The Rest of the Story
For me, the Trike saga begins at the end of summer 2001. I found myself passing an very interesting "Guy Stuff" yard sale full of tools and motorcycles and interesting trikes in different stages of assembly.
I
did come home with
one of the three
unfinished trike projects from that garage sale.
The one I took was NOT attached to a motorcycle . All I got was the VW
axle with some home made Framework & a piece of rough unfinished fiberglass bodywork - I needed to fabricate the
rest. I had 2 pictures - No "instruction book", no plans, no diagrams -
only some verbal direction and visual concepts.
The fella had several trike
front end accessories in different stages of
finish. Pretty cool concept 3 wheel Trike; only one unit was all painted up
but they all looked real
fun. Irresistible - nearly finished projects. They drive like a
car, but use a VW front axle up front Bolted to the front of a motorcycle. My,
oh my, what have I gotten myself into ;) It sure looked fun, but could I
get it put together and working - that was the challenge.
(2001) I bought
the unfinished front end frame & bodywork and hauled it home. I knew I
couldn't work on it for awhile. The
motorcycle attaches to the trike right at the neck.
These accessory front end units attach to a
normal motorcycle @ 3 attachment points basically mating the frames and
connected to the front fork mounts. As a bolt on accessory - the
motorcycle is not permanently altered - therefore it can be licensed as a
motorcycle.
Two arms on the lower part attach to
either a one inch tube (in the case of most Hondas) or the peg attach points.
The upper
steering head attaches at the front
triple tree.
No
permanent modification is done to the cycle. The throttle and clutch are simply
moved forward to mount on the trike (the throttle and the
clutch levers are not disconnected.
The idea: Remove the trike section from the motorcycle - put the front forks back on, relocate the essentials, and "Presto" you are back to a standard motorcycle.
Reverse Trike is what these 2 wheels up front with 1 wheel behind designs are called. You can read more about 2front 1rear wheel trikes at http://www.reversetrike.com
February of 2002
- about 6 months later I found a Moto Guzzi Lario. I got things about 80%
sorted out and ready to bolt on.
I had the front end of the Lario removed and made mounts for the bike to the
trike section. I even had the shift rod designed and fabricated and
working to shift with. The only things left was wiring and extending
controls over to the trike section. This pic shows the trike front end
bolted up to the Moto Guzzi Lario - NOT the Honda ST1100 that is currently in
use.
However, 2 things happened to put a real stall in the Trike project: My wife bit the bullet and decided that although she liked the trike idea, she wanted to learn how to ride a motorcycle after all.
We bought her a Virago and we started riding together. I really enjoyed motorcycle riding with Dulane, but that added hobby riding together did used up my extra time which would have been used working on the trike. Not that I am really complaining, I enjoyed the shared motorcycle adventures with Dulane more than ever. But, you can only do so much with the time you have.
Then - motorcycling became an All in the Family affair. Daughter Sonya learned how to ride and got a little starter bike - and by spring of 2003 my son also decided he really wanted to ride a motorcycle (a Moto Guzzi to be exact), but he couldn't afford one. He eventually talking me out of the Lario motorcycle. So, I let my son take the Lario and I began the search for a motorcycle all over again. Now I was out of a motorcycle for the trike power unit!
Summer 2003 I found a real gem - A '93 ST1100 with a slightly wrecked front end. Only had 26,000 miles on it. It was a perfect donor bike because it had the front end fairing body work was totally damaged. The front forks were Not tweaked, but that expensive fairing was toast. It needed gauges, radiator fix, and a few other things to operate. It was easy to source parts for. I knew this bike because I happen to ride a Honda ST1100 for my daily rider named STeamer #9. These are awesome machines and I know it will make a very stable, strong power source for the trike.
End of 2003. The Trike project languished, and too much time has gone by without concentrating on it. In fact, several other projects have been started and finished during the Trike project. I suppose it is a matter of priorities. I was able to source the parts needed to get the ST1100 re-registered and re-titled. I had to get things like a working front end, the brain box and a tank cover. I didn't need the fairing to get it street legal again, so my costs were minimal.
In 2003 I started my house building project which took precedence over all projects. I pretty much had to put the whole trike business on hold - again - from 2003 to 2006 while I built a house.
01/12/04
I got a few things accomplished despite pausing the Trike project. I had sourced parts for the ST1100, so I had done a little bit of work on the
project. I found all the parts needed to re-title it. I took the donor ST1100 all fixed to legal
specs (minus any
fairing body parts which is not required), to the DMV for inspection and took
the front end axle accessory with me. Lights work, clock, turn signals
in front & rear, rear tail light, front/rear brakes - all works. NO fairing
on the motorcycle, but
it has all the running parts and it is drivable. Because the front
axle unit was a bolt on it was considered an accessory. Had it been welded
it would have been a permanent change to the motorcycle.
