A tilting three-wheeler, tilting trike, leaning trike, or even just tilter, is a three-wheeled vehicle and usually a narrow-track vehicle whose body and or wheels tilt in the direction of a turn.[1] Such vehicles can corner without rolling over despite having a narrow axle track because they can balance some or all of the roll moment caused by centripetal acceleration with an opposite roll moment caused by gravity, as bicycles and motorcycles do.[1] This also reduces the lateral acceleration experienced by the rider, which some find more comfortable than the alternative. The narrow profile can result in reduced aerodynamic drag and increased fuel efficiency.[2] These types of vehicles have also been described as "man-wide vehicles" (MWV).[2]
As with tricycles that do not tilt, there are a variety of feasible choices of how the wheels are arranged, which wheels are steered, and which wheels are driven. In addition, there are a variety of feasible choices for which wheels tilt and which do not.
- ^ a b Stephen Nurse; Mark Richardson; Robbie Napper (September 2015). "Tilting Human Powered Trikes: Principles, Designs and New Developments". Australasian Transport Research Forum. Retrieved 2018-10-18.
- ^ a b Pauwelussen, J.P. (1999). "The dynamic behaviour of man-wide vehicles with an automatic active tilting mechanism". TUDelft. Retrieved 2018-11-12.