I'd had no interest in tricyles until I discovered one day that people raced them. My interest increased later when I learnt that H.R. (Dick) Morris had made a few and even rode one himself. I think anyone who has heard of Dick Morris will likely understand why I decided I'd like to try one myself one day.

Back in February last year I became aware that someone I'd bought a couple of parts from on eBay had an H.R. Morris tricycle so I sent him a message saying that if he ever wanted to sell it he should let me know. He wrote back saying he actually had a Morris frame for sale that was too big for him so I told him I was interested. Then followed a torturous series of emails as I tried to get a price out of the seller who, by return, simply told me more about the frame, and trikes in general, and the parts that would go with it.

I didn't want to be too direct in asking for a price as I felt it would be rude. Instead, I mentioned how Morris frames were very hard to find and usually very expensive when they did come onto the market. I referenced a couple of original machines I knew had changed hands privately for £6,000 each over the previous year and pointedly mentioned there was no way I could or would want to spend that much.

Then a bombshell. Out of the blue he asked me if I'd be interested in a Morris bicycle frame that he had, in the same size, 24", as well. What do you say to that!? I replied explaining that in the absence of a price I didn't even know if I could afford one Morris, let alone two. To that he asked me if I wanted the frames delivered to me in the UK or Japan. I wrote back pointing out again that I wasn't even sure if I could buy one but that I guessed that if I were to buy them I'd have them delivered to my home address in the UK.

He replied with a delivered price that was so far below my expectations that I excitedly told me wife and even she said, 'That's cheap!'. So a deal was done. That was at the beginning of April last year and I went to pick up both frames at the end of the same month.

First, the bicycle - 1956 'Special racing model' (as it says in the build records):

[IMG] 1956 H.R. Morris - finished, almost, and riding beautifully - 24th December 2014 by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]

The frame came already finished in black with gold lug lining. I've built it in its original fixed gear configuration with a pair of new old stock Harden hubs that I'd been saving for something worthy of them, Constrictor Asp rims, Stronglight Competition cranks and TA wheels. I have to say, it's one of my three best riding bikes, the other two being my 2 Rotrax machines. It has an uncanny ability to go where you 'think' it. The tubes are Reynold High Manganese, which predate 531 by abut 10 years. The head tube is interesting as it has pre-war bearing cups, probably made by Chater Lea. These mean, I think, that I can use either a headset or a head clip. Dick Morris must have had a stash of them.

[IMG] 1956 H.R. Morris - on the road - front. by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]

The stem was also made by Dick Morris and was supplied to the original owner when he bought the frame.

[IMG] Untitled by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]

Now the tricycle... when I picked it up it was in primer, and had been for the previous 5 years since when the seller stripped it.

[IMG] 1963 H.R. Morris in primer, 'as bought', on Geoff Booker's work stand at TRYKIT by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]

I had the frame converted from the original 1-wheel drive to 2-wheel drive by Trykit in the UK and then had Argos Racing in Bristol bead blast and re-enamel it in flamboyant purple and flam pale violet. It took them 6 months to get around to painting it and another couple of months to pack it up to ship to me in Tokyo but when it arrived I was very, very pleased:

[IMG] 1963 H.R. Morris tricycle frame - re-enamelled by Argos Racing Cycles, Bristol, in flam purple/pale lilac by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]

Building the trike was a very interesting experience - there are all sorts of things that surprise a biker, like the seat stays that taper upwards instead of down and the very thick forks, built to withstand lateral cornering forces. The Trykit conversion is a beautifully engineered bit of kit and I really enjoyed assembling it. In its present form, with the saddlebag, it weighs 14.1kg/31.1lbs, which considering it has 2 wheels at the back and solid stainless steel shafts I think is very light. It's certainly very flickable on the road. It's built with Reynolds DB 531 throughout (or maybe not the forks...).

