Three-wheeled scooter: one in back, two in front

Factual Questions
1

So I’m on a neighborhood walk, and I stumble across this strange-looking vehicle.

Another view and a close-up.

I took those pictures for reference, and then spent a little time with Google. I came up with this promotional description and this apparent hands-on driving review. And another, much longer description.

I still don’t get it. How does this work? The three-points-of-contact backwards tricycle thing apparently increases stability, but what keeps the tires from losing traction during turns? This video suggests some sort of independent suspension, but wouldn’t a mechanism like that increase the complexity of the machine and thus make it more complicated and expensive to maintain, and more likely to break? Is this just a gimmick? Has anyone here driven one, or does anyone actually have one?

(Also, the speedometer goes up to 100mph. Seriously?)

2

Why wouldn’t it work? The forward thrust is provided by the single rear wheel, just like in a standard scooter, or motorcycle. The pair of turning front wheels is no more complicated than the front tires on a car. A trifle odd looking, to be sure, but no more inherently dangerous than a normal motorcycle. Essentially they’ve changed the single front tire in a standard motorcycle for a pair of smaller tires. I imagine it would ride very much the same, and if anything be a little more stable.

3

Never seen one before. From the promo page, “The PIAGGIO MP3 uses three 12” wheels with large tyres - 120/70 front, 130/70 rear. Together with the revolutionary front suspension, the wheels provide a tilt angle of up to 40° while riding like any normal two wheeler and simultaneously ensuring better road grip on any surface, especially slippery tracks. The parallelogram suspension also ensures increased stability at high speeds."

4

It’s a Dymaxion scooter!

5

Just from the thread title, I thought you might have seen one of these.

6

They’ve been around a while. I’ve seen one around here every so often for the last couple of years. A San Jose BMW dealer seems to be handling them.

7

Any vehicle will lose traction if you try to corner too hard. But there’s no reason a 3-wheel scooter would lose traction more easily than a 2-wheel scooter. It’s strictly a function of surface material/condition, speed, and turn radius. (Actually the size of the contact patch matters too, and I think the trike would have larger total contact area, and therefore better traction.)

A more serious hazard for multi-track (>2 wheel) vehicles is tipover. But if the vehicle can lean into a turn, it increases the stability quite a bit.

Yes. Those are the prices you pay for the added stability and security.

I’ve ridden a human-powered trike with a similar design. It felt perfectly stable, no skill needed at all to balance. It required some effort to lean into a turn (i.e. it didn’t lean all by itself as a normal bicycle would), but it became natural after a while and the cornering ability seemed at least as good as a 2-wheel bike. The motorized version probably has active suspension that makes it handle even better.

8

I’ve never ridden one, but I’ve seen them in the show room. I did a bit of research on them about a year ago, and I have no reason to believe 100mph isn’t a bit low for the higher end MP3s.

9

Ha, I thought you were talking about these. They tip all the time. I’ve ridden in them, though, they’re fun.