Winfried

Hello,

Unsurprisingly, Google returned no hits when looking for infos about installing this module to turn a two-wheel front-loader cargo bike into a cargo trike for someone who bought the former but needs a bit more stability. I know a trike would have been a better idea, but it's too late.

The kit is meant to be installed on any bike with 16-29" wheels, and the bike has a 20" front wheel.

At first sight, would you say it's doable or is there a technical reason it's probably hopeless?

Thanks for any feedback.






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Edit: At least two companies build the same kind of cargo trike:

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Edit: The current design has a way to set the tilting sensitivity with a friction shifter + quarter disk brake

Andrew R Stewart 

The aspect that I wonder about is the steering design and how that effects the ability to lean into a turn. If the bicycle's headset/fork are used for the steering the trike will tend to lean away from the direction steered to. This is quite the opposite of what one wants as it increases the chance of tip over on cornering.

The red trike imaged might have a compensating lean into the steer design but I'm not sure if I'm seeing suspension links or steering lean ones (and how the lean amount is controlled).

The second image (black bike with "addbike+" thing mounted to fork) looks to have little red wagon steering. The front wheels are attached to a solid axle that pivots at it's center. This will cause the inner wheel to rise and the outer wheel to drop due to the head angle of the bike.

I strongly suggest you find out more info about any kit that used the bikes fork for it's steering. I would also suggest trying to ride a few trikes before spending any $, either for an aftermarket kit or buying a spec built trike. Andy

Jeff Wills

I agree with Andy- three-wheel dynamics are very different from two-wheel dynamics and “adapters” are rarely as good as intended.
The red “adapter” appears to allow the tricycle to lean in turns but is a poor design due to its “wagon wheel” steering, that is, both wheels are rigidly attached to an axle that pivots at the center. Designs like this are very susceptible to shimmy or speed wobbles.
The black “add-on” looks like it has proper Ackerman steering, but a trike with the rider at the rear and the “fixed” axle at the front is going to be a handful on anything but a flat road with no turns. On a road with any crown, the rider’s weight will want to flip it on its side while any corner will try to toss the rider off to the outside of the corner. Neither situation seems safe.

Winfried

Thanks for the input. The red and black kits are from the same company; The red one is just an earlier design.

With the current design, the inner wheel tilts a bit more than the outer wheel to help the steering. Here's what the current design looks like:

FBinNY 

I don't think you'll be happy with the end result, and will end up forced to spend more soon.

If you want a cargo trike, sell what you have and buy that.

Andrew R Stewart 

While the tilting trike add on is a neat design one aspect I question is the need for the tilting to be controlled by a rider operated lock/unlock device (that 1/3 of a disk brake rotor and it's caliper/lever). I have to assume it is needed to keep the rider from tilting when it's not "a good thing" to be doing. Devices that are naturally unstable and then need added elements to maintain control just seem to be a poor path when alternative designs exist that are far more stable with less complexity. Andy

Jeff Wills

Andy, I think the brake on the tilting mechanism is to allow the rider to stop and start without having to put a foot down. In theory, this allows a combination of a three-wheeler’s zero- and low-speed stability and a two-wheeler’s ability to corner at high speed.
The reality is that a leaning three-wheeler combines the instability of a two-wheeler with the weight, complexity, and rolling resistance of a three-wheeler.
If cost were no object, I’d say “try it and find out”. If this is a customer’s bike/trike… it’s up to them.

squirtdad

This shows promise, one thing to check is if the height of the add on wheels does not interfere with the box (baks) part of the baksfiet


here is a prod model https://www.babboe.co.uk/babboe-carve-e

and this one looks like it might have better edrive and more hill capacity with yamaha mid drive and nuvinci hup but expensive https://www.babboe.co.uk/babboe-carve-mountain

Based on the series of posts over the last while by the OP I am not sure how this is going to workout overall and while no one wants to lose money maybe selling what you have now and getting a baksfiet that meets the needs would end up being less expensive?

Needs as I recall: lower gearing to help with hills, more stability especially at start and stop as the principal rider has some limitations in this area

SoCaled 

That video seems like convincing evidence for a NO. All the turns look hesitant and at around the 10 sec mark the rider pulls their inside foot off the pedal and is about to put a foot down! Looks sketchyy/not fun to ride.

Dan Burkhart 

All this points to my opinion that the two wheel option isn’t a bad one. Keep the weight in the bucket loaded centrally balanced and secure it.
It is designed for a low centre of gravity which makes them quite stable.

Winfried

I read that the quarter disk + friction shifter combo was precisely added later by the mfg so people could control how sensitive the tilting works. As shown in the red bike, the original design had no such mechanism… and not everyone was pleased.

I'm not the owner of the bike, and wouldn't have gone that route if it were me. I'm just trying to help someone who 1) lives in the boonies and 2) doesn't have much money… although it looks like selling the bike with a loss and buying a regular trike* looks more promising (shall we say).

* tilting trikes are way above budget; a 500/750W Bafangized Nihola trike with disk brakes would be a performance/cost compromise