The Sportcycle was a 3 wheeler designed by Jim Musser, using a Kawasaki ZRX 1100 as the power source. Actually, it uses almost the entire ZRX 1100, you just remove the forks and connect everything else into the Sportcycle front end. Controls for the throttle, clutch, transmission and rear brake attach to the front assembly. The gauges are transferred to the cockpit. The front looks something like an old Formula racer, you have a single cockpit with seat, steering wheel, pretty much everything a standard open wheel racer would have.
I noticed this one for sale on eBay and according to the listing it's the original built by Jim Musser as the prototype for the kits that followed. This one has some Muzzy parts and pieces and comes in with 134hp on the dyno. He also fabricated a custom rear end to accept the wider rim and automotive tire.
It looks pretty cool from the front but it seems a little odd from the rear, like a motorcycle rear ended a race car, but handling and performance were probably pretty sweet. Neat.
Link: Sportcycle
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A great way to make Formula 1 racing more affordable.
I wouldn’t mind buying the cool luggage rack/spoiler though. The car tire at the back is MadMax cool!!
Hmmmm…nice idea, but the lines don’t work for me.
My brothers friend built this F1 inspired trike about 7 years ago, I don’t know the current status, or if anymore were ever built, but this thing was awesome. Built from scratch. Check it out:
http://www.geocities.com/f1_trike/F1PhotoGallery.html
The bike in back is fugly, but it would be really simple to remove the seat and put in some cowling to make the lines flow better. I want one.
I wonder what it would be like to ride on the back. WOOHOO!!
Would that backseat be the for the Tailgunner? Can you mount a 50cal?
The Sportcycle is pretty nice, but it certainly is not nearly as elegant as Jamieson DuRette’s one-off Indycycle…
http://www.indycycle.net/main.htm
It looks like it’d be fun to ride (drive?). I wonder why the original plastic and seat was kept on the zx, and not cowled over, is it a “quick remove’ kit that can have you tooling down the streets in 2 hours on a regular bike again? If not then I think a complete cowl setup like the Indicycle that Mr Tanshanomi had mentioned would be better.
Either way, there’s a lot of engineering and thought that went into them, and they BOTH are excellent adaptations of a reverse trike.
Looked cool from the front, then I saw the bike parked in the back. At that point, Ive stopped thinking cool and thought it looks like someone went through great lengths to make a cool machine, and then said f^&$ it half way through, and slapped a wing on the seat, then called it a day.
heh, cool – just think, you could have two passengers!
It’s a good idea, but if you wanna a much more stylish one, just see this one :
http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/5613/dscf3046fh7.jpg
it’s Rayvolution Cars, a european based kitcar manufacturer and this picture was taken in Peterborough Kitcar show (Uk)
http://www.rayvolutioncars.com
If you click through the pictures on the eBay page, you can see that the front suspension is a little bit scary. I’m not really sure how it’s supposed to work independently without huge flexing on that subframe.
That rear end is just plain WRONG!
What’s with the Ferrari logo? It makes it look really tacky.