It is not my intention to provide a lot of information on this site about RT's that are not currently being manufactured, as our focus on this site is showing people what is currently available, or available soon, and can be built or purchased now.  The information I gather on these older designs is better suited to be included on a members DVD for the hardcore enthusiast.  So I offer a paid member DVD.  But they do lend credibility to the fact that there's historically been a lot of interest in the Reverse Trike design by many different people, and that interest has been shared by RT enthusiasts over a very long period of time.  

This is why I continue to add names and pictures of RT designs I run across on the 'Design Database' page.  There are also some good 1F2R designs out there that aren't included on this site because they're not within the scope of our general discussion.  If there are some 1F2R trikes that I think should deserve a special note, I may decide to create a separate page for them.  For now I have a link above to a 'crossover' page that should work well for this purpose, and I have a links page you should look at as well.

Historically, there's been a lot of interest in the Morgan design.  Looking at the very authenthic looking Jeluli Morgan Replica in our kit section, you'll notice that there are a few other similar looking designs currently available like the JZR, CV3, CX3, ACE, Triking and maybe a few other designs I'm not aware of yet.  So if you like this older design from the 1930's era, you can buy something that's considered to be a fairly exact replica like the Jeluli, or just a kit that's just similar to the Morgan design like the ones I just mentioned.  These seem to be much more popular in Europe than in the US, but this basic design does seem to have the largest following by enthusiasts of the RT vehicle.  Judging by price alone it appears that the various Morgan style replica's are probably the best value out there, but this is not the design I get the most enquiries about.

What probably 50-75% of people ask about are fully enclosed RT's like the Alé concept, Aptera, Comet, or XR3 kit for instance.  In this group there are few enclosed designs currently available as you can see, but this is why I wanted to show some pictures of these older designs since there are some older enclosed RT kits.  Also in the USA, it seems there's more interest in high performance, 'go-fast' RT's.  People don't always care so much about gas mileage as they do breaking the speed limit.  

On occasion an enclosed Tri-Magnum, Puma, Fire-Aero or similar design may come up for sale, and if you're in the market for a good deal on an enclosed RT, then it helps to know what designs were made so you can keep your eyes open for one when it does become available.  So, watch our classified ads, set up a search profile in your ebay account for these names if you have an account with ebay, join our discussion group or other RT discussion groups, or get involved with the RT crowd and you may find one of these for sale at a bargain price one day.  

We all know if there's a big enough demand for a product, someone will eventually step in and fill the need.  Your part of the equation is to get involved and create the demand!  Get in the groups, get the discussions going, share ideas and let people know what you think you want and don't be surprised if what you want becomes a reality someday!

If you know of plans, kits or complete trikes that we don't have listed I would like to hear about them so I can add this info to my site.  I think there's room for more kits in the $5000 - $15,000 range.  I've talked to some of the 'plans built' designers to see if any of them might consider offering their plans built kit as a complete kit instead.  Depending on which design we're talking about, that would be a complete body and frame, or complete frame whichever applies, with the front suspension, steering assembly, wiring, gauges, brakes or whatever is needed to make a road ready trike minus the donor parts.

So far it seems that the guys selling plans either don't have the finances or don't want to commit the finances to make and build kits to offer to the general public.  That could mean renting a building, hiring a crew and expensive liability insurance requirements as well.  With nothing to gauge the possibility of success of such an investment, I understand why there's not much in in the way of complete kits available and never has been.  With the higher gas prices and the renewed interest in riding motorcycles to work to save fuel, this could change.  I think the RT community needs to be on the front end of this trend if we ever want to see general acceptance of these trikes in the marketplace.  In general, this is my goal for this discussion group and this domain.  Get involved!  The more RT's we get on the road, the more we'll of established the credibility for the RT design over the long haul and more companies will decide to make a product for us.

Especially with the members of the discussion group, at some point in the future when there's enough RT owners out there, this site should be a real clearinghouse for the pro's and con's on each design.  When someone hits this site and wants to know how we like this design or that design, or they want to know how good a particular company takes care of their customers and that sort of thing, we should establish a feedback record by owners of each RT so we know the in's and out's of each design.  At some point we should have a real database of information to help new owners make a good decision on which RT would best suit their needs, and what things to 'look' for or to 'look out' for.  At the rate new members are joining our Yahoo discussion group, that day really shouldn't be too far off if members chip in their two cents.