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There are quite a few off road 3 wheelers around my state still! I see them for sale every once in awhile.
Considering all off road riding is 'dangerous', I dont agree the Govt had any place to make them illegal...what about the guys who buy 2 wheeled dirtbikes and use them for jumps, going as high as 50-60ft in the air?!! ( a 3 wheeler is illegal but those are legal? LOL)
Govt should have just required safety warning labels, (even more so than dirtbikes have now), rather than just outright banning them), Im wondering if Honda tried to fight the Govt when it did this?
3 wheels are very tippy when built on a solid frame. A tilting mechanism built into the steering would improve safety. The two in front tadpoles have this don't they?
Curious how a 3-wheeled vehicle is dangerous, but a 2-wheeled vehicle is not.
Well - on entering a turn, the centrifugal force (yes, it does exist, don't split hairs) will try to pull you out of the turn. Your support patch on the ground is where the wheels touch, so your center of gravity will always be above that - which means you'll encounter a torque force that will try to roll you towards the outside of the turn.
A 2-wheeler can bank to counteract that torque. A 3-wheeler can't.
All it can do is to start lifting the inside wheel. And because physics is out to get us when we're having fun, the effective arm for that inside weight gets shorter and shorter the higher it goes - in other words, we get less and less righting force the more we need it. Things go fast all of a sudden and presto, now you're turning cartwheels while straddling several hundred pounds of hot metal.
Oh, and braking makes it much worse.
It's the same mechanism in play when catamarans capsize - on second you're flying a hull and having the best time, the next you're treading water while pondering how to get the damn thing right-side up. Because the counter acting force from that hull diminishes the higher you fly it.
dad and his buds went to honda of monroeville and picked up half a dozen 'K3s' as they called them (ATC90 - 1 piece balloon tire wheel and no suspension) and would race behind the old cemetary near churchill. losers bought the beer. I was 9, dad let me learn to ride and being the lightest on a machine that in 4Lo would do just a shade over 25, won all the time. the rest is history. I got my first 4 wheeler (91 trx250X) in 91. and THAT rest is history. I should point out, that when the hearings for the consent decree were held in 86 (it was not a ban, it was an agreement) the video shown congress was a 8-9 year old tyke going over the handle bars of a crude yamaha *4 wheeler*.
as a long time triker from 73-91 the hardest part to wrap the human head around was off camber or descending turns. You use POWER to make it, which is counter intuitive hence, a lot of flippy flips. and when an atv is on you, I bet its ouchy.
get your ass off the seat to the inside, apply a kick to your inside leg, apply power. countersteer.
You can overcome the basic design flaw by energetically shifting your body weight around. Doesn't negate the fact that a tricycle design has its support and weight distribution arranged in a terrible manner for cornering.
You can overcome the basic design flaw by energetically shifting your body weight around. Doesn't negate the fact that a tricycle design has its support and weight distribution arranged in a terrible manner for cornering.
If your manner of cornering requires you to shift the top heavy center of gravity (aka leaning) sure but an indy car or nascar stocker corners a helluva lot faster than a bike. Gimme my choice, say a ATC250R or a ATC350x and give someone else a bike sized to keep power/weight ratios the same (aka class sizing) and put it on non pavement, the bike is gonna lose all the time equal skilled driver. which is why the tracks for both sports are way different and very little intermixing if any exist. the steering is done by the front contact patch and the single front wheel atv has a patch at least 4-5 times larger. atvs corner faster broken loose rather than adhered. since they go on dirt or rather non pavement, adhesion is gonna be non existent. im old now and no longer race any class but I can accelerate my 300ex thru a wet corner - just did so last fall during some hot laps to keep my skills up. a bike is swapping ends. (to be fair, I can swap em too, but with all the contact patch I have a greater modicum of control, literally modulate the corner with the tip of a thumb)
and its not a design flaw, its a different design. that is like saying a prop plane owner is comparing his straight edge wing to a swept wing jet and stating the jet wing is flawed cuz now it mandates more speed to get the lift....
and its not a design flaw, its a different design. that is like saying a prop plane owner is comparing his straight edge wing to a swept wing jet and stating the jet wing is flawed cuz now it mandates more speed to get the lift....
I don't think I called it a design flaw? It's a design with characteristics that lead to non-obvious behavior for the unwary. Your point on dirt vs. non-dirt (adhered, good term) is very well received.
Remember in the late 1990s, when motorcycle companies competed on top speed? Blackbird, Hayabusa etc... They killed off their customers doing so and dialed back that angle of competition because actual lawmaking intervention was being hinted at. This is very much the same thing, as far as I'm concerned.
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