Reliant Trike Project

I started this project more years ago than I will admit to, it was to be a short, low, safe and good handling trike. It will be capable of carrying four people, it will be a tight fit with three in the back, but if they are not to big it should be okay.

NOTE: All pictures open in a new window when clicked on.

I have no pictures of the Reliant before stripping it down and no pictures of the frame work before this stage.

The reson for the double rollcage is simple, a couple of years before I started building this, I crashed head-on into a car in another trike I had built. The wife and kids were on it at the time, no one was injured except me, I broke a pinky and a big toe, we had a lucky escape. However I was aware what could have happened if the accident had happened slightly differently, and I decided that I would put them in a more secure cage. Cage doesn't sound right but I think you know what I mean.

I had no real plan or to be precise design for this trike apart for the afore mentioned - short, low, safe and good handling - it really just took shape as I held bits of tube up to it. Before I new it I had built the frame. The roll bars were actually left over tubes that I had bent-up from a previous job.

I new it would have leading link type forks since I have built/used a few of these before, and they work really well on trikes. The front wheel is off of an Audi I think, not too sure, I bought it from a local scrappy, and just liked the look of it. Not sure if I will keep it on the finished version of the trike though.

I like triangulation it makes things really stiff and strong and I incorperated it into the Reliant's standard chasis which was in good condition when I stripped the Reliant down.

I wanted to have easy access to the engine/gearbox and decided to do-away with the traditional front down tube(s) and tank tube and ended up with the setup you see in the pictures.

The rear wheels are 13" steel weller, that I bought from the local tyre fitter. They have a Ford Escort stud patern, different to the Reliant pitch, I didn't want to drill out the wheels so I made up a 20mm thick circular spacer with both wheel stud pitchs ie. eight holes on each spacer, 4 Reliant pitch, 4 Ford. These spacers and wider wheels should also help with the road holding/handling, especially compaired to the standard Reliant.

The dash again just came into being without much effort or planning, however I must admit I do like the way the carb and bellmouth cut through it.

I have made a fair bit of progress to the trike since I took these pictures however I moved it to a mates shed to give me more room to work on other bikes. I do plan to post updated pictures in the next few weeks/months/years, shit who knows, hopefully soon.

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