Trike or sidecar

[1nvest]

Just happened across this ...

https://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2009 ... y-sidecar/



Apparently Trikes pay the London congestion charge if over 2m long, motorcycles with sidecar however are seemingly exempt.

[88V8]

I've always thought trikes and sidecar outfits the worst of all worlds.
It rains, you get wet, without the usual bike compensation of wiggle through traffic and leave everyone behind.

The only slight offset, on a trike one does not need to wear a helmet.

V8

[bungeejumper]

Memories of the one and only time I saw Rolf Biland with his monocoque sidecar outfit - I think it was 1976 at Silverstone, although not quite sure. All the other guys were racing conventional rigs, and they all looked a bit stupid by comparison - he must have been at least half a lap ahead of the competition, probably more. Nobody could quite believe how he did that. Fine stuff.

This was Biland in 1979, by which time a couple of other teams were giving him a hard time. Nothing wrong with the sidecar principle if you do it right. Of course, it does help if you've got a vault full of Swiss francs for the development work.

https://www.mortonsarchive.com/p/mortons-archive/23264021804/x1979-british-grand-prix-mortons

BJ

[DrFfybes]

Trikes have 2 wheels on the same axle and front and rear wheels aren't inline.

A sidecar setup is 2 motorcycle wheels inline and one off to the side.

There is (or was) minimum spacing requirements, as in the 1980s someone developed the "sidewinder" which was 2 bits of bendy plastic and a small trailer wheel that you could bolt to the side of your bike and it became "motorcycle and sidecar" but you still leant over and rode like a normal bike, thus bypassing the cc restriction for learner riders.

http://reddevilmotors.blogspot.com/2016 ... decar.html

Paul

[bionichamster]

The only slight offset, on a trike one does not need to wear a helmet.

V8

Is that a positive offset? Not sure it would be in an accident...

[88V8]

The only slight offset, on a trike one does not need to wear a helmet.

Is that a positive offset? Not sure it would be in an accident...

Yes.
I used to motor bike. Daily into central London for a while.
Then the govt decided to go all nanny over helmets.

I tried a helmet for a year.
Dangerous.

Can't hear so well in traffic. Reduced peripheral vision.
So I stopped biking and bought another car.

Still not enough of an offset to get me on a trike.
Or for that matter a quad bike.

V8