I obtained a frame,transaxle,and girder front fork from a fellow that I met after I followed him into a K-Mart parking lot on his trike and found that he had some partial trikes. The trike frame is called a Crazyhorse Trike, it was called an outlaw style, built back in the 70's in the Sacramento area. This frame had not ever been registered, at least I had a starting point. I didn't like the low slung look and the extreme rake, it was over 70 degrees, it had too much flop, really had to force the forks to stay up, when sitting still. As you can see it is a mess. This was where it had been the shop. Piled under all kind of junk and stuff.
This is after I got it home a cleaned it up a little, well maybe a whole lot.
I decided that I did not like the low front neck and extreme rake so I decided to change it to my liking. The only part of the frame I kept was the very bottom two center rails from the transaxle rear mounts. The front neck went from 15" to 26" and from a 72 degree rake to a 45 degree rake. The made the rake and trail much better and removed the flop on the front end. I am considering changing the rake to 40 degrees in the near future. The bike can almost turn in its own radius with no problem. I decided to cut everything off the frame and and added all the new upper frame, and the floorboards. I built a seat pan to hold a Harley Davidson Ultra Glide seat with a backrest. The down tube and the backbone are made from 1 1/2 inch square tubing. The thick wall stuff. The rest of the feame is constructed of 1 inch heavy wall.
This shows how I built a seat mount, for a two up seat from a Harley Davidson Ultra Glide. The fenders were converted from trailer fenders and cut them every 2" and then shaped them to the wheel,by taping a 2x4 block to the tire and then tacking all the cut back together, then 1/4" cold roll welded around to provide the strength and allow the fenders to be molded. The front of the fenders are curved and the rear have a chevron shape to them. I mounted the 11 gal round tank between the rear of the seat and the engine. The battery will be placed under the rear of the seat. The rear suspension uses a leaf spring from a 47 ford and coil over shock from Harley.
This shows how the fender's were mounted, you can see how I sectioned the sides of the fenders to increase the radius of the fender so that they fit the tires better. Also shown is the 1/4" cold roll steel that was used to add strength and allow for the final molding with bondo. The coilover shocks were also from a Harley Davidson, the original mounting arm's are used on the axle tube, up to the shock mounting bar on the frame. I have since added a brace to the fenders, using a 1/2 inch round stock and some angle iron and flat stock. The reason for this was the fact that the weight of the fender cracked the lower mount point where it attaches to the transaxle tube cracked and I lost a fender last year. The fender was turned into a pretzel, and it looked like a bear had gotten a hold of it. I have since repaired the fender and threw some primer at it to keep riding.
This shows the front fork with the trunk mounted on the rear. Again I used a trunk from a Harley Davidson Ultra Glide. The mount for the trunk is placed between the seat and the tank. It is constructed of 1 1/2 square tubing for structural strength. You can see the engine painted and ready to install on the trike in the background on a motor stand. It is painted and chromed out to match the trike. In the future I would not paint the engine block, as the heat from the motor makes the paint change color and crack off. The fenders have not been mounted at this stage. The trunk mount was extended a few inches from the time this photo was taken to accommodate the tank.
My Trike Build Page 2
My Trike Build Page 3
My Trike Build Page 4
