive) lean to one side in a turn.

The motor is across - understandably, a refusal for aesthetic reasons.

And the axis is in the middle of the motor. Look, for example, at the all-wheel drive BMW Xs. Axle shafts from the middle of the engine sump and a gearbox as part of the sump are good food for thought.

As an example.

But here is the second option (here in relation to a mid-engine car - the drive principle)

In your version (as I understand, you are going to make wheel gearboxes to coordinate the direction of rotation and, possibly, speed for the use of large wheels), perhaps it makes sense to have such a design (transmitting torque by a chain or toothed belt).

This design is much simpler to manufacture (less precision is required, adjustment is always possible) than a conventional custom-made gear reducer and will allow you to move the axis to any convenient place, and at the same time lower the motor down as much as possible. A chain here will be better than a belt, a multi-row with a small pitch will be better than a single-row with a large one - reducing the dimensions of the diameters of the stars/pulleys, but it is advisable to confirm all decisions with calculations). And the engine on a trike “back to front” looks the most beautiful.

If it's not a secret, post a sketch with your solution for gearboxes.

Re> For a trike, placing the engine in front of the rider is almost unrealistic

However, this doesn’t bother the Americans - they don’t care about handling, safety, etc. - show-off is above all!

Yes, there is little that bothers them at all.

Very interesting idea with chains! In the first option (motor in front of the rear axle), my reduction was done precisely due to the chains, they calculated, drew, began to sharpen and then the concept changed (I received advice from a well-known DIYer)

In this version, I abandoned the chain due to the fact that I needed to change the rotation of the wheels to the reverse with a decrease. Your option is very tricky! To be honest, if you had given me such an idea earlier, I probably would have brought it to life. It’s just that I’ve been looking for a designer for gearboxes for a month, developed a concept, then drawings, now I’ll sew that the gearbox already exists (although the manufacturers are actually twisting their arms!) But the fact that chains will be many times cheaper than gearboxes is a fact. I considered the issue with the X-5 3-liter engine with a 245 hp gearbox (I had one, bought it broken, changed the spar, I know the engine.) But I refused because of its initial high cost (7-10 t.e. assembled with box) and it is very large and heavy + it is all electronic. And the Audi engine is 198 hp. + box + everything to start it including tank, tidy, wiring, electronics - 2 t.e. and no immobilizers!

The chain has a couple of disadvantages: 1-two-row is definitely weak and 2-it is not sealed, which will require the manufacture of a bulky case, which will entail an expansion of the base. (with 24 wheels I barely pass the standards and I still have to go through classification) But if you use an in-line engine and a different suspension (I settled on the front one from the T-4 assembly), then it may well work out, but with chains from motorcycles in 2-3 rows or timing belt.