Update: My colleague who purchased the trike from me to take to Burning Man 2015 sold it back to me (at a discount) after his burn. Apparently the mods I had made to it were not a good fit for traversing the playa.
Not to worry. The 2016 Burning Man art theme is Da Vinci’s Workshop and I already have an idea for a new build to fit the theme utilizing the Torker Trike. See the Da Vinci Flying Machine build!
I sold this mod to a co-worker who purchased it to take to Burning Man 2015. Letting it go was a little bittersweet. The trike had served me well throughout the years, but there’s only so much room in the laboratory, and there are many projects in the queue.
Lastly, the old 26″ front tire I had on the trike was looking a little ratty due to the flecks of orange paint on it from having been painted orange at one time [long story], so I swapped it out for a clean, black Schwinn 26″ wheel and tire.
The stock Torker Trike came with a 36-tooth chain ring, which worked well for the stock 24″ rear wheels. However, after swapping those out for 16″ wheels, I needed a larger chain ring to achieve the same travel when pedaling. Pictured here is a 44-tooth chain ring I installed.
Newly built 16″ rear wheels mounted on the trike. Lowered, but still plenty of clearance to pedal.
I couldn’t wait to see what the new wheels looked like on the trike, so I slipped them on the axle before mounting the tubes and tires. Looks pretty sweet!
Pictured are both rear wheels laced up. As an added bonus the new spokes I sourced were silver and matched the new hubs nicely. [The original Schwinn O.C.C. Chopper Jr. rear wheels had black spokes and hubs.]
I was able to source the spoke size I needed from a few little kids bikes I found at the Kiwanis Bike Program [Btw, Reno’s Kiwanis Bike Program is an awesome source of inexpensive used bikes and parts.]
Another option would’ve been to cut and make my own spokes, however I do not have a spoke threader,
Because the flanges of the new hollow hubs were taller than the flanges of the original Schwinn coaster brake hub, I needed shorter spokes in order to lace to the rim.
Next was to locate hollow hubs with the same spoke hole count as the chopper wheels (28 holes) and the same bearing size to fit the trike axle. I found these at Niagara Cycle. Here’s a link to the hubs I found.
By building the new rear wheels with new hubs I was able to retain the Torker trike’s stock rear wheels as replacements, or to be used on another project.
