Converting a kids bike?

froggymom · Feb 5, 2005

Hi! I am a mom in Ca, & I used to ride bicycles quite a bit, but now that my kids are getting a little older I have a little problem. My son was born with spina bifida, & his legs (& balance) aren't as strong as the average. he has ridden a trike in therapy just fine, but when I looked at them in the catalog, they are thousands of dollars, which is just not feasible at this point. So I was wondering if any of you knew of a website where it details how to convert a childs bike into a three wheeler (if its even possible).

blazingpedals · Feb 5, 2005

froggymom said:
Hi! I am a mom in Ca, & I used to ride bicycles quite a bit, but now that my kids are getting a little older I have a little problem. My son was born with spina bifida, & his legs (& balance) aren't as strong as the average. he has ridden a trike in therapy just fine, but when I looked at them in the catalog, they are thousands of dollars, which is just not feasible at this point. So I was wondering if any of you knew of a website where it details how to convert a childs bike into a three wheeler (if its even possible).

Building a trike is pretty complicated. I've seen plans out there, but I wouldn't want to try one, even as a third or fourth shop project. I know of two sub-$1000 trikes. First, Trailmate makes several, pictured below. You could also look into these: http://www.americruiser.com. I have never seen either of these in person, but the price is more attractive than the multi-thousand fancy ones. Depending on how big your son is, but maybe one of these would fit the bill.

froggymom · Feb 5, 2005

blazingpedals said:
Building a trike is pretty complicated. I've seen plans out there, but I wouldn't want to try one, even as a third or fourth shop project. I know of two sub-$1000 trikes. First, Trailmate makes several, pictured below. You could also look into these: http://www.americruiser.com. I have never seen either of these in person, but the price is more attractive than the multi-thousand fancy ones. Depending on how big your son is, but maybe one of these would fit the bill.

Yea, I would totally not attempt it on my own. My bro-in-law has built several go-carts & I was going to enlist his help. But when I mentioned it to him, I'm not sure he got what I was going for because He started talking about motors & hitches & such, so I was hoping somebody out there would have some sort of straight forward plan I could show him.

blazingpedals · Feb 6, 2005

froggymom said:
Yea, I would totally not attempt it on my own. My bro-in-law has built several go-carts & I was going to enlist his help. But when I mentioned it to him, I'm not sure he got what I was going for because He started talking about motors & hitches & such, so I was hoping somebody out there would have some sort of straight forward plan I could show him.

Well, that was my way of saying it's very labor intensive to do, at least in the case of a tadpole trike. If your b.i.l. is willing, here's one site that has plans:
http://www.ihpva.org/com/PracticalInnovations/
Or, a delta trike, which will probably be easier to make, as well as easier to size to a kid:
http://www.radiks.net/~ladue/plans.html
The problem with delta trikes is that they're easier to tip in corners, whereas it's very hard to get a tadpole trike up on two wheels.

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Converting a kids bike?

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