Voltron said:
I don't want to hijack this thread or anything, and I'm starting to get it that your default position is trikes are great for everything and everything else sucks. I'm not denying you can bump along at a walking pace on some carefully picked trails, but I personally would miss too much all the weaving back and forth, the putting your legs into the jumps, and the ability to wheelie up over an obstacle instead of getting out and carrying a trike over , plus having all the weeds and dust in the face etc. to do a trike off road.
I'm possibly biased, but maybe others will chime in about which one looks more fun..
[youtube]Yq0ZI3eGZ3E[/youtube]
The thread title reads 100+ miles of fun per charge, mentions range anxiety... but based on the numbers he provided the real figure is more like 85 miles at the speed he claims, out of a giant 5.1 kWh battery; and a 60Wh/mile is a pretty dismal figure, you might find it normal, but hey, this would be the same as some guy who drives ginormous Hummer 1 (a pretty decent offroad vehicle), rated in gallons to the mile, decides to tow a giant gas tank and claim his vehicle can now run 900 miles on a fill... sure, of course... that is fine; but I wouldn't tout that as a long range solution, which is what this thread seems to be doing. Again, the OP sunk a wadload of money to achieve something, nothing wrong with that, but the same result could've been done with minimal aero tweaks and half the capacity (less weight too); emphasis in "minimal", as you don't need to run a fully faired eBike to get any decent aero improvements, but that is what separates the brute force from the non-brute force solution, the non-brute force approach is usually not very obvious.
If I had the same eBike on that video, I simply couldn't do any of those stunts. So, don't confuse skill with vehicle capabilities, the same way I couldn't race the same exact Formula One as someone like Fernando Alonso could... it takes a lot of skill to do something like that on the video, not a 20kW eBike, the same guy could do that on a 100 dollar Walmart bicycle as well; point is if someone were to put the hours on a trike, or any other vehicle, as demonstrated in YT by the fearless human mind, I am more than certain it could be done as well, if it hasn't already. That same eBike video with me at the handlebars will be a 3 minute crash compilation... definitively not fun, well maybe for the guy who is watching the video...
No, trikes aren't best for everything, don't put words in my mouth... but I think you underestimate what trikes, or quads, can do.
I yet have to get out from my seat to push my trike over any terrain I've rode on, and believe me, I've driven my trike close to 8000 miles already, and counting, on all weather conditions imaginable from -20F to 98F, in torrential rain, blizzards, frozen rain, fog, rocks, rough terrain, icy roads, you name it; nothing has ever prevented me from getting to my destination, and I've never had the weeds up in my face either.
I bet those who shall chime in will agree that this can be pretty fun as well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqdeZMUZo9k BTW, the kids at the wheel are 13 years old, so don't expect the Monaco Grand Prix, but you get the idea.
G.