Best outrigger style trike conversion for me.

[gaascaleman]

I am new here but not new to trikes. This may get a little long because I want a lot of information and opinions.We had an 1800 Goldwing with Champion trike kit for several years and put 50,000 miles on it.

I am considering an outrigger style trike for several reasons. Main reason I am 75 and have some arthritis in hips and knees, I can ride OK solo (2009 Yamaha Stratoliner S) but I am hesitant to ride double now. We just can not afford the $8,000.00 to $12,000.00 price of a trike kit, so the approx. $3,000.00 to $4,000.00 looks more attractive for an outrigger kit.

We will not be making any real long distance rides just perhaps up to 250 mile round trip day ride. Now for the real questions. I am pretty mechanically inclined , I installed the Champion kit on the gold wing and have a large box of tools so installation will be done in my garage by me. What are the speed limitations on an outrigger trike?

I could run the Gold Wing to 100mph and above with no handling problems, will an outrigger trike go at inter state highway speeds with no problems?

I see that The Voyager seems to be sensitive to pre load, how does going from solo to two up affect that? I am looking at Trigg and Voyager what are pros and cons for each of them. Any and all opinions and facts will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time.
Mike

[dadztoy]

Hi Mike and welcome aboard... I'm kinda in the same boat as you... I'm 70 and losing upper and lower body strength and not wanting to drop the bike with the wife on board, I decided to do an outrigger trike kit as I still like to ride on 2 wheels solo...

I have a Tow Pac unit on my bike and have been well satisfied with it... I have the one with 12" tires although they now offer 15" I believe... The owner of Tow Pac told me he was the original designer of the Voyager so for whatever that is worth, you might want to look at the Tow Pac...

As to which one is best, I don't know... They all follow the same basic principal with some variations... As I stated, I have been well satisfied with mine and have been riding it since 2013 - probably have 8-10K miles on it now and still on the original tires although it will be time for replacement soon...

My Tow Pac is mounted on my 2009 GL1800 Level III and so far, no problems... You won't have any issues installing any one you chose if you are a decent wrench which it sounds like you are if you installed your Champion Trike kit...

One of the reasons I went outrigger was the same as you, cost... My TP was about 3K and another 400 for paint and a few bucks more for additional LED lighting so I don't have a lot invested in it... I had TP do the original install but I went over things and corrected some sloppy workmanship a few months later...

I have also tweaked adjustments quite a bit and tire pressures too...

Steering effort is a bit high with nom rake kit but you get used to it and it lets you ride on 2 wheels when you want to...

You can see pics of my ride in the photo section of this forum as well as my avatar on the left side of this post... Good luck with whatever choice you make and ride on brother!!!

Les

[gaascaleman]

Thanks for the in depth reply. I had discounted the Tow Pac due to the small wheels but with 14 inch wheels it is now a consideration. I think the Trigg kit will have good quality since they are now owned by Bushtec. I had a Bushtec trailer and it was first class in quality and engineering. I have emailed them several times with questions over the past week and have not received any reply, being old school this is putting them low on the list. The Voyager kit looses ground clearance but looks easy to remove.

My bike 2009 Yamaha Stratoliner does not have a center stand so that may make removing and installing the Tow Pac more difficult, but no ground clearance loss. Just weighing the pros and cons to help decide which way to go. How is highway speed performance (70 to 85 mph) with your Tow Pac? Just how much tinkering did you have to accomplish to get it where you wanted it? I also looked at the Trip Trike but their kit attaches to the rear fender support frame and just looks like it could have a major failure with loosening set screws etc.

just does not look solid to me.

I do not know how the Trigg kit attaches as they will not return my emails asking about it. Sorry this got long again, thanks again for your reply it is the kind of information I am looking for.

[gaascaleman]

I wonder, if I get my Doctor to write a prescription for a tike kit can I get Medicare to pay for it? Still in a quandary what to do, outrigger kit of full trike kit. Both are expensive when you are on fixed income and I just can not justify cost of either one. Do not get old , it is not fun or profitable.

