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Old 01-11-2013, 07:40 AM   #58 (permalink)
bhtooefr
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I could see Harleys falling foul of those statutes.

Really, though, the ultimate answer for freeway-capable vehicles isn't the tadpole layout, in my opinion. Three-wheelers are necessary right now due to the restrictions on four-wheelers, but I'd much rather have a class along the lines of Europe's quadricycle classes, with less weight, lower safety standards, and lower licensing requirements (mind you, in my world, those "lower licensing requirements" would be similar to today's class D operator license for a normal car, and I'd rather have existing car operator licenses be much closer to a CDL. For any vehicles in the 8500 to 26000 GVWR bracket that requires no CDL currently, upgrade those to a CDL, given that their emissions exemptions are due to being a commercial vehicle), but with fairly tight power restrictions.

The stability requirements of a tadpole make the design a mediocre compromise, when we're discussing a freeway-capable vehicle (which means that the occupants need to be pushed back for crash safety reasons, making stability worse, and stability is even more critical at high speed). City vehicles, and especially human powered vehicles, the speeds involved are much lower (crash safety requirements are inherently lower, allowing for better balance, and stability is less important), and the weight more critical, and that's where three-wheelers can really win.
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