From February 2010 to August 2010 with what little time I had, as I started working again was spent on new tooling. I decided to spend money on the aluminum framing material to make a decent frame jig that was higher off the ground. Working on the floor sucks! After some test rides, the thin wall steel tubing cracked on the lower part of the rear frame.
In September 2010 I made a new rear frame and had the trike powder coated and chromed. A nine part "build video" documents the reassembly after paint. Type in "David Bruce Trikes" in youtube! Prior to the 2011 7th Catrike Rally I settled on a conventional Bar End shifter set up. A sway bar was made and fitted the week before the Rally to improve the cornering at speed with the air shocks.
Test Rides and Photos with the Red Trike:
The two DBT 3 prototypes are made up of 3 main pieces: Front Frame, Rear Frame and Power Block. The front frame section bolts onto the middle power block and once on, should never have to come off. The Rear Frame attaches with three easy access 8mm bolts and you can take the rear section off when transporting the trike in smaller vehicles.
November 2011 update: I mounted the new aluminum frame sections on the Red Trike. This consisted of modifying the newly welded aluminum rear frame with some adapter shims to align with the original Power Block. I used the #002 frame that had rear drop out spacing issues. Frame 001 would become the Orange trike and 003 and 004 frames are welded, but not assembled.
I was working on these aluminum frames with the intention of selling these during 2011. But these new frames were based on the prototype layout and there are some compromises that I believe customers would not like and so I started playing around with ideas that would over come these limitations and be much simpler*, cleaner lines and ideally, lighter too!
In February 2012, I completed the second prototype that would become the 'Orange' trike using rear frame #001. This rear frame also had spacing issues but using a 160mm brake rotor instead of the 140mm rotor fixes the clearance issue with the rear wheel brake option. The second prototype was built to test a number of design changes: more castor, more track width, swapping the expensive air shocks with simpler and lighter elastomer "dampers" and finally the u-joint steering setup. All these changes have improved handling and tire wear and reduced the weight too.
Prototype 2, the Orange Trike:
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