Quadcycle from 1987 Named “Carmichael”

Reaching back a ways here is a custom built pedal powered side by side quadcycle featured on a local TV station.

Unfortunately the video quality is not very good, but you can get the general idea of what this man made so many years ago. I have no idea if it was the first side by side quad ever made.

Here is the video description:

From the VHS video library of Steven K. Roberts comes this local news report of a mid 80s built side by side quadcycle. According to the piece this was designed and build by Norm Ogle with help from Peter Johnson.

If I were a younger man and not having the physical issues I have now in my elderly years I would be fabricating various tadpole trikes and quads. I made one tadpole trike back in 2007 and I was already challenged somewhat with vision problems then.

Lastly, my thanks to Gary Solomon of Laidback Bike Report for giving his permission to share this video from his YouTube channel.

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HOMEMADE TRIKE AND QUAD FROM THE LAND “DOWN UNDER”

I received an email from Hector Alberto who is from Australia and is a reader of this blog. He sent links to some YouTube videos of the tadpole trike and quad he has built. I am sharing them here for the world to see.

trike & quad ride on trails:

e-assist quad:

quad ride to park:

I wrote back to Hector asking him if he would send some pictures and share anything about his homemade trike and quad he cared to. Here is his reply:

The trike frame Is made of aluminium and lots of bolts.

For the steering system I’ve used the cheap 17mm ATV stub axle found on eBay and its respective end rod bolts (I was trying to understand how steering works in real).

I want to mention that with those pieces it was easy to make adjustments about angles related with the Ackerman law.

I used 20” BMX front plastic wheels. The original axle and bearings have been replaced by high rpm bearings to fit on the ATV stub axle.

The handlebars were attached using a 90 degree metal bracket between the stub axle and the handlebars. In general the trike use to work fine, but eventually the brake system mounted on the aluminium frame just fell apart.

Front sprocket 42t, freewheel 3 speeds

This picture shows the quad frame standing up when I was painting it.

I decided to go with a quad in order to help my wife bring our son along with her. The Quad measurements are 185cm long X 85cm wide. Yes, it is really a compact size when one takes into consideration that there are two people travelling on it. It has a COASTER BRAKE in the left rear wheel and the right rear wheel has an electric hub motor and a 160mm disc brake system. The quad  is single speed. It has no front wheel brakes.

The trike conversion kits are so expensive in Australia, so I’ve been hunting for a used one. I got one old tricycle for Au$40.  It came with one wheel traction (left one). Once I cut off the back part of the tricycle I went to a friend who welded it as I required. It includes a bottom bracket shell (found it as well on eBay).

The quad frame is using the same steering system as the trike.

The electric hub motor wheel is a 250w 36v “front wheel” for bicycles. It is mounted in the rear right side of the quad. This configuration allows the use either of the rear wheel power drives individually. When the rear wheel with pedal power loses traction you can put extra power in the electric hub motor wheel just by using the manual throttle as needed.

The average travel speed 15-20km/hr. Max speed tested with 98kg aprox., 27km/hr. Realistically, this is not a fast machine but it works excellent for the purpose; plus, my wife and my son love it.

I hope this help others to improve their designs.

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MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

I put together this video for this occasion.  It is a compilation of images of recumbent trikes out in the snow … riding in a winter wonderland. Merry  Christmas to each and everyone of you. May you truly know and embrace the reason for the season.

UTAH TRIKES CUSTOM SUNSEEKER ECO QUAD WITH 1600 WATT MID DRIVE MOTOR

Utah Trikes is known for their customization services. Here is one of their projects. With 1600 watts there is plenty of power. Along with all that power is plenty of noise … something I find quite objectionable. I guess it doesn’t bother some people.

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4 WHEEL DRIVE REAR SUSPENSION ELECTRIC MOTOR ASSIST FAT TIRE QUAD

What more could you want in an off road human powered vehicle? This beauty is nearly unstoppable. It is an L Trike  or Camel Trike made in China and sold from China thru ZZMERCK (Zhengzhou Merck). I find their media coverage a bit confusing. One place they call it an L Trike and another place they call it a Camel Trike. It is not even a trike so I don’t know why they would call it either one. Googling “L Trike” turns up nothing, but Googling “camel trike” gets results. It doesn’t come cheap … $7500-$8500. It looks nice, but I don’t trust the quality of Chinese products. Hopefully this is well made. I will say though that this trike is definitely complex in its design which translates into … “there is a whole lot of stuff that could go wrong and cause problems”.

I said it is rear suspension and it is, but at first I thought it was full suspension, but after taking a closer look at it I guess it is not.This quad weighs approximately 110 pounds (50kg) so it is not light. The wheels are laced rather uniquely. Although I have seen this before I don’t think it is all that common. They are laced only on the inside of the rim. No spokes attach to the other side. This is covered in one of the videos further below.

