harolds over ambitious christiania

I've done a bit more work on the christiania so I thought I'd describe the whole build. Here's the story.

I got this christiania trailer off ebay. It was previously used by a baker who used it to pick up flour and do daily bread rounds. I pulled it back across london on a rather high geared fixed which was interesting.

So when pushing the little one around the garden I really wished it was a real christiania.

A little research showed that it as possible to get the rear frame and bolt it on to make it a full working trike. Velorution did the ordering

and all I needed to do was adapt the box. I needed to lower the wheels as the trailer has 20" wheels and it needed it 24" wheels. Instead of rebuilding the wheels, I just lowered them. Also more metal was needed to give attaching points for the rear frame and and brakes.

From this

to this

courtesy of my friendly local metal fabricators.

So now I needed a new rear wheel. I built stupid one, sturmey archer 5 speed with huge drum brake, to a 24" mega wide DH rim.

Here's the base frame all together

with front brakes

which are really big dual pivot which just get round a big apple plus mudguard.

So I put the box back on and started considering how to get it rideable.

The bars are chopped up massive chopper bars mounted with hydraulic pipe mounting clamp things.

The front brake are done by a bike polo special doubled up v brake lever.

And can now be used for shopping and it looked like this!

This was around a year ago and very little progress was done. Shopping trips were though, very handy.

Recently I decided to get off my bum and build some seats, child is out growing the bike seat and we have another on the way. I will hopefully be able to get a car seat in it and take the family out from early on.

Wood was collected, pallet wrap > bungies

and cutting and screwing commenced.

I put some battons on each end of the box to support the box

and one seat made into a box

I was considering hinges for both seats, to open the box and get the other out of the way for shopping etc. I have decided against this for weight, and ease of building the things. Going to put some well considered bits of dowel to hook it all in place.

Also need some seat belts, maybe cushions.

This is awesome.... what sheds and things were made for.

That's really cool.

How does it ride? My only experience with trikes is a quick spin around the block and it was a strange experience going round corners due to the limited amount of leaning you can do. I imagine this would be worse with a fully loaded box on the front.

I actually don't have a shed. Just a 1 bed flat. It was all done in the living room and out on the gravel drive. The amount of very important nuts and bolts that have been dropped on the gravel... arrgh! especially annoying in the evening as the light is failing.

Cool as Fuck.
Rolls well I bet.
Nearly rolled one of these find the cornering a.bit sketchy Tbh
Hope yours handles well.

It is a lot more stable fully loaded, the weight stops it tipping. It really does handle badly if you're not used to it. When I first got all the bits I thought I needed it didn't have the damping rod for the steering. I though this was fine. It was not. Rode it up town and back and it was a little like wrestling a sheep, a sheep that wants tip on it's side. I now have the damper. You just have to be a bit more sensible, like slowing for corners. Also the single lump sleeping policemen (the ones that don't stretch all the way across) have to be hit straight on, or else it's crazy speed wobble time.

If was to buy a cargo bike new, I might go for a bakfiet two wheeled thing as they look more "leanable"

Also I really wish mini roundabouts would camber inwards rather than out. It makes them rather stressful. I wander how much better off all car suspension would be if this was the case. A single drain could be put in the center to drain it. Though I guess this would encourage everyone to hit them at speed.

Great read.

I remember this. Great to see it compiled all in one place.

Harold rules.

And he counts ice crystals in the future for a job.

I wouldn't call it a job, not getting paid anymore due to being too slow. Technically never got "paid" at all, at least it terms of whats taxable.

Cheers for the comments. It's been a long build, and I can confidently say that a christiania is worth the price of buying one, as they are quite tricky to bodge together.