Recumbent Cargo Bike 3
Finally found my seat: an old office chair! I cut the legs off and welded on a bicycle seat post. At first it was able to recline back, but that feature proved to make the bicycle unrideable because the seat would recline if even the smallest force was applied to the pedals…
Maximum style points, if you will:
I had to weld on the handlebars because there was just not enough room for a stem… Hopefully the bars never bend!
To attach the ball joints for the steering linkage, I welded bolts to the bars and the fork:
Finally finished with fabrication!
Time to paint!
Most of my welds looked decent after a good painting!
The final product! With chains, components, cargo bay wrapping, and all! Nessy rides surprisingly well. It is a little difficult to get going because of the nature of a recumbent, but once moving, she hanndles well at slower than walking speeds and at high cruising speeds. The steering is responsive and there doesn’t seem to be any noticeable play in the remote steering. The chair is like a dream. Once going, you just slump back and sink in. You let your arms dangle at the bars and just cruise around.
Ride a Bicycle
SLO Little 500 – Think Globally, Bike Locally from JCV Productions on Vimeo.
Recumbent Cargo Bike 2
Next on the bike, I welded the upper half of the cargo rails along with the vertical tubes between.
Then I added in the lower bottom bracket. This is so that the chain line can change direction to go from the pedals to the bottom bracket jackshaft to the wheels.
Finally added the wheels to make Nessy actually look like a bicycle!
Then I welded on the main bottom bracket and attached pedals:
Recumbent Cargo Bike 1
Here are some photos of the fabrication of my recumbent cargo bicycle. I selected the front end of a women’s frame and the rear triangle of a suspension frame and began by first connecting them together with a long bottom tube. But first, here is the CAD model and the drawing I made to work from:
Then I began the cargo box construction with the side rails of the lower portion. I mitered some tubing and welded it at 45 degrees, then attached that section to the frame, followed by the rear tube at 45 degrees. Then I made the other half.
Then I put in the vertical tube that connects the top and down tubes of the front half.
