The 3 wheeler

[rbgnwa45]

How long till we see an off-road vehicle with one wheel in the back and two in the front?

It would be lighter than a quad and you could put a massive tire on the back for better traction than you'd get with two. You wouldn't worry about ground clearance in the back with the disc ETC.

... and it'd only be tippy going backwards :p.

[slightlybent47]

It’s already been done way back in the mid 80’s.
Honda had a proto type that didn’t do well. Though I don’t remember why.
Dirtwheels did an article on it.

[Scro]

Can-am has one called the spyder. It's been out for several years now.

[rbgnwa45]

Yeah but isn't that a street vehicle?

[slightlybent47]

Yes the Can Am is a street bike. But Honda did a proto type ATC reverse three wheeler back in the mid 80’s. Dirt Wheels did an article on it and had a big write up in there magazine. I still have the issue somewhere buried in a storage building. If it wasn’t so much trouble to dig it out I’d show you.

It came out about the same time as the Yamaha big wheel ATC 2 wheeler came out.

The concept never caught on, but I don’t know why. It was about the same time as when they were banning all three wheeled ATC’s so that may have been the down fall.

[Scro]

Originally posted by rbgnwa45
Yeah but isn't that a street vehicle?

My bad. Didn't catch the offroad part.

[rbgnwa45]

I think I figured out why it didn't catch on - it would probably tip over real weird if you wheelied and lost control, unless the back tire was super fat. The weight saved from not having an axle might be considerable. If you wanted to run a very wide tire for traction but are concearned about ATV width for woods than this concept might be for you. Do you know what model that Honda was?

[slightlybent47]

No I can’t remember what they called it.
It would seem to me that it would be hard to slide the rear end around, I think it would grab instead of slide. But with only one tire you may not need to slide the rear end around. Who knows? I just remember seeing the article in the magazine.

Surly there is some old timers out there that remember see that.lol

[rbgnwa45]

Yeah it seems like it would dig into the ground instead of slide, the chassis would probably flex a bit more but who cares - gusset that mofo and give'r.

[slightlybent47]

I believe it was based off the 200x but I’m not sure.

[ngates788]

http://www.bikegallery.info/tf110-reverse-trike-atv-by-yongkang-easy-vehicle-co.html

[slightlybent47]

Originally posted by ngates788
http://www.bikegallery.info/tf110-reverse-trike-atv-by-yongkang-easy-vehicle-co.html

After looking at that unit and reading the article and having ridden both three wheelers (ATC’s) and quads. I just can’t see the benefit to that set up at all. I can imagine where the front would dig into the mud and the rear would spin due to lack of traction.
I know that a regular three wheeler does better in deep mud then a quad because you can get the front wheel up over the top, where the quad digs in.
And I would suspect that the Can Am spider has limitations as to how it handles. It’s so new I sure we will be hearing reviews soon as to how well they work.


The one Honda had was simular to the one in the link.

[witech]

Originally posted by rbgnwa45
How long till we see an off-road vehicle with one wheel in the back and two in the front?

:p.

Id say never . At least a successful production one.

[deathman53]

yes, dirtwheels did one, they didn't like it much. They took a 86 or 87 trx250r and put a missle kit on it. I didn't know that honda had a protype, but I'd believe it. They had prototypes on atc200r, atc125r, atc500r, atc500x, atc380r, trx500r also. All was canned due to upcoming discontinuation(not banned as most think) and pro riders who said it was too fast. The atc500r and atc200r, the pros modded their racing machines as the chassis's were, most noteable, more weight on the front end and a shorter swingarm. They did have a trx200x, that was released in 1990, it was a 87 atc200x w/ 3-4 conversion, very similar to trx250x. It was honda's attempt at reducing over-stock three wheeler parts, it was released in mexico and south america. Several have showed up in mexico and argentina, the parts fiche on them is almost exact to 87 atc200x, except for front end and frame. There is a parts fiche and owners manual for a atc200r, atc500r and atc500x, you have to know how/where to look for it. At one point you could find the owners manual on service honda's site.

[250rAL]

3Wheeling Magazine made a backwards three wheeler of their own. If I remember right, they used either a Fat Cat or a Big Wheel and added a 3 to 4 conversion kit. Apparently it didn't handle well.

[slightlybent47]

It very well could have been three wheeling magazine that I was thinking about that did the article. I just remember seeing it done before.

[Ichoptop]

could this be the cure for our street legal issues? same setup as a Can-Am goofy thing but in a more quad like version?