EA81 into trike VW automatic

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 8:56 pm

Tweety wrote:Gee Bennie,,,,,that was quick.

Yeah mate, I'm bored, what can I say!

Tweety wrote:Test ride maybe Sunday.

Swing by and pick me up along the way

Cheers

Bennie

Tweety · Post by **Tweety** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 9:09 pm

Yeh, you'd like that. Can see you taking your misses for a spin (not a problem). It will happen one day mate. When we are heading due west!!

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 9:19 pm

Tweety wrote:Yeh, you'd like that. Can see you taking your misses for a spin (not a problem). It will happen one day mate. When we are heading due west!!

Kez, Ruby Scoo and I might join you for a bit if you don't mind - we'll see what happens anyway!

Cheers

Bennie

Tweety · Post by **Tweety** » Sat Feb 04, 2012 5:43 pm

Surprise Bennie...the vents work!!

Once I plug up the side gaps (between the vent and the core) with stuff from Clark rubber it'll work even better.

Am happy with the result.

Tweety · Post by **Tweety** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 5:10 pm

Got a white wall on the front.

Waiting for white flappers on the new rear Goodrich TA's 295/50/15's.

also January Trike and Cruiser magazine has printed one of my articles. My second one.

I wont copy the second page in respect to the magazine.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 7:54 pm

Tweety wrote:

That looks awesome mate! Oldschool will blend well with Tweety I think!

Cheers

Bennie

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 8:34 pm

Tweety do I remember you saying you weren't sure if the white wall-look would work? You needn't have worried, that looks sweet as

By the way on the way home today I saw a purple trike pull out in front of me and I instantly thought of you

Was going to take a pic as soon as we stopped at lights but it got through a yellow and I didn't, didn't see it again after that. It could have been the same model body as yours, I recognized the luggage box on the back.

Tweety · Post by **Tweety** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 8:41 pm

Its a 600-16 cross ply. the same tyre used for hot rods being white walled on both sides. The only options I had were white walled M/C tyres the same size as I had being 150/80/16. With the extra weight they wear out quick. Also I needed a bit more ground clearance at the front. And with the front raised and the rear lowered it would look great.

So this tyre has 3 inches more diameter. I had to drill 4 more holes for the guard - you can see the old holes that I'll plug with S/S bolts.

This tyre has about double the rubber on the road. With the 3 inch Harley rim it causes the tyre to "crown" a bit which is ideal for cornering. Although the jury is out on the wet. But the tread is much deeper so I assume it will be better. The M/C tyres auquplane easily. Nice thrill the first time I did that at 110 kph!!! Technically it is illegal to put a cross ply on with radials so taking that risk but then again M/C tyres arent stamped "radial" so... This front tyre has one negative (apart form the price) it has to have a tube. You dont take a spare on a trike. Two cans of foam blow up stuff is the puncture repair but will it work with a tube? I dont know.

At the rear I have 275/60/15. Originals were 295/50r15. I'm returning to those. But they dont come in white wall. So have to resort to inserts. The country is out of 15 inches inserts at the moment. They come from UK. managed to track a set down in WA on ebay.

So this week should have them fitted with new Goodrich T/A's. The T/A's have their raised letters outside of the 2 inches where the flappers sit.

All this was worked out with the help of Antique tyres in Heidelberg. The tyres arent cheap but the look will eb priceless. Will post pics in a few days.

And I agree Bennie, the hot rod look of the roof will suit this look.

Tweety · Post by **Tweety** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 8:50 pm

Thanks Silverbullet

There's a purple one based in Kyabram Vic. Nice colour that.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 8:51 pm

I showed dad the pic and told him of how you were going to do the rear tyres with the inserts. He told me this is how they used to do them back in the day which I took as meaning in the 60's and 70's as I believe they used to have 1 piece white walls earlier on.

Cheers

Bennie

Tweety · Post by **Tweety** » Tue Feb 14, 2012 8:59 pm

interesting Bennie. Yeh a set of 4 flappers will give me two spare. will be riding down to Heidelberg for fitting this Thursday. Then over to the golf club for soem good pics and will post them.

This is also for the 2013 Trike Talk USA forum "Trike of the month" award Tweety won for January 2012. They want good pics for their 2013 calendar of which Tweety is the January trike. cool eh. So wanted him to have white walls for the official pics.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Tue Feb 14, 2012 9:09 pm

Tweety wrote:will be riding down to Heidelberg for fitting this Thursday. Then over to the golf club for soem good pics and will post them.

If today's weather is anything to go by it'll be a good day to be on the trike

Tweety wrote:This is also for the 2013 Trike Talk USA forum "Trike of the month" award Tweety won for January 2012. They want good pics for their 2013 calendar of which Tweety is the January trike. cool eh. So wanted him to have white walls for the official pics.

