Originally Posted By P Dron
The stillborn Triking-Morgan commissioned by Merz und Pabst - and abandoned after only one had been half-built - was designed with sliding pillars (er, or not exactly). I have been told (by people who should know) that the sliding pillar "would never work" on the modern three-wheeler, one reason being that it would be too heavy.

It would be interesting to know what has become of this intriguing Guzzi-powered machine. I understand that it is now somewhere in Germany, perhaps gathering dust in the back of someone's garage. Triking actually supplied a double-wishbone front end for it as a replacement for the sliding (or not) pillars that were judged unsuitable.

I knew Tony Divey during the period of development of this machine. It was intended to build 100 units for the 100th anniversary of Morgan.

Tony was really not very well at the time, he never really fully recovered from a stroke, and I am sure that did not help. Also we did try to introduce Tony and someone from Merz & Pabst to the right people at Guzzi. Unfortunately they were going through one of their many transitions at the time and those responsible were too short sighted to see the possibilities and asked spare parts prices for the necessary Guzzi parts. I think that was a major discouragement for the project.

Work at Triking gradually slowed as Tony became more unwell and in time Triking was taken over by Alan Layzell who had worked for Triking for many years. Somewhere along the line the unfinished Morgan replica prototype was passed to another cycle car manufacturer, Arthur Rayner of Aero Cycle Cars. Arthur originally intended to complete the project but latter sold it.

Incidently Tony was an ex Lotus employee who worked with Colin Chapman so he knew a thing or two about suspension and steering. Suffice to say that when he designed the Triking he did not use the Morgan sliding pillar design.


Peter

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