K5_489

Recently picked up a Terratrike Sport, and a new Tacx Vortex Smart trainer just showed up yesterday from Chain Reaction. I knew going into this that I would have to modify the trainer for the 20" wheels on the TT, but I was willing to take that on for a smart trainer that showed up for $180 shipped to my door.

I had seen listings for a Tacx small wheel adapter (part number T1466)for their trainers online before buying the Vortex, and figured it would be easy enough to fabricate a few flat plates similar to them, as that adapter kit had been discontinued. When the trainer showed up, I quickly realized why they were discontinued - the mount is COMPLETELY different....oops, lol. A few flat plates isn't going to pull this off now...

Being that I've been building 4x4 trucks for over 20 years now, modifying this trainer to accommodate a 20" wheel is well within my capabilities. But I also have a nasty tendency to WAY over think things sometimes, spend a full day chopping and welding a solution, and then have a dozen people tell me how I could have solved this in 5 minutes and $2 worth of parts, lol.

My current plan is to chop out the existing tube that the drive unit attaches to, leaving a couple inches of tube on either side. Weld a flange to either end, and weld mating tubes to the trainer feet tubes a few inches up where they would need to be to mate with the smaller 20" wheel on the trike. This way I can move the whole mount back down to the original factory position if I ever want to put a 26/27/29 inch wheel bike on the stand later.

Figured I'd check to see if anyone else has done this, potentially in an easier way, before I void the warranty on my brand new trainer, lol.

Noelmorr

hey
did you ever resolve this issue. I have same problem I bought cycleforce flow with bracket for 700c wheel. I’m using mountain bike 26” wheel, can’t get small wheel adapter anywhere. What I done was put a longer adjusting screw in and seems to have done the trick but tyre is really close to plastic housing around contact wheel , but it works for now lol

K5_489

I did! Ended up going with the "extension plate" idea, effectively just moving the roller assembly up a few inches. This way I can easily unbolt and remove the extension, and bolt the roller assembly back into the factory location. Slightly over engineered..I really didn't need to make the plates that large, or use so many bolts, but it was just scrap parts from another project that I reused for a quick solution.

The forum won't let me attach photos due to low post count though, and apparently I can't pm either or post urls, lol. Well...darn..

But yeah... Just cut the cross tube the roller was mounted to, shortened about an inch to accommodate extra plate steel, then welded a plate to the cut ends so the cross tube could be mounted a few inches higher.

Noelmorr

Can’t seem to get the proper brackets T1466 anywhere I’d rather have proper brackets but I’ll work with what I have until a set turn up

haze_1986

Hi wondering if you could share some pictures on how you achieved this? From my understanding the official T1466 tacx would not work as it is for a minimum of 24 inch wheels (or if anyone could correct me?)