Rewaco VS Converted Motorcycle Trike
- Roll Center of Gravity – Every vehicle has what is called a “roll center” which is an imaginary line that would run from the front of the bike to the rear in which the vehicle pivots, or rolls, when going through a corner. The closer the person is positioned to the roll center, the less G-Forces that person feels going through corner on the bike. The higher the sits above the roll center gives them a greater feeling of the bike trying to throw them off.
Driving a Rewaco Trike, you sit in the roll center, whereas with a converted motorcycle, because it was originally designed to lean through turns, sits way above, giving you that unsafe feeling of the bike either trying to throw you off or flip over. - Front End Steering Effort – A two-wheel motorcycles front end geometry is designed to hold the steering in a straight ahead position. This is because you lean through the turns. When the bike is converted into a trike, the geometry needs to be changed or the steering effort will be very hard as the bike does not know it is a trike and tries to hold the steering in a straight-ahead position. This fights you trying to turn the handlebar. Because of the motorcycle’s design, it is limited to how much geometry can be changed. Therefore, the steering effort is less than desirable.
Because a Rewaco trike was built from the ground up to be a trike, the proper geometry was designed into the bike from the beginning, making the steering effortless and comfortable. - Front End Suspension – A two-wheel motorcycle typically uses what is called a telescopic fork front suspension. This is designed to work when there is a direct push, such as when a motorcycle goes over a bump or is leaning through the corners and your and the bike’s weight and G-forces are directed in a straight line to the tire and wheel. Because of the two-wheel design, the telescopic fork suspension was never designed for a trike application where, when cornering, the bike’s weight, your weight, and the G forces are all working together to try and bend that telescopic fork at its weakest point. Due to this sideways force, the fork suspension becomes bound up and prematurely wears out the fork, seals, and bushings.
A Rewaco trike uses their own patented “trapezoidal” front suspension. This suspension is a solid tube fork with an upper and a lower control arm that is not affected by any direct or side forces in a negative way. This provides the suspension a controlled and comfortable ride when in a straight ahead position or hard cornering. - Rear Suspension – Many of your converted motorcycle trikes are designed with a solid, or straight axle, rear suspension system. This system generally travels in an up and down motion as a complete unit. It cannot articulate or pivot, so when hitting a bump with one rear wheel independent of the other, the wheel cannot deflect the bump. Consequently, the bike rides up and over the bump causing it to jerk violently from side to side.
A Rewaco trike uses a fully independent suspension system with upper and lower control arms and coil over shocks and springs. This proven suspension has been used in automotive applications for years because of its simplicity in design, smooth ride, and excellent handling characteristics. - Powertrain – While your modern motorcycle uses a varied amount of engine and transmission powertrain combinations, one thing is consistent: they are mostly of a manual shifting design and use some kind of connection to get the power to rear wheels. This may be a belt, chain, or drive shaft. When converting the bike to a trike, you not only add weight to the bike that it was not designed for but added drag on the powertrain due to an oversized differential, axles, and wheels not to mention aerodynamic drag from the wider body configurations. This results in premature powertrain and powertrain coupler wear that the components were not designed to handle and also affects power and performance.
A Rewaco trike uses a modern, proven automotive designed powertrain. A transverse mounted engine and automatic transmission combination that is mid-mounted and needs no belts, chains, or drive shafts. A simple drive axle is all thatis needed to get the power to the wheels. Less components, less drag, means better performance and longevity. - Seating & Comfort – The typical two-wheel motorcycle design is an upright sitting position with either your legs slightly bent in a forward controls design, or tucked underneath you with the controls pointed directly below you. The seating is a saddle type design with little or no back support.
A Rewaco trike uses a slightly reclined bucket seat that gives you full back support. Because the engine is mounted behind you, you do not have any obstructions. That allows you to fully stretch out your legs and find that perfectly comfortable position. - Storage – Many typical motorcycles have very limited to no storage while some of your converted trikes, while having a trunk area, are very limited in space and accessibility.
A Rewaco trike has a very large, deep, rear storage area that is easily accessible and some models even have separate helmet storage, so you are not using up your rear storage space.
Rewaco trike VS the Reverse trikes (Spyder, Slingshot, Conversions)
While your two-wheel front, one rear, trike configuration is a design similar to your typical car, it has a much quicker steering ratio because your handlebar can only turn just so far. Your steering can go around around. Not only does this add considerable steering effort, but because it’s so quick, it makes it very hard to hold the vehicle in a straight line instead of darting back and forth on the road. This design also lacks any weight transfer to the rear drive wheel when cornering. While not so noticeable on a dry road, this configuration can be extremely dangerous on wet weather cornering. These vehicles also exhibit a pendulum effect when cornering with added weight (passenger, trailer, etc.) due to the added weight being a higher center of gravity and positioned farther away from the stabilizing wheels. Rewaco has none of these issues . . .