Leaning Trike

[ab_irl]

Hi Everyone. I'm only new to this site. I've been building a leaning trike for the last couple of months. I've searched the site as best I can and can't find anyone trying the same thing. I have been getting along fine but I'm having some real trouble locating the right pair of shocks.

They can be anywhere in the region or 17-22 inches long and have around 4-6 inches of travel. Oh and the softer the better. They are just for holding the bike in the upright position and will be half compressed at each side when the bike is upright. I have a really bad diagram hopefully I can attach.

I'm in Ireland and can find nothing that will do, so I don't mind paying some shipping charges to get the right ones. The whole project depends on getting this right.

So if anyone knows of a pair that will do please let me know.

Cheers,

Aidan.




This is a rough mockup at the moment.

[250rfreak]

haha thats badass

[SYKO]

thats like those crazy honda gyros from Japan... I think blaster shocks would be a good cannidate for you, they are cheap and soft and everywhere. Oh and welcome to the forum!

[cr480r]

you definately want an adjustable air shock... fox sells some cheap ones... standard atv coil-overs will most likely be too stiff to lean...

[200x Basket]

not to rain on your parade but hundreds of engineers have been trying to perfect that design for decades with marginal results.

that being said, i think the air shock would be the best bet.

[brapp]

try an old 77 or so yz250 rear mono shock

[factoryX]

to me it would not be very stable, it is a leaning bike so when your going striaght and lean to the right it messes with the balance won't it?

[RedRider_AK]

To get max use out of the "leaning" design, you need leaning wheels, which I saw somewhere on an on-road trike.

[ab_irl]

Thanks everybody. I'll have a go at trying to find some blaster shocks. Can anybody recommend a Seller / Dealer.
I know people have tied to build these in the past but this is only for a bit of fun. If it doesn't work out I'll change the universal joint and make it a fixed trike. There's a clip on youtube of a leaning trike with wheels that lean as well but I got a fixed axle to experiment with so I'm going to just have a go with that. I'll probably end up upside down in a ditch but it will be fun going the 400yards to get there.

[TeamGeek6]

Bad idea, thatll make it twice as dangerous. Theres a REASON no one else is doing it.

Trikes are bad for tiping, there is no such thing as steering them, "power sliding' is the only way to turn corners at any speed.

Causing the chassis to lean will load one tire or the other and:

1.) make steering more unstable than it already is
2.) tend to put all the weight on one wheel, which will make the vehicle easy to tip over.

[thefox]

What's going to keep it from leaning the wrong way?

[ab_irl]

The way I find myself driving a trike hard is leaning well off the side of the bike in a corner to balance it. So I don't see why when the bike and the rider leans it should not be the same effect only with more comfort. With a good tyre on the front it should have the same footprint.

The biggest problem I see is getting the shocks exactly right I need to have a good balance between keeping the bike upright in a straight line and having the give in the shocks to allow with the weight of the rider and the bike to lean. The monoshock in the centre will be acting as the main suspension.

[Vealmonkey]

I've seen a road trike that actually had hydraulic shocks and electric pumps to change the lean angles of a road trike. It probably took a little getting use to, but it seemed pretty trick.