front wheel drive recumbent trike

[Daniel Parry]

Is this a flawed design? The only example I could find was:

http://home.mindspring.com/~kb7mxu/images/Zenit.jpg

Just curious as the chain lengths involved look really quite long on the rear wheel drive trikes.

cheers

daniel

 

[Daniel Parry]

In article <[email protected]>, Daniel Parry wrote:
> Is this a flawed design? The only example I could find was:
>
> http://home.mindspring.com/~kb7mxu/images/Zenit.jpg

Oh no, I've found a couple more examples. Would still be interested to hear a comparison with a rear
wheel drive recumbent trike, though?

cheers

daniel

 

[Dave Larrington]

Daniel Parry wrote:

> Is this a flawed design? The only example I could find was:
>
> http://home.mindspring.com/~kb7mxu/images/Zenit.jpg
>
> Just curious as the chain lengths involved look really quite long on the rear wheel drive trikes.

Nothing much wrong with the design; the real problem seems to be availability. I've heard a Several
of stories about people who have been waiting months, if not years, for trikes.

FWIW there are other FWD trikes, with a single front wheel, which usually steer by leaning.

Dave Larrington - http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/
===========================================================
Editor - British Human Power Club Newsletter
http://www.bhpc.org.uk/
===========================================================

 

[Mads Hilberg]

> FWIW there are other FWD trikes, with a single front wheel, which usually steer by leaning.

And of course there are FWD 2-wheel recumbents as well. These rely on the 'natural' ability of a
chain to twist slightly at each link. Zox makes some nice ones - especially their tandem looks very
well thought out (the ultimate in independent pedalling) http://www.zoxbikes.com/index_e.html

Mads

 

[Steve Palincsar]

On Thu, 15 May 2003 12:02:32 -0400, Daniel Parry wrote:

> Is this a flawed design? The only example I could find was:
>
> http://home.mindspring.com/~kb7mxu/images/Zenit.jpg
>
> Just curious as the chain lengths involved look really quite long on the rear wheel drive trikes.

It's the natural way to make a hand-powered trike. I saw a couple over the past weekend on TOSRV
ridden by cyclists missing both legs. The ride was 100 miles out and 100 miles back the next day,
and both bikes made it without incident, so how badly flawed could the design be?

 

[Daniel Parry]

In article <[email protected]>, Steve Palincsar wrote:
> It's the natural way to make a hand-powered trike. I saw a couple over the past weekend on TOSRV
> ridden by cyclists missing both legs. The ride was 100 miles out and 100 miles back the next day,
> and both bikes made it without incident, so how badly flawed could the design be?

I guess not flawed at all, then? ^_^ I'm curious as to whether a front wheel drive would
perform/handle better than a rear wheel drive recumbent trike. Are there parallels with front/rear
wheel drive cars?

cheers

daniel

 

[Peter Clinch]

Daniel Parry wrote:

> I guess not flawed at all, then? ^_^ I'm curious as to whether a front wheel drive would
> perform/handle better than a rear wheel drive recumbent trike. Are there parallels with front/rear
> wheel drive cars?

I think the main parallel is that it's intrinsically harder to drive a wheel that you have to steer
as well, especially where power comes from cranks that are ideally in line with both the rider's
legs and the powered axles. You could try rear wheel steering, but I recall an answer in C+ once
from a Mr. M. Burrows to such a question suggesting that (for various reasons I can't recall) such
machines tend to be the province of people with red noses called Koko.

An interesting solution for both bikes and trikes is the Flevo, which steers through a joint in the
middle of the frame. These can be ridden entirely hands free routinely, with the bars just somewhere
to mount brake and gear controls (if you can ride them at all!) Pretty much proof against
opportunist rideaway theft! See http://www.flevobike.nl for more info...

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch University of Dundee Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Medical Physics, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net [email protected]
http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

 

[Arthur Clune]

Peter Clinch <[email protected]> wrote:

: I think the main parallel is that it's intrinsically harder to drive a wheel that you have to
: steer as well, especially where power comes from cranks that are ideally in line with both the
: rider's legs and the powered axles.

http://www.eland.org.uk/s327.html

for another (nice) example.

The basic problem is that if you do this you can do longer use many standard bike parts making the
whole thing very expensive. The russians could do it 'cos they had a whole load of cnc machining kit
standing idle after the collapse of the ussr.

Arthur

--
Arthur Clune http://www.clune.org Power is delightful. Absolute power is absolutely delightful -
Lord Lester

 

[M-Gineering Imp]

here's another fwd trike: www.m-gineering.nl/caferace.htm

--
Marten