News to me. A Voyager kit

[Trader]

My father inlaw put one on a 86 goldwing over the summer. I tried to tell him he would not like it.......did not listen.......he hates it. Plus it just plain looks stupid.

 

In YOUR opinion right?

[rickardracing]

In YOUR opinion right?

 

Yeah Joe...MY OPINION. Those kits look absolutely ridiculous, especially on an 86 Goldwing. That is of course ...MY OPINION.

[steamer]

Here's my 2 cents. We have first hand experience with both Venture kit and trike. I don't know if anyone mentioned rear tire wear, I was getting a head ache trying to read all the input from everyone. Anyway the major issues we had with the Venture kit. First was rear tire wear, we had to replace the tire after about 5000 miles. You will go through rear tires faster then on two wheels. Handling wasn't bad at all once you get use to it, but you can pull one wheel off the ground in high speed curves. You learn to slow down going into tight curves. If you don't get the pre-load just right and you lock up the brakes, you will slide forever, need to get most of the weight on the center wheel and let the out riggers do there job of holding the bike up right. The steering is a little heavy but that's because you have to steer the darn thing, no more leaning. All in all, we enjoyed the venture kit and it did lead us to going to a full trike. Now as far as going to a 3 wheel trike, If I can't afford to keep our 15 year old trike on the road forever, then I would go back to a out rigger again, probably a triggs trike kit. I believe, from all the research I have done on these kits, Triggs seems to built a better kit then all the rest, with better suspension. They also have a reverse kit. Now if you want my opinion on 3 wheels, they are great. We feel way more secure on our trike then anything else we have tested. You will never wear out the rear tire, not enough weight on then to wear them out. I do not have a rake kit on our trike and it takes a lot of muscle to steer it. I highly recommend a rake kit. Independent rear suspension is a must, the solid axle is a little hard on the butt. With that being said, the solid axle make for a great handling bike in the curves. Handles like a sports car. Gas mileage is better with the Venture kit then 3 wheels. I get between 30 and 35 mpg with the trike and around 40 with the venture. As far as removing and installing the venture kit, I found this to be the biggest pain in the a$$ with the venture kit and just left it on all the time. I hope this helps.

[eagleeye]

puc - just to throw a little more kindling on the fire -

IMHO - A motorcycle with a voyager kit is not a trike. It's a motorcycle with a voyager kit attached with 4 tires hitting the pavement. A trike is a motorcycle that has been altered to the point that it is dependant on and only has 3 tires on the bike, not 4

 

Again, this is jmho -

 

I was wrong once last year and it's a new year, time to start over.

 

So with FOUR WHEELS on the ground, are they licensed as CARS and insured as CARS?

Always wondered this.

[cowpuc]

Here's my 2 cents. We have first hand experience with both Venture kit and trike. I don't know if anyone mentioned rear tire wear, I was getting a head ache trying to read all the input from everyone. Anyway the major issues we had with the Venture kit. First was rear tire wear, we had to replace the tire after about 5000 miles. You will go through rear tires faster then on two wheels. Handling wasn't bad at all once you get use to it, but you can pull one wheel off the ground in high speed curves. You learn to slow down going into tight curves. If you don't get the pre-load just right and you lock up the brakes, you will slide forever, need to get most of the weight on the center wheel and let the out riggers do there job of holding the bike up right. The steering is a little heavy but that's because you have to steer the darn thing, no more leaning. All in all, we enjoyed the venture kit and it did lead us to going to a full trike. Now as far as going to a 3 wheel trike, If I can't afford to keep our 15 year old trike on the road forever, then I would go back to a out rigger again, probably a triggs trike kit. I believe, from all the research I have done on these kits, Triggs seems to built a better kit then all the rest, with better suspension. They also have a reverse kit. Now if you want my opinion on 3 wheels, they are great. We feel way more secure on our trike then anything else we have tested. You will never wear out the rear tire, not enough weight on then to wear them out. I do not have a rake kit on our trike and it takes a lot of muscle to steer it. I highly recommend a rake kit. Independent rear suspension is a must, the solid axle is a little hard on the butt. With that being said, the solid axle make for a great handling bike in the curves. Handles like a sports car. Gas mileage is better with the Venture kit then 3 wheels. I get between 30 and 35 mpg with the trike and around 40 with the venture. As far as removing and installing the venture kit, I found this to be the biggest pain in the a$$ with the venture kit and just left it on all the time. I hope this helps.

@steamer,, did you or did you consider putting a car tire on the bike when you did the Voyager Trike kit? It seems like, perhaps, the Voyager with a car tire on the bike as well as car tires on the outside wheels would extend the tire life of the bikes rear tire majorly. Seems like it would also increase the traction and braking significantly, maybe? And it seems like, if there ever was a really good application for going to "the dark side" that this may be it?

I also thought the main reason for adding rake to the front end on a trike was to slow it's steering down and make more friendly when hitting pot holes - especially in corners. Some friends and I Triked out a Sportster for my neighbors wife. Came out really well except it was quick enough in it's steering that if you hit a bump at speed you had to be really careful not to over correct or you could get into trouble kind of easily. I told my buddies that I thought if added some rake to the triple trees (not cut the frame, get some offset trees) we could really make it a good handler.

