What’s in the, uh, stand?…

More like what’s on the floor. A customer had a Worksman tricycle shipped to the shop for assembly. I was expecting a pretty big carton that would have been delivered by a freight company. When UPS pulled up with a smaller than expected box, I thought “how the heck is there a trike in there?”

Well, the trike folds and it fit pretty nice in the box. I was impressed.

The box was double layer in critical areas. However, there’s only so much two layers of 5-ply cardboard can do to protect a critical part if it’s shipped/handled on the one end that you don’t want 50 pounds or so to be crushing into the ground. Once I got the parts out and tried to fold the hinge in place, part of the main plate where the locking pin connected the halves was bent. The spot that was bent was an awkward place that wasn’t all that easy to bend back – and it’s pretty thick steel to boot.

Note the tools necessary to assemble a tricycle.

Then I tackled getting the parts installed.

From Bikes & Things in the Shop

It turned out pretty cool and the test ride to make sure it worked was pretty fun. The turning radius of the trike is as small as you want. Cornering on two wheels – well, that’ll take some practice.

(What’s playing: Randy Newman It’s Money That I Love)