Will you be sending them some pics with the guppy too?? It should look awesome!

Cheers

Bennie

Tweety · Post by **Tweety** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 5:18 pm

good idea bennie.

waiting on some white walls for that too.

d_generate · Post by **d_generate** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 5:41 pm

Shame you didn't know about the little self contained heaters under the seats of 60 series Landcruisers, about 12"X12" & 4" thick with their own built in fan and vent flap from memory, hook them up to power & water & off you go, bike's looking great too.

When I took the heater out of mine I gave it to a mate with a convertable Model A Ford & he loved it.

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 5:43 pm

its those cruisers rear heater that I use to order a hose for the EA82T turbo to head hose !

Tweety · Post by **Tweety** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 7:22 pm

New white walls.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Fri Feb 24, 2012 3:35 pm

How the bloody hell (hahaha... laura bingle

) did I miss this VERY IMPORTANT post? And why no other replies already???

The trike and the white walls are a mix made in heaven mate! Looking very tricked up and hot rodded now!

Keep up the good work!

Cheers

Bennie

PS - different diametre tyres now??

Tweety · Post by **Tweety** » Fri Feb 24, 2012 4:19 pm

Using larger tyres at the rear to give the VW longer legs didnt work well. They were 5% bigger circumference. These new Goodrich T/A's are the original tyre size 295/50 r15...the size that GT Falcon guys use. and they now have white wall inserts. The T/A's have their lettering on the walls higher so it doesnt wave the flappers. Eats hills now. will tow better. economy now 26-31 mpg.

The front tyre was a balance.

Originally it uses a 150/80 r16. Harley size M/C tyre. But a few things here. The front was too low to the ground and scraped a lot on driveways. I also wanted the squatted rear look, lower at the rear, higher at the front. I wanted white walls. The guy at Antique tyres Ben (highly recommended) said that there are two tyres of the above size that are white walls. Metzeler and Avon. But M/C tyres on my trike only last 10,000kms. Motorcycle owners have this acceptance that 8,000km from a set of tyres is ok- I dont. So Ben showed me his hot rod. It has cross ply 600-16 tyres and its the only tyre with while wall both sides. It is a massive 3 inches bigger diameter and the tread is much wider.

The rim I have is a 3 inch and I want to upgrade it one day to a 4 or 4.5 inch wide and 80 spokes (double the spokes will match it to the rear spoke wheels better). These size rims allow the cross ply tyre to "crown" in the middle which is a god send because it allows for lighter steering than what it would be (is a little heavier now compared to the M/C tyre) and corners very well. The negative is that it skips when you first take off and have the handlebars turned. You soon adapt. Dont know what its like on the wet yet). Tread is very deep- will last longer.

The trike used to get attention- now its manic. Had one guy hang out a car window on Geelong road with a telephoto lens. Had a bunch of guys pull out their mobile phones for their cameras and looked like the wild west as they drew their weapons. The sad one in Toorak yesterday was an old man who said "I wished I didnt listen to my wife 20 years ago and went and bought one".

As for the heaters Bennie.

They werent as hot as I wanted. So made a number of mods.

- made up a floor out of steel peg board from Bunnings.

This stops hot air going towards the ground and rain/stones from coming up on a dreached/gravel road

- replaced 82 degree thermostat with 88 degrees.
- the digital temperature gauge had me worried in glare as you couldnt read it. So obtained a temperature switch (96 degrees)from Howard Instruments (good web site http://www.howardinstruments.com.au/ ) and an adapter for the m16x1.5. Hooked it up to a truck reversing alarm from Autobarn under my seat. Temporarily disconnected the thermatic fans and at 2am last night let the motor run. At 95 degrees on the digital guage it woke the town of Strathbogie and as I'd hard wired it...took some time to cut the wire. lol. So no more fear there.
-This morning went for a ride To seymour (45 mins) on the freeway it was a good test. The temp rose to 92 degrees before the thermoes cut in (was 37 degrees up here). Fans stay on till 85 degrees then cut off. Generally it stays at 88 or 89 and goes up only on hills or if I hit 120 kph and speed creeps up on me.
Heaters? bloody great!! the vents stop about half or more of the heat. enough because I have passing air all the time so you dont notice half the heat. In winter they will be great.

Tweety · Post by **Tweety** » Fri Feb 24, 2012 4:20 pm

by the way that square hold under the heater has been plugged. it had to have a steel section to direct the hot dowward air under the floor.

Some photos went to Trike talk USA for their calendar for 2013. Tweety will be January. Reward for winning trike of the month. Still getting over that surprise!

d_generate · Post by **d_generate** » Fri Feb 24, 2012 7:40 pm

Congrats, it's looking great...........................for a trike;)