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Old 06-24-2018, 07:05 AM   #1
Fred Skin
 
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Default Off-road Trikes?

I was wondering what the rationale for trikes being called excellent off-road vehicles in CW was. Was it because of the old balloon-tired three-wheelers or a real-life example of an all-terrain three-wheeled car? Or was it just for fun?
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Old 06-24-2018, 09:57 AM   #2
ColBosch
 
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Default Re: Off-road Trikes?

I think they got confused between three-wheeled ATVs and proper trikes, which actually tend to be unstable.
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Old 06-24-2018, 03:03 PM   #3
owenmp
 
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Default Re: Off-road Trikes?

There are several styles of three-wheelers in real life. A set of variant rules that are different for each of these vehicle types would be fun for Car Wars campaigns.

* Three-wheeled all-terrain vehicles, replaced by quadricycles
* Motorcycles with one motorcycle wheel in front and two motorcycle wheels in back that are wider than motorcycle wheels
* Auto rickshaws
* BRP Can-Am Spyder Roadster
* Fully-enclosed three-wheeled vehicles
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Old 06-24-2018, 07:23 PM   #4
Blue Ghost
 
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Default Re: Off-road Trikes?

I was also curious about this, as I've seen regular trikes and the "motorcycle" trikes, but I've never seen nor heard of an off road trike until Car Wars.
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Old 06-25-2018, 06:52 AM   #5
swordtart
 
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Default Re: Off-road Trikes?

The most common UK trike at the time was the Reliant Robin (fans of "only fools and horses" will recognise it as the Trotters' yellow van). As Top Gear once demonstrated, not only isn't it off-road capable, it's on-road capability is pretty dubious.

Any popularity it may have had is likely because whilst clearly a car (or more often a van) it could be driven on a motorcycle license. The three wheel design made it a particular joy on roads with pot-holes as you could rarely avoid them with all three wheels. I would have said this factor alone makes trikes inherently unsuitable as OR vehicles, but the internet may disagree.

Brits also had the Sinclair C5 as an exemplar of ridicule.

CW trikes were clearly designed to be an off-shoot of bikes rather than cars, so I guess that ties them into the three wheeled forerunner of quad bikes (which seemed to diminish in popularity once everyone realised that while a 3 leg stool is more stable than a 4 leg stool on uneven ground, three wheels are not more stable than four once you take suspension into account).

I use CW trikes all the time as they have significant advantages over bikes and very few disadvantages. I rarely bother with specific OR modifications as they don't suffer from underbody damage in default configuration anyway and solid tires are immune to OR damage. This means I can build cheap attackers that can sweep in from OR and bug out similarly in the event they bite off more than they can chew. 6 linked RLs that can aim into the front arc is also fairly scary at the close range this tactic enables.
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Old 06-25-2018, 09:49 AM   #6
Blue Ghost
 
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Default Re: Off-road Trikes?

Wow, cruise on over to YouTube to do a search for the Reliant Robin. Quite literally an accident waiting to happen. Incredible.
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Old 06-25-2018, 10:06 AM   #7
juris
 
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Default Re: Off-road Trikes?

Yep - think Trikes debuted at the same time as those 3 wheel ATVs. Of course then Honda got sued for all the rollovers...

That said I agree with Sword Trikes are cool so that's why.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ColBosch View Post
I think they got confused between three-wheeled ATVs and proper trikes, which actually tend to be unstable.
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Old 06-25-2018, 10:13 AM   #8
Blue Ghost
 
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Default Re: Off-road Trikes?

I remember the suit against a Japanese ATV company here in California for the roll over issue. The CEO put on the very Japanese show of contrition with tears and bowing as he apologized in a California court. But was it Honda? Suzuki comes to mind, but I'm guessing I'm confusing the two.

There used to be a guy with a trike (or reverse trike, two wheels up front, one in back) down where I used to live a few years back. In fact there's a couple others around there. They sounded like they had small European engines or muted motorcycle engines in them.
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Old 06-25-2018, 04:09 PM   #9
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Default Re: Off-road Trikes?

Quote:
Originally Posted by owenmp View Post
There are several styles of three-wheelers in real life. A set of variant rules that are different for each of these vehicle types would be fun for Car Wars campaigns.

* Three-wheeled all-terrain vehicles, replaced by quadricycles
* Motorcycles with one motorcycle wheel in front and two motorcycle wheels in back that are wider than motorcycle wheels
* Auto rickshaws
* BRP Can-Am Spyder Roadster
* Fully-enclosed three-wheeled vehicles
I know I have rules for the first four listed. The fifth is the Trike we know and... um....

Short Version:

-- Add 5% of Cycle body cost for a 3-wheeler; 10% for 4-wheeler.
-- 3-wheeler uses a normal Cycle tire up front, and "mini-car" tires on the back; 4-wheeler uses "mini-car" tires all-around.
-- Tire loss and HC calculation: 3-wheeler is considered a Trike; 4-wheeler a Car.
-- Mini-car tire: $20/5 lbs. per DP; maximum 4 DP. Not usable by any vehicle except mini-cars[*], or 3- and 4-wheel cycles.

[*: If you've ever seen Dwarf Car, or Legends Car, or Bandolero, or Arena Racing USA racing events, these are "mini-cars".]
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Old 06-28-2018, 10:44 AM   #10
MazeMonster
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Default Re: Off-road Trikes?

Trikes were a charming bit of Feature Creep that made Classic Car Wars so much fun. They set us on the glorious path to dirigibles and hot air balloons.
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