I'm taking the Plunge

by Tim Denyer
(London. England)

Hi, I read your interesting article regarding Trikes which I really appreciated, I have a 1 year old Honda Shadow and now that I have reached the grand old age of 71 I am finding stopping at traffic lights or on a down hill slope a bit tricky with regard feet sliding etc. You may have heard it sometimes rains in England too! and thats another reason with wet roads.
Ive done my homework on Trikes and have learnt the following.

1. If you see a builder advertised, visit them and check them out, see their workshop and attitude to it.

2. In the UK (and maybe elsewhere) some of the cheaper builders offer a kit that utilises the existing suspension system, I would keep away from these, I have twice been told by different builders they have had units brought in for repair because the back end has literally broken up with the extra strain that the bike frame wasn't designed for.
3.
I think Independant suspension is very important as long as it has an anti roll bar fitted as well.

4 The system I am going for has a bolt on sub frame that fits in the original frame. this means if you change your mind, you can revert the Trike back to a Bike with out having to remove welded parts.
5.Finally, I am going for a reversing differential system that was originally designed for racing cars, this allows easy change of gear ratios as well, many of the systems do not match the original gear ratios so you my find you trike "sluggish" due to the gears being too high a ratio to the original.

Editor's Reply: Thanks for your contribution and your input Tim. Hope things are well in "Jolly Old England".