[IMG] Geoff Booker / TRYKIT TWD conversion parts (inboard bearings fitted) by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]

Then, last Saturday it was ready to ride, albeit with just a single gear as I hadn't got round to fitting controls (I was so eager to throw a leg over it!) - I did that on Wednesday and yesterday tidied everything up. I'm still waiting for a Duopar FD, a GB stem, a 52T chain wheel and a pair of French thread Lyotard 460D pedals, to replace the present chrome ones, to arrive and then I'll get the bars properly taped.

[IMG] Almost done. Just waiting for the large chain wheel, a Huret Duopar FD & GB stem. by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]

I expect some of you reading this will want to know what it's like to ride. In short, absolutely amazing! Horror of horrors, I've even thought about selling my bikes (except the Morris) and just riding the trike. The Morris would stay as the seller told me the original owner of both frames wanted them to stay together as he'd had them both made by Dick Morris, who was a personal friend of his, and of the man who sold them on to me.

So what is it like?

Well, cornering is very interesting. It's completely different from riding a bike.

The first morning I took it out I was going down the moderate, short hill outside my block of flats and found myself heading towards the wall on my left at the bottom where it curves slightly - trikes readily try to go down a camber. My automatic reaction was to lean slightly to the right as you do on a bike but this has no effect on a trike. Completely confused, I braked and stopped. Later in the day I was on a sharp left hander when a car nosed out of a car park on the right. This time I leaned sharply left, a la bike, but happened to turn the handlebars as I did so and missed the car. Aha!

If you think about it, when you want to avoid something on a bike you lean away from it and push the handlebars very slightly in the direction of the obstacle (if you want to go right, you push the right hand handlebar forward a little and vice versa), which causes the bike to fall in the direction you are leaning. Doing that on a trike causes the trike to go in the direction of the obstacle. Plus, leaning away from the direction the trike has taken causes the trike to tip over. In trike circles, that bike riders crash within the first 5 yards the first time they ride a trike is well known.

Basically, you have to learn to do 2 things on a trike: to actually steer it in the direction you want to go and to constantly and finely shift your centre of balance to compensate for whichever way the trike is leaning, and lean it does, almost ceaselessly, changing quickly from left to right. It becomes 2nd nature after a couple of days... or at least, that's what I've found. I think leaning off to the inside on corners when I raced a motorcycle has helped me to adapt relatively quickly.

Honestly, if I'd known they were so much fun I would've got a trike years ago.

If you'd like to see more photos of this beast, there are lots of photos (too many... I must do some editing) here:
1963 HR Morris tricycle frame - a set on Flickr

And for photos of the bike:
1956 HR Morris - a set on Flickr

Wow. Both the bike and the trike are beautiful machines, awesome work!

How well does the double front brake setup on the trike work?

Stunning examples, DM! And I love that stem - just a beautiful piece of work.

Those are some beautiful bikes. Does the trike have an articulated headset?

EDIT - OK I see it was a pic pre-installation. I thought it might be some bizaaro trike part.

OMG! What stunningly beautiful machines.

These are truly special. You are indeed very lucky. I plan on re-reading this a few times, as well as spending some serious time drooling over the photos.

I've always thought a trike would be fun, but they are such space hogs. You simply have to have the space to keep them when you're not on them. sigh.

Really, really lovely.

Thanks for sharing!

Glad you like 'em.

The brakes work very well indeed. I had both rear wheels off the ground this afternoon when a car pulled out of a parking space in front of me. Made me realise I should try to keep my weight back under hard braking.

The 'wisdom' is that rear brakes are pretty useless unless touring fully loaded.

I'm with you all the way there, AZORCH! They are both so beautifully made. Apparently, Dick Morris was unusual in that he made frames completely by himself, with no assistants to file lugs or clean up brazing.

My bad there. I put the parts there to keep the fork in place while I photographed the frame. I ended up chipping the paint at the top of the head tube...

What you said, LL! I feel very lucky.

Yeah, a bit big. I have to take a wheel off to get the trike into our tiny hall, and all three if I want to get it into the sitting room to do any work on it. But... it's worth it.

