Hi Lookin for my first trike

[tbird71]

Hi I just joined lookin for our first trike been ridin almost 50 years

Current ride is a 2015 Electra Glide Police and a 650 Burgman

Hear one good thing about one and bad thing about another have no clue which is best

but want to start SLOW...like a GL1500 or a Royal Star in the 10K range and see if triking is even for us then step up to an 1800 if so, is that a good plan or no? Yeah I could use some advice in this foreign territory thanks, Guys!

 

[trikeman]

Welcome. Good place to get info right here

 

[Zammy]

Hi Tom, welcome to the forums from Florida. Unfortunately, PM's are disabled for the time being, we've had some problems with spammers. Post away, this a very friendly bunch of guys and gals.

 

[paws]

Hey Tom, welcome to TrikeTalk from west Texas! Possibly you could rent a trike or visit the different dealers to test ride the different kits before you invest..

 

[FuzzyWuzHe]

Welcome to the Gang from Western Colorado.

 

[Gone2Three]

Howdy Tom :wave4: welcome from the Lone Star State

That Electra Glide sure is a beauty as far trikes are concerned they will take a little while to get used to. I recommend that you rent or test drive a few before you take the plunge.

Or if your 15' is payed off maybe Papa Zook here on the forum can do a conversion on it.

Happy trails ...

 

[tbird71]

That's a good idea

Hey Tom, welcome to TrikeTalk from west Texas! Possibly you could rent a trike or visit the different dealers to test ride the different kits before you invest..

I'm in Illinois in the summer...only about 30 minutes from Niehaus Honda...I'm sure many of you guys know of them. i'll go up there and get feet wet I have million questions

I bot an 89 GL1500 last summer with 9,000 original miles! NO chrome no add ons looks like it just rolled out of showroom in 1989 she is a beauty.

I was going to trike that but after talking to several dealers and others I'm money ahead to just buy a good used one rather than putting 12-13 grand into a new trike kit for it.

 

[tbird71]

Thanks!

Howdy Tom :wave4: welcome from the Lone Star State

That Electra Glide sure is a beauty as far trikes are concerned they will take a little while to get used to. I recommend that you rent or test drive a few before you take the plunge.

Or if your 15' is payed off maybe Papa Zook here on the forum can do a conversion on it.

Happy trails ...

Thanks, Randall! She sure rides smooth as well, I rode that police out of the showroom in lakeland, FL with 17 miles on her! (HD police sales were slow in late 2014 and they gave dealers big help on those to clear inventory) No, I think if I trike i want a Wing or maybe a Venture I'm gonna try and get an older one reasonable then if trikings not in the cards simply sell it and jump back on the Police Unit. I sell vintage railroad pocketwatches online, have since 1996 and I'm certain Trikes and watches have one thing in common...price to sales ratio...there's a lot more buyers at 10K on a trike than on 20-25K+ Appreciate the nice comments and thank you!

 

[mwebster]

Welcome from WV:wave4::wave4:

 

[1dn5up]

:welcome: The fear of change prevails ! Try it, ya might like it:wave4:

 

[dougv]

Welcome from Ct Tom, I went the same route your are thinking, rode many years ago but after 23 years of not riding, just didn't feel comfortable on 2 wheels anymore. I wanted something big to be comfortable but big was also harder for me to handle and the wife and I are both north of our weight when we were younger.

I found a nice 97 1500 at a dealer here for around $15,000.00 with a new 2011 conversion at the time with less than 32,000 miles on it. I haven't had any issues with it since I bought it and from what people say, the 1500 is more comfortable than a 1800. It does have a solid rear so that takes away from the comfort level, but only on bad roads. I had a 2009 Kawasaki VN900 that I traded in and it would have cost a lot more to trike that compared to buying the 97 triked. A big cost is the paint....

Good luck with your quest....

 

[LadyonaMission]

Welcome aboard from San Antonio, Texas. orag::mexican:

 

[TGCarol]

Hi Tom :wave4: Welcome Definitely try to ride one for more than a test ride. Trikes have a learning curve but once you’re past that, they are so much fun :clapping: Good luck with your hunt.

