Unsung Heroes: Three-wheelers
Has one wheel come off Chris Rees's wagon? No, he just wants to convince us three wheels can be as fun as four
An understandable view, since most people associate three-wheelers with Del Boy, Mr Bean and cartoon-like bubble cars such as the Isetta, Heinkel and Messerschmitt. As a 'bubble' in prices of microcars attests, such machinery does have a big following, but if this is your only experience of trikes, you're really missing a trick.
Think three-wheelers and you'll think Morgan
I'll come clean here and declare I'm a serial three-wheeler owner. My first ever car was a Bond Bug, and I built a Lomax 223 2CV-based kit in the 1980s. So I'm very well aware of the limitations of three-wheelers, but I also know how just much fun they can be.
Consider these facts. Benz's first ever car of 1885 was a three-wheeler. And when Craig Breedlove broke the land speed record, he chose three wheels for his Spirit of America, which became the fastest car in the world in 1964 at 526mph.
Trikes offer light weight, low tax, cheap insurance and the ability to enjoy a motorbike experience on a car licence (with no helmet, I might add). Alternatively, bike licence holders are able to drive a 'car'. But don't three-wheelers fall over? Again I counter: racing Morgans dating from the 1930s are capable of lap times that can, and do, embarrass modern hot hatchbacks.
Reborn Morgan has been a success story
Ah yes, Morgan - the archetypal enthusiast trike. I was quite prepared to be disappointed by the revived Morgan 3-Wheeler before I drove it, but there's something utterly irresistible about it. It screeches, whirrs, putters, cracks and pops its way along, spinning up its single rear wheel on demand, with an utterly blissful front-row view of the undulating suspension.
Well over 1,000 new Morgan trikes have now been sold, even at their elevated price tag of £31,140. That means lots of second-hand examples around at tempting prices. It's possible to find used examples from under £25K but main-dealer examples with ultra-low mileages and plenty of options seem very decent value at around the £28K mark.
Morgans look best in dark colours, like this 995-mile Sports Blue example but plenty have been tempted by factory dress-up and special edition examples, such as the Superdry, of which there's a 511-mile example on offer for under £28K.
Grinnalls and bear it
Morgan isn't the only three-wheeler in the PH classifieds, though. There's a whole world of three-wheelers out there. The UK alone boasts over 20 current manufacturers of trikes, from Morgan replicas like Triking to bike-based cruisers like Casarva.
There are two up for grabs at the moment. A 2006-registered factory-built example with 8,072 miles on the clock looks solid value at £8,250, while a 2,000-mile example with an R1200C engine is up for £11,995.
Whether you think three-wheelers are one wheel shy of the full set, or one wheel beyond preventing the whole show falling over, there's no doubt they're fascinating and intriguing. And on the right road, an absolute blast.
At some point in the future a Shovelhead engined replica beckons...
Reliant essentially killed the trike with their designs. They are inherently unstable due to the placement of the engine high above the single wheel axle. But that doesn't need to be the case. R Q Riley explains what is needed nicely. Essentially it's the same theory that you need to apply to a four wheeler, but placement of the weight is a bit more challenging due to the share of the area enclosed by the tyre contact patches.
Get stability right (it's not rocket science) and the trike can offer superb handling and a level of responsiveness that you just don't get with a car. It's all down to weight - or lack of it.
Is a Grinnal usable every day in the summer. Yes, why not?
Here's my Skunk:
At some point in the future a Shovelhead engined replica beckons...
Sadly the Skunk's in the same state as your MGB at the moment. Well almost, I drove it yesterday (as opposed to >10 years ago for the MG) to it's MOT which it failed because the horn has stopped working. Will have it taxed, MOT'd and running again very shortly.
Thank you for asking!!
At some point in the future a Shovelhead engined replica beckons...
I think most of the fun was actually from the ridiculousness of the engine though. While I was constantly aware of the comparative lack of grip from the skinny tires, I simply forgot about it being 3 wheeled as it steered so well.
totally agreed, it is such a hoot. And you really don't miss a rear wheel. If anything I found the skinny fronts surprisingly easy to overwhelm, but it was predictable and progressive. My only issue with other 3-wheelers is I find the aesthetics a real challenge; Morgan have succeeded where everyone else seems to have made a bit of a mess of it.I made a thread about my day in a Morgan 3-Wheeler, I still grin just thinking about it: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Sadly the Skunk's in the same state as your MGB at the moment. Well almost, I drove it yesterday (as opposed to >10 years ago for the MG) to it's MOT which it failed because the horn has stopped working. Will have it taxed, MOT'd and running again very shortly.
Thank you for asking!!
The MG actually got started the other day; it still vaguely works. Horn doesn't sound too catastrophic though. At least the transmission is working properly now.
Evo - just read both your accounts of your day out. Thanks for posting the links, thoroughly enjoyed! I could nearly have written the same account, even drove some of the same roads in similar conditions and presumably at around the same time. We saw the lairy car being brought out when we were awaiting ours and I admit were glad to be offered the green one. Unlike you tho' we didn't get the car back to the factory in plenty of time; embarassingly the road we were to use was closed for road works and the alternative took us to the far side of Malvern. That's not a big town but at commuter run time and no idea of where we were and a helpful local directing us miles out of our way... oh well, the folk at Morgan were very good about it...
Sadly the Skunk's in the same state as your MGB at the moment. Well almost, I drove it yesterday (as opposed to >10 years ago for the MG) to it's MOT which it failed because the horn has stopped working. Will have it taxed, MOT'd and running again very shortly.
Thank you for asking!!
The MG actually got started the other day; it still vaguely works. Horn doesn't sound too catastrophic though. At least the transmission is working properly now.
The Bond Bug was created in an era when designers were entranced with the possibilities of fiberglas. Freed from the costly process required to bend sheetmetal into artful forms, they went wild with the new composite material. The result - a vehicle that looked like an upside down hot tub with windows. The Bug's design was also shaped by contorted British tax laws that made it cheaper to license a vehicle with three wheels than a car with a wheel at each corner. The Bug was available in only one color - Day Glo orange (Pea Green was also offered for a limited time.) Although the flip-up body enticed a few Walter Mitty types, the Bug was a sales disaster (just 2000 were delivered) and drove its manufacturer into bankruptcy. Light weight gave the Bond sprightly performance, but drivers who tried to use it soon learned that the three-wheel design made the car easy to roll over. The Bond now enjoys cult status as a particularly offensive example of 1970's kitsch.
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