A Trotter-free zone!

This month, for once, Mick Payne look at three-wheelers of a different kind, and points out that the idea goes back a very long time!

While looking at the Honda outfit we featured in this column last month, a three-wheeler of a different kind caught my eye. “That’s my wife’s Lomax,” pointed out Anthony of Pembrokeshire Classics. “She
uses it for VMCC events, and we’re just checking it over for the Saundersfoot Trial.”

The Seal was another pioneering three-wheeler – essentially like an outfit driven from the chair.

Three-wheelers have always had a certain following among motorcyclists – and forget Reliant Regals and Robins! There have been plenty of sporting trikes throughout motorcycling history, and they certainly offer the bike club experience to those who cannot or would rather not ride a solo or outfit.

Reliant three-wheelers, it must be said, offered a way into the comfort of a car to holders of motorcycle licences, but they were pre-dated by such vehicles as the Scott Sociable and the Seal, both of which were basically asymmetric devices like an outfit but driven from the inside – in the case of the Seal, from basically the sidecar!

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The sporting man or woman, however, would have chosen one of the three-wheelers with the single wheel at the rear, the most famous being the Morgan.

Arguably the most iconic of the German bubble cars was the Messerschmitt three-wheeler – and have you seen the prices they’re fetching today?

I’ve been fortunate enough to have driven a vintage Morgan as well as a replica in the guise of a Honda CX500-powered JZR kit car, and both were great.

The JZR, though, had both an oil-tight engine and the stopping power of modern discs.

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Addressing the limitations of classic models, Morgan has now brought out a three-wheeler for the 21st century – but it isn’t cheap!

Read more in November’s issue of OBM – on sale now!


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