Thunderspeed Trike Construction Project

What the heck is a Thunderspeed?

Well, it is a recumbent trike design that borrows design features from the HellBent Thunderbolt Mk II and Greenspeed GTR 20/20. The steering knuckle/kingpin design and front crossmember is based on the HellBent Thunderbolt/Spitfire while general frame & seat design is from the Greenspeed GTR 20/20. I bought plans from HellBent for their Thunderbolt Mk II and plans from Greenspeed for their GTR 20/20. After much study & deliberation of both designs, I decided the trike I wanted to build would be something new that would have design elements incorporated from both. Thus, the hybrid Thunderspeed is born!

If you would like to see a more detailed look at the trike assembly drawings, then click 3-view.pdf for an adobe pdf file of a 3-view plan view of the frame assembly, or click assembly.pdf for an isometric 3-d view. (same as the above drawing, but larger & more detailed.)

If you have the free AutoDesk .dwf file viewer installed on your computer, you should see a 3-D model of the trike frame in a window below. This full 3D model can be zoomed, panned and rotated with the AutoDesk dwf viewer. The html code in this page should automatically prompt you to download the viewer if it does not find it. If not, the viewer can be downloaded for free at www.autodesk.com/dwfviewer-download.

DWF file updated 10/31/04

Please note: As I periodically update the DWF file to show the latest version of the trike model, the file size grows larger and larger. If you do not have high-speed internet access, then it may take several minutes for the file to load. Older computers with slower CPU's or versions of Windows earlier than Win2000 may also experience problems with the dwf viewer.

The Thunderbolt Mk II plans & Spitfire trike are available from HellBent Cycles, Inc.

The Greenspeed GTR 20/20 Plans set and completed trikes are available from Greenspeed