Tricycle with an advantage
02/04/2015
Many of us who were not yet part of the Bobby Car generation had our first driving experience on three wheels (from Visa Gloria?). It would make sense to continue this tradition in the automobile, as there are solid reasons for dispensing with a fourth wheel. The complexity of the vehicle is reduced because there is no need for a differential if the single wheel is driven. The weight is also easily reduced by 30 to 50 kg by omitting a wheel, including suspension elements and brakes, and last but not least, the car body can be made narrower if there is one less wheel on the vehicle.
In the early days, there were mainly economic reasons in favor of the three-wheeler. The first Morgan three-wheelers were often bought by tradesmen to transport their utensils. The fact that you could also move really fast on a tricycle was an added bonus.
In the fifties and sixties, cabin scooters became popular, which could also often do without the fourth wheel, although this also meant a loss of social prestige. BMW, for example, produced the Isetta for the domestic market with four wheels, the rear wheels were so close together that the differential was unnecessary, but there was also a three-wheeled version for export markets, as this often made it possible to obtain tax concessions.
The Heinkel Kabine was also available with three and four wheels and the original Messerschmitt Kabinenroller ( picture at the top) was designed for three wheels, only the fast Messerschmitt Tiger came with four wheels.
Three-wheeled vehicles were particularly popular in England, the Reliant brand became big with these useful and inexpensive vehicles and also ensured that whole families and people with lots of space could easily get by with three wheels, as the Reliant Supervan shows . Its successor, the Reliant Robin, was built until the new millennium.
With increasing prosperity, however, people were less and less willing to do without the fourth wheel. This was also due to the many rollover accidents involving the tippy three-wheelers, as these could occur particularly with the versions with a single wheel at the front.
Nevertheless, with the Bond Bug 700 , Reliant once again offered an almost futuristic tricycle in the seventies, and it went faster than many would have thought possible. The maintenance costs were modest and you were protected from the weather. Despite these advantages, the Bond Bug only had a short life.
The Dale, which was launched in the USA in the mid-seventies and was priced at USD 2,000 with minimal fuel consumption of 3.3 liters per 100 km, was not a success.
A few years ago, the Morgan Threewheelercelebrated its resurrection as a leisure vehicle and in the field of environmentally friendly vehicles, the advantages of three wheels continue to find an enthusiastic fan base, as demonstrated by the furiously launched but equally failed Aptera from the USA.
Three-wheeled vehicles in Zwischengas reports:
