So, you went out and bought a thingy to ride around on and beat the taxes...Oops.

You've seen them around, and you have heard the arguments. Trikers and some bikers consider a Trike a Bike, A lot of Bikers don't.  In the past few years there has been an influx of companies building what they consider a trike and many consider a car or a wheeled snowmobile. 

In days past a trike was just what it sounded like, a three wheeled bike, motorized or pedaled, it was still basically a bike.  The critters had three wheels yes, but they had a motorcycle seat, handle bars, and no roof. 

There were even reverse trikes, mainly used commercially for deliveries.

Or for special purposes.

There were even kits made that would add two wheels to the rear of a bike and it would look like a trike, it was cheaper sometimes to convert rather than buy a new bike. If you looked close though, these had four wheels, the two original and two added coasting wheels for stability.

And there were true motorcycle to trike conversions available.

The reverse trike came in with a fury in the form of Razors and Spiders. 

These are the ones that many look at as Wheeled Snowmobiles

There are some more motorcycle looking reverse trikes out there,

In the last couple years there have been many new additions to this reverse "trike" flurry, 

This is where the real battle for identity has taken place.
 In quite a few States these fall under the motorcycle heading, and because so, insurance, the lack of a 5 mph impact bumper bumpers, and a myriad of other little things slip through because motorcycle laws are different than automobile laws.

Well, there is a move to re-designate what is what and there is a new "official" term in the wind. A motion has gone through to the Federal government to re-examine what is a motorcycle. While there are quite a few items and designs being examined and sifted through to see what falls in what catagory, the three currently specified items are a roof, car seats and a steering wheel. If whatever you ride has the combination of two of these things you may find that the motorcycle you bought is now a "Autocycle" 

Autocycles will be in a category unto themselves and tax, insurance and safety laws will follow.

The funny thing is, The Auto manufacturer Morgan had a three wheeled vehicle years and years ago, two in the front and one in the rear, it was classified as a car, it even raced in Automobile events. So it makes me wonder why after all this time we are looking at taking these three wheelers out of the motorcycle list, when they knew years ago it wasn't a bike.

So, Close your eyes, climb "inside", get comfortable, OK, open your eyes...

Now, is this a bike?