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Well, Ive been a long time lurking on this forum, gotten a lot of ideas from looking at all the build threads on here. So, I figure it was time for me to make a thread for my reverse trike. Basically, Im a welder/fabricator/technician, and I like building things. 97% of what I work on are all out road race cars. So naturally, I wanted something that was going to be fast, and would handle really well. I saw a reverse trike online one day, and I figured it would be a pretty cool project to try and accomplish. My friend also has a campagna trex, and after riding in that thing, I really wanted to make my dreams a reality. My budget wasnt very big...lol, I bought a honda cbr600rr that has front end and frame damage. I used the engine, ecm, wiring harness, and the rear swing arm, wheel and suspension. Since my small budget was a big concern, Most of the parts I needed were bought used from craigslist or ebay. I had a vision in my head of what I wanted it to look like, sketched a couple designs on paper, and decided on what thickness and size material would be best taking strength into consideration, but also trying to make it as light as possible. I drew up the main frame on bendtech, and then set off on the build. I worked on it a lot of late nights, after my 40hr job. I wanted to bastically drive this thing as soon as possible. From the day I started working on it, til the day I took it for a spin around the block was 30 days. I was pretty happy with that being I wasnt able to work on it full time, and it was my first time building anything like this. The whole frame and all the components were 99% TIG welded, and everything was cut with either a chop saw and a 4.5" angle grinder..lol. A few of my friends also gave me a hand doing a couple things like the wiring and some paint and stuff like that. I learned A LOT with this build. A lot about suspension geometry and steering geometry and about brakes and fuel systems. I actually got bored with it, since I wasnt happy with how somethings came out(because of my damn rushing everything..lol) and completely lost interest in it, put it up for sale on here, but it didnt sell. Ive learned a lot more and am not going to redo a couple of the things that I am unhappy with. When im done getting it where I want, ill think up making body work for it out of fiberglass or sheet aluminum. Anyways, on to the pictures... feel free to ask questions, comments or anything....

the original design in bendtech.


the main hoop, 1.5" dom tubing.


first of many long nights working on it.


heim joints for control arms/sway bar/suspension push rodsand some bearings for the inboard suspension


hub assemblies for the front and beginning of the uprights


more upright fabrication


test fitting my ugly seat


material for control arms


control arms and front shocks


welding on control arm tabs after i figured out the ride height i wanted.


start of my bellcranks


rear cbr rim with a flat tire mounted.


bellcranks mostly done and shocks mounted.


wheels and uprights and push rod


mounting the engine and rear swingarm/rear wheel


steering rack, shocks and steering wheel mounted. the rack is for a dune buggy and is one of the things I hate...


I didnt want to take everything apart for paint after i built it, so as soon as the main frame was 100% welded, I painted it


the gas tank


reassembling and continuing with finishing the build.


sway bar and end links




when it was standing on its own suspension and able to steer, me and a friend pushed each other around the yard a couple times...lol


made up a pedal/box with dual master cylinders


first time i took it for a drive


ram air ducts


had some trouble with fuel starvation at WOT, got a power commander, upgraded the whole fuel system and still had starvation problems. finally figured out that the fuel would get air rated(sp) so I made a swirl pot and added an inline pump.


took some of these home from work one day...


weighed and balanced...


wideband there to street tune it








and thats it for now. Ill be adding more pics in the coming days/weeks of the new things I do to it and fix

Very cool! What didn't you like about the buggy steering rack? I like the anti-sway bar setup. How is it working out?

the buggy steering has too much play, so the steering wheel moves a little too much. as for the sway bar, I need to make it adjustable so i can adjust it and make it a little bit softer.

Sigh... and the weight and weight distribution were?

You can't show the car on scales without saying what the numbers were... sheez.

sorry....this was with 200lbs of weight in it to simulate the driver. and all fluids pretty much topped off..

30 days?!?!?

What were the other issues that you didn't like about it? What made you get bored with it?

Nice job!

What is the donor for the fwd hubs? I see no outer cv cup clamping it together. The center may eventually walking out of the light press-fit inner races of the wheel bearings after enough cornering.

To soften the bar effectiveness, you might try drilling new holes in the rockers first before extending the bar arms.
It looks like moving the arms to the outboard ends of the bar would interfere with the tires at full lock.
You may want to add set collars to keep the bar centered in the saddles.

the biggest issues that I did not like were the pedal box, how some of the wiring came out and the face that the steering rack is so sloppy. Also its a little heavier than I would have wanted. Im gonna take out the metal floor board thats in there now and replace it with a thinner aluminum one. also thinking of redoing the uprights out of aluminum. I got bored of it because it didnt come out quite how i would have wanted, and it in my opinion needs a lot of work to get it where i want it.



the hubs are rear hubs out of a mitsubishi eclipse. to soften/stiffen the bar, I was going to drill holes where the link bolts to the bar so it will have a couple steps of adjustment. and yea, collars are on the to do list.

If you drill the existing bar arms to put the heim closer to the bar, the suspension will have less leverage and the bar will effectively be stiffer for a given amount of suspension travel. Drilling the rocker reduces the distance to the pivot and reduces the travel, but it may be too much (i.e. if the rocker pushes the rod an inch and the bar arm is effectively shortened, the bar has to twist to a greater degree).

Thats a good idea using the rear setup as a front in such a light vehicle. I didn't notice the lugs inside the center before. What year eclipse? Did you just add new calipers to the oem rear rotors and hubs or are you using the ebrake calipers?

Im probably going to end up making the sway bar over again because the arm bars are too short. ideally the position they are in now should be their stiffest position. also like you said, it cant go any lower because the rod would hit the rocker.

the hubs are from like a mid 90's eclipse. the calipers are also from a mid 90's eclipse, but they are front calipers. the rotors I used were from a 300zx. I had them already, they were too thick to fit in the caliper, so i had a friend turn them down at his job til they fit. this is also another thing im not extremely pleased with.

30 hr! I'd be lucky to do it in 300.

Nice work in any case.

Did you weld on the swaybar arms with the same filler material as the bar and post heat treat?

If not, I'd expect fatigue failure at the weld unless the suspension is very stiff and doesn't let the wheels move much.

Even if you did the welds still create stress raisers and are likely failure points.

Tigit, where did you get that gas tank, or did you make it? You planning on any bodywork, something to protect those brake lines a little bit?

I didnt think about that, the suspension doesnt travel much, but ill look into it. thanks.



yea, I made the gas tank, and I plan on making a fiberglass body for it, hopefully. Since I plan on buying a real pedal set, the brake lines will be redone, and Ill look into making something to protect them.

nice work. how did the front end work? i see some design issues but i'm not an expert by any means. i have been studying suspension geometry for my JZR build.
Fred V

i think it seems to be working fine. care to share what issues you see?