ECO-EXO kit builders license is being offered.

[DaveJ98092]

Stuart Mills is a kit car and trike manufacture in England and has for a few years offered a license to build an exposed skeleton (EXO) reverse trike called Eco-Exo and Eco-Exo-R and is based off of a Burgman 400cc Scooter engine. These trikes are a blast and get good gas mileage too. There are about 6 total in the USA and about double that in Europe.

Link to Offer.

You would need to talk to Stuart about all the terms of the license but it seems to be a fair offer. Look at this posting and if you think you can do it then contact Stuart thru PM. Just be forewarned, it is busy time for Kit Car manufactures in Europe so Stuart is very busy. So before just PM'ing him, please go over to the forum and look at some of the builds, ask a question of one of the builders and think about it.

Link to Owners Builds.

The current kit sells for $4200 to $4700 BEFORE shipping to USA, about another $950 to your local Air Freight office.

And NO, a BIGGER Burgman 650 engine WILL NOT FIT or WORK due to engine length. A Burgman 650 engine with swingarm is a real long sucker.

[dain]

I hate to be "that guy" but I tend to speak my mind...

Personally I think the design is crap. It's a demonstration of how someone with resources can produce a kit for a trike that uses scooter components. It is even so lazy as to use the scooter handlebars, what fun is that? Before you lay into me with a different opinion take a good look at the frame - it is full of all kinds of fancy bent pieces that serve no overall design style and seem to have no reason. Anyone else feel this way?

[Liteway]

reversetrike.proboards.com/thread/563/eco-exo.

I like this one, though I suppose its as much due to builder's attention to detail as anything.

Not likely to blow the doors off a Vette, but
I think its quite practical, compact and sure to be fun to drive. Power should be okay for anything but the freeways, not overpowering its back wheel as many high powered tadpole trikes will. It can have its weight front biased for stable handling without the back wheel getting smoked off.

Note this guy has a proper steering wheel too. My biggest objection is the funky loop over the front wheels, though I understand it is necessary to make the design work with cycle wheels.

I think we can use strong opinions expressed on the forum to spice it up. Keep it up Dain.

[DaveJ98092]

The design is simple for just that reason. It is a $4300 trike kit that uses about 80% of the doner plus a few extras like a second front wheel. It is designed in England a few years ago when the Exo craze hit. The license owner is wanting to upgrade it some and that is one of the reasons of looking for a USA/Canada builder.

But if all our tastes were the same we'd ALL be driving something like a Yugo.

[dain]

Someone pointed this kit out to me last year - I'm certainly not against using motorcycle components especially the powerplant, but using the front wheels/tires and linking them to a suspension is ridiculous when a Miata front end OR a complete front suspension from an ATV if weight is a concern can be obtained for less than $300 that uses wheels designed to handle the axial loading that motorcycle wheels simply aren't designed for!

[DaveJ98092]

In the conversations with the license owner Stuart, he understands that this trike kit needs updating. He is willing to work with the person's that he grants a license to. The old kit was for 1999-2006 Burgman 250's but they updated it for 1999-2006 Burgman 400's. Then the USA importer did a few mods and made the Eco-Exo R model that uses a steering wheel, column and Rack and Pinion from a Fiat 500.

But Suzuki made many changes to the 2007 and up Burgman 400 and it does not bolt in without modification's. Different motor = more power, different shock mounts and the front tires went up an inch and do not fit the 180 degree hoop over the wheel. All these mod's will need to be worked out with Stuart as 2002-2006 USA model Burgman 400's are harder to find.

This frame is a bit harder to make due to a compound bend. The tube is first bent in the middle for the 180 degree nose. Then the top part has a side radius bend to bow out and back in. The first 180 degree bend can be done easily on any good bender and then hand clocked in a roller to do the radius. A $10,000 CNC bender can do all this but how many kits do you have to make to break even?

[dain]

Dave - I agree the frame CAN be made without the use of a CNC bender. My guess is the radius was an attempt to copy an Ariel Atom, since it's exo-frame is comprised of 4 long radius'd pieces. A much better looking chassis requiring much fewer resources is certainly possible. We had discussed a few months ago under my "Vtwin trike" design the idea of using a burgman. Neglecting the cost of the scooter, I believe that vehicle could easily be made for less than $2k including buying a tubing notcher.