The Moscow suburb town of Zhukovsky is an aviation "mecca" of Russia. It is home to the largest research institutes and branches of all the country's aircraft manufacturers and regularly hosts world-class aircraft showrooms. In terms of population, the city can not be classified as a large or even large city and, it would seem, everyone living in it should be in love with aviation.
However, Alexei Yakubovich is difficult to classify as such, his passion is motorcycles. Alexei has several independently built motorcycles, including those with Zaporozhets engine, and two tricycles. On the pages of our magazine met a lot of cars of this type, but there were no similar designs. One of his tricycles was made on the basis of the body, engine and rear suspension of the car "Volkswagen - Zhuk", and the other - the engine and rear suspension of "Zaporozhets" ZAZ-968. Both vehicles are designed in the "superchopera" style, which imposed on the design not only special requirements for the thoroughness of finishing, but, unfortunately, also a limitation on its maneuverability. This is due to the large removal of the front wheel and the inclination of its fork - at high speeds (over 100 km / h), the car is poorly "listens to the steering wheel" and may not have enough strength of the front suspension levers in contact with the wheel on the unevenness of the road.
As an illustration let's consider the second variant of A.Yakubovich's tricycle.
All aggregates of the machine are assembled on a welded tubular spatial frame, which is based on bent spars and two cross beams. In the rear part of the frame the upper and lower spars are paired (left and right). In the same units are welded the slopes of the central beam. In the vertical plane, the side members are fixed by the lower arch and the inner lugs of the rear suspension levers. In addition, all joints between the pipes are reinforced with powerful steel scarves. The "centre beam - upper main spar" has a power box.
For connection to the frame of rear suspension shock absorbers, the upper beam is equipped with special glasses, made by analogy with the automobile ones.
Tubular frames for passenger steps are welded to kerchiefs and central beam's push-pull props and, covered on both sides with steel sheet (s3), serve for installation on them, firstly, passenger steps (like motorcycle steps), and secondly, bumpers of suspension and, thirdly, push-pull props of rear wing bracket. All the above parts and assemblies (including the front wing bracket) were welded to the frame during the pre-assembly of the tricycle.
The control pedal assembly consists of footpegs, levers, axles and stems welded into the lower crossbeam fixed to the frame by two brackets and a push-pull props. The latter is also matched to the shank guide of the gearshift mechanism. In general, the layout of the tricycle is not motorcycle - most often used in our country, and quite common abroad. The engine is not placed in the "base", and pushed back behind the axis of the rear axle, which leads to a shift in the center of gravity in the same direction. The car with such a center of gravity turns out to be a very reactive one and easily rises on the rack when the "gas" is being thrown. It doesn't disturb an experienced "rider", but on the contrary, it helps to perform risky but breathtaking tricks.
Zaporozhets's power pack (engine, clutch and gearbox) was almost never upgraded. Only some units were added to it: oil cooler from the helicopter is installed, air filter is enclosed in sparkling chromium-plated cylindrical body and from each cylinder is deduced on firm (from "Honda") silencer The rest is "native" - from ZAZ-968. The engine is fixed to the frame by standard units in three points. Two of them are in the upper corners of the arch formed by the rear parts of the spars and the upper beam, and the third - on the shelf between the lower spars, where the front part of the gearbox is located. The speeds are switched by a lever, which is connected through a joint of the "Zhigulevsky" type with the shank of the box. It is withdrawn under the left hand, as the right hand, as a motorcycle, is constantly on the handle of the "gas".