lgjhn
200+ Posts
This is more of a vanity post, but I wanted to stress, once again, to those that are thinking about triking out their existing 2-wheelers the importance of selecting the right conversion shop.
I can't stress the importance of this enough. Do your due diligence, check references, etc. It will avoid lots and lots of frustration, time, money etc. down the road, and may even avoid potential life-threatening scenarios.
When a conversion is done by unqualified/inexperienced/lack of caring personnel, the end product will result in many minor and major issues, both for the short-term and long-term.
The short-term issues can be missing/loose/wrong fasteners, wire terminals/grounds left unconnected, hose clamps missing/loose, etc. etc. and the list goes on These are frustrating nuisance issues that can be readily fixed, but it means either doing it yourself or back to the shop....both are annoying after paying good money to have it done right to begin with.
But there is a long-term side to this as well. And I'll use the following as an example of it: A "lack of caring" individual putting the trike together gets to where he's doing the driveshaft connection. At the differential end, he's not paying attention to what he's doing and cross-threads one side of one of the u-bolts holding the u-joint. He realizes he has stripped out the threads. It's a $2 part stocked at any auto parts outlet. But instead of replacing and fixing it properly, he just continues to wrench it on there (without the lock washer) hoping it holds. The customer takes possession of the trike and finds about 30 short-term issues and gets em all repaired over a period of several weeks, but is totally unaware of the u-bolt issue at the rear u-joint because it looks "normal" from a casual look under the trike. After 15K miles, he notices a high frequency vibration above 65-70 mph and then he notices a "clicking sound" when pushing the trike in and out of the garage.
Up on the lift it goes only to find that the stripped u-bolt has worked itself almost completely out of the u-joint connection with the nut hanging by a couple of threads. He buys the $2 part and repairs it. At 20K miles, the high frequency vibration caused by this eventually leads to a u-joint failure along with a pinion seal leak. The pinion seal leak repair requires the pinion nut to come off, seal replaced and the nut put back on to the exact same position that it came off in a vain attempt to maintain the pinion pre-load to within factory specs. Anyone who's ever done any differential work knows that this is a "hit or miss" proposition on getting the pinion pre-load exactly back in spec. Most of the time, it's a "miss" and will require disassembly of the differential to change out the pinion crush sleeve and then tighten everything back to factory specs and clearances....not an easy job even on full-sized vehicles, let alone a trike.
So now, that original damaged $2 part that would have taken maybe a half hour to procure/replace has cost a u-joint replacement, a pinion seal replacement and a tear-down of the diff to get it back in factory specs.
The lesson learned: Choose your conversion shop verrrry CAREFULLY. Find out exactly just who the specific individual will be that's gonna be "spinning the wrenches" on your pride and joy. What's their experience level, are they familiar with your make/model of bike, etc. Don't be afraid to back out at the slightest sign of unprofessionalism, uncaring, and unqualified indications.
There are good shops out there. I know of one right here on this board.
My rant is over.
I can't stress the importance of this enough. Do your due diligence, check references, etc. It will avoid lots and lots of frustration, time, money etc. down the road, and may even avoid potential life-threatening scenarios.
When a conversion is done by unqualified/inexperienced/lack of caring personnel, the end product will result in many minor and major issues, both for the short-term and long-term.
The short-term issues can be missing/loose/wrong fasteners, wire terminals/grounds left unconnected, hose clamps missing/loose, etc. etc. and the list goes on These are frustrating nuisance issues that can be readily fixed, but it means either doing it yourself or back to the shop....both are annoying after paying good money to have it done right to begin with.
But there is a long-term side to this as well. And I'll use the following as an example of it: A "lack of caring" individual putting the trike together gets to where he's doing the driveshaft connection. At the differential end, he's not paying attention to what he's doing and cross-threads one side of one of the u-bolts holding the u-joint. He realizes he has stripped out the threads. It's a $2 part stocked at any auto parts outlet. But instead of replacing and fixing it properly, he just continues to wrench it on there (without the lock washer) hoping it holds. The customer takes possession of the trike and finds about 30 short-term issues and gets em all repaired over a period of several weeks, but is totally unaware of the u-bolt issue at the rear u-joint because it looks "normal" from a casual look under the trike. After 15K miles, he notices a high frequency vibration above 65-70 mph and then he notices a "clicking sound" when pushing the trike in and out of the garage.
Up on the lift it goes only to find that the stripped u-bolt has worked itself almost completely out of the u-joint connection with the nut hanging by a couple of threads. He buys the $2 part and repairs it. At 20K miles, the high frequency vibration caused by this eventually leads to a u-joint failure along with a pinion seal leak. The pinion seal leak repair requires the pinion nut to come off, seal replaced and the nut put back on to the exact same position that it came off in a vain attempt to maintain the pinion pre-load to within factory specs. Anyone who's ever done any differential work knows that this is a "hit or miss" proposition on getting the pinion pre-load exactly back in spec. Most of the time, it's a "miss" and will require disassembly of the differential to change out the pinion crush sleeve and then tighten everything back to factory specs and clearances....not an easy job even on full-sized vehicles, let alone a trike.
So now, that original damaged $2 part that would have taken maybe a half hour to procure/replace has cost a u-joint replacement, a pinion seal replacement and a tear-down of the diff to get it back in factory specs.
The lesson learned: Choose your conversion shop verrrry CAREFULLY. Find out exactly just who the specific individual will be that's gonna be "spinning the wrenches" on your pride and joy. What's their experience level, are they familiar with your make/model of bike, etc. Don't be afraid to back out at the slightest sign of unprofessionalism, uncaring, and unqualified indications.
There are good shops out there. I know of one right here on this board.
My rant is over.