[baba67]

I installed the voyager kit on my 97 gl1500 and enjoy the fact I can go back to two wheels as I wish.
As you say, as we get older (I am 67) it gets more difficult to ride 2 up.


My experience so far with the voyager as with any outrigger style kit,
is getting used to steering and no lean.
Weird feeling at first.
But the more we ride, the more comfortable we get with it.


My only advice would be,
which ever kit you decide to install, Take a good look at how it is attached to the bike.
A couple of kits I looked into were attached with U bolt clamps to the crash bars on the Goldwing.
I know from the Goldwing sites that the crash bars are not strong enough to take excessive force.
I went with the voyager kit because of these warnings.
The voyager kit comes with mounting plates that are bike specific, mount directly to the frame, rear axle and engine mounts.


Once installed,
Remove two large bolts and the unit comes off and back on two wheels.
The mounting hardware stays on the bike.

[gaascaleman]

Thanks again for the replies. I know what you mean about getting used to a trike. We test rode a trike and at the first stop I had a panic attack, it had floor boards and I could not get my feet down. Next feeling was that we were falling over. Very strange set of sensations but after that no problems. We went on to trike our 1800 Gold w Wing and put about 50,000 miles on it.

I am sort of leaning toward the Voyager kit. Reasons are: I like the BIG bolts holding it on, Trig will not answer my emails with some questions and Trip Trike looks like it attached to part of frame designed to hold rear fender and has a few set screws that could loosen, Tow Pac looks good but just not as solid as the Voyager. I would like to put a true Trike Kit on but the cost is just not possible on fixed income. Any more suggestions ??
Mike

[dadztoy]

Thanks for the in depth reply. I had discounted the Tow Pac due to the small wheels but with 14 inch wheels it is now a consideration. I think the Trigg kit will have good quality since they are now owned by Bushtec. I had a Bushtec trailer and it was first class in quality and engineering. I have emailed them several times with questions over the past week and have not received any reply, being old school this is putting them low on the list. The Voyager kit looses ground clearance but looks easy to remove. My bike 2009 Yamaha Stratoliner does not have a center stand so that may make removing and installing the Tow Pac more difficult, but no ground clearance loss. Just weighing the pros and cons to help decide which way to go. How is highway speed performance (70 to 85 mph) with your Tow Pac? Just how much tinkering did you have to accomplish to get it where you wanted it? I also looked at the Trip Trike but their kit attaches to the rear fender support frame and just looks like it could have a major failure with loosening set screws etc.

just does not look solid to me.

I do not know how the Trigg kit attaches as they will not return my emails asking about it. Sorry this got long again, thanks again for your reply it is the kind of information I am looking for.

Actually Mike, mine works fine with the 12" wheels... Not sure what the 14" wheels would bring to the table??? They will have a higher rotating mass and also unsprung weight so not sure what would be an advantage of the larger wheels other than handling potholes a bit better...

One of the reasons I went with the Instatrike was good ground clearance... Their newer E-Trike had less ground clearance and my wife would have lost her retractable foot rests so that was a no-op... Tow Pac does offer center stand helpers (make shift supports) for bikes without center stands so you might inquire about them...

Truth be told, I haven't had the trike up to 75 or 80 - I seldom ride that fast as I tend to avoid Interstates and take back roads whenever possible (lots of great back roads here in eastern Tennessee)... I did have a set of CentraMatic balancers made for it so it's pretty smooth as far as I can tell... I have had it at 65-70 for short duration's and it seemed fine to me... I use the Tow Pac primarily when the wife and I are riding 2up and on a trip and she prefers the little back country roads and lower speed limits so that's usually the type riding I do with it...

In terms of setup, I wasn't satisfied with the way Tow Pac installers had set it up so I completely reworked all the adjustments so that I can simply slide it into the receiver now without have to have the trike cart on wooden blocks...

