RELIANT  TRIPOD

My name is Chris from Cupar in fife and I work as a CNC turner and have a love for all things mechanical from steam engines to planes. Started working on cars when I was about 11 and went on to field bikes to get my fix. Have had a Honda 200cc ATC trike for over ten years.  Being too tight to get a bike licence I decided to go the triking route.

This is my first go at trike building, I didn’t have vast amounts of cash too throw at it so a lot has been old bits or bought on ebay. All work has been done by myself in back garden except for brazing off fuel tanks which Shug at work did. After 3 years off thinking about it I bought a rolling chassis that had been originally done in mid eighties with a wooden seating area which had rotted away, but it meant I had the front end done for me complete with remote steering and good chassis to build on.

I Started by balancing toolboxes and bits of wood to get drivers seat position then welded that up and just progressed a bit each weekend until rear frame was built with carrier for twin jerrycan fuel tanks and rear seating area with small under seat storage area.

Having sourced 3mm alloy treadplate thru my work, I filled in frame and then stripped it all out again for painting after countersinking all holes. Once that was all rebuilt I covered floorpans then progressed onto building battery box beneath drivers seat and forming more alloy round that, next up was a transmission tunnel. The dash was built and hole cut for mini cooper s speedo that my brother gave me, then I noticed needle was missing on speedo. Plan b meant mounting an ammeter in centre of speedo and stole digital speedo from my mountain bike as I had planned all the warning lights out and was going to use the fuel gauge as a temp gauge.  Started from scratch with wiring and converted to alternator at same time. Headlight unit is a Raptor 2 that houses tacho. Had a few teething problems with wiring like the brake pressure switch didn’t work so used a rearbrake switch from a bike that mate gave me.

Seats are courtesy of brother’s caravan mattress and covered with red leatherette.  Rear brakes were completely stripped and new triumph wheel cylinders fitted (Exactly same unit but £8 cheaper than the reliant code number). Front end is single disc XS650 and is as I got it except for paint and tyre. I have sourced twin disc front end for winter project. Front end basically got a lick off paint and couple off alloy covers on dummy bike tank to hide tank slapper dents, hoping to add more treadplate to breakup large expanses of black at front.
Have turned various pins and spacers and turned piece of treadplate for gearstick gaitor and the centre I trepanned out was perfect for the access to the under floor rear brake reservoir

Took it for MOT and only had a few minor things to fix. It passed at next visit and now on road. After only being able to go 10ft forward and back I found out that on the road it didn’t run too healthy after checking the timing again I happened to spot rotor arm going in direction opposite to the arrow. Now know that my possible 850cc engine with SU carb and modern dizzy is actually the rare 600cc 25hp regal engine with the clockwise rotation instead off all others which are anticlockwise. This meant vacuum advance was retarding and bob weights inside were causing massive scatter on the timing. Quick 1 hour job to strip dizzy and weld shaft solid and refit. Runs pretty good now but still lacking so will get true 850cc engine/box shortly.
Still happy with it tho and enjoy the dropped jaws around town.

I have now got thoughts on making minimoto trike for son.

Big thanks to partner Carol and son Rhys for putting up with 10 month build and Malcy D at work for sourcing stuff for me. Calum, Sandy and Ally for parts

Description
Reliant 600cc with corrective mods to distributor
Renault espace rear wheels
Home built rearframe holding two jerrycans and seating above.
XS 650 front end with twin headstock remote steering
Custom wiring loom to convert fuel gauge to temp and most controls on handlebar switchgear
 Right Foot rear brakes, right hand front brake
Left foot clutch and righthand twist throttle
Landrover engine mounts