Indonesian rickshaw

[milly]

Hi am thinking of purchasing an Indonesian rickshaw with 2 wheels in the front and one at the rear. In the photo,s it looks very basic only having a rear brake operated by a handle.
I am wondering what the build quality is like regards ruggidness for the use I have in mind for it.
I dont expect a lot for the price and am able to do all maintenance/ wheel building etc, I dont want to be trying to do frame welding swivel joints etc on undercarriag because they are made of cheese.

many thanks for an help
Milly

[milly]

Well I have purchased said beast for £200 I need to change bottom bracket save finding more problems as cotter pin held in will slivers of metal to take up play,
file the slot by the seat post so it closes up more and grips what looks to be gas pipe posing as a seat post and change plastic saddle, other than that rest seems to be ok.
Next step electrify it
Milly

[Roger]

Hi Milly,

I just made my first post yesterday. I own an old Indonesian becak and have similar seat-pole issues! I wonder whether the drivers over there just preferred to have a seat that swung about?Does your have the big rounded mudguards or the narrow, wooden, primitive ones like mine? Is your cog a Phoenix one?

I live in Western Australia.

Roger

[milly]

Hi mine has the steel mudguards and bits of car tyre for brak pads was just in the process of finding a way of doing seat post have had to take out bottom bracket bears as crank axle no good and fitted one piece item from bmx /cheap mtb style one.
Will be on that soon and let you know
Milly

[Roger]

Hello,

I have the chunks of car tyre for brake pads too.

Mine's pretty much identical to this one: link

Bottom set's fine, although I've had to hammer the cranks straight.

Does yours have a nice bit of traditional artwork on the cab ( Or whatever the bit where the passenger sits is called)?

Mine's got some groovy art with the words "Doa Ibu" nicely featured.

There's some good articles and pics on Becaks online - also stories of thousands of them being dumped into the ocean by the indo govt to stop them clogging the streets.


It's a great machine, but a bastard to ride uphill.

The seat pole issue is tricky - Mine drops into a sleeve inside the seat tube - rendering the seat pole nut useless. I don't want to drill a hole in the frame for some kind of pin and can't seem to remove the sleeve. Hmmn. Will ponder this when I'm meant to be doing something useful.

Roger

[milly]

yep my seat goes up and down and the post swivels round, its got a posh paint job on it the one of mine in the album on here is my other one the indian one. I will try and get pic up before to long
Milly