Trike 43

Can’t quite believe that Trike magazine is now 10 years old. When we started this magazine back in 2007, it seemed like a bit of a niche experiment. Would there be a readership for all things three-wheeled? Turns out there was! We were stunned at the response for Trike – it was clearly just what the market was crying out for. And it’s grown ever since. Today, the trike scene is one of the fastest-growing and most popular areas of biking. A lot has changed in the last 10 years – big advances in engineering, improvements in quality and the sheer freedom of builders’ imaginations. The variety of trikes out there is astounding – as you can see from our special anniversary issue this month, where we pick out some of our…

VANDERHALL VENICE IS ‘MODERN MORGAN’ The new Vanderhall Motor Works Venice Roadster is described as an ‘Autocycle’ and channels the spirit of the Morgan Three-Wheeler in modern clothing. The Venice is an open-wheel trike with side-by-side seating for two. Its aluminium chassis is wrapped in composite bodywork. The front suspension is an adjustable pushrod coilover system with hydraulic dampers, while there’s a single-sided swing arm with coilover damper at the rear. Power comes from a General Motors 1.4-litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine, mounted up front and driving the front wheels through a six-speed semi-automatic gearbox. Also standard are ABS and brake assist. As the Venice weighs only 624kg, it’s quick, doing the 0-60mph sprint in under five seconds, says the maker. It’ll also top 130mph and pull lateral cornering forces of 1g. Creature comforts…

SEPTEMBER 16th Sept: Owain Glyndwr Trike & Bike Run. Leave from Caernarfon Castle, Caernarfon, Gwynedd at 12- noon to run to five castles in North Wales. Free tea and coffee and free buffet. £5 donation per person. Ring 07876 303911. In aid of Combat Street. 17th Sept: Portsmouth MAG’s End of Summer Bike, Trike & Scooter Show at Port Solent Marina, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 4TP. Trade stands, learners’ corner, raffle. 10am-4pm. Email jgover35@gmail.com or portsmouth-rep@maguk.org. 22-24th Sept: Cerunnos MCC’s 17th Mabon Rally at a new location. Silly games, run out, free hot drinks, pub grub. 80 limit. £10 prebook. Tickets (cheques payable to Cernunnos MCC) from Mabon Rally, 7 Blacksmith’s Way, Hartnell, Northampton NN7 2HY or visit cernunnos-mcc.org. Cars and vans BPA. 22-24th Sept: CAT MCC’s Catapult 11 at Euxton Cricket Club, Balshaw Park,…

Was it really 10 years ago that newsagent stands across Britain and the wider world strained under a delivery of a brand new magazine? Yes indeed: Trike magazine first saw the light of day in 2007. It seems like yesterday to us, but here we are with a full decade of amazing three-wheelers behind us. This is how we welcomed our readers in the very first issue: “It’s funny, isn’t it, that it’s taken this long for a magazine about three-wheeled vehicles to come about? Especially when the trike has actually been around longer than anything else… This magazine is going to be a mixture of the best builds and the classiest conversions of both bikes and cars intothree-wheeled form.” Nothing’s changed in 10 years on that front at least… We’ve featured…

Never say we don’t travel to find the best trikes in the UK. We’ve been to Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales and now we’re in Launceston in Cornwall to meet Phil Jones. Ooh aargh! The reason? He’s built himself one cracker of a trike – a meanlooking exile-style machine with big wheels and a bare-boned finish, using a Yamaha FJ1200 as basis. “I’ve always enjoyed bikes,” says Phil, “but in 2010 I lost my leg. Trikes were the obvious route to me carrying on enjoying biking.” In fact, this is Phil’s third trike, all of them custom-built by him. The first was based on a Yamaha FJ900 with shaft drive, but Phil admits he got the steering gear wrong and it wobbled. The second was FJ1200 based and was sold to a chap…

Here’s a good question: why don’t trikes tilt into corners? Most trike conversions use an axle that effectively turns the bike into something that corners flat like a car. But why do you have to take away the bike’s ability to lean? What if you could make a trike ride like a bike? Well, an American company called Tilting Motor Works (TMW) has done just that. Located in Snohomish, near Seattle in Washington, TMW is run by an ex-Boeing engineer called Bob Mighell. Its speciality is tilting two-wheel front end conversion kits for Harley-Davidsons (Touring line models like the Street Glide and Electra Glide, plus Fat Boys, Softails, Dynas and V-Rods), as well as the Honda Gold Wing GL1800 and F6B. Getting a three-wheeler to tilt has a few engineering challenges…