FAQ's about Trike Conversions

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT TRIKE CONVERSIONS

What differences will I notice when I ride a trike rather than a cycle?
1.You can make better time on a trike. There is a certain inertia point on a 2 wheeler where you have to slow at turns or you go down. On a trike, you can take the turns 10-20 mph faster because you do not have to watch that your wheels stay under you.

2. Another difference that many of my customers comment on is that they can enjoy their ride more. They do not have to have their eyes on the road every minute to watch what is directly in front of the wheels. They can look around and enjoy the scenery.

3. Possibly the biggest difference people have to adjust to is countersteering. When riding a bicycle or motorcycle, countersteering is the name given to the counter-intuitive technique used by cyclists and motorcyclists to turn corners. When riding a bicycle or motorcycle, countersteering is a method of initiating a turn by a small, momentary turn of the front wheel, via the handlebars, in the opposite (counter) direction. This process usually requires little physical effort, because the geometry of the steering system of most bikes is designed in such a way that the front wheel has a strong tendency to steer in the direction of a lean. Now, with a trike, you steer like you do a car, and do not lean. This means if you drop your left hand in your lap, and pull back the right handlebar with your right hand, you will turn right.

How will a trike affect my gas mileage? A trike will knock about 10% off your fuel mileage. You are adding about 250 lbs and you are pulling fenders against the wind.

How do I maintain my bike once I have it? If you ride in rain, grease heim joint sometime in the week following the ride. The rainwater tends to wash out the grease. The fender bras need to be removed when you are done riding if they are wet. They snap off easily to dry out. If they are left wet on the fender, they can damage the paint. We use Cheetah grease for the heim joints,

Plexus to clean and wax the trike, and Amsoil for the oil changes. And, of course,
there’s the yearly inspection needed, just like a motorcycle..

What can you tell me about the difference between a Leaman , Champion , and Motortrike conversions? The most obvious, of course, is the looks. And that depends on what you like. From a technical standpoint, the biggest difference is in the suspension. Motortrike has a coil over shock suspension and an airbag. So there are 2 suspensions. The shocks have 4 adjustment settings, and the air bag pressure can be adjusted also. We usually set the shocks on the second position up. The first position will make the ride softer. If a person says they will never have a passenger we adjust it differently.

Because we do state inspections, we get all sorts of conversions in here, and we take them for a test drive if we work on them. I can tell you the basic handling is the same, whether you are driving a Champion, Leaman or Motortrike.

I am buying a motorcycle to have a conversion done by you. What would you advise me to get?
It depends what you want. Personally, I am partial to Honda Gold Wings. I feel they give a quieter, smoother ride. And they just keep going, going, going. I do state inspections here, and on a regular basis I see them with high mileage, and they run just as good as ever.

If you are buying a new cycle - don’t pay to have ABS put on the cycle! Save the $1,000 or so you would spend. It is disconnected during the triking conversion
process, and is not used. You also do not need to be particular about color if you see a cycle at a price you like. We do our own painting here, and we can either paint the conversion to match the cycle, or we can paint the whole cycle to be whatever color you desire. It does not cost that much more to paint the rest of the cycle.

What is EZ steer? We take the whole tree out of the front and put another one in. The simple physics behind it is that it rakes the front end and makes it steer easier by transferring some of the weight off of the front wheel and onto the back wheels. It does not noticeably alter the appearance of the trike.

Do I need EZ steer? I tell people to take the trike and drive it without the EZ steer. After riding their new trike for a while, some customers will come back and say, “Boy, I am glad I didn’t spend the money on that EZ steer!” Another customer came back and said, “That thing steers like a truck! I want the EZ steer installed.” It is really a matter of personal choice and preference. It doesn’t cost any more to have the EZ steer installed after the conversion is done so if you later decide you want it, it only takes about 4 hours to install and is something we can easily and quickly fit into our schedule.

Do I really need a trailer hitch? It seems like a lot of money and I don’t see why I would need one. The quick answer is no, you don’t have to have a trailer hitch. However, this is the only area where I encourage my customers to spend a little more money. Many people think they don’t need a trailer hitch, but before making the final decision, there are several things I ask them to think about. One, if they ever have a breakdown and need to haul their trike on a trailer the hitch makes a good place to attach your hooks to tie down the trike, or, if you decide later to buy a trailer in order to do more extensive road trips, you already have the hitch. Two, the trailer hitch both increases the resale value, and the amount of people interested in buying it. If you ever think you may sell your trike for any reason, I definitely advise installing the trailer hitch. Three, unlike with the EZ steer where post conversion installation has the same cost, with the trailer hitch we have to loosen the body and lift up the frame in order to weld it on. If you are not careful, the heat from the welding can damage the paint job. The extra labor involved increases the cost by about $200. So it saves money to have the hitch installed when the conversion is done. Four, I have installed several hundred hitches on conversions I have done, and I have not yet ever had a customer come back and say “I wish I had not spent the money on that hitch!” On the flip side, I have had many customers come back later because they wanted the hitch installed after all.

How long have you been building Trikes? I built my first trike for myself in 1992. Because I owned a body shop and had all the necessary tools, so many acquaintances were asking me to build trikes for them, that I looked into becoming a dealer in order to get better prices. I went with Motortrike and began a dealership in 1993 and I am glad I did. I really feel they are a better product.

How many trikes have you built? I have built well over 300 trikes. In what started out to be an entertaining side job has become a flourishing business. Since 2005, Motortrike has named me as one of their top 10 dealers in
America