Game-Changer Electric Trike has it all, forget re-inventing

[waynebergman]

Even the AMC pacer looks attractive compared to this Bubble of Trouble. I would love to see this Ugly Egg in a huge wind storm rolling down the road Tumbleweed style. The video from the OP actually showed several of these little guys in a warehouse somewhere so it looks like someone thought they were worth mass production. A huge waste of paint and electric windows if you ask me. I will hold back on the bad language as it did make me laugh

 

[John in CR]

If they made it tadpole rather than delta it could have possibilities. Tadpole is much harder to tip over properly engineered.

That's actually another widely held myth. Properly engineered with the COG optimally placed can make a delta just as stable as tadpole. Read about the dynamic stability of different types of 3 wheelers here http://www.rqriley.com/3-wheel.htm

 

[MadRhino]

Yes and no.

The myth comes from what is made and sold, that people have tried. Delta trikes are not stable in comparison to tadpole versions, everything you can try will result in the same conclusions: Deltas are rolling and tadpoles are drifting.

Of course, there are no serious efforts in designing them better in the bicycle industry. In motorcycle design, there are some that have solved the problem partially with ridgid frames, and entirely with tilting frames. Yet, providing one does care by all means to optimise stability of a trike, he will have a much easier task to start with a tadpole. The fact is that rolling is harder to solve than drifting, both in design and riding skills.

The study that you link to is not addressing all the factors, being
"a simple rigid-body analysis and it does not consider the effects of suspension, rebound, and body-roll inertial forces. It therefore provides an approximation of rollover threshold under dynamic conditions".
This is a complicated game, for the "dynamic conditions" are a major factor in the handling of any vehicle, and a 3 wheeler is the ultimate challenge for a vehicle designer.

 

[Papa]

... Delta trikes are not stable in comparison to tadpole versions, everything you can try will result in the same conclusions: Deltas are rolling and tadpoles are drifting.

You'd be prudent to broaden your (miss) conceptions of 3-wheel dynamics. (perhaps a more in-depth search engine might help??...).

http://www.recumbentjournal.com/reviews/tricycles/item/10-the-rans-trizard-the-story-is-in-the-ride.html

"Cornering on the Trizard is a hoot. No surprise there, since all trikes are a hoot in turns, but the Trizard is better than most. There is no perceptible chance of lifting a wheel. While I could occasionally lift a wheel on my Trice (not easily though), but have yet to do it on the Trizard. The Trizard carries its speed well through the turns, without any of the speed-sapping steering scrub at the tires commonly experienced on tadpoles."