Yes, the Breakout was more nimble overall with its 477 lb lighter weight, and yes it made at least 10 rwhp more than the trike, so it was a hotrod compared to the trike, BUT:

Standing still, the Breakout always threatens to fall over (and do expensive damage), until you put down the sidestand. AND, the sidestand has to be on solid, not soft ground. The trike considers this ungracious and immature behaviour and says “Look - no sidestand no hands, ANY type of ground, no problem”. Call me demanding, but I LIKE that degree of accommadation.

On a slight forward slope, the Breakout leaves you wondering if as soon as you let go of the bars, it will roll forward, sweeping the sidestand up, and fall over. The trike says “if you set the parking brake, I’m not going anywhere. And if you forget to set the parking brake, I’ll roll slowly at first so you can catch me before I roll into something. If you forget to look and SEE that I am rolling, I’ll do some minor rear end or frontend damage if you let me roll far enough, but I’ll still not fall over and necessitate replacement of any body parts.”

Once you start to move from a dead stop, the Breakout insists on a careful choreographing of the clutch and throttle to stay upright. The trike says “Be as ham handed as you like. I ain’t falling over”.

On sharp turns to the right from a dead stop, the Breakout with its 240mm rear tire always said "Don't twist me so hard", while the trike turns as sharp as I’d like without complaint and with zero threat of falling over.

If you stop on the Breakout, you have to remember to put at least one foot down to the ground, and make sure it is solid and not slippery ground, and especially not gravel. The trike couldn’t care less how you stop. It won’t fall.

The trike really cannot EVER fall over unless I were to enter a sharp turn at a stupidly-high speed.

The electric reverse gear is absolutely wonderful. Using the button sure beats the hell out of foot paddling uphill backwards.

Using brakes on gravel or wet roads doesn’t scare me anymore. I suppose I might slide, but I know I’ll not immediately tip over.

Gravel parking lots don’t scare me anymore. Even ones with a slope.

Riding gravel ROADS doesn’t even scare me anymore. And you KNOW you’re going to encounter gravel road construction segments on any long trip. Plus there’s that short but steep gravel road from the reservoir dam down to a beautiful green area right below the waterfall and right beside the water that I’ve always longed to ride down but the Breakout kept saying “Not on me, guy!”

Riding the Breakout on mud would have been out of the question. Mud might make the trike squirm, but the trike will never tip over.

Other riders have proved that you can ride a trike in snow. Any attempt to do that with the Breakout would be very brief and pretty spectacular.

The Sharknose fairing lets me laugh at both the wind and the cold. That’s great because we get a LOT of wind, and cold, around here in Southern Alberta, Canada.

Getting a passenger safely mounted onto the Breakout without incident is an adventure, and once she gets on there, she complains about the short and narrow seat, AND does not really understand that on a 2-wheeler she must lean with you in turns even though it seems dangerously risky. On the trike, she steps on easily using the passenger floorboards, loves the wider seat, and it doesn’t matter that she doesn’t lean because the trike couldn’t care less.

Then there’s the visibility issue. With the Breakout, I always had to assume I was, per Star Trek language, totally “cloaked” like The Klingon warbirds, because cagers only see things that could potentially kill them, and the low and narrow Breakout looks too small to do so. With the trike, the BIG wide profile and twin headlights, and the sheer weirdness, make the cagers hesitate about turning left into your path long enough for you to skim past them (hand still covering that front brake regardless).

Also, when thinking about a future transcontinental trip, the Breakout always seemed to say "Dont' put bags on me that make me look fat! Like any woman, I like to be slim, and by the way, loaded up bags are likely to make me want to fall even more!" Whereas the trike says "Hey, I can carry about 3500 cubic inches, which is 3 times what you've calculated you need for a transcon trip, without even a rack or tour pack, and I'll STILL continue to look as skinny and sexy as the day you married me!"

And finally, that left leg muscle pain and weakness that emerges a little too often lately used to make me hesitate about taking a ride when it did so, because, hey, you NEED a reliable left leg to ride the 2-wheeled Breakout. But with the trike, if you can somehow crawl onto the machine, you can ride it without fear of dropping it!

Jim G

 

Amen to that !!!

 

At some point, as one ages, one gets tired of mimicking the dude on Laugh In, many years ago.

 

I remember being aware of Laugh In, but never watched it. What did that dude do?

Jim G

 

Artie Johnson. He would ride a tricycle and tip over, probably the best part of the show

 

[QUOTE=5wheels;21833942]Artie Johnson. He would ride a tricycle and tip over, probably the best part of the show I liked Goldie Hawn. Artie Johnson was very- interesting but stupid.