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Chris's Shorty Zoomer
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When (Frank) came to the shop and asked if we had a trike for his eight-year-old son we thought we could accomodate him. He said his son (Chris) was on the small side so we looked at a small Cruiser and thought it would work. I have my own eight-year-old son who rides a Medium, but he's on the large side.
Chris was born with a disease that has stunted his growth, affects his leg strength and balance. I was excited to be able to help. When Frank and his wife came in to pick up the trike she insisted that it was much too large for her son, so they decided to bring him in. (This is for Christmas, so they had to forgo the surprise element).
When Chris came in, I immediately agreed that the Cruiser was much too large for him. Even with the small boom and the seat set all the way forward he would never be able to reach the pedals. Since the linkage steering goes under the seat it limits the types of modification we could make to move the seat even farther forward. Everyone was a disappointed.
That's when I looked over at the Zoomer. The Zoomer has a completely different style of frame than the other TerraTrikes. The base of the Zoomer's frame is in a stationary position, with the handlebars being on the side. If we put Chris on the front of the seat we needed the pedals to be 16" away. Chris' mom said she could make a thick foam pad that would keep him on the front of the seat. This meant we'd have to bring the boom in about 8", and we'd have to shorten the cranks.
After we completed all the modifications Frank came and picked up his son's new trike. We were all really happy about how it turned out. Fortunately, Chris has an eight-year-old's attention span and had already forgotten about the trike. So, it looks like he'll be getting a Christmas surprise after all! We are excited to find out how it all turns out.
The Shorty Zoomer
This Zoomer was a great project to work on. To make it the right size for (Chris) we had to make some modifications.
Cutting the Boom
We had to start by cutting the actual boom and boom tube so we could get the Bottom Bracket at 12 inches from the front of the seat. Even with this there is a lot of room for him to grow.
The Short Boom
Shorter Cranks
We had to move the pedals back as far as possible by cutting the boom and then shortening the cranks. We shortend the cranks to 4.5" which is as short as we could go. By shortening the boom we were able to accomodate (Chris's) 16" inseam.
Modified Idlers
There were some limitations to moving the crank so far back. The angle is too drastic between the chainrings and the stock idlers and caused the chain to bind on the derailleur. To remedy this we moved the front idlers behind the cross arm using a custom idler clamp. For now (Chris) won't be able to use the large chainring (so we locked it out), but as he grows and extends the boom the idlers can be moved back to the front.
Cargo Room
We installed a custom WizWheelz Aluminum rack on the back so (Chris) can take his bags with him when he rides to school!
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Share your comments below:
Bryan Ball, from Bentrider Online, was inspired by this article to make a similar modification to a Zoomer for his eight-year-old son Parker. He started a thread on the BentRider Forum. I think this shows the versatility of the Zoomer. While the Zoomer is definitely a high-end trike for a child, it is so adjustable that it will continue to fit the rider well into adulthood.
Posted by Ashley
12/23/2007 12:26:37 AM
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