Electric drift trikes

Please have a go at kneeling, would be an easy temporary conversion on yours. Even if just to see what its like.
Take off the seat, adjust the handlbars forward some and put on some knee pads.

You'll notice right away I think the major benefits to doing it (waaaaaaay more traction on the front and much better flickability).

Nice trike

With the drive wheel in front, you're kind of just making the back go out to the side with your legs. Drifting is not just being sideways, but managing the point between grip and slip, and riding that around a turn at speed. With the drive wheel in front, you never lose grip - you just choose when to make the back move out to the side to *simulate* a drift. IMO, this is not really drifting. Personally, I cannot see how this is really all that fun...? I've drifted in a car, but not on a trike like this so, I could be wrong.

SHiFT

SHiFT said:

With the drive wheel in front, you're kind of just making the back go out to the side with your legs. Drifting is not just being sideways, but managing the point between grip and slip, and riding that around a turn at speed. With the drive wheel in front, you never lose grip - you just choose when to make the back move out to the side to *simulate* a drift. IMO, this is not really drifting. Personally, I cannot see how this is really all that fun...? I've drifted in a car, but not on a trike like this so, I could be wrong.

SHiFT

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Nailed it dude. Shits me when people call them drift trikes.....over power the rear wheels and your drifting, remove traction on the rears with a feint.....that's drifting.
this is more like trike dragging or sliding. A proper drift would be more like Matt chumakers mental yellow trike...that spins the wheels form a standstill.

SHiFT said:

With the drive wheel in front, you're kind of just making the back go out to the side with your legs. Drifting is not just being sideways, but managing the point between grip and slip, and riding that around a turn at speed. With the drive wheel in front, you never lose grip - you just choose when to make the back move out to the side to *simulate* a drift. IMO, this is not really drifting. Personally, I cannot see how this is really all that fun...? I've drifted in a car, but not on a trike like this so, I could be wrong.

SHiFT

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Nailed it dude. Shits me when people call them drift trikes.....over power the rear wheels and your drifting, remove traction on the rears with a feint.....that's drifting.
this is more like trike dragging or sliding. A proper drift would be more like Matt shumakers mental yellow trike...that spins the wheels form a standstill.

Overpowering the rear tires in a car makes them lose traction and become too slippery to make the turn that you are trying to make. This is the same as a trike with plastic sliders on the rear tires. Loss of traction around a turn at speed is what makes it fun. They call them drift trikes because they drift around turns just like a car while still being steered by the front. Just like a car if you get too greedy the back end will walk around the front and you will spin out.

You could power the back wheels enough to boil rubber tires but it would take lots of power and battery. By using a modest (1500watt) front hub you can still get going 30mph and then slide the rear around turns without breaking the bank. I think they look like lots of fun. I'm probably biased though because I am currently building one.

Looks like fun

DanGT86 said:

Loss of traction around a turn at speed is what makes it fun.

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I appreciate that it slides out, and that alone is fun, yes. I used to autocross and of course, with a Nissan 240sx, I did some drifting. So, I will just say that I HIGHLY encourage you to try it first (car or trike) before powering the front wheels - that is, try real drifting.
Using your legs to force the side out and simulate loss of traction is a very different sensation than using throttle and weight-shift to lose traction. I have never ridden a front-wheel drive trike, so I say this knowing I may be wrong about how it feels on a trike, but I caution you on a front-drive build.

Drifting is extremely fun, being sideways in any vehicle is also fun. However, genuine drifting is a feeling that cannot be matched without rear-wheel drive (or enormous power and AWD) IMO.
As you can see, this rider can make the rear slide out even going in a straight line just by pushing with his legs. That's just forcing the trike sideways, not really inducing a loss of traction.

DanGT86 said:

Overpowering the rear tires in a car makes them lose traction and become too slippery to make the turn that you are trying to make. This is the same as a trike with plastic sliders on the rear tires. They call them drift trikes because they drift around turns just like a car while still being steered by the front. Just like a car if you get too greedy the back end will walk around the front and you will spin out.

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You are right, steering in front, with rear wheels out is why they are called drift trikes, but that is a misnomer. As stated above mitigating slip vs grip with throttle on the rear is drifting. Going sideways is just going sideways. The risk of swapping front to back is exactly the difference between sliding and actually drifting - this is what makes drifting exciting. Even powersliding is similar in principle, but ultimately, not nearly as exciting because you start the powerslide as or after you approach the apex of the turn, versus drifting in which you enter the turn in a drift and exit in a drift.

Sorry to nitpick.

SHiFT

SHiFT said:

Using your legs to force the side out and simulate loss of traction is a very different sensation than using throttle and weight-shift to lose traction. I have never ridden a front-wheel drive trike, so I say this knowing I may be wrong about how it feels on a trike, but I caution you on a front-drive build.

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Its a silly argument anyway but its interesting to analyze the physics involved. I think the video in the OP is misleading because of the effect his legs have on the angle of the slide thus simulating the loss of traction like you say. I think the point you may be missing is that entering the turn with more speed than the traction of the rear can sustain will induce the slide/drift action even if your legs are off the pegs. If you watch the crazy fast downhill drift trike vids you will notice the riders use their legs off the pegs to counter balance the vehicle and manipulate weight distribution. They are not simply turning the back end out with their legs. I assure you its a real loss of traction not a simulated one.

Also being FWD enables you to modulate speed during the drift because the steering wheel still has traction. A quick jerk of the wheel before the apex will swing the back end out allowing you to choose your angle way before the apex just like a RWD car. The only difference is the trike wheels never really have good traction where the drift car traction is optional due to the throttle.

You are right that its not the same thing but don't let that vid fool you its way more fun than that guy made it look.

thread merged.

^there's a bunch of RWD gas drift trikes on youtube.
more fun?
ie,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs18qcbkfrw


=====

beeride
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/electric-drift-trike-by-beeride#/story


[youtube]DcEKnNqxTFs[/youtube]

Don't knock it till you've tried it.

However you get the back end to step out its fun as hell.
I've tried both front and rear wheel drifting. Both are fun.

Drift by definition is a controlled skid. Doesn't matter how you achieve that. Drift does not necessarily mean powered skid.
You drift a motorbike using body language.
You drift a quad(ATV) using body language.
A Scandinavian flick uses that exact same theory.
Using body language to initiate and help control a drift on a trike - exactly the same thing.

The only time you need masses of power is if you can't help the physics along to get the drift to happen. Shifting weight negates that need.

Wouldn't bother me to call em skid trikes. I reckon its ultra petty elitism to crack the shits for people calling them drift trikes though.

t0me said:

RIghteo, got 10 seconds into making some video and killed the controller, the new one arrived so I got the trike going again today.
Here's the video:

[youtube]hfY8qct0aO8[/youtube]

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Hi t0me I'm going to be building a drift trike, do you think you could post some photos of your kneeling one?

Pretty much the same as a sitting one cept boards either side to kneel on.

1. Get your knees as close to the ground as possible.
2. Don't need a slack angle on the heads, better close to perpendicular.
3. Some kind of rail for you knees helps heaps.

Other than that build what works for ya, my pics won't help that was really just a prototype and those points above are what I learned from it.

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