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This information on the trikes comes via Murray from Murray's Carbs and is an email sent to him from Bill of Dyer's Blowers.
Email content:
Here's some history on the trikes we made here. This was 35+ years ago, so this is what he remembers.
Back in early 80s, Norm and Lenny Kraus of Grand Spaulding Dodge contacted my father about building trikes based off a Honda CX500 for them. GSD was doing a lot of Chicago repair work on their fleet vehicles and were looking to get a bigger bike than the Cushmans they were using.
The guy who ran the operation for them was Fred Ditmer (sic?) who did all the final prep work across the street from GSD (3300 W Grand Ave, Chicago, IL 60651).
GSD bought the Hondas from Otto Brothers Honda here in Chicago and delivered them to us at our shop. We then bought Dana rear ends direct from Dana.
We bent the tubing here in the shop to make the triangle rear frame that utilize the rear shocks of the bike and painted it here too.
Ours were not the spring boxes. Our whole rear assembly used the factory twin stock shocks.
The boxes were made here in Chicago and provided to us white gelcoat. Don't know who made them.
The early bikes used a cable reverse system that we made and installed with an idler gear to engage first gear. After CPD damaged some gear boxes we went to a reversing gearbox.
We made our own wiring looms here in the shop.
Clements wheels here in Chicago made the rear wheels.
Overall, we made around 200 of them.
It ended when Fred said we had to cut costs and make them faster (we made 2-3 per day) and my father decided to sell the whole operation to him and let him make them at the shop by GSD. Had to be in 1985-1986 that we ended it. I don't personally remember them being in here in 1987.
Don't know if Fred made some before we did (probably made prototypes) or after. My father said there was an east coast company also making them. Don't know of anyone else making them here in chicago.
Bill
If anyone has a photo of one of the CPD trikes that we could use please send it in! Hit me up via the contact page if so.
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