My Tailbox

In june 2006 after looking at various tailboxes on the internet I decided to build one for my Trice S. After looking at the various materials and methods of construction available I decided to use Correx board with some aluminum framing. Correx board looks a bit like cardboard but it is made from plastic and is waterproof unlike cardboard. Correx is often used for for sale signs. There are various methods available to join correx board. These include gaffer tape, hot glue, zip ties and pop rivets. I decided to use a hot glue gun to join the pieces of correx togeather. Hot glue sticks correx very strongly since it partly melts the correx and kinda welds it creating a join which is as strong as the correx itself. Unfortunately hot glue does not join correx to aluminum very well and the join is weak so I decided to use pop rivets to join the correx to the aluminum framing.

I liked the look of Warren Beauchamp's MOAT (Mother Of All Tailboxes) So decided to build mine using a similar technique although I decided to join the strips with hot glue insted of zip ties for a cleaner appearence. I built a prototype from cardboard and raced with the cardboard version at the Darly moor BHPC race. I came first in the multitrack class with an avarage speed of 25.1Mph and even lapped the person who came second.

Cardboard prototype being raced at darly moor
Picture by Ian Fardoe

After designing and racing the cardboard prototype I decided to make the tailbox capable of carrying a touring load so I could use it to carry my kit for the York cycle rally. This meant I needed to change the shape slighlty. I thought that it would be best if the cargo compartment had a flat bottom with stright sides so I changed the shape of the box slighlty to accmodate this. I thought that if I made the cargo compartment with tapered sides then the weight of the luggage would cause the sides to bulge out and maybe even fail. I also decided to build a sturdy aluminum platform which would support the floor of the cargo compartment. The frame/platform was built from 20x20x1.5mm angle and 20x2mm flat bar stock. The frame was assembled with pop-rivets and fixed to the trike using the rack mounting points on the dropouts and the seat mounting bolt.

The tailbox frame off and on the trike

The actual box itself stated with the internal floor, this was cut to shape and pop-rivited to the platform. The sides of the main section of the box were then glued to the base to form the basic box. The leading edge of the box was originally left over-long and was trimmed to my shape after compleation of the rest of the box. The width on the box was 18" since that is the width of my shoulders, if you have wider/narrower shoulders then you would need a wider/narrower box to suit. The two internal bulkheads are there to stiffen the box and prevent the sides being bent out by the load. The bulkheads also support the centeral wheel arch. The lid of the box uses a tounge and grove system to help keep it in place and make it waterproof. The tounge was made by simpley glueing a strip of correx to the inside of the sides so that it was about 1cm heigher than the side of the box. The groove which is in the lid of the box was made by gluing 2 strips of correx to the inside of the lid. The lid is held on with 6 elastic loops which fit over hooks on the lid. I got the idea for the elastic loops and hooks from this site

The compleated bike showing a full touring load

To increase the visibility of the box I applied reflective tape as showen here

Overveiw of tailbox