GTR 1400 Trike in South Wales

[Richard]

Quick pick showing trike in its new dedicated room, which is not finished yet, doors to build etc but you get the idea.
I am lucky enough to own a Chapel with cottage attached - these are found in Wales and a few in Cornwall I am told, so we live in the cottage and the Chapel which later was used as the village Hall with a stage and raised seating etc, and then DHSS offices for about 20 years is my workshop, loads of space to fill up with boys toys 

[Richard]

As you can see I have pulled it apart a bit, my excuse is it was raining so I couldn't go out on it 

From my riding so far there are a few things I want to sort: -
Back brakes don't do enough for my liking, these are Ford Granada / Sierra calipers and disks operated from the original master cylinder. I know on a bike the back brakes only do about 20% of the braking, but on this I have a lot more rubber on the ground and more weight so the back can do more. After some reading on caliper piston sizes etc etc I decided to start by fitting different pads.
The ones on it were std Mintex, and they have a coefficient of 0.42, I have bought some EBC greenstuff pads which have a coefficient of 0.55, the higher the number the more "bite" they have, I am told this change of 0.13 will make a big difference (the scale only goes from 0 - 1, 0 = no friction, 1 = total grip)

The back lights were strange round wedge shaped things, looked ok but didn't produce much light, also white light out the sides and no reflector  so I am fitting new units.
As you can see from the phone camera flash, the reflectors work well, should get it all back together tonight.

[O.C.]

Richard you can never have a big enough garage, I love my Rev Shed, in fact I might sell the house and go and live out there one day 

I understand that the bias for trike brakes should pretty much be the opposite to that on bikes i.e bikes would be heavily biased towards the front whereas a trike should have the same bias towards the rear brakes, otherwise the trike would be dangerous and basically wouldn't steer under braking

The new rear lights should give better lighting as well.

Does the trike have a reverse gear fitted and what about a parking brake, how does it work when the machine is parked up ?

[Richard]

Richard you can never have a big enough garage, I love my Rev Shed, in fact I might sell the house and go and live out there one day 

I understand that the bias for trike brakes should pretty much be the opposite to that on bikes i.e bikes would be heavily biased towards the front whereas a trike should have the same bias towards the rear brakes, otherwise the trike would be dangerous and basically wouldn't steer under braking

The new rear lights should give better lighting as well.

Does the trike have a reverse gear fitted and what about a parking brake, how does it work when the machine is parked up ?

Hi

"you can never have a big enough garage" - that is very true, no matter how much space you have the work expands to fill it, Hall is 26' x 64' inside, and looks full, mainly due to the lack of a sort out and buying big things 

If the pads don't help enough I will see if there are alternative calipers / disks that will go on.
Due to the linked brakes and electronics, abs etc I doubt much can be changed on the bike side of things.

No reverse, just remember not to park facing downhill against a pavement etc, much like a bike.
I have got stuck once, thankfully it is easier to push than a bike, it does not fall over!!

Handbrake is cable operated on the caliper, but only on one wheel and  - also on my "todo" list 

Richard

[Richard]

Hi

New back lights all finished, and I fitted 4 of these
http://www.bikevis.com/motorcycle-led-running-lights.html
on the top of each wing, they are nice and small with a good light, definitely get us seen.
Not been out in the dark yet, they may be too bright at night so I will have to fit an easy to reach switch to dim them down a bit.

New back pads fitted, checked the callipers over while they were off, all nice and clean.
The back wheel braking is much better.
I am not sure if its all down to the new pads, the old ones were not very worn but the faces were contaminated with a fair amount of ingrained rust, probably as a result of infrequent use, this may have affected them

[O.C.]

Choosing pads with suitable friction material may prove to be a bit trial and error Richard, its good to hear that you now have some which are providing better braking performance.

If the old pads were contaminated then that's almost certainly going to impair their performance.

[Richard]

Hi

New rear lights fitted, huge improvement over the originals and 4 x Bike Vis V2 LED lights on the top of each wing to make it all look wider and get the wings noticed.

[O.C.]

Now that's a big improvement 

[Richard]

Hi

Weather forecast says its going to rain all week  , so I have pulled it apart again ....

Back brakes are much better after fitting the EBC pads, but I still feel there is room for improvement, so I have ordered new bigger disks, 253mm on it now, biggest I can get without changing hubs and all sorts of grief is 273mm so will start there and see how it feels.
Disk are straight swap, but need to move the callipers out 10mm, found a local company who will water jet cut 2 new mounting plates out of 8mm Stainless Steel for £40 cash 

Also removed the drive shaft, this is the modified original shaft with a Ford Sierra universal joint at the diff end. This is OK but the man who built it did not fit a sliding joint which is bad practise, and the spline joint on the back of the gearbox is suffering as result. Gong to see a man tomoz who i hope can rebuild the shaft with a sliding joint, pics to follow

Richard

[shaggs147]

Blimey Richard this must be costing you a fortune! Hope the Mrs understands.
Good luck mate and get yer ass out on it soon, rain or shine, else before you know it the bloody snow will be back! You're not made of sugar, so you won't dissolve and neither will the trike 

[Richard]

Blimey Richard this must be costing you a fortune! Hope the Mrs understands.
Good luck mate and get yer ass out on it soon, rain or shine, else before you know it the bloody snow will be back! You're not made of sugar, so you won't dissolve and neither will the trike 

Yea the Mrs is very understanding.

I don't do rain  and neither does my trike, the whole purpose of buying it was to have fun and enjoy it, and that does not include getting wet, that's why I have booked us all a stunning summer   

[Richard]

Prop shaft back from the specialist.
As I knew and he confirmed it was not straight, and the lack of a telescopic section would have been causing issues as the frame flexed under the stress put on it by hitting bumps, accelerating etc
So it has a new back joint and spring loaded telescopic section and is straight and true, refitted over the weekend.

New plates to hold the calipers were cut wrong so waiting now for them to try again 

[O.C.]

I'm sure the sliding coupling will not only relieve strain on the whole drive train Richard but should also very much improve the bike from a riding perspective. Let us know if it's improved   

[shaggs147]

Nice one Richard. Sounds like someone did a conversion to get the trike up and running and now you're sorting it properly. I would imagine that the prop would've caused a lot of vibration in its original state and now it'll feel like a different bike.

[Richard]

Hi

Finished the brakes, 273mm disks have made a big difference, well happy with the back brakes now, reasonable pressure on the pedal will get the ABS kicking in and the linked brakes etc bringing the front brake into action, hit them both and it stops very quickly, hurts your arms 

New drive shaft is smooth, vibrations at 55 - 60 all gone.

New handbrake cables all fitted, works well but need a bit more travel in the lever so its off and in bits now, cut new plates for it tonight, will weld it back together tomoz if I get out of work on time.

Did 100 miles or so on Sunday in the sun, great fun.

Nice one Richard. Sounds like someone did a conversion to get the trike up and running and now you're sorting it properly. I would imagine that the prop would've caused a lot of vibration in its original state and now it'll feel like a different bike.

90% of it has been done very well, but the prop shaft was bad, and I am not happy with the drive shafts but they can wait till its off the road in the winter.