I haven’t done an update in a while. Several things to report…

Intermittent rain and other issues kept me from picking up the body until last Thursday. I used a purpose built trailer (the trike itself) to tow the body home. We took some pictures of it before I left Joe’s. Since it was still threatening more rain and possible hail, I took it directly to the BTW clubhouse.

There was a BTW Halloween party Saturday night at the clubhouse and everyone was just gushing over the trike. Not without plenty of suggestions, but nobody hated the paint 🙂

Before I continue with the Dragon Trike, I have a brief Yellow Trike update.

I have mounted (uglyly [… is that a word?]) the VDO speedometer sensor and the speedo works wonderfully now.
It does only one thing that is slightly odd, and I fully understand why it does this. As you are rolling slowly up to a traffic light or other such stop, then suddenly stop, for about a second, it continues to indicate that you’re moving at 3mph or whatever. With only 5 magnets to count at 3mph, it expects 0.32 seconds between pulses and after you stop, it has to make sure you’re not still rolling before it recalculates your speed to zero.

In any case, speed and distance correlate very well with GPS measurements and I pronounce it done. Well, I will probably make a nice bracket for the sensor and the instrument itself has a springy mount that makes it move a lot on the road, but those are minor issues.

Back to the Dragon…. There are basically 3 things that need to happen for it to be on the road by my short term goal of December 12th.

1. The engine, which hasn’t run since I put all the bling on it, needs to run. That includes building and installing the throttle cable. It may also include troubleshooting an air leak, for it had symptoms that I now recognize before I took the engine apart for the afore mentioned blinging.

2. The wiring, which includes all lighting and the new “everything” speedo, needs to be done. Lighting includes finding some way have front signals without drilling the body.

3. The front wheel and especially the front tire are not very safe. The tire is aged and cracked, though it does seem to hold air pretty well. The rim is nearly rusted through in a couple of spots.

4. Yeah, I said three, but I forgot that it needs an inspection, too.

That’s what’s needed to merely get it ON the road. I really want to see if I can get it running EFI by then. Um, that’s 39 days. It’s not impossible. What it changes, however, is that EFI adds more engine and wiring work. See the EFI blog for more details on that.

There is a cubic buttload of stuff that also has to be done, preferably before December 12, but I doubt I can get it all that soon. Stuff like upholstery, fenders, footpegs or floorboard, baja cage and hitch, torpedos, navigational deflectors and other such goodies. A few more decorative bits like paint the inside of the wheel spokes and rechrome the handlebars. I suspect wheelie bars will be more of a requirement than an option at some point in the future.