Tilting Tadpole Trike

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Firstly my apologies for my prolonged absence. A combination of other hobbies and medical issues. I note the new forum and I note the pictures in my old thread had died (probably were on photobox) so I've re-upped them here though probably not in chronological order.


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I'm impressed.
Apart from looking cool, is there a benefit with the tilting?
I see that you added a disc brake segment to the tilting pivot, I presume that's to prevent the bike from collapsing when parking or has it another function?
 
A parking brake to keep it upright and also a lock if using it for slow speed manoeuvring, converting it into a more traditional tadpole. If going very slowly it's nicer to lock it rather than balance it. It's a compromise in many areas on geometry to be honest. There's absolutely no advantage at all to the tilting and frankly I'd go faster on a more traditional tadpole but it impresses the hell out of people when they see it lean and that's nice to see. As an actual mode of transport it would be fairly low on most peoples scale.
 
I can see one advantage to the tilt... reducing lateral force on the wheels to nil.
Seems to me it would make it possible to use much weaker wheels that would
otherwise be unthinkable on a trike. FANTASTIC ride, either way! (y)
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Tilting originated in America/Canada where it gave the tilting trikes an advantage in the class they raced in especially as the rear wheels of a delta could be close enough together to be in the shadow of the riders body.

Do you also get a suspension effect or are the shockers part of the tilt mechanism , built in damping for it maybe ?
 
The suspension works as proper suspension but I've had to set the preload rather high. There are a number of geometry compromises which get worse with both suspension movement and with leaning. Put them both together and you exacerbate them. I could remove the units and fit solid rods which would be better from that point but I took the easier way around it and upped the preload to reduce the movement to large loads only. I still get some insulation from potholes so the compromise is at least some value. The only damping of the tilting is me. It's entirely a matter of how much to pull up or down on the steering arms. There's no resistance bar the normal friction of the moving parts.
 
curious what is the braided green hose in the 4th picture?
Have read that unequal wishbones (bottom bars are longer than top bars) are preferred over equal length bars.
looking for some graph paper then print out the top view photo so I can scale it to size. I definality want to add the double wishbone design suspension to my fat tire Recon Lizard.
 
That was just a piece of hosepipe acting as a temporary cable guide whilst other bits were put in place to see if anything wanted the same space.

Unequal wishbones generally work well to tip the wheel in at the top in a turn making the tyre bite harder into the tarmac. Not much use on a machine that tilts where you want to keep both tyres in the plane of the lean. Most things written about wishbones will not be written with tilting trikes in mind.
 
I looked ad tilting frames and it looks good, but it's more for as you ho fast. It can take corners faster without tilting over.
But the tires also wear out a bit faster. As it tilts, the wheels also change the track with a little bit.

This one has separat steering as well. Others where steering by just leaning into the corner.
As you go slow and you need to lean into a tight corner, than it isn't fun to ride. So I understand why he made it like this.
Looks good.
 
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