I'm sure that a well made and set up trike is a whole 'nother story from the Chinese POS I played with. As for the blowout, I think there was a slow leak in the rear tire -- they topped it off right when I rode it off, and it seemed OK for the rest of the day. We had it for 24 hours, so the second morning we just putted around the resort area. I made a u-turn in front of a shopping area, and that's when the pop-pfffssst! happened. At least we had someplace comfortable to hang out it till they picked us up!
Mrs. Doc at the shopping area
The rest of the sperm whale skeleton:
Still, I think the basic trike design is flawed. The two wheels in back, one in front tends to topple rather than slide. With the two in front, one in back, the rear wheel will slide if overpowered, similar to a rear wheel drive car. That's why it was used in the classic Morgan and the current Can-Am. The Piaggio is designed to act like a two wheeler with a monster contact patch in front.
A trike, like a child's velocipede tricycle, topples without any warning when cornered hard -- that's why the three wheel ATVs were banned. The "Big Wheel" kid's tricycle has a center of gravity well below the center of the front wheel, so on a smooth surface the rear wheels will slide.
Guess who's had this conversation regarding tricycles and grandkids??
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