RAZOR DXT Drift Trike Electric/Hybrid Conversion

Drift trikes are either pedal powered or motorized (electric or gas). I have never seen a hybrid drift trike. I enjoy pedaling a drift trike for the exercise, but would like to kick in some electric power to get longer flat land drifts, and get a boost to help up the hills. Pedal power limits the duration of a drift on flat land, because there's a limit to the angle at which it becomes impossible to pedal.

Electric drift trikes don't have pedals, which makes sense because the motor is far more powerful then our legs, and having feet close to a motorized wheel is not very safe. They usually have foot pegs that are attached to the frame, not the fork. Adding a shield to the fork to protect legs from the wheel, and a shield over the spokes to prevent feet from getting caught in the spokes will make it safer.

The front or rear wheel needs to be driven by the motor.

HOW TO UPGRADE THE REAR TIRES AND DRIFT SLEEVE

Before we even get to adding an electric motor to make the hybrid RAZOR DXT Drift Trike, it will be essential to upgrade the rear wheels, because the stock rear wheels are rubbish. Here's a post on how to do the rear wheel upgrades.

FRONT WHEEL MOTORIZED

These are some ways that front motor can be driven:

• Friction drive the wheel by rubbing a motorized tire on the front wheel. This is the easiest way to drive it from a hacked hoverboard. The downside is that it can't coast, so the motor resistance will be felt when pedaling.

• Use a hub that has a disc brake mount, and mount a sprocket to the disc brake mount and chain drive the wheel. Coaster sprocket on the motor shaft.

• Use a sprocket that clamps onto the spokes, and chain drive it from a coaster sprocket on the motor. Very common way to install cheap motorized bike kits.

• Use a sprocket that clamps onto the hub. This is a nicer way to attach the sprocket vs the spokes. The downside is that the RAZOR DXT drift trike hub measures 1.667 inches in diameter, which is larger than any available sprocket hub adapter. This would require precision machining or a lathe to enlarge, which I can do, but makes it difficult for anyone to mod that doesn't have machine tools.

DISC BRAKE MOUNT SPROCKET

Ride minded sells wheel and crank sets that have disc brake hubs, but can also use rim brakes. The disc brake rotor mount can be used to mount a sprocket instead of (or in addition to) a brake rotor.

SPOKE MOUNT SPROCKET

This is the cheapest way to mount a sprocket to the wheel, but not the best.

HUB MOUNT SPROCKET

There are no hub mount sprocket adapters large enough to fit the 1.667in diameter RAZOR DXT drift trike hub. It's probably because this hub is extra large since it's driven by the cranks. With access to a lathe or milling machine, the center hole could be precisely enlarged to fit the hub.

REAR WHEEL MOTORIZED

A relatively easy way to add electric motors to the rear is to use hoverboard wheels and add drift sleeves to them. This design concept uses 3D printed adapters and a 3D printed drift sleeve. The drift sleeve is printed solid and easy to replace when worn out. It could also be an off the shelf drift sleeve, like from Razor or Triad, and only the adapter needs to be 3D printed.

3D printing the drift sleeve from PLA is both inexpensive and better for environment than other plastics. Drift sleeves wear out, creating microplastics. PLA is (in theory) biodegradable, so the microplastics bits should break down.

The hubs should be printed in PLA+ for strength.

The most challenging aspect of this mod is how to attach the hoverboard wheels to the drift trike. Most Hoverboards have a very strong metal frame that can be reused. The spacing between the frames can be extended with a pipe.

The initial design for the wheels went over the existing hoverboard wheel tires. This design doesn't require disassembly of the hoverboard wheels, but it is dependent on the size/shape/dimensions of the tire. The tire shapes vary, so it would be difficult to design a one size fits all.

Once I got my hands on an actual hoverboard wheel, I discovered that it is easy to remove the tire, therefore the drift wheel could be made to fit the aluminum wheel hub instead of the tire.

This is the wheel from a Razor hoverboard.

Here are the important dimensions needed for building a custom drift tire for the Razor hoverboard wheel.

After taking the measurements, this is how the new design turned out. The spokes were designed based off the shock absorbing airless tires. I used FEA to adjust the size and number of spokes to meet the weight and dynamic load requirements.

The drift wheel is designed as 3 3D printed parts. The white spokes bridge the gap between the hoverboard hub and the drift sleeve. The spokes are held in place by the hub rim flange, the same way that the original tire was held on.

I sized the outer diameter of the wheel to approximately the same as the OD of a 10in PVC pipe used for drift trike wheel sleeves. It's also about the maximum size that will fit on the build plate of an average sized 3D printer, like the Legion Neptune 4 Pro.

The drift sleeves were designed to be easily replaced, because these are consumable. The sleeve thickness is about the same as a schedule 40 PVC pipe, and it is printed solid. I calculated the cost of printing the sleeves from PLA, and it is significantly cheaper than the cost of PVC sleeves. I would like to also design and test a 3D printed PLA sleeve

The original hoverboard electronics can be used by allowing the hoverboard foot platforms to rotate like normal, and adding a handle (similar to a handbrake handle) that connects to the hoverboard foot platform, and links and synchronizes both hoverboard foot platforms. The forward speed is controlled by lowering/pushing forward on the handle, and the reverse speed is controlled by lifting up/pulling back on the handle.

Unfortunately the handle control method leaves only one hand for steering, which is