Well maybe thats what you always thought…until now.
I’ve often thought of building something like that. Use a small FWD transverse mount powertrain with it’s front suspension, crossmember, steering rack and column. Build a simple tubular frame around that and drag a motorcycle type rear end behind it. Couple of seats and a gas tank… Nothing too powerful or it would torque-steer like crazy. It’s great the way that the three-wheeler just slips through the cracks in the law here. No plates, no helmets, no seatbelts, no nothin’.
Holy shit, did you see the figure they give for lateral g’s? 
[quote=“redwagon”]It’s great the way that the three-wheeler just slips through the cracks in the law here. No plates, no helmets, no seatbelts, no nothin’.
Holy shit, did you see the figure they give for lateral g’s? [/quote]
Errr… I think they “slip through the cracks in the law” the same way extortion and kidnapping does, i.e. They’re illegal.
My understanding is that the cops turn their Big Blind Eye to the Kawasaki-Pronto triketrucks cos they’re slow (the trucks, not, necessarily, the cops). I’d guess if a farang starts tearing around in a Ferrari-red titanium spaceframe they might open the other one specially.
Nice idea though. I’ve seen something like what you describe in Baou-an (near Tainan) but I don’t think it goes out much.
It seems like it’s more a matter of them not falling into either car or motorcycles categories. But no biggie. You get one of these zipping around the cops will stop it and ask questions. It’s when everyone has one and people are either dying in them everyday, or some asshat with connections starts complaining that they get away with paying tax etc. that they pass or invent some law to control them. It’s Taiwan.
I’m sure all the laws against big bikes are there because some prick was irked that there were vehicles on the road that were faster than this car and only cost a tenth the price.
Reminds me of the famous BMW Isetta which was also called the pot-hole seeker. If you miss the hole with the front tires, you will certainly find it with the back one. This one is just reversed. I think a three wheeler is a nonsense idea.
I think I’d fit a more substantial aftermarket roll bar if I had one of those… on Taiwanese roads you will be using it…
If you’re going to get a three wheeler, it’s got to be one of these really…
[quote=“plasmatron”]I think I’d fit a more substantial aftermarket roll bar if I had one of those… on Taiwanese roads you will be using it…[/quote]Not really. With all our potholes you want as much independence in the suspension as possible. My own car runs sans rear sway bar for this reason (though I have rather stiff springs and dampers to reduce body roll). Since a swar bar is in effect an additional spring, ideally it needs to be matched to the damping rate from the struts.
:eh: I meant this bit… it just looks like it will be called upon to stop your head getting smashed when, not if, you roll it…
Oh sorry mate, I’m used to the shortening of ‘anti-roll bar’ to ‘roll bar’. I think those things are called ‘roll-over bars’. Terminology pwns me. 
The T-rex with it’s 1.9g on the skidpan is probably impossible to overturn, but the whatever-bar will come in handy for when the gravel truck runs over you. :help:
Motorcycle type trikes like the one in your photo are deathtraps. Turn over if you look at them the wrong way. Two up front and one behind is the way to go.
Does it really work like that? I’d like to think so, but generally, with road vehicles, The Man likes anything he’s not specifically permitted to be illegal.
That would certainly be the case in the UK, where you couldn’t register a home-built unless it’d gone through a Single Vehicle Approval inspection. This procedure is, by all accounts, a rather arbitary pain in the arse, but at least it exists. Given the hoops I hear you have to jump through here to change your engine number, it seems unlikely they’d cope OFFICIALLY with a home-built trike.
I think the difference is that custom (NOT the law) in Taiwan tolerates certain types of “traditional” three wheelers to be run (by locals) outside the law. I’d bet if you deviated from the traditional types, and/or if you weren’t a local farmer, that tolerance would be exceeded, and the law would be applied. MAYBE it’d be a while before you came across a cop who could be bothered, but, sooner or later…
Its surely the same as running a “no papers” scooter, but a lot more visible, and with a bigger investment at risk.
Pity though.
Maybe you’re right. Only one way to find out eh?
What about those scooters that are modifed with the outrigger wheels?
I mean technically they are still bikes, but not if you count the wheels.
I am sure you’d never get away with riding a 3 wheeler around unregistered.
I do recall hearing once upon a time that the loophole is there for those trike delivery vehicles you see hauling steel beams and bars around, the big heavy ones. If those are allowed, then why not something sportier? I’m sure the law simply never envisaged anyone making a sporty trike, so I go back to my suggestion that a small number would pass unmolested. The problems will start when they become popular.
3 wheels look cool. I’ll buy one when I get back to Canada.
modified handicapped scooters fall into the scooter rules here.
Anything else has to follow the car rules.
But remember this is Taiwan: the rules tell you what you can do not what you can’t. You would have to be allowed to bring it in. Look at the problem the BMW covered scooters went through. They have seat belts so no helmet, but Taiwan says all scooters must have helmets. Therefore no BMW scooters in Taiwan. They don’t even use the free ones they were given for paramedic use.
[quote=“Truant”]What about those scooters that are modifed with the outrigger wheels?
I mean technically they are still bikes, but not if you count the wheels.
I am sure you’d never get away with riding a 3 wheeler around unregistered.[/quote]
How do the companies selling those conversion wheels for disabled riders get away with it when a scooter license requires a health exam that could not be passed by a disabled rider? Oh, sorry, I forgot… Taiwan lah.
Most of the people riding/driving/whatever these scoots + 2 wheels should not be on the road. Neither does doing 10km/h on a 50km/h road blocked up with parked vehicles enamour me to your cause.