Front Wheel Drive Recumbent with Underbar Steering

Having previously worked in the bike business I have owned (still own) a number of different bikes. However, one of my favorites was a Vison R40 with short wheelbase and underbar steering. Sadly, when we moved from Florida to West Virginia, we had to sell off the things that didn't pack well into the small moving van we rented, so the Vision found a new home.

My wife has been wanting another recumbent for several years now. However, given the current state of the economy and the lack of a bike employee discount, I was reluctant to go out and spent that kind of money. Then, I read the Instructable for Chuck's no weld recumbent and was inspired.

So, I set out to design my own front wheel drive recumbent, tapping the resources I had on hand.

Step 1 Step One: Find Donors

Since my friends and family know that I have an affinity for bikes, they are constantly gifting me with old bikes and parts. Out of the small cache of bikes I found 2 likely donors. The first was a Canadian version of the Schwinn Stingray made by CCM and the other was a GT Dyno freestyle bike (similar to the ones pictured here).

I chose the CCM as the main platform primarily because it was a mixte frame. A mixte frame is essentially a regular frame, but with two smaller top tubes. In addition to being free, but it is a bit stronger than a normal frame, plus the arrangement of the top tubes gave me a platform for the seat, as you'll see.

Comments

[brgt40]

Very interesting post.  I have several questions:

What $50 welding kit does Lowe's sell?  

Are you talking about Bernzomatic oxy and mapp/propane kit?

If so, did you use the Bernzomatic rods?  

How long did the oxy/fuel last?

I am confused about the underseat steering.   Is the steering block directly connected to the bottom of the steering tube so that the handlebars are relocated there.  If this is so, the handlebars would swing like a tiller.  That would be the same action as when located above but it seems that that action would be exaggerated when done from below.  How did the relocation work out?

[briansrapier]

Yes, that is exactly the kit. The O2 lasted about 20-30 minutes. I went through 8-9 bottles of O2 and just a smidge over 1 bottle of MAP gas. I got better results using the brass rods with the flux coating rather than the flux core ones at Lowes. The Lowes rods had a tendency to lump up rather than flow into the weld. The steering is simply a 1" BMX stem flipped over and inserted into the bottom of the fork. I tried a couple of different stems and the BMX one seemed to work the best. If I had to do it again, I'd probably use a high rise stem to gain some clearance on the down tube. Since the stem I used has a short reach, even though it is turned backwards, I don't find it to be tiller like at all. The most difficult part of riding the recumbent is to stabilize when pedaling hard. Since the bike is front wheel drive it has a tendency to wander a little under hard pedaling if you don't brace the handlebars well enough. I thought about doing a rear-steer recumbent to overcome this, but discarded the idea since it would likely be more difficult to control.

[brgt40]

Thanks. I suppose you purchased the flux coated rods from a welding store. I will have to try those rods. I go through the 02 very quickly. I've tried preheating with propane/air then switching to mapp/O2 to save O2. If this were a more pressing need, I would move up to traditional O2 tank w/regulator. I would have to jury-rig an adapter though. If I find a good used oxy/acetylene set-up and make a way to have it pay for itself!

[briansrapier]

I found the flux rods at a local ACE Hardware store when I was looking for other parts. I started the torch using MAP, then added in the O2 slowly. I never tried to preheat, but maybe next time. I have a few other ideas I;d like to attempt this fall.

[macrumpton]

It looks like a promising project, but I find myself wondering what the bike looks like in the daytime.

[briansrapier]

I'll work on getting some better pictures this summer. The project was done under the veil of secrecy as it was a birthday present for my wife. The work was primarily performed in my barn using a 100 watt incandescent bulb as my work light, hence the poor photographs of the completed project. Plus, the camera on my cell phone simply sucks...