Alright, so I’ve always had this itch, you know? Tinkering with engines, welding stuff together in the garage. It’s just what I do. And this idea started brewing – a three-wheeler. But not just any run-of-the-mill trike. I wanted something with the guts of a motorcycle but with a bit more… presence. Something that felt a bit like a car, but still raw. Not for speed, not really, but for the feel of it, and yeah, to turn a few heads.
Getting Started – The Vision Thing
So, I started messing around with sketches. Napkins, backs of envelopes, proper drawing pads – you name it, I drew on it. Most of them were rubbish, to be honest. Looked like something a kid would draw. But eventually, a shape started to emerge. Two wheels up front, one in the back. That tadpole setup. It just seemed right for stability if I was going to make it look a bit more ‘car-ish’ without it actually being a car, if you catch my drift. I wasn’t trying to reinvent the wheel, just bend it a bit.
The Great Parts Scavenge
Then came the real fun, or maybe the real headache: finding all the bits. Man, that was a trip. I thought, easy, grab a bike engine, some suspension. Nope. Not if you want it to have that specific look. I spent weeks, maybe months, digging through scrapyards. Real greasy, dirty work. Online forums were a bit better, but then you’re trusting photos. I needed stuff that was heavy-duty enough for the front, something that could handle looking and feeling a bit like a car’s front end. Ended up with an old motorcycle engine, a fairly beefy one, and then a collection of parts for the steering and suspension that I was pretty sure I could force to work together. It was a real Frankenstein’s monster of parts at that stage.
Putting it All Together – Sweat and Swears
Building the frame was the first big job. Got my welder out, and for weeks, my garage was lit up like it was the Fourth of July. Sparks flying everywhere. Lots of cutting, grinding, measuring, re-measuring, and yeah, a fair bit of swearing when things didn’t line up. You try building a chassis from scratch that needs to hold an engine, three wheels, and a seat, and also not fall apart. It’s a job.
Getting the steering geometry for those two front wheels right… that was a nightmare. I’m no engineer, just a guy who likes to build stuff. So it was pure trial and error. I’d tack weld something, test it, cut it off, try again. Must have redone the linkages about twenty times. It just wouldn’t behave. One version wanted to steer itself into the nearest ditch.
Then mounting that engine. Custom brackets, of course. Nothing ever just bolts on neatly when you’re doing this kind of custom job. You gotta make it fit. And then the wiring… let’s just say I became very familiar with my multimeter and the smell of burning insulation. Turns out, electrical gremlins are very real.
Making it Look Less… Homemade
For the ‘car-like’ look, I focused on the body. I wasn’t going for full doors or a roof, not really. More like a shell, some panels to give it shape and hide some of the ugly mechanical bits. I thought about metal, but ended up going with fiberglass. Man, that stuff is messy. Itchy too. But it’s light, and you can mold it into pretty much any shape if you’re patient. Lots of sanding. So much sanding. My arms ached for days.
I wanted the front to have a bit of a snout, maybe some headlights that didn’t scream ‘motorcycle’. And the seating position, a bit more upright, a bit more enclosed than straddling a bike. Just enough to give it that different feel I was after.
The Moment of Truth (and more tweaking)
First time I properly fired it up and tried to drive it, even just a few feet in the yard… my heart was in my throat. It moved! It didn’t immediately collapse or catch fire, so that was a win. But it felt… weird. The steering was twitchy. The suspension was too soft on one side. So, back to the wrenches. More adjustments. Stiffer springs here, a different angle there. Little by little, it started to behave.
It’s still a project, always will be. There’s always something to improve, something to polish. It’s loud, it’s probably not very practical, and it sure isn’t something you can buy off a shelf. But when I take it out for a short spin, and people stop and stare, not always sure what they’re looking at, well, that’s pretty satisfying. It’s not a car. It’s not quite a motorcycle. It’s just… my creation. And the whole journey of figuring it out, battling through the problems, that was the best part. Learned a lot. Mostly about what not to do next time, ha!
