I had the Virago. I would sometimes do short stints of highway (10-25 miles) but it was a chore. Not just in terms of power but also crosswinds and dirty air from passing trucks. There are times when weight is an advantage.
All ATVs are flipping hazards; the sense of safety you may feel from a 8 wheeled version like the Argo compared to a three wheeled version is almost as much illusion as it is fact. Deep woods ATVs are a compromise like some of the off-road cars/jeeps – narrow to fit in tight places and tall to get over things. Combine those two and you will roll now and then when you drive past your ability or skill level.
But getting more to talking about road riding; 30 years ago, or more, I would have agreed with you. The old ServiCycles I grew up with were spooky as Hell. You could take a 90 degree turn at 50mph and have no issues. Then you could be doing a turn in a parking lot at a slow walk and have the damn thing flip on you. There was usually no warning and unlike a sidehack there really wasn’t any way to save it. About the only people who rode them were traffic control cops going from this intersection to move cars along to the next. Most departments forbade officers from doing chases or emergency responses on them.
But we learned and the frame geometry got a lot better and now I can honestly say that while trikes still have their issues, flipping isn’t that much of one. Especially when it comes to road versions. The steering is different from anything else you will drive or ride and there is a big learning curve to overcome. Plus there is the issue of braking compared to a car; you really need to watch your following distance. And I personally like 2 wheels more than 3. But they aren’t up there in the “deathtrap” category anymore. And they are more popular than they have ever been before. As more people want to ride at older and older ages, and as more people with leg and/or other health issues want to ride knees in the breeze, factory trikes and rebuild kits are coming out in record numbers.
If they were fully enclosed with a shape comparable to a car, and equipped with an engine that provided peak acceleration comparable to a car, then you might expect triple-digit fuel economy.
But they have horrible aerodynamics, and are typically fitted with very powerful engines, such that they use a tiny fraction of peak power for cruising (and therefore the engine is at a very inefficient operating point). They also tend to be geared low, so they cruise at a high (again, inefficient) RPM.
Example:
I have a BMW R1200RT. This has a 1200cc engine and can do 0-60 in about 4 seconds, much quicker than your typical sedan. Cruising at 80MPH, the engine is turning at about 4000 RPM, again much faster (and less efficient) than your typical sedan. End result, highway MPG is about 43 MPH. The Can Am Spyder presents a greater frontal area, but they also fit it with a smaller engine that probably delivers power more efficiently, so a fuel economy of 38 is probably about right.
A friend of mine is overweight and getting old, so he’s having more and more knee trouble these days. He’s thinking of getting a Spyder because he won’t have to worry about holding it up while at stops, and it’ll be much easier to get on/off when parked.
I am wording it badly but it comes down to having a more car-like suspension with A-arms and torsion bars that give the wheels, for lack of a better word, a little give. You stay upright and they lean slightly; in a manner of speaking. One of the other reverse trikes went whole-hog and actually came up with a cantilever system that allowed the wheels to actually tilt in a turn but just who escapes me right now.
I’m surprised nobody mentioned the Polaris Slingshot. The advantage for people who can’t ride anymore is cost (compared to some of the traditional trikes). It will pull a .83G in corners.
Well, as long as you’re not an idiot who weaves in & out of traffic at 90mph constantly, no, I wouldn’t really call a motorcycle a deathtrap in and of itself. Because the biggest danger to a responsible motorcycle rider is getting hit & killed by an idiot driving a car!
Although even a powerful bike like your RT typically uses a much larger fraction of its peak power cruising at highway speeds than a car. Cars need powerful engines in order to get all that weight rolling from a dead stop, so they end up with lots of power to spare while cruising. With motorcycles, the situation is reversed: even relatively slow bikes have really high power-to-weight ratios and so have tons of extra power when accelerating from a stop, but struggle to push air out of the way at highway speeds.
Geo Metro, Pulling trailer and 50MPG without strip mining the heck out of the earth for the hard to dispose of metals in those battery packs. and did I mention that I just bought another for 250.00 with working air conditioning? But I have built trikes from Goldwings and other motorcycles and the gearing holds them from optimum gas mileage. Most bike riders in all reality do not get out and put 1,000 miles on a bike in 24 hours like a person in a car will. I know I have a few hundred thousand miles on motorcycles and most motorcyclists are short haulers so 38 or 100mpg isn’t a bother. A regular trike can be a scary beast in a heartbeat and the problem is that most are in a mind set that the trike is safer and don’t realize the danger until they are too far into a turn and either can’t turn or flip out.
Old thread on the subject. Simple two wheel in the back conversions have no differential so steering a tight radius burns a lot of rubber or requires lifting one wheel up into an easy to flip attitude.
The Campana T-Rex, the Morgan 3-wheeler, the Tanon Invader TC-3, and such rides are more car than motorcycle, but the 3 wheels mean they’re licensed and insured as motorcycles.
I don’t think there are many people who buy a motorcycle for the gas mileage. It’s for the different kind of experience.
It is more mixed. I wouldn’t want to even guess at percentages but I can name quite a few people I know off the top of my head who are clearly in it for the gas and other savings. They are running smaller bikes (under 400cc) or scooters and not riding for pleasure; just as a cheaper alternative to their car or as an alternative “second vehicle”. Yeah, gas is what we talk about but ------- ever try parking a second car on your front porch in a congested neighborhood or look at the difference in other costs? You can find lots of reasons outside the experience.
Not me of course; I have multiple Harleys and British iron on the road at any given moment and have been known to turn my 6.2 mile commute to work into a 300 mile Odyssey through three states. But a lot of people like them because they are cheap.
