I don't have the book - I just bought a pack of 6 plans for $36. I'd love a Windcheetah, but I fear it's about a grand more than I can afford! I've sent you a PM just to confirm. I've never even ridden a recumbent or a trike, so it's a bit of a step in the dark!
Anyway, back to the story. I got hold of a crappy folding bike, and then I chopped it up for bits:
20150504_174943 by
duncancmartin, on Flickr
I eventually got around to sticking the front wheels on, so it ended up on it's own wheels like so:
2015-10-23_08-56-30 by
duncancmartin, on Flickr
2015-10-23_08-56-46 by
duncancmartin, on Flickr
I had some 3mm plywood hanging about, so I cut out a couple of pieces and bonded them together for the seats:
2015-11-01_05-07-27 by
duncancmartin, on Flickr
Then I drilled holes and put T nuts in and screwed them to the frame to see how it would work. Followed by some CAD (cardboard aided design) to see how the fold would work if it folded over the top like an ICE trike.
2015-12-11_09-51-37 by
duncancmartin, on Flickr
I've since thought that I might fold the back wheel underneath instead, because that would put the joint in compression rather than tension. It would also mean that I could put the pivot point where the seat meets the backrest, which is probably the point that would cause the shortest overall package. HP Velotechnic fold that way, and their fold looks very easy to do. I need to do some more CAD to see how that would actually work!
I got some foam from Hobbycraft and cut it to the right shape for the backrest and seat base:
2015-12-04_10-09-17 by
duncancmartin, on Flickr
And so I painted the bases:
2015-12-12_05-55-08 by
duncancmartin, on Flickr
Last weekend I strapped the rear triangle to the back of my fixie and took it to the Broken Spoke Workshop to replace the bottom bracket (with a really short one that came with a Truvativ crankset)
2015-12-13_07-41-16 by
duncancmartin, on Flickr
And now we're almost up-to-date - this weekend, I chopped the arm off the crankset so it will work properly as a jackshaft. I'm going to run the middle ring to the freewheel, and then the front chainset to the inside ring of the jackshaft. Crankset mutilation:
2015-12-18_10-07-27 by
duncancmartin, on Flickr
2015-12-18_10-07-38 by
duncancmartin, on Flickr
Then I put the triangle back onto the bike, so that the rear end is essentially finished. After that, I stapled some vinyl over the seat foam - it's quite good on the top but pretty scraggly on the bottom. I figure I'll sort the bottom out once I've actually tried riding on it and I'm happy with how comfortable it is:
2015-12-18_10-07-52 by
duncancmartin, on Flickr
And finally, I made the clamp bits to attach the front bottom bracket to the main boom (it moves along the boom to adjust for leg length).
2015-12-19_04-59-17 by
duncancmartin, on Flickr
Became this:
2015-12-19_04-59-41 by
duncancmartin, on Flickr
Became this:
2015-12-19_04-59-53 by
duncancmartin, on Flickr
Now I need to weld the plates to the BB shell either side of the main beam and put bolts through to allow it to be clamped. I'm really frustrated that the bottom bracket I ordered hasn't turned up despite getting an email from Royal Mail saying that it had been delivered!
But I want to chase the threads in the BB shell before I install the bottom bracket properly (after I've done the welding), so I'll have to wait until the Broken Spoke is open again (I don't have my own BB thread tool).
So now I'm up-to-date. I doubt much is going to happen over Christmas, but we'll have to see how it goes.
The remaining really difficult bit is welding on the brake/steering arms. They need to be parallel to the ground, and to the brake disks. I've been putting that off, but there isn't much else left on the critical path to riding it!
Cheers
Duncan