building a 3 wheeler from, well, scratch and an engine ((first post))

[cabi3]

So, hello to 3WW.

I found your site when doing about 4 hours of research on a honda atc70, which i kinda fell in love with. bookmarked and such.
then forgot about it, a couple weeks later i keep thinking, hmm, those trikes are lovely, if only i could warrant a reason for owning/riding on the road legally one. and that day someone said "According to the news, we are due snow, November to August" i looked at him aghast! horrific news, now normally I ride low key custom styled bikes, nothing ott, and am soon getting on my new german mz.

(to clarify, i live across the pond, in the sunny isle of Britain.)

and i thought: ATC meet snow tires. snow tires meet motherload of ice and snow

but then i looked into road registering an atc, and it looks difficult, hard even, due to weird English law, and their age.

so i thought, i want an off road style trike, for riding in ice, snow and heavy rain. i cant feasibly get one road-regged, but i can make one. from scratch, to my spec of how i want it.

this will not be a bike that all my mates will coo over and go, look it makes a loud noise and goes REALLY FAST, in fact i don't predict ever going over 40 on it on the road. it's aim is to be a functional vehicle which will allow me to get about whether snow or half foot of ice. In England, everything stops for the snow, and i hate not being able to go on a bike in the ice, as you really just shoulden't, not a design feature of bikes: manageable in the snow/ice.

i hope to pinch most of the frame shaping from big red to fit a manual upright 125/150 engine in,

so i mean really what and how i want the bike is such:

low-ish bhp (10-15) engine, with little torque as on snow, i don't want to be spinning the back end, or wheelieing, and power for my aim is not necessary
longer frame to take a (sensible pillion) and house a
huge leisure battery, enough to power very strong lamps and other things
heavy duty snow tyres, that are easy to bolt on/off for switching to another set of "road" wheels
quiet noise
carry racks (ideally similar to big red)
reliable rough weather performance performance: cold starting engine, rich fuel mixture, good airbox with an inlet that is located cleverly, high exhaust exit
front and back good-for-snow suspension, which, (hard for me to admit) im not all that sure on whether it should be softer/harder than the norm


so on that: my real reason for posting is to ask if anyone has a host of pictures of the 250 big red frame, on its own, so i can nab shapes and such. but then i realised i can run over my thoughts with some of the most knowledged people in this subject.
also to ask the really important question of: am i overestimating the handling capabilities of the trike for what i want it for?

anyhow, danke for reading my extensive brain-splurge.
Cabi3

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Well, I dont have any of the pics you are looking for. But welcome to 3WW!

[cabi3]

ooh you have a big red, any chance you have a little bit of knowledge on "big red plus ice"?

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Actually, I just brought it home yesterday. I dont really do alot of 3 or 4-wheeling in the snow as we get quite a bit here in central New York State. I reserve the snow/ice duty for my Ski-Doo's.

If i were to set up for snow and ice, I would use a good general purpose, soft compound tire and if allowed, stud them. Ice studs for ATV tires can be bought fairly cheap, about a dollar or so a piece depending on what you want and how many.

Some rear wheel spacers to widen your rear wheel stance would do good in the handling/stability area as well.

Suspension wise, its not a huge deal unless you plan on getting into ice racing.

[Jason125m]

Will be following this build. Will be interesting! Goodluck =)

[cabi3]

this build is maybe far into the future, but if i do do it, expect lots of detail, hmmm seeing as im going to have to build an axle, and we are planning only for the snow, how wide is too wide?
the big red, is only my inspiration at this point.

[Stonewall]

Will these pics help any? Unfortunatly I don't have any good ones of just the frame...



I would think you wouldn't want to be much more than 120cm wide with tires.

[cabi3]

120cm? that seems rather large, but what measurement are you talking of?

[Stonewall]

I have heard that most public trails over here (I only ride on private land) aren't big enough for anything wider than 50 inches (127 cm), so that is what I was going by. I believe some members use 3 inch spacers on their Big Reds for more stability, but I don't know what the stock width of the axle is. I'll try to remember to measure one for you later.

[atc350xer]

Keep in mind that the 250 Big Red is shaft driven. I would think a 185s would be a better starting point. You can get racks for them, '83 and up have front suspension, they are very reliable, and being chain driven, the gear ratios are adjustable.

[cabi3]

the big red is simply a look and style i want, i know this will be chain driven, and the style of engine will most likely be nothing like most of the atc's out there, im going for low torque as low torque is harder to lose out on ice, as im not building this for off roading hilarity, more as a safe snow vehicle that i can get on the road and will hit ice, snow and tarmac happily.