Head tube angle... Uh oh! Some good progress too, though.

[rykoala]

When I set up the head tube I did so with the frame flat, and set it at 68 degrees on the nose. Of course, when you put the frame at its natural angle (5 degrees down) that 68 degrees becomes 73 degrees. OUCH!

Now I know that many road bikes have a 73 degree head tube angle, but this isn't meant to be a road bike.

Is it even ridable? Should I cut and re-weld to compensate?

*sigh*

The good progress was what I did last night. I finished the new bottom bracket set up and got it installed on the bike. All I have left is to set up the steering after that, and then install the derailers, brakes, and the idler pulley for the chain.

[TheKid]

When I built mine, there was a lot of wheel flop. I made the angle much steeper, almost 80 degrees, and I found it to was easier to start pedaling without much of the wobble inherent with LWB recumbents. I didn't find any problems at all with that steep an angle.

[rykoala]

MUSIC TO MY EARS. Wow, 80 degrees! Neato. I am much happier to know that I don't have to hack my Meridian apart! I am going to try to work on the steering tonight. We'll see how it goes. The steering *should* be really easy. Who knows, maybe this weekend it'll go for its maiden voyage. Probably not though. I still have to modify the seat some (its too long, but plenty wide) and build a support for the seat near the rear main tube, and put the tensioner on.... ok maybe next weekend ;)

[TheKid]

One thing I didn't do was match the pilot tube to the angle of the head tube. That caused a small problem with the operation of the tie rod, which I fixed by using spacers. I was going to make the mod to the pilot tube before final painting, but I broke my leg before I could do it. I broke my leg because the seat was TOO WIDE. The side of the front wheel hit a slightly raised lip of a driveway while I was almost stopped. The bike tipped, and because of the width of the seat, I couldn't get my leg straight down to stop from tipping over completely. When the bike went over, falling to the left, the seat was so wide, it lifted my right leg off the ground, and my left leg got caught under the bike. If your seat is wide, make sure the front of the seat is much narrower than the rear, so you could get your feet down. I had a boat seat that was 16" wide and 14" from the front to the rear of the bottom cushion. BTW, I decided to stay away from 2 wheelers after this happened, plus the fact that arthritis makes trikes and quads more viable options. I recycled the Meridian parts. Here's a pic where you could see the difference between the two head tube angles:

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z66/edpol_photos/Meridian/000_0059WinCE.jpg