Question for you bikers

Well as most of you know I ride a motorcycle and so does my son. Well any how it is getting to the point that it is getting hard for me to hold one up so thinking about selling to ones we have and going with either a 3 wheeler or a bike with a side car. So now the question. Any of you know how hard it is to put on a 3 wheel rear axle and is it better with one that has shaft drive or chain?? Ya probably just dreaming here but sure would like to still be able to ride

just weld up some training wheels for the ones ya got :shock:

Old, My cousin bought a GOLDWING, last year. It came with a frame, with 2 wheels, slid around the rear end. I had never heard of such a thing, but have seen several this summer. Pull two pins, and leave it behind.

Hey, I looked into this subject for a friend a while ago and found that there are kits available for Harleys and Gold Wings, among others.

Also there are a few outfits that will trike a bike for about $3.000.

It would seem that a shaft drive would be more suited to this type of conversion but I imagine that there are chain (and probably belt) kits out there.

Actually if you search e-bay motors there are quite a few trikes there.

Hope this helps...I have a cushman differential in the boneyard that would be a cinch to mate up with a shaftie...Just thinnin'

Brad Buchanan

(quoted from post at 15:39:24 09/20/11) Old, My cousin bought a GOLDWING, last year. It came with a frame, with 2 wheels, slid around the rear end. I had never heard of such a thing, but have seen several this summer. Pull two pins, and leave it behind.

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have seen those....3 wheels across the rear & the front wheel.......a 4 wheeler!

I have seen some older guys go to those can-am bikes with the two wheels in front. A lot of them say they like them and they are easier to ride. May be an option for you?

Ya I have seen those set ups and to me they look to much like training wheels and after 41 years of being a biker I sure do not want one with 4 wheels LOL

I have seen big bikes with 2 extra rear wheels that looked like training wheels!

I started riding motorcycles back in the late 70's. First thing you know the wife and kid wanted to go too. So in '81 I bought a new Goldwing Interstate and mounted a Ural sidecar on it along with a Shoreline trailer to haul the camping gear and grub.
Nobody around had any sidecar experience so the setup was all trial and error. But once I finally got it right, it was easy to handle and the 1100cc Wing had more than enough "ummph" to cruise right along.
Now days, Wings have a reverse but back then they didn't so I had to learn not to park nose first anywhere I had push the rig out of. Overall I enjoyed "3-wheelin" but eventually I just burnt out on motorcycles and quit riding.

Maybe just look for something shorter with a lower center of gravity. I have always driven Triumphs and they are kind of tall, didn't used to be heavy but they are now, this one is about 475. Visited a friend few weeks ago that had a 750 Honda V-twin, looked like a little Harley, something like that would be easy to balance. Maybe I am just getting old, I think I am older than old!

This is what you need...
http://en-us.spyder.brp.com/showroom/Spyder-RS/overview.aspx
8)

Ya my dream bike would be a BMW with a side car that was set up to be easy on and off for when I did not want the extra stuff or the knees where not hurting real bad like they have been. Looked at a BMW 3 wheeler a month or so ago but it was a 2003 and they wanted $18,000 for it which is way to high for my blood. Nice looking bike by the way

Me too.

About 20 years ago, I just got tired of dealing with all the idiots with 4 wheels under them and decided to quit while I was ahead.

Well I would have gone and looked but after 3 minutes waiting for it to load up I gave up. One of the bad things about dial up

This is what I did.

I did let it load, and its those new rigs with two wheels in front and one in back. A paltry 20 grand, and its yours. I'm thinking you want something a little more "retro".

Try out a Harley Sportster 883. They sit pretty low. I have a 1998. I have short legs and it fits me nicely. Weighs almost 500lbs. Good Luck!

