Like me you may have noticed a recent upsurge of interest in the VW Beetle trike, once the mainstay of three-wheeled fun on the UK's roads. The Beetle trike was, after all, the original design imported from California in the mid sixties that was to revolutionise our thinking about what could be done with an air-cooled German car and a hacksaw. The original Wil-Mac and Stires trikes that we used to painstakingly copy from blurry photos were cheap, crude and lots of fun. More recently the continentals have discovered the joys of Beetle triking, and some very well engineered ready-made trikes are now available on our shores, albeit priced to reflect their compliance with Germany's stringent TuV laws.

After a life dodging the English weather on two and three wheels, when Mr.G decided to emigrate to the sun he naturally wanted to take a trike with him. Something tried and tested that would be reliable, fun, and easy to service in a distant land far away from CNC equipped workshops. So he trotted off to see Tony at B&I Engineering, and between the two of them they began to plot the beauty you see before you.

Now Tony has been around the block and is no stranger to building trikes of all shapes and sizes, so as this project began to take shape he was able to bring years of experience and some fresh thinking to make some significant improvements to this most traditional of trike designs. Abandoning the old single-spar chassis he put together a much more solid and elegant tubular steel chassis which is not only stronger but also lighter than anything you might have seen on a VW trike before.

To optimise weight distribution he located the battery well forward between the chassis rails, and mounted a modified Quickbob fuel tank above it. Not only does this layout vastly improve weight distribution, it also meant that the traditional fibreglass body shape could be re-worked to give more room for the passengers, who can sit further back than before. Now I've ridden on a couple of Beetle trikes, I particularly remember a freezing cold moorland journey on the back of my mate Shaggsy's trike some years back, and I can tell you that even with two of us on the back of this one there was much more room. I could relish the prospect of riding some distance on this one, particlularly in the company of the delicious Trisha.

To ensure the trike goes as well as it handles Tony fitted a brand-new-fresh-out-of-the-box 1600 engine fitted with Baja exhausts and air filter all supplied by Halifax Beetles. Even the running gear is state of the art, behind those specially made Revoultion alloys are a set of Peugeot 205GTi calipers gripping Beetle discs, all operated from a Kawasaki master cylinder. The front end is held aloft by a Kawasaki ZXR600 front end in B&I alloy slab yokes. The finish had to be durable too, that stunning yellow is actually a self-coloured gel coat, which means minor scuffs can simply be polished out. The frame is finished in two-pack black (though Tony says it would have been easier to opt for powder coating), and the seats were supplied by the legendary Tony Archer.

Because of Tony's careful design and attention to detail this trike weighs in at only 380Kg, which with the 1600 motor makes an impressive power to weight ratio. This thing is no slouch, believe me I've ridden it! The whole project has in fact been so successful that Tony has now taken orders for two more trikes along similar lines, and is considering offering them in kit form from only £1500. Compare that to some of the prices asked for state-approved european designs. And because everything was new this trike gets a proper registration as a new vehicle, and avoids the social stigma of a Q plate.

You probably won't see this trike on UK roads as shortly after I took the photos Mr.G was due to ride it to its new home in sunny Cyprus. Lucky bastard. Contact B&I Engineering on 01484 511534, and say we sent you.

Dr.Rod.