Pretty simple.
There's a lot to look at in this picture. In general, this is the "Steering Knuckle" of the BOOMERtrikeTM.
Working from left to right, the elements are as follows:
- At the far left, one can see the spokes of the wheel. It is attached to the knuckle by the axle (which you can't see) but neither the wheel nor the axle are part of the knuckle,
- Just to the right of the wheel is the stainless steel disc for the ShimanoTM disc brake. If you look toward the top of the picture, the little tan-colored gizzmo with the black cap is the ShimanoTM disc brake caliper.
- The caliper is attached to the large, shiney aluminum plate. This plate is the main part of the steering knuckle, and is sometimes itself called the knuckle.
- The large, shiney plate is a critical element. It not only holds the brake caliper, but also functions as the axle mount. You can see the axle attachment nut near the vertical center of the plate. (The axle, by the way, is 14mm in diameter. That's just over a half-inch. If you manage to bend or break THAT hunk of steel, you're waaaaaay over the edge.)
- Also attached to the large plate are two "Heim Joints". You can easily see the top Heim joint - it looks like a stainless-steel lollypop. There is a bolt through the fat part of the lollypop that functions as the pivot so that the knuckle can articulate and move the wheel to make it turn. You can just barely see the lower Heim Joint
- The bolts through the Heim Joint heads function as the pinion.
That's the hard part.
The easy part is:
The fore-and-aft angle the pinion, combined with its left-to-right angle, make the trike track smoothly in cornering. If the pinion is straight up and down, the trike will tend to jerk suddenly in corners.
Why it does that is kind of complicated, but suffice to say it could jerk so hard, even at moderate speeds, that a front wheel might lift off the ground. Any of that, and you'll never forget it. Too much of that jerking wheel jump and you've got a tumble.
The proper angles make up what is called "Center Point Steering". Don't leave home without it.
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