Local shafty club has had a couple trike conversions and sidecar rigs. Ford Pinto rear axle solid mount with a adapter rear Ujoint fitted to a 750/6 BMW did some of rallies. Harley Sportster with a GMC rear axle cut open for chain drive- bearings: fitted Hyatt sealed units good for 50,000 miles replaced the splash lubed open bearings, crown gear replaced by sprocket. Urals sidecar unit last couple breakfast meetings- good for 50/60 mph cruise but not happy trying for 75mph. Little lady had a R1000 engine in a /2 frame and a large Strieb copy sidecar to handle 2 kids to rallies. One guy had for awhile a BMW R71 military with sidecar painted in 15th light colors- Afrika Korps. His next sidecar rig had a motorboat on it- one of 3 made. Enclosed Watsonian 2 seat sidecar on R69/2 was another rig. CZ/Jawa sidecars made to fit the 350 Jawa will bolt right to /2 frames- used to be available for 1/2 the price of Striebs with roughly same mounting tubes. The Jawa frame mount location supposed to have been copied from he earlier prewar sidecar BMW civilian rigs/light Strieb. Another maker is in India- can"t remember name- and makes clones of Watsonian and Striebs, some disputes on import as didn"t pay license fees after 1990 Indian government change from socialist to free market capitalist- bunch of products that were supposed to be domestic production with no license fee per unit made became export also. Old trick for harleys was get a Glide frame and servicar frame- cut servicar front of frame in front of seat post, flop rear end for chain on left and take off swingarm of big twin, line up seat post and test clamp with Ubolts for chain alignment, hammer tap a bit for final adjustment then spot weld, final check and see how tracked, then final welds and remove clamps. servicars that topped out at 50 then could cruise easy at 65/75, top a 100. Sportsters didn"t need to flop axle but needed a bit more bracketing to align back half before welding. Problem was Sportster didn"t have a sidecar tranny available with reverse like the big twins had, still made a good cruiser on highway, just watch how you parked. Fun can be had- but might need strong arms to turn without leaning. RN.

old, Have you tried . . .

voltaren gel for your knees, works for mine and shoulder.

Hope it works for you, and it dosen't stink like other stuff.

Your neighbor to the south has been working on a V-8 powered trike(Harley)

I have been on voltaren tablets since 5 yrs ago just before I had total knee replacement on lt knee. Let me tell you it works so good that I almost made the mistake of not getting the knee replaced. It works on ALL the inflamation in ALL the joints. It is not a pain reliever it is an inflamation reliever. Inflamation is what is causing the pain. Now bear in mind , if there is something major wrong causing the inflamation then you must fix that. In my case it was junk knee , but I have DJD in pretty much all my joints , so it helped me tremendously even after the knee replace.

i built my last trike out of a VW torsion tube back,and welded a 45 Servicar frame directly to the torsion tube...engine was putting out well over 100hp...some of the local 1%'rs gave me a ration with the training wheel,third wheel jokes till i went on a beer run and came back with 20 cases and 3 women...i got bad knees and back too...i could ride that trike 700 miles a day and be ready to go again next morning.
i got a pic somewhere i got to scan and i'll post it

Sorry but Harley's are the one bike I will not own. I have hated them since back in 1974 and do not and will not own one. Sorry been around them and all and had friends who have had so many problems with them and all I do not like them. Now if you said a BMW yes love those

B-maniac,
The gel does not last very long do the pills last
longer. Do the pills work like glucosamine I use it sometimes. Glucosamine really works on my dog I can notice a difference in two - three days of giving it to her.

My ankles, knees, wrists and shoulder hurts most when over worked or weather change.
Not real bad but enough to be really uncomfortable.
I need a voice activated TV converter and mouse.
Thanks

Ya I am to old school to like one of those new wide front narrow back bikes. To me they just flat out look to odd and to out of place for a real biker LOL But then to me the old police 3 wheelers or the old military 3 wheelers where the bike

Used to be a place in Morris, IL. on Rt 47 a mile or so south of the bridge on the south end of town that made trikes, sort of. The contraption they make or made if they are still around, looked like a trike, except that it left the original motor scooter in tact. Basically, you were on your motor scooter, but it had two additional outside tires giving it a trike look. From the front or side it looked like a trike, but a look from the rear had three tires in the back, two outside, and the original rear tire of the motor scooter in the center that still did the driving, if that gives you any ideas.

Good luck.

Mark

Some years back I saw a homemade trike built from the engine, transmission and suspension from a Ford Escort. It was interesting to look at. There was sheet metal covering all the mechanicals.

Thats very nice!! Do you do that professionally?? Or just as a project??


Howard

I believe these folks will build you a trike using your bike. They have this place in east Texas and another near Lubbock Tx. I go to Lubbock every week and always salivate over the three wheelers set'n out front.
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Old talk to Harley he has training wheels on his Harley, for that very reason.

(quoted from post at 13:15:25 09/20/11) I have seen some older guys go to those can-am bikes with the two wheels in front. A lot of them say they like them and they are easier to ride. May be an option for you?

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You see them here with seatbelts....... so if you dump it, you stay within frame protection.....

(quoted from post at 20:25:19 09/20/11) Some years back I saw a homemade trike built from the engine, transmission and suspension from a Ford Escort. It was interesting to look at. There was sheet metal covering all the mechanicals.

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just google redneck trikes....... one pic was the frt clip of a frt whl drive car with a motorcycle bolted to the frt bumper :roll:

not me, Just went to the Harley store and shelled out $30,000.