I believe the pics speak for themself.

 

loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong!

 

Need to mount the horns on there.

su-weet.

 

Ohhhhhhhh I want to HEAR it. Looks great!

 

I think that it is an utterly hideous abomination, pretty much everything I hate in a piece of transport.

Its will be slow - compared to the amount of noise it makes.

It will NOT go around corners, no way no how - probably easier to find a trike going in the direction you want to go than ask it to change direction.

Brakes ? With a decent percentage of the (not inconsiderable) weight hurtling forwards when you slow - it looks rather badly underbraked.

So, it does not do, handle or stop, not to mention that small children will point and laugh.

Why exactly did you buy it ??

 

Chilllll... Looks like fun, hope ya enjoy it!

 

Did someone foget their medication today? Nothing better to do than make negative remarks about something they know little about to make themself feel better.

Well contrary to what Mr. Grouchy Grouch McGrouchster says, its plenty fast for crusing around in the sun and commuting to work, sounds great, turns just fine, and brakes great.

 

. . . And it looks perfect for a run to "Hippie Holler!"

 

Oooooh! Big Wheels for grown-ups!
Can you make it do the 360 skid-turn?

 

yah, sounds like chows deprived of vitamines.

 

Better brakes than a MINI ????

You either have something seriously wrong with the braking system on your Mini, or you have never actually tried a full-on brake test with both machines.

My Ducati (complete with Brembo Gold-Line brakes and super sticky front tire) will not out-brake a well driven MINI on street tires.

A combination of that spindly front fork, tiny drum brake thin front tire and lots of weight lead me to beleive that it will be rubbish under braking, after all due to weight transfer the front brake is responsible for a massive (90% or more) percentage of the braking on a motorcycle.

As for my meds, yes, I took them.

I thought that this was a forum, where differing ideas and opinions could/should be posted to lead to debate, rather than a mutual admiration society ?

If it is the latter, then maybeI should have posted something like this ?

Cool man, I cannot wait to see that on the track, or in the twisties, bet its going to rock !

Except that we all know that if would not rock, even slightly, in such an environment, don't we, despite its magical drum brake that allows it to outbrake everything on the road

So, as I am biased towards tracks and twisty roads and because you wanted to hear opinions (else you would not have posted it), I figured that I would post mine.

I say again - does not go, stop or handle and I dislike the styling.

discuss......

 

That's a beautiful machine. Not my cup of tea, but I can appreciate that you like it and I hope it brings you as many hours of motoring fun as my MINI brings to me

 

I hope you enjoy it, but it is sad to see a MINI for sale though.....

 

Ah, then you are naturally grumpy.

What happened to forums where you could share your joy without some negative jerk giving his unwanted critique? NAM is one of the worst in this aspect I think, just another reason to sell the MINI I guess.

As for the brakes, the front brakes on a standard motorcycle account for up to 70% (not 90%) of stopping power. This however is not a standard motorcycle. You may have noticed the two wider than normal motorcycle rear tires in the back producing way more braking surface area than the skinny front tire? This is where most of the stopping power comes from on trikes. Many trikes don't even have front brakes, and those that do have them do not usually use them as they are obsolete compared to the rear stopping power. So maybe you shouldnt act like you know everything - when you probably havent ridden a well put together trike, if any trike.

Well you can try, but you can't rain on my 3-wheeled parade. Go kick a puppy or something, I'm going to go ride around the neighborhood again.

 

If it's as pretty in Austin today as it is in Fort Worth, take it out FM 2222. Enjoy the ride!

 

I'm a Ducati guy too, and trikes aren't really my cup of tea, but regardless, it looks like this one was well put-together. You wouldn't believe how many of the extended-fork choppers and trikes don't even HAVE front brakes. This one has front brakes, as well as triple-shock suspension and springs for the seat - I imagine the ride will be pretty comfortable.

