I need help in finding the best engine for my trike. I am building a trike with ONE wheel in the front. It needs to be FWD with the engine placed between the front wheel and the driver. I already know that this is a crazy setup so knock it down all you want. I have already heard it as there is a method to my madness.

I need a bike engine that is air-cooled, has a small footprint (2-Cyl?), chain or prop, has a minimum of 50hp and can be converted to a FWD setup as described above.

Please reply with specific bike engines or models.

[Edited on 12/2/07 by ChefChristian]

Tell me it's front wheel steer too, to make it a bit more difficult.....

actually it will be rear steer with drum brakes

WTF? Why bother with something like that? Is it gonna be used as a circus prop or something? This is quite possible the most ridiculous setup ever...

I think you could use just about any chain drive bike motor, just by extending the "front" sprocket out from the side of the gearbox so that the chain can be run forwards. You would probably need an additional out-board bearing to support the extension shaft.
Alternatively, you could use a shaft drive bike engine and mate it to a shaft drive rear wheel from a different make of bike that uses a different shaft rotation direction (if one exists). Or, turn the engine 90 degrees and connect the front sprocket to a shaft drive bike rear end...maybe. Actually I done know enough about shaft drive bikes.. but you can see where I'm going with this.

And... Why?

Brian

I am now looking into a snowmobile engine. I like the idea of a Rotax/CVT. Any assistance with this would be greatly appreciated.

To prove how sane/insane I am, I have attached a picture of my inspiration.
Rescued attachment greenmachine2d.jpg

That thing actually looks sort of cool. If it's going to be just for fun, it may be worth looking into electrical motors? It may simplify things a lot. You'd have a very small range, but it would be fun to play around with.

You could use Honda p50 parts. These might be a bit hard to find, but it is a moped with the engine mounted inside the rear wheel. You could use this rear wheel as the front wheel of your three-wheeler. here is a link http://www.motorera.com/honda/h0050/moped/moped.htm

http://www.cyclechaos.com/wiki/Honda_P50
here's one for sale: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HONDA-P50-MOPED-FOUND-UNDER-A-WOOD-PILE-BASKET-CASE_W0QQitemZ260076054598QQihZ016QQcategoryZ9806QQcmdZViewItem

I would suggest you look at twist and go scooter motors. What about a Suzuki Bergman (burger van). Single pot 400cc complete trailing arm unit construction.
Good luck with the project it looks great.
From my experience 10 mph with rear steer is massive fun but potentially very dangerous to say the least. See if you can get a ride on a 3 ton dumper on a building site before you go much further.Keep me posted. Regards Stig

Just thought please cancel my idea for a scooter unit as it would go backwards!
That might be even more dangerous.

Here's the next size up:



AS SOLD ON EBAY

You could have a small motor drive the front wheel . . . .

[Edited on 29/12/07 by carcentric]