My KMX Kart

I have been intrested in Recumbent bikes and especially trikes for several years now, Upuntil recently recumbent trikes were expensive items and trikes under £2000 were rare. Last year a componey known as KMX Karts bought out a trike which was £600 compleate, less than half the price of any other adult recumbent trike avalible. After 2 years of dreaming, I placed a order for a KMX Kart in september 2004. This might sound like a toy but it ain't, it's a serious road-worthy trike just like the more expensive brands.

Due to supply and demand, my trike finally arrived in late Jan 2005 in a big box, I unpacked it and assembled it and could not wait until the next day (I only came home at about 7pm). I rode it for the first time the next day. It was fun to ride but felt slow, I concluded this was mainly due to the tyres, which were Maxxis Hookworms, the 16" fronts weighed 530grams each and the rear was a massive 1250grams. A few weeks later, I orderd a pair of Primo comet tyres for the fronts and a Schwable Marathon for the rear. I fitted the new tyres and got about 1.5-2MPH increase in speed.

The stock seat felt fairly comfortable for short rides but on longer rides, I got the dreaded recumbutt and the odd design of the back part did not feel very comfortable compared to other seats I had tried. After some discussion on Bent-Rider-Online, A very kind person known as "fards" gave me a old Optima hardshell seat, I fitted this at 37 degrees to my KMX chassis and it feels like a diffrent (more expensive) trike. I mounted the hardshell on some temporery Plywood mounts, intending on getting some steal mounts welded up by a local componey to replace the plywood once I was happy with the seat and the position of it. I then found out that KMX are planning on making their own hardshell seat (not sure if they got the idea off me), So I decided to leave the plywood in place until the KMX seat comes out since the estimated price is most likley simular to the cost of getting some mounts welded up. I beefed the plywood mounts up a little and painted them black to blend in and to protect them from water.

Here are some photos

(12/7/05) Oops, it broke.
Just after going to York Rally, I noticed a broken weld on my frame, the weld on the underside of the joint where the rear end of the frame meets the main tube had cracked and started to part. I am not 100% sure of the cause of the failure, it could have been either a poor weld, overloading due to by seat design or a combination of both. I decided I would try and find a local componey who could weld it for me and then I'd have an excuse to get a respray in a more attractive colour than black. I thought I would just phone KMX just to find out if they sold un-built frames how much one would cost and to my suprise, they actually said I could have a replacement frame FOR FREE! This is dispite the fact I voided the warranty about a week after I had the trike and the makers were clearly aware of this as I had showen them pictures of my warranty voiding mods. All I had to pay for was the return postage of the broken frame.

To try and reduce the loading on the weak joint, I decided to make an offset braket to place the weight further back on the chainstay. Here is a picture of the new setup, the seat angle is about 33degrees.

(11/09/05) KMX comes third in BHPC race at Lincoln
I did a race on my KMX at Lincoln and came third in my race with an average speed of 19Mph, See results here

UPDATE 02/11/05
I have now sold the KMX, It was a good entry level trike and has provided about 2,750 miles of fun (possibly the highest milage KMX in existance?) but I am now seeking a higher performance trike deigned for speed and touring. I am going to use the cash from the sale of the KMX towards a more expensive trike from the guys at www.ice.hpv.co.uk