Hmm, you mean rear-mount a normal bike engine? Like the Rewaco trikes?
Rewaco.com That's a weird one. I guess it'd work. Reliant prop shafts rotate anti-clockwise -the opposite way to most bike engines, so you normally have to flip the axle over to avoid ending up with 5 reverse gears, (yes, I
did manage to do that on my first build!). If you mounted the motor behind the axle I guess it'd work. Not sure of the cut of the diff gears though. You might get a lot of backlash, (sloppiness), in the drive, or that whining noise you sometimes get when reversing a car at speed. Biggest problem I can see is that you'd have to mount the engine pointing directly backwards, which would hang a lot of weight out back beyond the line of the axle. No more than a VW engine though. Making it look good, (routing the exhaust system etc), would be a challenge. Or you could mount the engine sideways & hook it up to the trike builders' favourite, an XS Yam bevel box, to turn the drive through 90 degrees.
An interesting idea.
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