Folding Bikes, Recumbent Bikes & Trikes, Cargo Bikes, Tandems, Custom Framebuilding
Not a pretty sight – a lovely Rivendell-made Saluki frame with a big dent in the head tube. Fixed it with a special expanding tool inside the head tube and some careful hammering on the outside, now good as new without having to replace the tube.
With a new paint job, it looks gorgeous:
I didn’t even know what a Racerunner was when Hannah approached me to build this – it was an interesting learning experience, though, and worked out half the weight of her previous one. It also splits in half for transport.
Herbert wanted a Brompton with the Big Apple tyres – these are 2″ wide but use the smaller 305 wheel size so only work with disc brakes:
It’s now back in Germany, and looking fantastic with matching mudguards and a front motor system:
![big-bumblebee-1 [618716]](https://i0.wp.com/www.kinetics-online.co.uk/test/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/big-bumblebee-1-618716.jpg?quality=89)
It’s a common question – which is the better kind of trike? The answer isn’t so easy – both configurations have their advantages and disadvantages:
Tadpole:
Delta:
This was a rush job – a four-person bike built in two weeks for a marketing roadshow.
It had S&S couplings fitted to make it a little easier to transport, and a beefy stand to hold it upright with four people sitting on it.
There’s something about bright yellow for a bike 😉
I built this last year, so it’s got the older head badge and a few slight design differences compared to the latest bikes.
Bernard wanted a recumbent tandem trike for riding in Cumbria.
The frame was made from mostly 4130 chromoly steel tubing.
S&S couplings allow it to separate for transport.
Full build album:
Colin wanted a tandem tricycle, but using a standard Rohloff hub gear, in a tadpole instead of a delta configuration for stability.
The frame was made out of Columbus steel tubing, triangulated and braced for stability.
Gavin’s Racerunner was built from thin-wall Columbus Gara tubing, for a frame weight of around 4kg, and a total built-up weight of under 10kg.
The frame was built on a custom jig to be perfectly straight, and has adjustable fore and aft positioning of the saddle, and adjustable chest plate using a seatpost.
A series of axle inserts allow different wheels to be used, and the camber can also be adjusted.
Cost was £1500 for the frame, inserts, painting and assembly.
As I’m sure most people have noticed, there’s a wee referendum going on in Scotland on September. BikeBiz magazine, the trade paper for the UK bike trade, published an article about the issue with quotes from some Scottish bike businesses which I thought was a bit one-sided so I wrote this piece, and BikeBiz have kindly amended the article.