 

[Jack Klarich]

Welcome to Trike Talk

I hope you find what you are looking for

 

[Fearless]

Stay in the wind on what ever!

Welcome to the group good people here I'm sure you will get all of your questions taken care of shortly. After a short learning curve you will most likely not want to go back to two wheels. :victory: Travel safe Fred

 

[Lee H. Mann]

Tom, Welcome to Trike Talk Forum.

Glad to have you aboard.

There are lots of nice used trikes out there for sale and pretty reasonable.

Next month the prices start to go up so better get shopping.:qpnmt:

 

[DK Custom Products]

Welcome from DK Custom in North Mississippi!

Good luck on your trike search!

Ride safe!

Cristy

 

[Gorilla]

welcome aboard Tom your plan is sound. Maybe the Honda dealer you mentioned might have an 1500 or just look on ebay there are usually several on there. Get some saddle time it takes at least 500 to 1000 miles to settle in on a trike to get a good feel if it is for you. Good luck

 

[Burnerboy]

This last season was my first time riding a trike (2010 Honda Goldwing).... Once you get used to the way they ride, I can guarantee you that you'll never go back to two wheels..

I love my trike! I'll never go back to riding a boring two wheel'd motorcycle again!

Ronnie

Springfield, Massachusetts

 

[pcombe]

It would seem the forum members have you headed down the right track?

As far as questions go try using the search feature at the top of the page, I just bet your question has been asked before and answered to a sufficient degree?

Try using simple questions at first and see where it takes you?

The best triker is the informed triker and as folks have said there is a learning curve but it's navigable.

I dont work for trike talk, Just another member and triker.

one thing you should discover is that although this site is a good place to talk about trikes in a friendly environment you should understand that it is supported by sales also.

It isint cheap to run a site like this one and folks make their living here also.

I converted my 1989 Tour Glide ultra myself in the spring of 2013 and bought all my parts from trike talk, Conversion kit ( $1000.00 discount,because of promotion deal ) , raked triple tree ( At half the cost of other brand dealers, and its a great quality ) etc. and got sharp deals on shipping that were delivered to my door in perfect condition and have never regretted doing so.

I went with a solid axle Champion kit bought from zook because if the solid axle was good enough for the tri glide i reasoned it was good enough for me. Also it is a simple straight forward complete kit, Its a little rough on city streets but smooths right out on the highway, I went with a Hog Halter 5 degree raked triple tree and with a natural rake of 4 degrees gives me 9 degree of overall rake and it handles fantastic. Much better than the tri glides i have ridden.

There are independent suspension models that are smoother in town and i have ridden and worked on them, They are a good ride but not my cup of tea really, I like the solid axle feel in the mountains where i ride and prefer the solid in tight corners just because of centrifugal force.

Dont get me wrong, The independent is great, just not MY cup of tea.

Momma's gonna like it better. But i do most of my riding alone.

I'm old time Harley so i just couldn't see myself on anything else, Beside i had the bike since it was new.

At the time i had just under $10,000.00 invested in the entire project.

I was a little Leary at putting down larger sums of money on an internet site but was able to put down half when i ordered and the other half before the kit shipped.

I had the backup of the techs at champion when i had a question about installation and the advice from the forums owner and of forum members who have built their own,

I Came to trust the dealers on this site as honest business people who are screened for phony's etc. if your a scammer you dont get to play here.

These folks cant afford to burn you, Their livelihood depends on satisfaction.

Here is something you should consider real hard before you purchase!

make dang sure your not buying a trike that was involved in recent floods, Salt water is a game changer where fresh water might not be,

The other thing to be aware of is a trike is only as good as the integrity of it's builder and watch out for the back yard mechanic who tried to work on one himself without knowing what they were doing?

I have seen that go south in a bad way.

Spend a little extra to have it professionally checked out by a reputable TRIKE mechanic, Not your local parts changer ok?

There are older conversion kits out there that dont have a good reputation as well as trike kit manufacturers so as i said use the ( advanced search ) option at the top of the page.



For pics of my conversion visit pcombe photobucket/library.

Good luck in your endeavor.