Delta Vs Tadpole

[Angel And The Wolf]

Enough to sour me on Deltas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSHguGwkY3s

[Frank Lee]

Suit yourself

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ink-35341.html

I have a suspicion we haven't heard more about this due to scary handling brought on by the built-in rear weight bias.

P.S. I'd wager if those a-arms were flipped or switched left to right to move the front wheels back a few inches the improvement in stability would be noticeable.

That was a beautifully crafted project, needed some fairings or pizza pans on those front wheels though.

Did he have brakes on those front wheels?

With such a low weight I would guess it didn't get too scary unless he pushed the limits of lateral adhesion of those knobby tires. Meaning he might not have much fun messing around and had to behave himself.

My biggest worry with something that light are the same concerns I had with my 1978 400cc Honda Hawk, sand dumped in the middle of a turn by some stupid hauling truck.

The Hawk came out just before the fat rounded tire era for performance motorcycles. You just rode on the rib transition between the bottom and side of tire and fought the frame flex. Twice I lost that battle when hitting sand and put her down on the side. Not a pleasant experience. At least the sand acted as little ball bearings and I slid along with the bike.

EDIT:
Photo of a similar layout and weight bias...................not sure what it means.

http://www.deansgarage.com/2012/ron-...turbo-phantom/

The Turbo Phantom during government skid pad tests.

The Government testing was done by Paul Van Valkenberg. Paul worked for Chevrolet on their racing enterprises, and has written several books on race car suspension and handling. He wanted to test all the possible variations of three-wheel cars, but there were no front drive three-wheelers, so he made one out of a Honda Civic by replacing the back wheels with one in the middle. A real odd duck to see it driving around.

A group of execs left Subaru to try and start another car company based in China. They wanted to do the same thing: import a new car to the U.S. I got the job of designing the car, made up proposals, and got 50,000 shares of the new company for my effort. So what happened? GM bought the Chinese company and took over production. We were left out in the cold.

Today the Phantom is in my Arizona garage waiting for me to finish the restoration necessary to get it back into running condition. Perhaps this time it will be painted a Cadillac Pearl Red.

[freebeard]

Monocoque box like the XR-3. Twin-motor drive, low center of gravity with high seating position for visibility, good ingress/egress. In production. What's not to like?

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

I don't subscribe to one being inherently better than the other. Each has pros and cons and each can be made to excel on the street.

I tend to prefer delta trikes because they seem to fare better when it comes to loading ability, not just in weight but also in volume. Well, there used to be some cargo tadpole trikes in Portugal, with the rider seating behind the loading area, but then in case of hauling something a little bulkier such as a fridge the visibility would become an issue.

Top Gear's slanted Reliant piece is more about entertainment than how awful deltas are, but then the Reliant is not an example of a properly engineered delta even when it isn't sabotaged for tv.

The differential in that Reliant had been welded, and the wheels were odd-sized, plus there was some ballast added to its driver-side. But anyway, if I were going to build a delta trike, which I actually still consider to do, I'd rather get a single centrally-mounted front seat in order to keep the weight bias in a safer way, even though it would decrease the passenger capacity.

[Stubby79]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Monocoque box like the XR-3. Twin-motor drive, low center of gravity with high seating position for visibility, good ingress/egress. In production. What's not to like?

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Monocoque box like the XR-3. Twin-motor drive, low center of gravity with high seating position for visibility, good ingress/egress. In production. What's not to like?

Does it come with side curtains?

I found this:


Arcimoto
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...-32962-13.html

And this:
https://www.arcimoto.com/

Fun: Instant torque from the independent dual-motor front-wheel drive takes you from 0-60 in 7.5 seconds and up to 80 mph.

https://newatlas.com/arcimoto-srk-ev/40400/


Arcimoto Electric Vehicles | ToysForBigBoys.com

[freebeard]

A useful link: The SRK Owners forum


https://www.wired.com/2015/10/arcimoto/

The focus is on Minimum Viable Product. I liked the Eagle door, but they've backed off that. I'm less interested in the factory body panels than in aftermarket body kits. Like one to make a faux-Messerschmitt:



Westergard style!

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by freebeard

That's interesting, but I'd rather make a delta with 2 rear seats and a wider luggage compartment. Sure it would compromise the aerodynamics a little, but would still be more effective (for me) as a car replacement in most situations.

[kach22i]

The bad thing about Tadpoles is the same thing wrong with motorcycles and small cars.

Some old lady or old man comes along in their huge old American car and says to themselves - hey that little fella isn't using their whole lane up, I'm going to help myself to some of it.

This has seriously happened to me on my motorcycle many years ago, and more than once in my old Porsche 911.

I've seen it happen to other small vehicles as well.

People are crazy.

And they always have been.

I still remember the car that took up two lanes because the pick-up truck in front of him had a ladder sticking eight feet out of it with a red rag on it.

He just had to fill up that wasted space on the side of the ladder.

Totally insane as he wasn't in either lane, he was in both.

I once had a guy try to pass me on the inside shoulder of the cloverleaf on-ramp to the freeway. All that wasted space I wasn't using had to be filled up by his car. And he would not slow down, almost clipped my rear corner before going on to the dirt/lawn.

Unless we can fix crazy human instincts that have no place in the modern world we will have to drive vehicles that fill up all four corners or there is going to be trouble.