Piglet

A man noticed a farmer walking with three-legged pig on a leash. It looked very odd. He said, "Farmer, why are you walking a three-legged pig?"

"Why, stranger, this is no ordinary pig," the farmer replied. "One night our barn caught on fire, and before my wife and I even woke up, the pig had called the fire department, and herded all the other animals out of the barn. The next week, a burglar got into the house, and the pig had him tied up and the police were on their way before I even realized what had happened. Then just last week, I fell into the duck pond and was like to drown, except this pig jumped in and pulled me out. Like I say, this is no ordinary pig."

"Well, that truly is a remarkable pig. But tell me, how did he come to have only three legs?"

"Are you kidding? A pig this good, you don't eat all at once."

This story is about my own three legged pig. I don't know myself how it will all turn out, but, as work progresses, I will post the details and photographs here. I am hoping I will have this trike done in time to use it in this seasons S/TEP classes.

One of the bikes I bought last winter was a 98 Yamaha V Star 650. My brother and I found it a very humorous machine. It looked like a full on Harley. When you sat on it you felt like one of the "bros".

Yet it was tiny! Amy could sit on it and touch ground flat footed with both feet! Since it is such a baby Hog, I dubbed it "Piglet"

Piglet is destined to be the class trike.

I am finding trikes are much more complicated to build than sidecar rigs. After much searching for an appropriately sized rear axle with a differential that matched the bikes driveshaft rotation, I came up with the rear end from a Harley Davidson golf cart. I am not sure the make or model. It was originally driven by a huge electric motor, made in Poland.

I was lucky in that the Yamaha driveshaft has a coupler to mate the driveshaft splines to the bikes rear drive splines. This slips right off.

I took all the bits to a local machinist, who cut the female splines off the original electric motor's armature shaft and welded them to the Yamaha driveshaft coupler, making and adaptor which allows me to hook the driveshaft to the differential from the golf cart.

The differential housing was too big to line up with the bikes shaft-it fouled the left side of the swingarm. I had come to the moment of truth. To make it fit, I had to lop off the end of the swingarm! No turning back now...

My first cut wasn't drastic enough-it still did not line up. I welded a brace to the swingarm to keep it from deforming and cut some more off. This time it lined up perfectly!

You can see my next problem: the drive shaft on the bike comes out the left side, about 4" from the centerline. The cart's differential is in the center of the axle. I need to extend the axle 8" to the right so the trike wheels are equidistant from the bike centerline.

I tacked some angle to mark the centerline, and added some cross bracing to the original swingarm. Then I started bending and shaping pipe to extend the swingarm out to the axle mounting points...

I ordered custom wheels with opposite offsets. I should be able to make up some the difference with them; I still need to build a spacer to move the right wheel over six inches to get everything centered correctly.

John, at Mt.Hood Wrecking, took some brakes off a wrecked '97 Mazda 627 for me. I will need to have caliper mounts made and adaptors to change the 4 on 4 lugs on the axle to the 5 on 4 1/2 pattern of the wheels I've ordered. That will take at least a couple more weeks.

I took the swingarm off the bike so we could finish welding it up.

My friend, Nils, rode over from The Dalles and welded up the swingarm for me. His welds are much better than mine and it came out looking very good. I am looking forward to getting the axle and brakes back from Prigel Machine so I can bolt this all together!

Brian Prigel and his crew inspect the differential. I miscalculated the gear ratio and need to find another gearset for the axle. If anyone recognizes this axle and can tell me the original manufacture or model number, I would appreciate it! It looks like a Dana Spicer but lacks the identifying model # stamp. The ring gear is stamped 78 5900 and scribed 0.05 7 11 The ring gear has 49 teeth and the pinion 4. Please send any clues to me at: info@adventuresidecar.com

Does anyone recognize these markings? If you know who built this axle or what model it is, please let me know!

I bolted up the axle and wheels the other day. I had to cut the mufflers off to clear the widened swingarm.

I was amazed to find the Yamaha fired right up, even with gas that had wintered over and an old battery. It is such a bad little machine; sitting on it makes you want to tear it up with the "bros"!

Just for fun, I posed for these photos wearing my Beanie Baby outfit.

My apologies if you are one of the VISA card biker crowd, but I never did understand why anyone with a lick of sense would drop a ton of money on a motorcycle and wear fashion statement helmets and riding gear. It is fun to play "dress up biker" but I wouldn't be caught dead on the street in this gear!

A test ride (wearing a real helmet and proper gear) confirmed my fears-the top speed is 35mph WFO. I need to find out who built the axle and re-gear it, or start over with another axle. On the positive side, it seems to handle fine. No wobbles and reasonable steering effort.

Of course with straight pipes it was stupidly loud. The Piglet is a real poseur...those big chrome heat shields hide 1" diameter exhaust pipes! I bought a couple of Briggs and Stratton lawn mower mufflers and welded them to the headers. Less restrictive than stock, they are still a little loud for my tastes, but much more acceptable than straight pipes. A spritz of flat black stove paint and they dissapear from sight. Best of all, $35 total cost and no rejetting!

Next up: hook up the rear brakes and fabricate some fenders...

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