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Originally Posted by swordtart

I was thinking of the more obvious stuff like a bike with a side car on each side ;)

Yeah -- a couple of those turn up in the adventures. :)

I've seen pics of two-sidecar-cycles; it does require some interesting engineering to pull off, but it *is* possible. (I'd post pics, but I can't seem to do that on this forum.)

Originally Posted by swordtart

In CW access to a garage only imposes a negative to the mechanics roll. No vehicle "needs" a garage and all vehicles benefit equally from them. In real-life this might be different, but we must assume vehicles are far more modular in CW than in real-life. For example to remove a small cycle plant is exactly the same mechanic roll and time to remove a large truck plant.

This was covered in the _ADQ_ article on "alternate encumbrance". For ex.: The heaviest cycle plant (Super Trike) weighs 250 lbs.; the *lightest* car plant (Small) weighs 500 lbs. A biker gang having to pull engine maintenance on a bike can get the bike plant out with 2-3 guys and a couple 2x4s; the car plant will need twice that many; more, the bike plant is easily accessed through the open sides of the bike, while the car plant will need a hoist, and probably whatever bodywork is closest will have to come off.

Originally Posted by swordtart

(how does a racing team cope with tire changes when the best that can be achieved by even a master mechanic is 1/2 an hour).

_Dueltrack_ covered the "pit stop problem"; do you have a copy of that?

Originally Posted by swordtart

I agree that trikes are a trade-off, however if you use a mixed bag of bikes and trikes you run the risk of having to accommodate all the disadvantages of both types and having fewer opportunities to leverage the benefits of either type.

Noted -- as stated earlier: I could see trikes being used for "specialist" roles, like "tail-end-Charlie", or (for reversed trikes) "point-guard" (all those ram-equipped designs); or heavy-weapons-carrier (_Cratermaker_, my personal favorite among trikes), or even the "ash-and-trash" detail (I'll be covering that in a future post -- "Nightstrike" has another Unusual Cycle Design I want to discuss :) ).

Originally Posted by swordtart

[...]Some stats guru can number crunch it to see the optimum result, but I imagine it will depend on lots of factors, not least of which is "can I survive two detonations but not three".

That's if they're crossed orthogonally -- my usual approach was to come across the opponent's front at an angle. For ex.: In convoy, the TEC is on one side of the road, near the shoulder; when a threat approaches, the TEC hangs a D3, activates the "panic button" (all DWs) link, drives diagonally across the road until he reaches the other side, then hangs another D3 to straighten out again. If the threat wants to hit the fewest-possible 1-4s and 1-2s, he's going to have to cut a couple D3s of his own -- that coupled to the D hazard he's going to take from the DWs... well, if nothing else, it's going to soften him up for the "floaters" in the convoy, unless he's *really* lucky on his die-rolls.