Crazy 3 wheeler

Status
Not open for further replies.
Jump to Latest
#3
I think I saw something like that (three-wheeler with one wleel in the back) on the road recently, I don't remember/didn't see it well enough to say if it was that model (It was probably in Atlanta where even weekend traffic demands a lot of my attention).

I'm up in the Georgia mountains where there's a dealer of three-wheel motorcycles, apparently for people a little too old or risk averse to rid an actual two-wheel, but they all have one wheel up front, two wheels in the back.
 
#5
yah,rather Tron-ish that one is - you could spend almost that much on a fully loaded Harley, then you'd still need to buy a real bike 😱

Big joke at work about 'cycles - I never rode one myself, but there are several who do, and it's more fun to hear them kibitz about their various Trials, Moto-Cross and road bikes than most threads on the FR driver forum

I see a few of the Spyders on the TCH every week, but the most interesting feature of the Polaris is the side by side seating
 
Last edited:
#6
we've been doing that since the 30s with the morgans, Then the grinnall scorpion Grinnall Scorpion III - Grinnall Cars Plus all the kit cars like the triking.

All suffer from a couple of problems. First is the driven wheel in a dirty part of the road. Second is some rather nasty on the limit handling due to not having enough restoring force at the back. In particular when it lifts a front wheel.

But if you want all the disadvantages of a bike an all the disadvantages of a car in one package, its a great way to go 🙂
 
#7
Shoots, Bill. These things are marvels of handling compared to what I used to drive - a sidecar rig. Talk about squirrely and hard to drive, try an asymmetrical vehicle sometime. It's always going some direction that you didn't intend it to go. It takes a lot of getting used to and is always a chore to drive. Great fun, tho. I fully enjoyed mine.

Alan, thanks for the links. The Can-Am I have seen a lot, the others not.

As for the Polaris, yeah, it's pricey, but not more than a big bike of a small sports car. As a replacement for those, I could see it. Or a Morgan. 😉
 
#8
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

A-haaa 😛
_piaggio-mp3-2.jpg


( the guy who invented the Vespa-which was firstly powered with an engine-starter for aircrafts- started with assembling an helicopter in the garage ...D'Ascanio)
 
#12
Pano said:
Shoots, Bill. These things are marvels of handling compared to what I used to drive - a sidecar rig. Talk about squirrely and hard to drive, try an asymmetrical vehicle sometime. It's always going some direction that you didn't intend it to go. It takes a lot of getting used to and is always a chore to drive. Great fun, tho. I fully enjoyed mine.
Click to expand...

I used to work with someone who drove a road going F2 sidecar. No idea how they made it corner without the passenger or how he didn't end up under a truck. I've only done off road side car passengering. Once was enough!

If you are used to that you would have no problems of course. But those used to 4 wheels might end up in trouble. I cannot remember what the 'next stop ER' case was and may need to re-aquant myself with the physics of it, but its to do with correcting for in the inside wheel lifting on a corner with rwd. Get it wrong and the outside wheel lifts, after which bad things(tm) happen. It was enough to make me decide 4 wheels were better for my brand of lunacy. Damn my aging memory.
 
#17
billshurv said:
I cannot remember what the 'next stop ER' case was and may need to re-aquant myself with the physics of it, but its to do with correcting for in the inside wheel lifting on a corner with rwd. Get it wrong and the outside wheel lifts, after which bad things(tm) happen.
Click to expand...
The sidecar rig is a strange beast. Being asymmetrical makes it a challenge to drive. Basically "the chair" (sidecar) has a life of its own. When you accelerate the bike, the chair drags, pulling you to that side. When you let off the gas, the chair keeps going - pushing you the other way. That means constant steering to compensate for speed changes. You get use to it, but at first you'll be all over the road. The three wheelers shown in the video don't do that.
My father has a sidecar rig with a driven wheel on the car. It drives much straighter than a normal rig.

Yes, the sidecar will come up. Contrary to what most people think, it's when you turn toward the chair that it pops up. It's known as "Flying the Chair." I could ride down the road that way- chair in the air - much to the amazement of the bystanders. When learning to handle a rig, you want ballast in the chair, either human, canine or cement. It will scare the poop out of you when it pops up, which it will do very quickly without ballast. Later, you do it just for fun and to show off. 😀
 
#19
Pano said:
Yes, the sidecar will come up. Contrary to what most people think, it's when you turn toward the chair that it pops up. It's known as "Flying the Chair." I could ride down the road that way- chair in the air - much to the amazement of the bystanders. When learning to handle a rig, you want ballast in the chair, either human, canine or cement. It will scare the poop out of you when it pops up, which it will do very quickly without ballast. Later, you do it just for fun and to show off. 😀
Click to expand...

You have just described why I only went out in an off road sidecar once. It's owner wanted to scare me and succeeded. example
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

Having the wife in the sidecar may not be the best idea!

I did some googling about the Morgan beating sierra. Turns out it was Mallory park around 1988
Motoring contributor Mark Hales tested Phil Spencer's fearsome, alcohol-fuelled, JAP-engined Morgan Aero, which could lap Mallory Park and other circuits faster than Hales's Ford Sierra Cosworth racer.
Click to expand...

Mallory park is it has to be said more like a go cart track than a race track, and given that the Cosworth Mark used to drive was the worst of the turbo era cars and basically had 80HP at 3000RPM and 500 at 3500RPM. That combination would have made it basically useless at Mallory. Need to find out more about that morgan...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom