The Raiders Trike, now 5 years old, is still performing yeoman duty hauling groceries and cargo every week. The recent closure of the only nearby market, made me create a backup for the Raiders Trike. Not wanting to go through the tedious process of modifying a frame, I decided to create an illegal trike, using a front wheel hub motor. The result is the Red Devil MotorTrikele, as the attached pictures.

Since CA eBike no longer sells hub motors, I bought a Dongdian 350w, geared, 27.5’’ wheel motor from China. The battery is your nude Frog Pack from 5 years ago, still pumping out juice. The frame is a stock Motobecane NT5, with only the front and rear dropouts opened for the larger axles. The rear axle is made from genuine, high-quality, Ace Hardware parts. The basket made with some nice cardboard and then glassed. Since the Motobecane was bright red on black, I wanted a red logo on the rear, but in keeping with the Raiders Trike. The local sign shop made me a nice Red Devil sticker.

There is no chain, so I planned to use the PAS for an alternate throttle, whenever the fuzz showed up. In fact, this worked great. When I returned from my 2^nd test ride, I stopped in front of my front gate. As I got off the trike, I accidentally kicked the pedals, which with no resistance, spun around and the PAS caused the bike to leap forward into the closed gate. Fortunately, nothing bad happened. I realized at once that an evil event like this could only be caused by the Red Devil.

I disabled the PAS and gave up plans for an imitation trike. The pedal crank arms were set to the same angle, causing the pedals to hang at their lowest point. This turned out to be surprisingly low, due to the 20” rear wheels. Riding to the Post Office, while on the sidewalk, I came to a driveway, which high-centered the pedals, throwing my legs in the air, but I stayed in the saddle (some idle teenagers seemed to think this was amusing). Naturally, I immediately thought of painting over the Red Devil, but on further reflection, realized this could make matters worse. Removing the Red Devil was not possible, as I had applied the sticker before the black paint had cured, and it appeared that some type of molecular bonding had occurred.

Using some baling wire, I tied the cranks up forward, which gave a nice motorcycle position. The hub motor has an excellent electric whine, making the motorcycle effect even more perfect. Riding on a deserted road, I reached the exciting speed of 17.2 mph and then my cap blew off. Damn that Red Devil!

With things going from bad to worse, I was at wits end. Then I remembered my handicapped neighbor, who drives one of those medically approved chairs with 3 tiny wheels. I know he takes a nap in the afternoon. With a heat gun and a putty knife, I could remove his medically approved sticker and… Damn that Red Devil!

Have some fun every day.
Jerry…