The one thing I noticed is that the cables are hanging way down low where they could easily snag of lots of stuff riding off road. They created lots of road clearance only to place the cables way down low. That makes no sense! I see it all the time on people’s trikes. Some people just don’t seem to care about such things even if you point it out to them. I wonder if they would change their tune if a drooping cable ruined their day causing a bad wreck. At the very least it could cause serious damage to the cable and possibly other things.

4×4 Fat Tire Recumbent Quad

Model/Price: Model: MF426E, Price: US $7,500-8,500

Website: http://zzmerck.com/products/recumbenttrike/2017-09-28/398.html

Brief description: four-wheel drive system, aluminum alloy 6061 frame, Vee 26×4.8 tire, DNM air spring suspension, SRAM11 speed, 500w mid drive motor, 48v 20ah lithium battery, climbing angle more than 35 degrees. For All Challenging Terrain!

SPECS:
Transmission system     
Front derailleur: Sram NX11
Rear derailleur: Sram NX11

Drive system   
Crankset: Flywheel crankset
Flywheel: Sram NX11 11 speed 11-42T
Chain: Miche 11 speed
Chain tube: Nylon
Pedal: Exustar clipless pedals
Novatec bearing secondary drive hub
Customs Aluminum alloy 7075 secondary drive
Fouriers chainring
Customs power divider
Customs shaft, hub, shaft hub, cardan

Brake system    
Front brake: Avid E3 hydraulic disc brake
Rear brake: BB7 disc brake

Wheel system 
Rim: Alloy
Spokes: 304 stainless steel
Tires: Vee 26-4.8 foldable tires
Front hub: Novatec customs hub
Rear hub: Customs shaft hub

Suspension system
DNM air spring suspension (double chamber)

Electric system
48v 500w mid drive motor
48v 20ah lithium battery

Light system
Led headlight

Frame: Aluminum alloy 6061 T6
Seat: Nylon mesh

No way could I do this on my tadpole trike. I would find myself in a real predicament. This quad goes right up it …

 

The next video definitely demonstrates that it is all wheel drive …

This next video is suppose to be a demonstration of the quad riding thru snow, but there is very little snow on the ground so it isn’t much of a test. A standard trike with standard tires could go thru most of the snow shown, but probably not all the uneven ground, etc. as there would be traction problems  …

The next 4 videos are about the design and bulld of the quad. You may have to pause them to read the English captions in order to follow what is being said.

That is a lot of money to lay down to attempt some off road fun, but hey, if you have it to spend you might as well go for it. You can’t take the money with you when life is over. BTW, you can’t take the trike with you either. We can only enjoy them here in this life … so do your best to …

KEEP ON TRIKIN’

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CHINESE KNOCKOFFS

Would you buy a brand new “Catrike”

like this for about half price?

China has long been known for blatantly illegally copying products of others and selling them … often on the black market … at least many years ago. But today they are so bold as to even display a picture of the real McCoy with manufacturer’s name clearly displayed on it. Those who don’t know any better might be deceived and go ahead purchasing the item thinking they are getting a really great deal. Of course, what they get is altogether different. It may look somewhat the same externally, but the components used are el cheapo. And I am pretty sure that even externally there would be some obvious differences in the trike you would receive. Here is an example of what I am talking about. I think this is a picture of an older model (2012 or earlier) Catrike Trail trike. It is the non-folding “space frame” design (my favorite). As you can see it has the Catrike name shown clearly on it. I think sells for about $1200, but I am not sure of that as they don’t show the prices on their website. I have emailed them to ask what the price is, but they haven’t answered back. Anyway, that is less than half price of what Catrike sells their trike for today. I would think that the Chinese businesses involved in this illegal knockoff production would at least take a couple of minutes with a photo editing program and remove the manufacturer’s name from the picture they use. Better yet, why not just use a picture of the trike they are building and selling? Here is the Chinese website (one of them) where this is found:
http://www.made-in-china.com/…/hot-chi…/Recumbent_Trike.html

And here is the specific trike’s webpage:
http://www.made-in-china.com/…/China-New-Design-Hot-Sale-Re…
I know Catrike is aware of this, if for no other reason than the fact that I emailed them about it several years ago when I first discovered it.

Does this not look like an ICE FULLFAT trike? It is another Chinese knockoff they are selling. No doubt it would probably look a lot like the ICE FULLFAT trike. Again, they don’t show any prices so I have no idea what they are charging for it. I am sure it is quite cheap especially when compared to the cost of a real ICE FULLFAT trike (about $5000 for the base model).

I wrote an article about another Chinese FAT trike. It is shown in the picture above. As far as I know it is not a knockoff though. It is a “mini-fat” … that is it has 20 inch FAT tires all the way around instead of 26 inch. It certainly is cheap … $1,460.93 total which includes shipping ($950 for trike & $510.93 for shipping).

