Modern Buddy

PGO, the company in Taiwan that makes the Buddy line for Genuine also
makes motor trikes. I believe in 50 & 150cc models. They export them to Europe and Australia, I believe. I think that there is a market here in the USA for good quality scooter trikes, emphasis on GOOD! I wonder if Genuine
has ever considered this market and done market research to determine the
possibility of offering them in the Buddy line? Eric????

If they would do a 250 cc trike and up I would want one

Stormswift wrote:If they would do a 250 cc trike and up I would want one

I agree. It probably takes a little larger engine to find much US market acceptance in this category. I have found with sidecars that the extra weight and resistance of the 3-wheel set-up means that 150cc sidecar rigs are fairly limited in performance. I presume much the same would be true of trikes.

Trikes are just... awful, you lose what makes a motorcycle fun without gaining any advantage, plus they like to flip over so you have to really take the turns easy.

At least a sidecar has the extra carrying capacity and visual appeal.

I respectfully beg to disagree. I have an Icky Bear 150cc Ruckus type
trike that I ride on my property at full throttle, have not turned it over
yet. It is a matter of shifting your weight on the saddle. I also have a
TGB R9i scoot with a sidecar attached that I have put over a thousand
miles on. You can bring up the sidecar easily on right turns (and scare the
cr@p out of the passenger or your self. The trick to it is two fold. Carry
extra weight in the sidecar if you have no passenger. Shift your weight on
the saddle to the right on a right turn, to the left on a left turn. You can lift the sidecar wheel right off the ground on a right turn if you are not careful and you can dig the nose of the side car into the pavement on a hard left turn.
And you need a strong left arm and shoulder to turn the unit. You do not ride a trike or a sidecar rig, you drive them.
Sidecar/150cc scoot rigs do sacrifice speed and gas milage. With a 170i, or 250-300cc engine the trike can hold its own speed wise, with a 150cc not so much. (could not resist the razz!!)

I agree with Stormswift and Dooglas. A 250-300cc engine would be better.
And sidecars are rough on rear tires and car tires but the fun in riding a
side car is in the challenge of survival as much as anything else. Thy
are great grocery/errand runners tho.

I Want a Side Car or Trike! and Yes they are Strange!

meh. i think what this pgo trike rider is hauling might be more fun then the trike itself

The market for this — at any displacement — is very, very small. Even the two-wheel scooter market in the US is relatively small, especially once you remove players like Honda and Yamaha from the picture.

The engines for these are the same in other PGOs, so wouldn't need to go through lengthy and pricey emissions testing, but it's still not worth importing a new model, which costs a lot of money any which way you slice it.

This is why the only such trikes you see for sale in the US are Chinese clones. Built cheap, imported cheap, sold fairly cheap but without the level of support and the dealer network we get from Genuine.

I would actually want the reverse trike. I rented one in Hawaii on my honeymoon because the wife and I were not yet 25 so we didn't want to rent a car at astronomical prices and this thing was pretty cheap for half a day of renting. It does have a decent trunk and quite a bit of "get up and go" for a small engine!





And then one of coupe's that my wife wanted to rent...but I had to put my foot down lol

I have to agree with Eric. I see a lot of motorcycle trikes in my area but that is because R&R Trikes, a major converter/supplier in located in Jasper, GA. 15 miles from me. These units are extremely expensive. Tow Pac makes conversion units for motorcycles and scooters but not for all makes and you
actually have a four wheeled vehicle since the scooter/MC drive wheel stays in place. "Tadpole" trikes tend to have front end problems. There are a few
of them in my area also. I have a Chinese clone but use it to get around on my place, quality is poor but it serves its purpose for me. My interest in trikes is based on the fact that I am in good shape for my age but the knees are getting to be a problem as I get older.

Did a little surfing this morning and it appears that scooter trikes of what appears to be 150-300cc sizes are popular in the orient, Japan, Saigon, and
China at least in the terms of group rides. They are better received in
parts of Europe than here from what I can observe. I think that one reason might be dense population and smaller geographic areas as well as different
economic conditions such as price of fuel. Just speculation on my part.

Wolfhound wrote:Did a little surfing this morning and it appears that scooter trikes of what appears to be 150-300cc sizes are popular in the orient, Japan, Saigon, and China at least in the terms of group rides. They are better received in parts of Europe than here from what I can observe. I think that one reason might be dense population and smaller geographic areas as well as different

Of course, you have just named two parts of the world where the density of scooters generally are
a couple of orders of magnitude greater than here.

I heard you the first time, Dooglas!!

I heard you the first time, Dooglas!!

Dooglas wrote:

Wolfhound wrote:Did a little surfing this morning and it appears that scooter trikes of what appears to be 150-300cc sizes are popular in the orient, Japan, Saigon, and China at least in the terms of group rides. They are better received in parts of Europe than here from what I can observe. I think that one reason might be dense population and smaller geographic areas as well as different

Of course, you have just named two parts of the world where the density of scooters generally are an order of magnitude or two greater than here.

I would like to note that in 22 years I lived in Europe I have seen so many scooters but never a single trike.

Lots of MP3s for the rainy days commutes in Milan however.

Just ran an ebay check on the UK. 10 pages, 88 trikes of all kinds from Can Ams to Tuk Tuks and a gazillion "Street Legal" quads that are not street legal
here.

JHScoot wrote:meh. i think what this pgo trike rider is hauling might be more fun then the trike itself

I'm sure the rider disagrees with you. My best friend (since we were roommates in college) uses a wheelchair, and he'd definitely take a trike instead if he could.

What TVB said

would you use a trike to do something like this? oh wait, how about a wheelchair

ask this guy whats more fun to ride

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/jCgUOFHXBOw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Wolfhound wrote:I heard you the first time, Dooglas!!

Fixed .

Give this man a motor scoot trike and he would do the same thing or something equal. How? Easy answer. He refuses to let a 'disability'
rule his life. There is a lesson here that we can all can benefit from.
Never give up! Thanks, JHScoot for sharing this one.
You are given one life---LIVE IT

Having ridden in both, I much prefer scooters myself.
Wheelchairs are only fun if you're going downhill.

LunaP wrote:Having ridden in both, I much prefer scooters myself.
Wheelchairs are only fun if you're going downhill.

Three wheels. Tilts. Yes, thank you!

lol that thing looks like a half Chrysler Something Or Other

ericalm wrote:Three wheels. Tilts. Yes, thank you!

Those things are awsome! The UK Top Gear did a story on them and they look like so much fun!

Now that looks like fun. There was, if I remember correctly, a line of 150cc
Chinese scoot trikes that would tilt but they had troubles with the tilt
mechanisms. Saw one parked in Ball Ground, kinda tilted a few years
back but did not see the rider. Never saw another.