I also played with tire down force adjustments and tire pressures and have all that dialed in now... Took 2-3 attempts on tire down force and 3-4 different adjustments on tire pressure...

Once tire parallelism is adjusted it holds pretty well and I have probably about 6 -8K miles on the original 12" tires and they still have a few thousand miles left on them... I also reworked Tow Pac's installation by my main wiring harnesses as they pretty much screwed up that wire routing and it would have eventually caused problems... Had to rework their installation by the saddlebags as well because I could not get the bags off due to their routing of tailight wiring... Probably should have just installed it myself... Other than that, I am a happy camper with my Tow Pac kit... One of the reasons I went with Tow Pac is that they were only about 90 miles south of me when I lived in Illinois and I simply road down to their factory and test rode their demo bikes before I purchased it...

I saw your comments regarding the structural solidness of the Voyager and while I cannot comment on that as I have never seen one, I have to say my Instatrike is a very solid piece of equipment... It has a very stout sub-frame bolted to the main frame of the Goldwing and is attached with 3 very stout 1/2" grade 8 bolts, plus a safety wire in case all three mounting point ts fail simultaneously, which is darn near impossible... One of those bolts, secures a 1 1/4" stinger into the sub-frame receiver on the bike so it is a very stout mounting arrangement...

I can assure you that I would not ride, nor would I put my wife or granddaughter on anything I thought might be unsafe...

Add the advantage of removing and installing the trike kit in about 10 minutes, and that is a REAL 10 minutes that I can demonstrate over and over again, in my opinion, you can't beat it...

And no, I am not compensated by Tow Pac, just a satisfied customer aside from some of the initial misgivings of their installation staff...

Maybe some day I'll have a real trike conversion, but honestly, why spend 15 grand when what I have is doing the job so well, and still enables me to switch back to 2 wheels when I want to... Like I said, maybe some day, but maybe not too!!!

If you send me a PM on this forum with your e-mail address, I'll send you the Tow Pac install manual for a GL1800 and you can look it over... It will be similar for your bike but obviously not identical...

Les

PS - tell ya what - - - your not all that far away from me (about 300 miles)...

If you want to ride up, I'll let you ride my Tow Pac for a bit and see if you like it, or maybe we can meet in the middle somewhere for lunch and you can take it around the parking lot for a bit...

[baba67]

I installed the voyager kit on my 97 gl1500 and enjoy the fact I can go back to two wheels as I wish.
As you say, as we get older (I am 67) it gets more difficult to ride 2 up.
My experience so far with the voyager as with any outrigger style kit,
is getting used to steering and no lean.
Weird feeling at first.
But the more we ride, the more comfortable we get with it.

My only advice would be,
which ever kit you decide to install, Take a good look at how it is attached to the bike.
A couple of kits I looked into were attached with U bolt clamps to the crash bars on the Goldwing.
I know from the Goldwing sites that the crash bars are not strong enough to take excessive force.
I went with the voyager kit because of these warnings.
The voyager kit comes with mounting plates that are bike specific, mount directly to the frame, rear axle and engine mounts.
Once installed,
Remove two large bolts and the unit comes off and back on two wheels.
The mounting hardware stays on the bike.

I should have added....
I have had the voyager up to 75 MPH, two up with no issues.
I prefer to ride at lower speeds.
I have to tell you that you do lose some ground clearance (at least I did on my Goldwing) because of the mounting hardware.
You have to be careful over speed bumps, etc.
Other then that, I an quite pleased with it in general...

[Condor]

Thanks again for the replies. I know what you mean about getting used to a trike. We test rode a trike and at the first stop I had a panic attack, it had floor boards and I could not get my feet down. Next feeling was that we were falling over.
Mike

One of the things I do with my RSV/Voyager, before even moving, is lean way right and way left. It helps to get my mind set to the difference between it and two wheels, and I'm not going to fall over.. I still ride 2 wheel occasionally so it helps making the switch.

