Hi Folks,
Well, this is embarrassing.
After rereading my earlier comment, I have to disagree with myself.... Yes, an old retired fart can build a cheap trike for his grandkids, but an old ex manufacturing engineer should know better. It is hard to cover the costs of small volume manufacturing. When you build 10,000 "things", the cost of components is much lower than when you only build 100. Heim joint costs for one item were over $5.00 when you order 10, but drop to just over $3 when you buy 1,000. The jigs used for fabricating the chassis accurately cost several thousand dollars whether for building 1 or many, but the cost must be recovered in the sale price. The list goes on and on. I'm sure that if I had kept track of the man-hours I devoted to building that trike there would have been several thousand dollars to add to the $100 I paid for the bikes I used for parts.
On a separate note, Gary, I must warn you that I found no good way to mitigate the toe-in change caused by varying rider weights. The front track changes with rider weight due to the angle of the spindle bearings set for zero scrub radius. With the tie rods being of fixed length, the toe in changed a lot when I rode it compared to when my grandson rode it. I wound up setting toe-in with him sitting on the trike, and I settled for having to work harder to overcome the effects of increased tow-in.
I'm sure there is a way to overcome the effect, but I just wanted to hear the kids laugh as they played with the new toy..
TTFN,
Dennis