I really really like that trike. These are the best images I have seen also of the upgrade differential. The eccentric BB shell has me thinking a bit, I think I would set it up for the spindle to be as low as possible, cornering might be incrementally helped.
This is the best paint I have seen images of from Argos too. They did a stellar job. Like they knew this one was special so they only put the top men on it.

Both of those are simply wonderful, a a great write up on them, thank you so much for sharing!

So cool.

That's one of the cooler things I've seen here.

The Trykit conversion really is a piece of work. Beautifully made.

The 'differential' is actually a Shimano cassette hub that's been converted into a double freewheel with left and right ratchets for the left and right shafts, 3 pawls on each side. One or the other freewheels according to whether the trike is going to the left or right. A very simple mechanism.

I've set the eccentric up to take the pedals as far forward as possible to avoid rubbing my heels on the chain stays, a common problem with trikes and big feet.

This is the 3rd job Argos have done for me and all three have been superb but I think they only have one sprayer there. It's a very small factory with a staff or 4 or 5, I think. They are presently doing a PARIS Tour de France for me. It's fascinating place to visit with usually about 25 freshly painted frames hanging up waiting for collection.

Look at the finish on this Claud Butler!
[IMG] The standard of workmanship from Argos. by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]

Nicely done. While I'm somewhat intrigued by trikes, I'm very familiar with the far different riding style needed to operate them. That is enough to keep me away from them, at least for now.

Both the bicycle and tricycle are beautifully done.

Hey DM: Beautiful lugs and stem on the Morris bicycle. Enjoy!

Brad

My apologies - I didn't acknowledge what is a very good point. Yes, setting the eccentric to its lowest would indeed help cornering by lowering the C of G slightly but it would also lower the pedals, which have already touch down a couple of times on uneven surfaces.

Another consideration is that at my low level of expertise any gain would be theoretical. With lots more practice I might one day go that way... a long way off, I reckon

This is the best video of a trike cornering I've found - at the very beginning of the video and from 7:40 - turn the volume down as there's lots of wind noise :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt4_PHCInk8

The new bar tape...

[IMG][/IMG]

The later image of the trike indeed shows that the BB is quite low, 25-26 cm above the road?

Lower. From the centre of the BB axle to the ground is 22.5 cm, putting the end of the 170mm cranks just 4.25cm off the ground.

I've found out that BB height on trikes with eccentric BBs is traditionally measured from the axle centre to the ground with the axle at its lowest possible point, so 'officially' the height of this one is about 21.23cm.

Thanks. I can't believe how much fun this trike is.

I'm afraid, though, the stem was only temporary and used as a tool to find the best stem length. That worked out I've fitted a stem of the right length - I'm pleased to have been able to find a period one with a hole drilled for the MAFAC brake cable, which has allowed me to do away with the hanger:

[IMG][/IMG]

I made a video the other day of me and the trike. When I started triking a little less than a year ago I searched for useful (to a newbie triker) video on the net and there was hardly anything at all. A few months into riding this trike I developed an idea to remedy the paucity of triking videos... by making them myself. This is the first, and having made it I've already started thinking of the next one.

Please watch this in full screen - in it there is video taken from both onboard and statically, from the side of the cycle path in the local park:

https://youtu.be/4pAUMDQeOww

Awesome, thanks for the video. Very cool trike.

Very cool! I'd be afraid of hitting something with one of the rear wheels.

I sure do like the head badge!

As 'Crosstown Traffic' faded and you entered the park, I was kinda expecting 'Itchycoo Park" but obviously there's no point in being obvious....

Well, if it would've given you pleasure, rhm, maybe I should've

Incidentally, I've been thinking of you as I'm presently restoring a couple of saddles - a 1949 B15 Champion Standard and a 1954 B17 Competition Standard. Both works in progress. I'm presently waiting for rivets to come from the US before starting the riveting.

Cheers!