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Old 03-09-2013, 05:07 AM   #16 (permalink)
GreenHornet
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I thought I would take a sec to talk about the rear swingarm selection. I decided to go with a Honda Goldwing GL1800 swingarm for the project. While this is most definitely not the lightest swingarm money could buy it is however very reliable and virtually maintenance free. The swingarm is single sided for easy wheel/tire removal and is a shaft drive style swingarm.

What I liked about this swingarm is that its extremely easy to find them on ebay and around other sites. Many Goldwing riders convert there motorcycles to trikes and then sale off these swingarms at big discounts.

I purchased the entire rear swingarm setup minus a few misc bolts for $195.00 this includes the wheel,tire,monoshock, and complete rear swingarm and differential/driveshaft.

The weight of all these parts combined are 98lbs. So not to bad there but could be reduced big time had I went with a belt drive swingarm setup. The reason why I didn't was that I liked the idea of a little extra weight on that rear wheel for traction. Also a shaft drive is much more quit than a chain drive as well as more reliable with less overall maintenance. I also liked the fact that I can fit the low rolling resistance car tires on the Goldwing wheel to match the front tire diameter. Another nice feature of the Goldwing is its electronically adjustable monoshock.

All in all I think the Goldwing Aluminum swingarm is a nice compliment to the GT6 chassis and should make for a pretty solid 3 wheel platform that is light and stiff.

I included A few pics of the Goldwing components a few of which you can see on 3 wheeled reverse trike builds. I also included a quick mockup of a diesel motor mid engined and the rear swingarm. The diesel engine is close in size to the one that will be utilized in the Tigon build which was nice to get a visual idea of space requirements.
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