[BIG DENNY]

One of the things I do with my RSV/Voyager, before even moving, is lean way right and way left. It helps to get my mind set to the difference between it and two wheels, and I'm not going to fall over.. I still ride 2 wheel occasionally so it helps making the switch.

Will Mike I have a Trigg on my 1800 N Honda and love ,speed is no problem I have had mine up to 100 + AND AWAY WE GO RIDE IT LIKE I STOLE. I'm 72 and still think I'm a kid I guess. Enjoy life you only go round one time. BIG DENNY

[dadztoy]

What Baba67 says is true about being mounted to the crash bars is true, however, those same brackets are solidly bolted to the frame under the passenger floor boards... There is also another frame attachment point under the seat via 2 additional rather substantial steel brackets that extend up from the TP sub-frame and finally there are 2 additional mounting points to the bike sub-frame in the rear... So overall, there are 6 points of mounting to the BIKE FRAME and BIKE SUB-FRAME in addition to the 4 u-bolts attached to the bike crash bars... Just wanted to clear that up...

Les

[Stoneman123us]

I am new here but not new to trikes.

This may get a little long because I want a lot of information and opinions.We had an 1800 Goldwing with Champion trike kit for several years and put 50,000 miles on it. I am considering an outrigger style trike for several reasons. Main reason I am 75 and have some arthritis in hips and knees, I can ride OK solo (2009 Yamaha Stratoliner S) but I am hesitant to ride double now. We just can not afford the $8,000.00 to $12,000.00 price of a trike kit, so the approx. $3,000.00 to $4,000.00 looks more attractive for an outrigger kit. We will not be making any real long distance rides just perhaps up to 250 mile round trip day ride. Now for the real questions. I am pretty mechanically inclined , I installed the Champion kit on the gold wing and have a large box of tools so installation will be done in my garage by me. What are the speed limitations on an outrigger trike?

I could run the Gold Wing to 100mph and above with no handling problems, will an outrigger trike go at inter state highway speeds with no problems?

I see that The Voyager seems to be sensitive to pre load, how does going from solo to two up affect that? I am looking at Trigg and Voyager what are pros and cons for each of them.

Any and all opinions and facts will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time.
Mike

I put the voyager on for the same reason Had a hard time holding that heavy bike with two up so got the kit ad love it and my wife really likes it because now she can move around and not worry about the bike tipping or moving around, Also i like it enough that i LEAVE it on. I an also pull ourlittle trailer and not feel it

[gaascaleman]

I see all the comments about pre load on the Voyager kit. I ride solo most of the time, will I need to change pre load when riding with passenger? This pre load thing seems to be the most commented item with the Voyager kit.
Mike

[luckychucky]

I have a Trigg on my bike . I can say this the 15 inch tires give a smoother ride and because the Trigg is mounted with the wheels farther behind the bike,s tire it is like a trailer and it may be a little different then the other outriggers. I have had mine up to about 75mph with no trouble two up . The worst thing is the Trigg will bottom out on speed bumps some time. I have done some adjusting on mine and now it can be steered with one hand when needed. I am 72 years old also and bought the Trigg for the same reasons everybody else did .

If I bought a Trigg today I would order it without the shim they put on the left side of the belly plate that makes it pull to the right .I was told by the original maker they did that so people would not drift to the left and have a head on collision. If they can't drive any better then that they need to get off and walk . As far as emails after Bushtech bought the company I made several E Mails to them and they always answered them they even call me a couple of times. So I don't know what is going on with that.

I have had my kit since 2013 and haven't had any trouble with it.

It is a little more trouble to take it off if you want to ride with just two wheels.

But I don't worry about that any more. Also it won't wobble on railroad track crossings like I hear others do. It is a very solid kit. good luck in what you decide

[jmk865]

I ride a 1994 Kawasaki Vulcan 1500 with a Tow-Pac/ 12' wheels. I got it 3 yrs ago come July; already set up and ready to ride. So far all I have done to it is replace the outrigger tires after 13,000 miles and replace a bolt that sheared off when a bracket on the bike frame had a weld break. I ride solo and two up and have had no problems at speeds up to 85. I usually ride in the 55 to 65 range.

