American Trike

[HowardOfOcal]

Has anyone ever ridden a trike converted by American Trike? They do an unusual type of conversion, especially for shaft driven bikes.

[JG122]

as the owner of a shaft-driven trike, I'm interested to see their design approach...

I went to their website, couldn't find any specific details nor up-close photos

shaft drive conversions are a challenge, alot depends on what the "donor" bike is.

feel free to PM me to compare notes

[americanbadass]

I really like their servi-car style body, and have learned as much as I can thru the website, as well as a few phone calls to them. What concerns me with AT is the incomplete kit they offer, no wheels, exhaust adapters, or body assembley, and little instruction for this DIY kit. They say you can learn all about their kits from one instruction example (a harley soft tail bike). This really baffels me because the dynamics of that specific bike are totally different forom a shaft drive or even other HD models. It makes me think they are just slinging a one kit fits all approach!

[Doctor Doug]

I have built several American trikes. They ride very well

[americanbadass]

I am now in the process of putting one of their kits on my roadking!

[jfingalls]

I have an AT kit on my 08 GW. I have torn it down three times mostly due to the stupid shaft extension they put in it (more about that below). Also, it requires some machining of the final drive housing to get the right wheel drive shaft through the final drive housing with an added shaft seal. Other than that, I like the kit. By the way, they did a stupit thing on the shaft-- in order to make the two different splines compatible and get the correct length for the spacing between the differential and CV joint (on the right side) they piced two different drive shafts together with a !/2-13 set screw.
After about 3,000 miles, it literally unscrewed while I was riding two up (about 500 lbs.) and accelerating causing a complete failure. The installer took it apart and welded the shaft together (a little dumb here). About 3000 miles later the weld broke. Then I personally tour it down and found the problem and called AT to get a new shaft. The owner refused to sell me a new shaft because "I called his baby ugly" I think.
I went to a drive shaft speciality company (Gary O'Steen) in Daytona Beach, FL who had the specific shaft made for me from a solid bar of stock. It costs me $325 but now it is great. Unfortunately, I did also have trouble with the installer's work (I did the repair) who is now out of business.
Someone asked if they could see the design; well the owner will not give out that information or even provide parts list because he is afraid someone will copy his design. But I now know the whole story and can provide this advice. The installation instruction on the web is for a HD which is not shaft drive. The GW install is a lot more work and added costs (machining the housing, pressing a seal in, taking apart the final drive assembly and re-fitting the gear alignment etc. It is not just a "bolt on" like the HD is my friends. By the way, due to a " gone sour" business relationship between AT and my installer, AT denied ownership of the kit saying it was a copy cat version made by another mfg from Texas. Well, I am a retired design engineer and manufacturing engineer and I do know better.... I hope this helps you out and good luck.