I believe that a three wheel vehicle has many advantages over a four wheel vehicle but only if it has a very low C of G and also only if that C of G is located well forward and on the centre line. I have designed everything in my vehicle with performance and driver enjoyment as number one. When finished it should weigh in at around 350Kg and have a 60/40 centre of mass bias to the front. The overall width is 1840mm and the engine and swing arm is from a VTR1000 Honda Firestorm. Wheelbase is 2580mm. Power to weight should be better than 300BHP per tonne. Mmmmm... This is a bit of a diary of my trike build. I would have been quite happy to build a 4 wheeler but the government didn't want me to so I am building a three wheeler. Well in fact the government will let me build a four wheeler but only if I build it the way they want me too. No thanks!
From simple beginnings a frame grows.
Front suspension is like any clubman except it is closer to being a parallel wishbone set up to get the roll centre down to road level to match the rear single wheel's.
Its getting bigger and so is the workshop mess.
Thinking through the bottom wishbone design. Decided to put shocky and bottom ball joint pick up points real close together.
Rear end taking shape.
So I think I'll put the engine about here!
View from front with proposed donk sitting roughly in position.
Springs and damper units roughed in on the front suspension. Units are from a CB1300 I am wrecking. They are a bit soft though, mostly cos of the fairly extreme angle.
Starting to look like something.
I thought I would move it outside for some sun.
Engine needs a clean!
Bike tyre must go!
Now has a car tyre at the rear. Fitted fine on bike rim.
Gear linkage almost visible. Works a treat using mostly left over bike bits, a few new 6mm rod ends and some half inch steel tube. Light and strong!
Steering rack attached and after much fiddling, has negligable bump steer.
Seat now added in high tech 'steel'.
My green assistant.
I started in April of this year (2006) buy buying a steering rack off ebay. Frame designing and then building started soon after. Thats not quite true actually as I really have been interested in proper three wheelers (2 wheels at the front and one at the rear) for 20 years, but I kept forgetting that they seem like a great idea. I was reminded about what a great idea they are when I found out that you can't put a bike engine in a self built car (4 wheels) in Australia but you can in a three wheeler. That was enough almost by itself to convince me.

See I don't believe that lightweight cars should be weighed down with things like live rear ends, crappy old truck gearboxes and giant heavy engines that produce very little power and weigh heaps. All this sort of stuff is designed to move a round a tonne or more of machinary and is constructed with enough strength in reserve to do it for many years. Bike engines are light and powerful and are just strong enough to do the job in a light vehicle. My trike will weigh around 350Kg when finished. 350 is a lot closer to the 250 that the bike weighed than the 1000+ kg a car weighs and car mechanicals are designed to work with. The concept of sticking 200kg's worth of gearbox, engine and diff in a 70kg space frame just doesn't make sense to me. Rave finished!!
This site was last updated 08-07-2006
 All images, text and information on this web site are copyright to Andrew Hutchison. 2006.