Alibaba is another well known Chinese website selling lots of different Chinese made products. They show the prices and as far as I know are legitimate … they just sell cheaply made trikes like the FAT trike I wrote about and linked to above. I have not seen any advertised that I identified as a knockoff.

https://www.alibaba.com/trade/search?fsb=y&IndexArea=product_en&CatId=1204&SearchText=tadpole+trike

The prices are definitely cheap, but the shipping costs are pretty high so the total cost isn’t as attractive as it starts out.

So … back to my original question … would you buy one of these Chinese knockoffs to save money? I don’t think I could do it. I could probably buy one of the other Chinese trikes though. It is just the knockoffs that I don’t think I could deal with. Well, I don’t have any money to buy any of them anyway so I won’t concern myself with it. I am happy I was able to get the real McCoy and it continues to serve me well year after year. I do really miss my 2009 space frame though. I always …

ENJOY THE RIDE!

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PODRIDE VELOCAR

Another new velocar is attempting to be birthed into the market place. It’s a cute little thing called a Podride. HERE is their website. Both a 3 wheel version and a 4 wheel version are planned. It will be available with or without electric pedal assist.

They have a StartUp Campaign and a YouTube Channel.

Their website states that they hope to have their product available in Canada and the United States by late 2017 … first in a non-motorized quad and soon to follow a motorized trike.

2 wheel drive above, single wheel drive below

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FATCAT … SOUNDS GOOD TO ME

That’s a FAT CAT (& I know one when I see one)

(The question is “is it real or photoshopped?”

The head doesn’t look right … too small)

But hey, I am not here to talk about kitty cats. While out riding my tadpole trike recently I got to thinking about the fact that Catrike seems always to be slow to bring out models that other manufacturers have offered for years. One thing I can say is that when Catrike finally does offer such models they seem always to be superior to those offered by their competitors. Call me biased if you want, but I think this is a true statement. As I was riding along thinking about some of the models Catrike has come out with … their most recent being the Dumont … a full suspension model … it came to me that fat tire tadpole trikes have become quite popular and Catrike has not yet come out with a FATCAT model. There … I named it for them. There is only one problem. Utah Trikes already offers their quad and trike fat tire models they sell which they have named FAT CAT 4 and FAT CAT 3, respectively.

They use a Catrike Villager model as the base for these 3 and 4 wheel models. They offer gobs of options some of which can get very expensive, but hey, the end product is sure nice.

So anyway, Catrike may not be able to use that name. If not, it is too bad, as I think it would have made a great name for a fat tadpole trike model which they would produce (and I assume they will eventually come out with). All I can say is HERE KITTY KITTY! Bring it on Catrike. I sure hope you can name it “FATCAT“. I like that name.

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ALL ABOUT BIKES (AND TRIKES)

I recently came across a webpage I found interesting and decided to share it here on my blog. It is part of a website of GOPBC.org (Georgia Organization of Parents of Blind Children). The title of it is “All About Bikes – for Parents of Visually Impaired Children“.

They write: “A much more detailed article about a great many cycling options for visually impaired and other special needs children and also a lot of information of general interest about unusual bikes, trikes, etc. There are lots of photos … “

Here are the contents:

Introduction
Safety First
Conventional Bikes vs. Recumbents
Common Bike Designs: Touring, Mountain, Hybrid
Suspension: Solid, Hardtail, Full
Child Carriers & Child Trailers
Tandems: Conventional & Specialized
“Active Trailers”; Trail-a-Bikes, Tag-Alongs and Similar Solutions
Passive Trailers for Kids & Utility Trailers
More Unique Tandem Bikes: Child Sized, Side-by-Side, Back-to-Back, etc.
Trikes for Kids
Trikes for Adults
Tandem Trikes and Convertible Trikes
Special Needs Setups including Wheelchair / Bike Tandem Combinations
Quad Bikes: 4 wheels for 1, 2, 3, and passengers
Truly Long Bikes: Inline options for 3, 4, 5, and even 6 passengers
Kiddie Cranks, S & S Couplers, and various unique bikes
The Biggest of the Big– 7 & 8 passenger solutions
Hauling Solutions– how do you get the bike where you want to ride it?
Answers to common questions
Links
The final word

As you can see there is lots covered so it is a good general read about bikes and trikes.

FOUR SEATER VELOMOBILE

Most of us are familiar with velomobiles and have seen various ones in photos and videos if not in person. All of them I have seen were built for one person … until now that is. Feast your eyes on this one of a kind prototype built by Trisled of Australia …

It is not in production and may never be. It was custom made for someone who wanted one. It is interesting. Can you picture something like this coming down the street towards you?

Here is a look at the framework underneath the body. As you can see it is basically two tandem bikes side by side. And it is a quadricycle, not a trike. That should make it a bit more stable.

HERE is an article about this vehicle.  The article states that this trike was made for a charity ride across Australia, but to date there has been no such charity ride take place and this one of a kind velomobile has disappeared and its whereabouts are unknown.

WALKING RECUMBENT QUAD

It is called a walking bike in this YouTube video, but actually it is a walking recumbent quadricycle. It certainly is not a tadpole trike, but I thought you might enjoy seeing it since it is quite unique.