Jackshaft oopsie sorted & my new front rims built, this time indexed out (spoke/hub alignment) as much as safely possible to widen the front wheelbase width & gained just a lil over 3/4" (10mm each side = 0.39"x2 = 20mm or 0.78"). The thing was rock stable in turns already, but every lil bit helps & they'd originally been built indexed centered, typical for bicycles.
Dragged the thing outside into a balmy 30°F "spring" morning, I started out doing laps in the lot at 5:30am, tiring of the NASCAR action & everything seeming to be holding together I took off down the road to the corner inconvenience store to grab a cawfee and ran into a problem...
...I didn't get my cawfee till almost an hour later, I made it
to the store just fine, never made in the door as apparently the public finds this thing somewhat interesting, I hadn't even managed to shut her down and had the store clerk, a random customer & a cop all eyeballin' every inch & askin' a billion questions while I was trying to clean the windsnot off my face... well 'cept the cop whom just nodded, said "nice" with a smile & wandered off to do whatever law officers do 6am Easter Sunday lol
About an hour & a half later (one small cawfee?) I was left w/a dilemma, I didn't really want to head off to parts unknown with a test vehicle but I really didn't feel like doing anymore lot laps & after some musing decided it was time to take the back road I always use for shakedown & speed runs, hilly & twisty but with pavement that's mostly ok I've a friend that lives around the halfway point in case Murphy attacks... a touch early for a surprise visit maybe, but I didn't think they'd mind.
It's quite a rush riding this thing, feet first & ass less than a foot off the ground I'm comfy but disconcerted and even pedal speeds feels like mach 1, starting out with a long but gentle uphill grade the lil 49cc four stroke & electric worked in harmony even while I tried to figure out which gear range worked best for the incline. Clearing the hill top the road goes into a coupla gentle curves, a mild downhill & then another long uphill, this one no joke it gets gradually steeper & it drops my 66cc two smokers down to 15mph, my ebike to about 11 (if I don't help) - but the hybrid tadpole shrugged it off & maintained 20 to 25mph all the way up, which may not sound amazing - but then again
none of my two smokers could manage that, not even my geared & built "fast" one, the torque advantage of both the electric and the four stroke really coming into play on hills, the takeoff acceleration from a stop impressive as well.
A couple more unremarkable hills, a few more twisties and I found myself at the turn to my friends house, the turn drops right into a short but crazy steep downhill, the one I blame for so many burned out tires as I try to slow at the base to cut into my friend's driveway - no worries with the taddy as the front discs work wonderfully well, doubled up as they are with the two front wheels n'all... but it was getting back up it from a near dead stop that gave me pause as
no bike I've built can take that monster, every single one requires me to stand on the pedals & pedaling as furiously hard as I can just to make it to the top.
Ah well I figured, I'll chill w/my friend and see what happens & after some time shootin' the bull & checkin' the ride over for problems it was time to try - and after making a big deal about how "I might not make it up, don't worry", crossing my fingers & hoping I wasn't about to smoke the ehub or pop the four smoker I dropped her down into low/low range and...
...trucked right on up that hill like nobody's business, I didn't even pedal a stroke! Stunned I sat at the intersection at the top for a moment thinking "did that just happen?" & chuckling, shifted into cruse range & took off, still laughing to myself, my foolishness & what to all appearances seems like a successful build FTW
Not that the tinkerin' is over ofc, not by a long shot I'd just doubled width in rims, lightly wider wheelbase and while the results were amazing with no sidewall flex or rollover, I've still got to adjust the alignment as it's only eyeballed & I'm scrubbing, which makes it a lil twitchy, drags down my speed & wears the fronts - given that and my "testing phase" heeby-jeebys, not to mention this is the first tadpole recumbent, or any recumbent I've ever ridden, I didn't exceed 30mph... which again as it's just a 49cc four stroke really isn't bad at all (e assist konks out at about 25), she had more but I wasn't ready for that yet, time enough for speed tests after I weld my rear brake caliper mount on & sort the alignment.
Still, a good day indeed lol;
new rims:
vs old:
Out n'about at last;
Sorry, no vids at all this time - although had the cam & tripod with me I was so preoccupied it just didn't happen, I'm sure ya'll understand heh