Here is the complete rear suspension assembly. I bought an old moped frame from the same guy that sold me the wheels. I then cut the swingarm pivot out of the moped and welded it into the frame.
A bicycle swing arm probably would have worked and would have been a lot lighter. However I only paid $20 for the moped frame and a bicycle swingarm would have cost a lot more. Besides this basically a mobile test bed to try out different ideas on. My next trike will be much lighter.
The original upper shock mounts on the moped were incorporated into the seat support and rear fender. Since this was way more junk than I needed, I decided to build my own shock mounts.
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| Shown here is my first attemp at building a shock mount with 1/4" threaded rod and long nuts and the revised version using 5/16" parts.
The 1/4" parts looked a little weak to me so I did a test to simulate hitting a pot hole while moving. Basically I supported the ends of the mount on some pieces of wood and stomped on the center. As you can see it bent quite a bit.
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I redesigned it using 5/16" parts (That would be the larger nuts and bolts shown here). This worked out well because the rubber bushings on the shocks had inserts that the bolts passed through that were 5/16" diameter. The new shock mounts passed the stomp test with flying colors and didn't bend at all.
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| Here is the complete shock mount. It's not shown in the above photos, but there is a piece of tubing inside the frame that the 5/16" threaded rod goes through. This keeps the frame tubing from colapsing when the nuts were tightened up and provides extra strength to the mount. After the nuts were tightened up, I welded them to the frame. |
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