A step in the wrong direction...

My first 'port-of-call' was: http://www.alfaowner.com
I introduced myself as a noob then set about my search for a 'sud motor.

I have to say, a more knowledgeable and friendlier bunch of people as you would ever hope to meet.

I explained that I wanted the engine for an impending trike project and, almost immediately, my request was greeted with input - all positive - from the forum users.

As generally happens on forums like these, people pitch in with opinions, thoughts and ideas. I got lucky. Although a motor had yet to materialize, one of the guys on the forum seemed to be taking quite alot of interest in my project. Several related discussions later, I realized I was discussing my project with someone who's engineering skills and experience were leaps and bounds ahead of mine and also, that I had made my first serious design error.

Some would argue that the VW beetle is an ideal donor vehicle for trikes. In some respects I would agree. It's air-cooled, so no hoses, radiators and ancillary stuff to deal with and the motor is tucked away at the back making the low-rider style easily achievable.

From the outset I had the idea of a low-rider in my head. For this reason, the idea of converting a bike to a trike was a no-go. It had to be built from the ground-up using a car as the donor of the parts.

But what about all that weight overhanging the rear axle? The VW trike is notoriously light at the front end. To such a degree that builders deliberately add huge amounts of weight to the front of the chassis in an effort to keep the front end on the tarmac. Did I think this was a good idea? No! To compound the problem, I had intended to swap the VW motor out for an Alfasud motor adding MORE weight (additional water-cooled weight) behind the rear axle.

Thankfully, my discussions with Lauren led me to accept what I really knew all along (but was too stubborn to admit). That I was about to embark on a project that incorporated inherently bad design ideas. I had actually designed something I wasn't happy with.

For the first time, not only was I asking myself but I was also BEING ASKED, whether this was what I really, really wanted?

This was a really imortant point. You really wouldn't want to invest all the time and effort and indeed all the money into (perhaps) a one-off project like this to say at the end of it all "I wish I'd done it another way!"