Sand Related Trike Questions

[FireHead]

1.) Do straight blade paddles make a trike impossible to turn?

2.) How do you choose the number of paddles? Or atleast what is the information that drives the decision?

3.) If your bike is geared stock or 22" tires, would you change your gearing to run 20" paddles?

P.S.: I know these are sort of basic questions, but I have never recieved a straight answer to them.

[mymint87]

1.) no not immpossible but tend to push it straight in some instances. "chevron" or "v" paddles allow for optimum handling

2.) when choosing its all about rider weight and motor size according with riding terrain..(as with any tire)

Choose a light tire, think of the paddle as individual shovel scoops of sand
aggressive scoops/ aggressive motor
less aggressive scoops/ less aggressive motor

older style paddles..(i.e. sand skates, dune sliders) rely more on tire pressure to get them perfectly dialed in than the new technical paddles like gecko's etc.

3.) depends on what kind of paddle on what bike...

I'm sure that gearing changes can hide the "multitude of sins" of mis-matched tires

[smokinwrench]

1.) Do straight blade paddles make a trike impossible to turn?

2.) How do you choose the number of paddles? Or atleast what is the information that drives the decision?

3.) If your bike is geared stock or 22" tires, would you change your gearing to run 20" paddles?

P.S.: I know these are sort of basic questions, but I have never recieved a straight answer to them.

1- They make it harder to turn. I run 8 paddle hualers on my R. I ride trails a lot and do ok. I plan on buying a set of v paddles very soon. With straight paddles you have to throw the rear of the trike around to make it turn sharp.
2- Most normal machines run 8 paddle tires. ANy normal weekend type of rider should buy 8 paddle tires. If you plan on building your machine into a full drag bike the more paddles the better.
3- No I would leave my gearing alone. You will be in the mid gears (2nd and 3rd) most of the time any way and it takes lots of power to run in the sand so the smaller tire will actually help you out some.

[FireHead]

I have a factory Honda 310R and it has a 13 tooth front and 44 tooth rear sprocket. I want straight blade paddles. What diameter tire should I run and should I change gearing for that tire size? Also, should I run the same dirt tire size as paddle size to avoid having to change gearing?

[86250RZ]

You have a Factory 310 Honda you say, I've never seen a factory 310, I bet that puppy is worth some big $$$ very rare I must say.j/k

[FireHead]

I haven't ever seen another one either. I have no idea what it is worth. I know the replacement parts for the engine do not exist anymore. I had to have a friend at Honda dig up and send me the engineering drawings so that I could make my own piston and con rod. I have some old team pictures of it the guy gave me with the bike. I should scan them and put them on here, as it would seem that this is a place they might be enjoyed.

[Billy Golightly]

I've heard of a factory 310 kit for the aircooled Rs, but never the later ones. Is it a mugen cylinder with Japanese characters stamped on it? Pictures would be really cool

[FireHead]

Mine is a 1984 model so it is air cooled. It isn't a Mugen kit, but one of those would be really cool and I would like to have one. The 300R option is something the factory did for the factory race teams and I guess they were sold to the public as well. Bike Bandit lists obsolete part numbers for most of the kit, but you can't get the parts anymore. I will put pictures on here if I could figure out how to add one to the post. Something that may have been confusing is that say 310 and mean 300. The bike is actually 310cc, but that's only because thats how the bore worked out. The motor was originally 300cc, but I had to rebuild it when I got it.

[86250RZ]

Ok, air cooled makes a little more since. I thought you had stated it was a liquid cooled R, my bad. I'm sure that is still a very rare trike, send some pics im sure all of us would like to check it out.