Getting parts and registering the ST1100 was about the only thing I did to the trike project all year, but it was something which needed to happen.
In addition to starting the house building project in '03, I also got very active in bio fuels. In mid '03 I found myself spending all my free time developing a bio-fuels vehicle project. The Bio fuels hobby also lead me from one facet of the "brew your own fuel" concept to another. Today I am driving my commuter car on straight waste vegetable oil and also use biodiesel. I even run a website for it at: http://www.grease4fuel.com This was also a great project but it stole time from the trike, all the time. And this is yet another story.
2006
soon came around the corner and the Trike project was still languishing terribly.
I was still doing lots of little jobs to finish some facets of the new house and
the acre of landscaping that goes with it. In addition was the
continuation of the Grease 4 Fuel hobby/project which also sucked lots of time.
On top of that is my wife's Cob guest house project. The cob guest house
project took all of my wife's extra time and more of my time than anticipated.
Too many projects, too little time.
It is apparent that I had lost momentum and probably lost that
driving interest in the
trike project. I thought about it, and even dreamed about it often, and I really
wish I could just finish the
project.
I really did like the trike concept and I especially liked the 2F-1R
wheel concept. I just couldn't seem to make it happen. I found
DauntlessMotors Sidecar company and
They took the bike and trike from where I
left off and got
things engineered, attached and running. I had quite a few items already done,
but DauntlessMotors assembled it and really beefed up the framework.
Double gusset 1 1/2" square tube framework, beefed up triangular triple tree
section and much more.
December 29th 2007.
Man, it needed paint really, really badly.
So ugly I didn't want to show only a few pics before it was painted. I
put on the license plates with new current tabs and drove it home from Dauntless Motors Co. on a dry
- Cold December day.
Whooooo Hoooo, is this puppy is fast and smooth!!
Although there are some ergonomic changes I would like make and little details to finish, it really is a
BLAST to drive. On the way home that day, I drove by 2
different police officers
patrolling the roads on the way home and I really expected to get pulled over, but I didn't.
I've read on many trike reports that they routinely get pulled over from
"Curious cops". Not a big deal. They usually just need to
check and make sure it is registered and licensed to drive on the road, oh, and see
if you have a motorcycle trike/sidecar 3rd wheel drivers endorsement.
The bike section runs absolutely great! Solid, fast, and smooth, just like a dependable ST1100 should. In fact if you look at the ST1100 web site you can find all the impressive aspects of Honda's best kept secret - the ST1100 Sport Touring Machine. Currently lots of police are issued ST1100 and ST1300 motorcycles.
   |
With a vehicle creation like a Trike or any custom vehicle; you will be able to find Lots of things you can personalize or customize. Often they become a fun ongoing project getting updates, modifications and changes - essentially evolving over time.
NOTE:
The saddlebags and tail trunk are NOT for sale with the trike.
They belong to my commuter ST1100. |
Here
it is - New Years day 2008.
Nearly 7
years since I first bought the kit at that yard sale!
My Grandson had a fun ride with me even though it wasn't quite finished yet.
The Trike is really a blast to drive.
On
a trip in up by SandPoint Idaho I glimpsed a trike exactly like this one.
It was painted all black and looked pretty cool blacked out! I think it
used a Honda Saber motorcycle.
It got away before I could go back and find him, but the sighting was
encouraging.
Then again, driving
around Monroe WA in 2005 I saw another one! I was able to turn around and go chase him
down. We talked for a while to discover this fella bought one from the
same guy I did. He put the front fiberglass body on piano hinges so the
front end lifted up like a car hood. Underneath he had a camp stove and
storage boxes, and fresh water container. It was set up for camping!
It was real cute, and shows you can customize this to do just about what ever
you want.
We
exchanged phone numbers but his number has since been disconnected and he has disappeared.
My biggest problem now is a place to keep it.
Operating
the clutch was difficult at first, but giving it some practice
I did get
learn how clutch smoothly. Remember when you tried to work the clutch for
the first time on a motorcycle! The foot pedal doesn't have any "feel" to work
with, and at first I killed the engine a few times before getting the "Feel" for it.
Update: I have since moved the clutch lever onto the shifter rod. That way it maintains the actual feel and function of the hydraulic motorcycle clutch and all clutch/shift actions are done with one arm. Makes the shifting so much easier.
Since
the time of finding this kit (2001), I've found plenty of Internet information
and one particular web
site dedicated to "Reverse Trikes"
or 2f1r - which is 2 wheels front - 1 wheel rear. Not only are there
plenty of trikes using exactly the same concept
of a motorcycle behind VW front axle with all sorts of fiberglass body designs,
but the 2 wheels front has been found to be much preferred over 1 wheel front
designs for stability and performance.
I have sure enjoyed this experience. I feel fortunate to have been able to do something as unique as this trike and have it all work out so well. I hope your adventures are as successful and fun as this has been.
See Ya, Roy Harvey