Just thinking off the cuff here from experience in building choppers. I know from doing so that long bikes (Choppers) with raked front ends steer a lot slower in the attitude of their reaction to road conditions. They are much slower in response making them outstanding for highway cruising but lathargic in corners which (IMHO) is a normal outcome of adding 'trail' into any scoots steering geometry (trail being the geometry that you are changing when you rake at the trees).

I can see where raking would make a trike (either traditional or Voyager) steer easier due to not having to input steering all the time to keep things under control (kind of like a car whose caster and toe angles are not correct and you have to "steer" it all the time to keep it going straight). Does this thought line up with what you are referring to as being heavy in the steering?

So, is it my understanding here that the Voyager does NOT have braking on the outside wheels?

 

 

 

[Yammer Dan]

I can't remember the math cause a buddy directed us on this part but my Pan had a twisted Tube Grundy 16 over front. Was raked 47 degrees and a few other I forgets but it handled fair on the road. Had to watch where ya parked. Built in 73 so I could forget a few things.....

[Hummingbird]

So with FOUR WHEELS on the ground, are they licensed as CARS and insured as CARS?

Always wondered this.

Absolutely - just talk o your agent

[DragonRider]

Those loud pipes wouldnt bother me as much today with my hearing the way it is, but you may make others happier with quieter pipes.

 

Mine has a little over 20k. Good little scoot. Faster than a 1st Gen light to light!! It may be the answer to all the issues I have going on. You can take it off pavement and wrestle it around. I got several exhausts for it. Time for a quieter one maybe. Ya think so Lewis?? Almost new tires are about 7 or 8 yrs old....

[Condor]

Here's in California they treat the Voyager as a trailer. It's just attached differently. Geico does also. Just let them know you have it on the bike, and no increase in premium. So you still need the MC endorsement on your license with the Voyager. However a true trike is considered a car and the MC license isn't needed to ride one. Go figure... :-) Now what get's me to pondering is.... with the Voyager pulling a trailer would one need a trucker license because you're pulling a set of doubles???

 

On the rake I'm really confused. The RSV is low in the A$$ from the factory. When shorter dog bones are added it raises the stern and according to what I've read the steering get's easier?? So that's what I planned on doing to the Voyager to see if it would get a bit easier?? But... if it makes it squirrely maybe I'd be better off leaving well enough alone??

[steamer]

Puc, to answer your questions. the rake kit is like adding power steering, it takes less muscle power. As far as putting a car tire on the rear, I did give it some thought but before taking action on that idea' I purchased the trike and sold the voyager kit. I think it would probably work better then the bike tire, but only if you leave the voyager kit on all the time, although some folks do ride on the dark side, so who knows. As for rear brakes, all you have to stop the voyager rig is the bike brakes. No brakes on the out riggers. I don't see any way to add them because the voyager is removable. How would you hook up the hydraulics?

[cowpuc]

Puc, to answer your questions. the rake kit is like adding power steering, it takes less muscle power. As far as putting a car tire on the rear, I did give it some thought but before taking action on that idea' I purchased the trike and sold the voyager kit. I think it would probably work better then the bike tire, but only if you leave the voyager kit on all the time, although some folks do ride on the dark side, so who knows. As for rear brakes, all you have to stop the voyager rig is the bike brakes. No brakes on the out riggers. I don't see any way to add them because the voyager is removable. How would you hook up the hydraulics?

Steam, if you go back to the vids I posted about the Trike we built and click on the first Vid, fast forward to about .35 you will see the disc brake assembly on that rear axle. Running hydraulics to that rear disc was simple brake line across the ax and with tieing the hard line into a "T" and then back the scoots master with rubber line so it could flex as the new swing arm needed it to was not that bad of a job.. Once bled, the Sporties original rear master did fine at supplying pressure for the two rear discs.. Thinking a much bigger issue if the Voyager Trike Kit does not come with brakes would be setting up a set of rotors and calipers.. Kind of surprised they dont come with brakes,, I cant imagine that "Kit" is to light in weight? Seems like the extra weight would almost require some extra braking.. May be way out in left field about that though as I have seen a lot of folks pulling trailers with scoots with no braking on the trailers.. Have always wondered about that too,, seems like trailer brakes when a motorcycle is pulling one would be a major advantage to added control BUT - sure dont see em....

[Condor]

A little more food for thought when it comes to braking on a trike or outrigger. The front brakes do almost 70-80% of the braking on any bike. So improving the rear braking power probably has minimal effect on the overall stopping power. Of course it helps with two wheels at traction over just one, but I wonder what the percentage increase would be in the big picture??

[cowpuc]

A little more food for thought when it comes to braking on a trike or outrigger. The front brakes do almost 70-80% of the braking on any bike. So improving the rear braking power probably has minimal effect on the overall stopping power. Of course it helps with two wheels at traction over just one, but I wonder what the percentage increase would be in the big picture??

 

Very very good point Jack:thumbsup:!!!