Recumbent - rear wheel or front wheel drive

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markhr

04-12-05, 12:26 PM

what are the advantages?

I'm thinking of building a tadpole recumbent and was wondering on which drive type would be better.

BlazingPedals

04-12-05, 02:17 PM

I only know of one FWD tadpole trike commercially available, and that's the one by A.S Engineering (http://www.aha.ru/~ykpro/index.htm) . The reason is mechanical simplicity and drivetrain efficiency. By necessity, the ASE trike is shaft drive, and putting power to the steered, driven wheels causes more loss than a chain setup going to the rear wheel. Still, I've always been impressed with the ASE trike - it looks cool, and efficiency be d*mned but the shaft drive has a super-high zoot factor! (YMMV.)

markhr

04-18-05, 08:39 AM

come on folks - you must have some preference whether it's based on efficiency or personal taste.