rear tires on wet roads.

[3W-lonerider]

From an age standpoint then that should not be the problem. And the air pressure seems okay too, so it has to be the suspension. But let us know how the new tire compare once you got them. Although I understand being leery to push them to breaking point again. Or I would be at least.

i will let everyone know. but i don't consider myself pushing these tires to the breaking point. i think i was going far under that point. i had a honda valkyrie with a motortrike for 20 years. put 214,000 miles on it. the only time the backend broke loose on it was in Virginia beach trying to get back to the hotel in a frog choker. running threw 3 inches of water running down the street.

i am going to back off of this suspension though. mainly because in my opinion it is too stiff. when i hit a rough section of road the rear suspension on this thing will rock this trike side to side bad enough that my feet come off the floorboards and the fairing shakes. still waiting on my front wheel to be powder coated then its jack the backend up. install new tires and adjust the suspension.

 

[Trikemaker]

Hi 3W-Lonerider

I apologize for not jumping in on this thread sooner.

Here are my thoughts as to why you might be having this problem.

1. Bad tires. If this turns out to be the problem, then like Scott told you we will be happy to replace them.

2. Too stiff rear suspension. Contrary to popular belief increasing or decreasing the spring preload does not make the suspension softer or firmer. It only changes ride height. the only exception to this is if the suspension is completely topped out (raised up as high as it will go) and then preloaded some more.

If the suspension is adjusted too low and you are riding on the bump stops, it will also be very firm, however it doesn't seem like this is the problem.

The only things that will affect how soft or firm the rear suspension is are spring rate, payload, and shock damping. We offer three different springs that have three different rates, basically soft med and firm. Our most popular is by far the medium. Is it possible that you have our firm spring on your trike? This would definitely be too firm for a solo rider.

Another possibility is that the shock is bad. It sounds like your trike is only a year to two old? If so, you will have our JRi shock on your trike. These are the best shocks we have ever offered and we almost never have any problems with them, but maybe you are one of the lucky few. If you bounce the rear of your trike does it go up and down smoothly? Does it make any strange noises or does it seem to be locked up? any of these would indicate a bad shock although it is unlikely.

3. This is one that no one has discussed yet, but is a possibility. The rear axle differential may be locked up or partly locked up. If this were to happen, both rear tires would be forced to spin at the same time all the time. So, if one tire lost traction both would. Again this is a long shot but possible. This is fairly easy to check for. With the rear of the trike jacked up and the transmission in first gear but the trike not running, you should be able to easily spin one rear wheel and the other should spin the opposite direction. If they both try to spin the same direction you might have a problem.

I am not sure where you are with this issue at this time, maybe you have figured it out already but if not I hope this helps.

 

[3W-lonerider]

Hi 3W-Lonerider

I apologize for not jumping in on this thread sooner.

Here are my thoughts as to why you might be having this problem.

1. Bad tires. If this turns out to be the problem, then like Scott told you we will be happy to replace them.

2. Too stiff rear suspension. Contrary to popular belief increasing or decreasing the spring preload does not make the suspension softer or firmer. It only changes ride height. the only exception to this is if the suspension is completely topped out (raised up as high as it will go) and then preloaded some more.

If the suspension is adjusted too low and you are riding on the bump stops, it will also be very firm, however it doesn't seem like this is the problem.

The only things that will affect how soft or firm the rear suspension is are spring rate, payload, and shock damping. We offer three different springs that have three different rates, basically soft med and firm. Our most popular is by far the medium. Is it possible that you have our firm spring on your trike? This would definitely be too firm for a solo rider.

Another possibility is that the shock is bad. It sounds like your trike is only a year to two old? If so, you will have our JRi shock on your trike. These are the best shocks we have ever offered and we almost never have any problems with them, but maybe you are one of the lucky few. If you bounce the rear of your trike does it go up and down smoothly? Does it make any strange noises or does it seem to be locked up? any of these would indicate a bad shock although it is unlikely.

3. This is one that no one has discussed yet, but is a possibility. The rear axle differential may be locked up or partly locked up. If this were to happen, both rear tires would be forced to spin at the same time all the time. So, if one tire lost traction both would. Again this is a long shot but possible. This is fairly easy to check for. With the rear of the trike jacked up and the transmission in first gear but the trike not running, you should be able to easily spin one rear wheel and the other should spin the opposite direction. If they both try to spin the same direction you might have a problem.

I am not sure where you are with this issue at this time, maybe you have figured it out already but if not I hope this helps.

to answer the first question, right now i'm waiting on my front wheel to be done at the powder coater so i can get it back on so i can jack the back of the trike up.

second question

the suspension is not topped out. i can grab the trailer hitch and it will lift up about 2 inches.. so your saying that adjusting the spring back to 500# isn't going to soften it up.

i can push down on the trailer hitch and it feels soft and doesn't feel like its binding.

as far as the spring i weigh 280# and the wife weighs 180#. it was built with the medium spring. when i rode this thing home from the dealer with just me on it. the suspension was superb. almost felt like i was riding on a marshmallow. but now it feels stiff to me. but maybe i'm wording it wrongly. but this is what i'm feeling. when i'm on a road that if the rear tires hit a bump not togather but one tire hits the bump before the other this trike will rock to the point my feet will totally come off the floorboards. its like it will rock side to side extremely rough. it will also shake the fairing side to side.

as far as question 3 i will have to get back to you on that one. once i can get the rear jacked up.

but i can guarantee that something has definitely changed somewhere.

if it is a shock problem i'm not feeling anything abnormal when pushing the rear of the trike down by hand.

i know the first thing that is going to take road abuse is the tires. so i'm wondering if the sidewalls of these tires are so stiff that they are relying on the suspension to take all the abuse..

going to pick up my front wheel next week so i will have an answer to the differential. in a couple of weeks.

 

[3W-lonerider]

update on tire issue. went and got new tires put on saturday 4/4/21. on the ride home the trike felt different. the suspension felt normal again, no harshness or throwing my feet off the floorboards when the trike would rock from hitting bumps only with one rear tire.

haven't gotten caught on a wet road yet but i would venture to say that issue will probably be resolved as well. only thing i can think of is i either had 1 or 2 bad rear tires. either the rubber compound got hard or the rubber compound may not have been right from the factory. i will update on the wet road issue once i get caught in the rain.

 

[ol' school]

What brand of tires did you get?

 

[3W-lonerider]

What brand of tires did you get?

General Gmax rs.

done alot of research and came up with 5 tires that had an excellent rating as far as wet and dry traction. took the list to shetron tire and asked the owner, who has been in the tire business for 50 years to pick the best one. he picked the general. the other tires i had listed were.

bf goodrich g-force comp 2

bridgestone potenza re 980as

yokohama advan sport a/s

continental extreme contact sport.

 

[ol' school]

I hope that fixes your problem Rick!

 

[3W-lonerider]

I hope that fixes your problem Rick!

i hope so to. i do know it rides alot different now. its not rocking side to side to the point my feet are flying off the floorboards. suspension feels better. plus it steers better than before.

 

[ol' school]

Good deal!

 

[3W-lonerider]

got caught in a down pour today, riding from berkley springs west virginia. to martinsburg on route 9. any body that knows that road it is very twisty. new tires worked great. never lost traction. also the suspension still feels like it should and not like i'm riding a hard tail. so i'm very happy with the new tires, again a big thank you goes to csc for standing behind their product and being very concerned about something not right.

 

[ol' school]

Rick, glad you got things right on your trike! ThumbUp

And thanks CSC for standing behind your product! :good::10: