Driving a trike (my ramblings)

[clint44]

Dan,that's a nice ride you have there and I'm sure it runs pretty strong. (i once owned a 99 Valk Standard) Your description of its live axle (open or limited slip?) behavior in fast turns is kind of strange,at least to me. Our Boss Hoss trike w/385hp sbc didn't exhibit any behavior like that and had more than enough punch to powersteer the trike with the throttle. The midrange power it had, made for lots of fun. Empty weight on it was right at 1500lbs but it never tried to lift a wheel off the ground. I know this because I tried to see where the limit was.

 

[DPK]

Dan,that's a nice ride you have there and I'm sure it runs pretty strong. (i once owned a 99 Valk Standard) Your description of its live axle (open or limited slip?) behavior in fast turns is kind of strange,at least to me. Our Boss Hoss trike w/385hp sbc didn't exhibit any behavior like that and had more than enough punch to powersteer the trike with the throttle. The midrange power it had, made for lots of fun. Empty weight on it was right at 1500lbs but it never tried to lift a wheel off the ground. I know this because I tried to see where the limit was.

Thanks Clint. I love the Valk - if I was purchasing a new trike today, I'd buy the exact trike I presently have - unless you want to offer me a deal on your Boss Hoss! I've only felt that way about two other vehicles, a 911 and a Landcruiser, & I still have both & intend to keep them.

My trike has a non-pos Mustang diff. I'd be scared of a posi as it already pushes too much in the corners.

It defiantly lifts the inside rear when cornering hard, primarily when going thru tight corners at < 50 mph when downshifted under hard throttle. I don't think the tire is actually leaving the ground more than just unloading & breaking traction as the engine, although overrevving, is not spinning free as in a missed shift. Typically it will pick up 500 - 1000 rpm & you will hear or feel the inside tire spinning. For me, it's no big deal. It's predictable and tells me I'm getting the most out of the corner provided I have a good line & have used all of the available safe roadway.

Lifting a wheel in this manner is not all that uncommon. I first did it at the direction of the Instructor of a MSF Trike Safety Course. He had us repeatedly try and he demonstrated it, the point being to recognize what is happening when the engine suddenly races in a corner. Further explanation was that if a beginning triker knew he was too fast in a corner and was already scared and the engine suddenly spun up, he might panic and think he was tipping over and do something foolish. I was the only person in the course successful in lifting a wheel.

It's safe to say that most of the others in that course had never been sideways on dry pavement in a car nor had any 2 wheel experience and also, most of the other trike's were newer GW variants with IRS & swaybars - it would have been very difficult for them to lift a wheel.

I have spun the Valk on grass and a parking lot & have lifted a a couple of wheelies, also on a parking lot while exploring limits, but have not been able to predictively control the trike in a throttle-steer drift to the point I would intentially do it on the highway.

Maybe I'm scared or don't know what I'm doing, and I'm sure I have more to learn, but the trike simply pushes so bad that I cannot get it into a predictable and controllable oversteer on the highway. I do get a lot of effect from using throttle steer, but not to the point of controlling a hung out rear sliding oversteer.

Maybe I'm not understanding exactly what you mean by the term "power sliding". I'm envisioning an oversteering drift through the corner with the back end hanging out being controlled with the throttle & some counter steer. If this is what you are talking about, I'm just not good enough or brave enough to do it or it can't be done with 115 hp. If it can be safely done with my trike, tell me how, because it does sound like a bunch of fun.

With 385 hp, you are in an entirely different league from my 900lb. 115 hp Valk.

I've got 16" of rear tire on the ground which seems way too much to me. When I replace the rears, I'm going to go as narrow as my wheels will allow which ought to offset some of the trike's pushing characteristics.

Off point, it would seem that it would be better all around to fit trikes with flat-tread motorcycle size rear tires. (And front tires, for that matter) You would still have more than twice the contact patch of the original bike and the ride and handling characteristics would be vastly improved. I just don't see the need of all that rubber on the road except for appearance. It seems like pure overkill except for the rare 300+ hp trike such as yours.

Dan

 

[clint44]

With that width rubber on the back and just 115hp(and probably around 100tq),you might not be able to throttlesteer your trike. Going to a narrower,harder compound tire might help but there isn't a lot of places to do this kind of stuff,safely. Our Boss Hoss trike had 295/35/20 Nitto Invo's which were not a soft tire and with 415 lbs/torque pushing a 1500lb trike,getting them loose in lower speed turns wasn't difficult.

We sold our Boss Hoss in April '14,for various reasons,and decided to go back to a two-wheeler last December. Sherry and I both missed our trike so we have decided to trike our 2011 Street Glide. It's going to Kentucky next month for a Hannigan Transformer conversion. Going to be a special ride,for sure.