The extra rake and trail *will* sacrifice cornering ability in favour of stability, but when you take a middleweight cruiser and turn it into a trike, that's kind of the expectation - you know from the beginning that it's not going to be a high-speed canyon-carver. Trikes are about cruising, and as long as the extended fork still allows him to make a u-turn on a city street, that's about all he needs.

The donor bike is a Honda 750, so even with the Vance & Hines exhaust, I don't see it being particularly noisy. Also, even after the trike mod, the power-to-weight ratio is probably still pretty good. The Honda 750 cruisers are good for low-13/high-12 second quarter mile times from the factory, so I bet the trike will still be able to get out of its own way more than well enough.

Trikes are a small niche market - that's why they're pretty much all conversions, rather than factory offerings. As such, they're not going to fare well performance-wise when compared to more purpose-built bikes. But for a fun, relaxed cruising toy, it will likely do everything he needs.

It's obviously what he was looking for, and the fit/finish seem fine. Since he seems to be enjoying it so far, what else really matters?

 

Whoohah! Nice one kenchan, a double slap in one sentence. Given the, let's say, debative tone of this thread, I will try to top your two.

While it's hard believe riquiscot and MaxN would ride those punky Ducatis, I'm even more appalled that BlimeyCabrio thinks it should be more horny and that Uncle John would mention Hippie Holler on a family website, and a father such as kenchan would not post a word of reprimand.

Seriously, though, everyone just enjoy what you enjoy (but I'd go with a Ducati myself).

 

see, now OT is exciting again!

 

Yes, but ChrisNeal is still AWOL after his wake up slap to us all. Maybe MINITOR can hunt him down his his new wheels.

 

Maybe he bought it just to **** you off.

Looks like he wins.

 

 

I remember I was carrying a friend on the back of my ATC 250R water cooled trike monster in the late 80's. Her feet got sucked into the rear tires, and we drove up the back of her legs at around 40mph, before we completely flipped over. This was on a dirt road, and my trike actually had rear fenders. Be careful there

 

I always thought this was interesting... That is, a few MINI people saying everything else sucks. The problem is everything is a comparison. Its all realitive (as my old soccer coach would say).

If someone really likes twisties and mountains then I hate to say it, you can do a lot better than a MINI. For example, I am building a Factory Five GTM (http://www.factoryfive.com/table/ffr...TM/GTMkit.html) and that will kill a MINI on a mountain road. Would I say, wow, a MINI sucks because it can't perform like a GTM? That would be stupid. MINI's are still great cars. I am even on my second one now; after the first was totaled.

My point is that yes this is a forum where you can share opinions, but why just be negitive towards others? You're allowed to share opinions within an office setting too, but its still not polite to tell your secretary that her new hair cut is ugly.

My mom always said, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all". I think it was very good advice even to this day.

MINITOR, its a very nice trike, I am glad you enjoy it. I've always thought your MINI is one of the most unique out there, looks like you'll be just as unique on your trike too.

 

Riquiscott, you are right on.

Davydo, no dirt roads for this trike, thanks for the warning.

TC1, ou are right on as well

Haha, my wife just read all the negative remarks and wanted me to tell MaxN to change his diaper. I love my wife.

And as inioway said, everyone enjoy what you enjoy! I do!

 

For all you know, I may have a dedicated corner carver / track day toy stashed away in my garage.

(takes a look)

Wow, what would you know ?

In my garage I have not one, but TWO canyon carvers that will both utterly demolish a Mini in the twisties.

You see, my Mini is my daily driver. Sure it sees track duty from time to time and sure I drive Ortega once a month in it, but it is not the best handling vehicle in my fleet. It is actually the worst handling.

It is also the heaviest to drive, has easily the worst gear change and heaviest clutch and is less economical than both too.

However, it is fun to drive, it keeps me dry and warm/cool and is the most practical car I own, in that it has 4 seats and some luggage / shopping space. I agree that they are great cars, they are a great compromise, have some interesting pseudo history / heritage and an image that fools us all into spending a lot of money for a relatively small and not really that high a quality car. I enjoy driving mine, but do not kid myself that it is teh best car evAr