I might add that when the weld broke and the bolt sheared, the trike was still rideable to get back home. I also had an outrigger tire go flat and it was also redeable then too without any problems. The trike had 19000 miles on it when I got it and now is creeping up on 33,000 and I have done nothing but enjoy it. I had to go to the trike since arthritis and myositis had gotten to the point that two wheels were no longer a safe way to ride. I am 73 years old and plan on keeping my trike till I have to be lifted on it !

[shomar19]

- - - Updated - - -

I had a Trip Trike outrigger kit put on my 1999 Valkyrie earlier this year and so far I find it to be a very enjoyable ride. I added a 6 degree rake kit last week and that made steering very easy. It has independent air bag suspension on the out rigger wheels. The kit mounts solidly to the motorcycle frame so there is no wobble of the motorcycle in the outrigger frame as with some other outrigger kits.



- - - Updated - - -

[Big_Blue]

I went over and saw Shomar's Valk with a Trip Trike installed earlier today. It was difficult to tear my eyes away from his bike. That Valk is beautiful, but I went over there to look at the trike kit.

It is a really nice kit. He had the running boards and rear bumper options installed. Everything came glossy black. The metal frame is quarter inch thick square tubing. The solid bars welded to the square tubing are probably 3/4" thick. The trike is amazingly solid. There was no give between the trike kit and the bike when I rocked it side to side. The 13" tires appear to be car tires, not trailer tires.

They look much larger than I expected.

Nearly as big in diameter as the rear tire on the bike.

He had gone darkside with the rear tire. That looked real nice with the trike kit and should greatly increase the lifetime of the tire.

Kit without the running boards and bumper is $2.5k. With those two options its about $3.3k. I'm sold. I'll be putting it on my 2002 Honda VTX 1800R.

[dragvw2180]

I bought a used 93 Goldwing that I intended to fix and resell . My wife came out to watch me fix it and asked me what I was going to do with it , so I asked her why . She told me she would really like to have it so we purchased a Tow Pac kit for it , best thing I ever did for us as a couple. We go out , I drive my 91 Goldwing and she drives her 93 with no problems .

We travel to the coast down at 70 , she has her cruise control on a the radio blasting , heck she has a blast with it. I installed the kit myself and it time consuming but not hard. We have had no complaints . I do recommend a 6 degree rake kit from Papa Zook, really beautiful part. Mike

[Oldveteran]

Welcome to Trike Talk.

I was pretty much in the same boat as you, with being nearly 70 and riding two-up was getting tenuous. I put a Voyager on my 2003 Anniversary Road King, and I love it. Yes, you do have to play around with the pre-load and the tire pressures until you reach your desired level of handling and comfort, but these are interesting little triking learning curve adventures. So is adapting to the handling presented by a trike.

I repainted my whole Voyager since I bought it used. I replaced almost all of the hardware with grade -8 nuts and bolts and stainless steel or chrome cap nuts. I'm just wanting to be sure my ride is safe and secure. I had the kit put on by the previous owner who lives in Austin, Texas and my son-in-law rode the trike from Austin to La Grange, which is about 70 miles southeast of Austin.

I picked the bike up there and rode it home to Amarillo, and that was about 600 miles. Never missed a beat. I go a little slower in the curves, but I had absolutely no problems riding the trike. I had the speed up to around 90 mph passing a truck, and the unit just went on around him. I usually run about 65 to 75 keeping up with the traffic and I am not a "hot rod" any more! Those days are past me now. With a little wrenching skill and some patience, there is no part of the Voyager you can't understand or work on. Be happy and ride on.

"Oldveteran" the triker!!

[trike lady]

This was my 1993 GL1500A with Voyager, I sold it back in 2012 when life got rough. The bike went to a gentleman who wanted a Goldwing really bad and the price was right.