keg61

howdy folks, I'm Keith from PA and I'm not sure I really belong here. I bought my tricycle after a stroke in 2011 and as I recall the manufacturer called it a "semi-recumbent" as you can see it's not in the same universe as diamond frames but not as stretched out as a recumbent either. it served me well for a couple years in a small town with no real hills(with a 1x7 drivetrain set up for mechanics and security guards on flat floors in factories I couldn't climb a speed bump let alone a hill when i got out of the hospital) then I ended up back in the hospital followed by a stint in a care home, so my ride has been exposed to the elements for the last couple winters at my brother's place, now I live in a river valley town with no choice but to ride downhill into town or down the same hill to the rail trails(i think y'all call them MUPs).The problem is my trike is HEAVY(100.6 pounds according to the builder) and I'm a short wide Clyde hovering(ok not hovering, wallowing) around 360 myself. So outside of deterioration due to weather, the drivetrain needs some modification or assistance to get me back up the hill to home. I briefly,VERY briefly,considered a "weedeater" gas engine but that idea lasted less than a day, as soon as i started reading blogs and reviews it quickly became impractical. I'd really like to stay human powered with a Schlumph mountain drive but they are sooo expensive, i'm hoping i can revamp the drive train enough to climb home by circling the hill rather than attacking it directly. i have ideas about creating a mount for a FD and triple crankset with stump pulling gears outback, or maybe a mid-drive electric. that's where I'm at right now, sitting here in my electric lift chair, laptop on my chest,dreaming about what might be.

Shahmatt

Well it's very much a recumbent I think - long wheel base, delta trike or maybe a crank-forward.

If you could tell us the number of teeth on your chain-ring, and the number of teeth on the largest and smallest rear sprockets that would be a help to figure out what gear range you have. The chain-ring teeth would be more helpful.

How difficult is it for you to do any climbing at all on the lowest gear (largest sprocket)? That would give us an idea as to how much change needs to be done.

I think you could make a couple of easy changes. The first would be to downsize the chainring - that will give you more power for climbing. The second would be to switch to smaller rear wheels - you'll get some additional torque and save weight as well.

The folks in the Bike Mechanics section are very helpful with this sort of thing. You should post there as well.

VegasTriker

You are right that a Schlumpf drive is expensive, in the range of around $800 just for the parts. Much of the weight is probably in the frame which you can't do anything about. What might be the cheapest option is to rebuild the rear wheel with something like SRAM dual-drive which has an internal 3 speed hub along with your derailleur system. Sturmey Archer makes a similar system but there have been many reports about its reliability. SRAM has a better reputation. https://www.sram.com/sram/urban/family/dd3 The hub itself (comes in 32 and 36 spoke versions) $125 SRAM Dual Drive Hub 36H 135mm | eBay and then you need the shifter mechanism which runs $30 -$40. You can keep your existing derailleur.

BlazingPedals

Don't sell your bike too short. It's heavy but it's definitely a full recumbent. It has a seat with a back, which mounts to a horizontal tube. I believe those are the two qualifying checkpoints.

On to gearing issues. The main problem is that any bent with a single chainring is totally inadequate for hills of any sort. You obviously know about the Sclumpf. You'd be interested in their mountain drive, not their Speed Drive or the HSD. Since the cassette isn't on a hub, I don't think the DualDrive solution would work. Another option, which might be helped by the cheap square-tube steel frame, is to find someone who can weld. Cut out the lowest section of the seat tube and add a mid-drive there.

Edit: The more I think of it, if you know someone who can weld, just have them install a derailleur post, at about 70 degrees from horizontal, from your current bottom bracket shell. Then you can mount a standard triple crankset and front derailleur. No extra engineering necessary.

keg61

OK so i AM bent you hit the nail square on the head blazer, adding a piece of seatpost is EXACTLY what i have planned

Retro Grouch 

How many teeth does your front sprocket have? The fewer teeth on the front, the easier it will be to pedal up hills. That doesn't look like a very big sprocket to me but BMX sources may be able to provide you with an even smaller one. That might be all that you have to do.

The downside, of course, has to do with your top speed gearing. How often do you use your fastest gear on the back now?

keg61

the front chainring WAS 36 tooth but i have not been on the trike for a couple years, i had to go in the hospital again and it has been in storage at my brother's place. I used top gear extremely rarely when I was riding, i'm not certain but i think it was a 14t cog. the thing was really next to useless, it got me to the post office and grocery store which were less than a mile away but that was the farthest it went. it worked well for what I needed immediately after my stroke but it is not at all what I want now and is going to be a completely different machine after i rebuild/modify it

Retro Grouch 

Is this a trike for you to ride or just for you to fool around with mechanically?

If you're planning to actually ride it, I'd be for starting with something better suited to your area and riding style.

keg61

it is for me to ride, I have extremely limited finances and can't just get something else on a whim.any project i get into is automatically a long term plan before i take the first step,actually staying the course and accomplishing goals is an important part of my recovery. I'm happy to listen to opinions and advice but i am not about to give up my plans

prathmann

I would start by just switching to a double or triple crankset with a pretty small inner chain ring without bothering initially with a front derailleur. Just ride into town (i.e. downhill) with the chain on the larger chain ring and move it over to the small ring manually (use a stick or screwdriver so you don't get greasy fingers) when you're ready to head back home (i.e. uphill).

That way you can see if the lower gears with a small chain ring achieves the result you want before you invest the time and expense of adding a custom mount for a front derailleur and shifter.

[I had friends who rode for years and many thousands of miles with this kind of manual front shifting since they liked a very elliptical large chain ring for most of their riding but sometimes needed to climb a steep hill using a smaller ring. The elliptical ring with its varying diameter wasn't compatible with any front derailleur so they just reached down and moved the chain over by hand when necessary.]

Shahmatt

I do this too. I have a compact elliptical dual ring setup which is actually front derailleur compatible though I have not investing in one. I find that I can decide what type of riding I'm going to do before starting out, and make the decision before leaving the house.

Retro Grouch 

In that case, my first shot would be to try to find a smaller front chainring and see if you can find the balance between hill climb and high gear capability.

The picture looks like a one piece crank to me. Converting that to a multiple chainring crankset is going to involve making some additional changes to your trike. Replacing the chainring is the simplest and cheapest thing that you can do. Niagara Bicycle and Dan's Comp are two internet sources that might have the part that you'll need. The thing to be careful of is chainring thickness. Lots of one piece crank chainrings are too thick to accept a narrower derailleur chain.

keg61

ye sir it was a one piece, i'm planning to replace it with either a SunLite or VO threadless BB as a starting point, which limits what i can do with the crank because they are both square taper JIS but that's ok, i have found several 42-32-22 triples that i like and i'm planning to weld a piece of seat tube on top of the bb shell to hang a FD on.the rear wheels will be going back to the original builder for relacing and possibly swapping the 24"rims for 26", all of the cables will of course be replaced also. the rear brakes are entry level Avid mechanical discs, i'm thinking about moving up to BB7 on them