I'm posting here mostly to pat myself on the back, I think, but also to let people know about some alternatives to traditional bicycles. My GF has a problem with bicycling: she never learned to ride as a child, and only a little in college, so she doesn't quite grok the bio-mechanics of bicycling and balancing. She doesn't mind pedaling and had lots of fun with me when I borrowed a tandem bike from a friend, but she doesn't have any confidence in her own balancing ability and is always afraid of falling. This leads to her getting frustrated and exhausted on even short bike rides.
I had looked into several solutions such as tandem bikes and recumbent trikes, both of which I like, but they are quire expensive to buy since they are a low volume item compared to regular bicycles. I happened to come across a great deal recently though, as a friend of mine came across a free Triton trike and passed it on to me. As you can see here:
http://tritontrike.com/ the triton trike is kind of a mobility trike, but because it was a direct drive, rear wheel steering delta trike it was not particularly fast or stable.
Fast forward a couple of weeks, and we have this:
What I did was buy a 20" wheel with 6 speed cassette (okay, i probably could have gotten this used), two lengths of chain, skateboard wheels, and a few feet of 1.5" rectangular hollow section metal tubing. I also took the bottom bracket, crankset, and derailleurs off of another mountain bike that I got for free (was being thrown out in the alley by my house). I welded the bottom bracket to an extension that fits inside the original frame and bolts in to, welded a piece of tubing for a new seat mount near the single (now rear) wheel, made some brackets for the new rear wheel (with 6 speed cassette) from some 1/8" steel plate, and linked two lengths of chain together to drive it. The chain has to ride on an idler pulley made out of a skateboard wheel so it doesn't rub on the seat bottom.
Anyway, now it's a usable trike, capable of doing about 25 km/h instead of about 6 km/h like before. The steering is a bit sensitive since it doesn't have any caster/trail and that's something else I want to work on, but other than that I feel comfortable riding it pretty much anywhere I would bicycle (on road only, no mountain trails). My GF and I have been riding it around town and she's been really enjoying it, instead of worrying about balance. I've been following behind her on another home-made recumbent bike, this one based on the site recycledrecumbent.com
Anyone else out there make custom bikes/trikes?