taking a sweeping curve

[Ozarkryder]

Nauga Mok - On The Blue Trike, VW based TrikeShop Runabout, the front wheel was very thin, and would give signs of loosing traction - it would get "wobbly" and if I didn't slow down it seemed to be a slight sideways skid then grab again. That was in the worst-case "Good Lord I'm going WAY too fast" situation.

Most of the time, and this holds true for the Goldwing MotorTrike Conversion also, if I push it too hard in a corner I do get some wobble. I don't know the exact physics of it, but I think it is the forks flexing. Remember, even on VW based trikes and certainly on conversions, the forks are designed for motorcycles with the loading up and down through the steering head. We trikers put a lot of lateral force on the forks that they were not designed for.

The wheelbase, kind of tires and how worn they are, air pressure in the tires and suspension (if applicable), fork oil weight, pulling a trailer, riding single or 2-up, road surface and a plethora of other factors effect your ride.

Pay attention to your trike - it will "talk" to you and tell you if it is happy or not once you learn its' language.:yes:

 

[CanuckHoss]

well..I will definitely talk more to the trike riders about curvy roads to get more feedback...seems what I have been told sofar by them is not really the truth about them thar 3 wheel conversions.

thanks for all the feedback from 'experiemced' trikers.

have a good day guys and girls.

 

[Nauga Mok]

Thanks Ozark! Remember when we were kids running bias tires on our cages & taking corners like we didn't have good sense? Remember we used to get a "twitch" JUST before we lost it. As I understood what was happening back then was the tire was trying to "snap back" from the side load. I think this is what's happening with the front end wobble on the trikes when pushing corners too fast. True, the forks aren't designed for such side loads we can put on 'em with a trike + most forks on trikes are a bit longer than stock, which complicates matters even more. I remember reading somewhere here that fork braces were a "no-no" on trikes. If we are getting fork flex wouldn't the braces help? 'Course those things were first used on the thinner tubed forks of yesteryear. Todays 41mm tubes (HD) can certainly take more side load & flex less than the 33 1/4s the old Iron Heads ran. Would radial tires on the fronts help? Maybe it's best that we DO get that warning from the trike telling us "Slow down or I'm gonna bite ya!" I've got about 600 miles on 3, so I'm still "learning the language". So far, I LIKE what I'm learning! I'm plesantly surprised I don't get more body roll from the Roadsmith IRS.

NM

 

[Saltywheels]

Salty, if you are pushing the bar with your outside arm and pushing down with your outside foot, you're inherently shifting your body weight to the inside radius of the curve. That's all that counts. Trying to do it in a way that's unnatural to you will tend to have you looking down, then you'll have a real problem.

The rule is; Look at where you're going, not at where you're at !

Blue: Finally got it!! I realized, just as you said, it's the weight shift that makes the difference. Pushing on the Outside peg vs weighting the inside peg is 6 of one or 1/2 a dozen of the other. As for,"Look where you wanna go"...well after years of track days on 2-wheels, that is imprinted in the DNA! Thks a ton for yr insite. Sure helped.:yes:

 

[Saltywheels]

Another observation folks. If you go into a turn a wee bit 'hot', does the trike 'feel' like its going to tip over or lift a wheel My 1800GL with a CSC kit feels like that sometimes. Anything I need to worry about?

 

[Nauga Mok]

From what I'm hearing, it's not that much of a concern for IRS. The local DFT dealer sez he can yank the handle bars to full lock position at 50 mph with no problems with the DFT independant rear suspension. He sez, he CAN lift the inside sheel on a rigid axel. Think about it -- what happens if you DO lift the inside wheel? All the power will go to it, immediately slowing you down.

NM

 

[Old Goat]

Well Guys and Girls To put my two cents in let me say this when you go into a corner to fast what starts to happen is a PUSH of the front wheel and sense we don't have the ability to lay the trike over on the side wall of the tire it stays upright and don't have a very big contact patch so it starts to push the tire over and the contact patch tries to stay where you want to go and the wheel tries to go side ways after a while you start to feel this chatter of the tire losing traction and then regaining it. I hope I am saying this so it is understood. That is why you feel the chatter or wobble in the front . Everyone is right the trike is trying to tell you to slow down. :no: That is a bad thing as we learned in MSF class you never slow down in a curve.... What you need to do is lean forward and get some traction on the front wheel. That will help to restableize the front tire. Get on around the corner and then clean your shorts as this is scary to do. But the next time you come to that corner SLOW before you get into the corner. If you slow in the corner it destableizes the trike and then it wants to go staight just like the bike does.
I am sorry for the tirade but curves are my pet peve , we are losing a lot of our friends on curves Amost all single vehical crashes are in curves!!!!
AGAIN SORRY!!!

 

[BlueTrinity]

we are losing a lot of our friends on curves Amost all single vehical crashes are in curves!!!!

Which brings us back to by far the most crucial point...Look where you're going, not where you're at!

Almost every one of those crashes involves either loss of control from drifting on to or across the shoulder, or simply running in to something off the edge of the road. Very rarely is it caused by a loss of traction skid from too much speed.

Looking through the turn to where you want to go (even if its blind and you can't really see it) creates a very natural tendency to stay on the trajectory that carries you through the curve. On the other hand, looking up and down at the road creates a series of constant small under-corrections, which typically leads to an increasingly wider trajectory.