2002 Boss Hoss Roadster Trike

What weighs 1500 lbs, has 385 hp and hangs out with the Lehman Trike / Goldwing and trailer set? The big bad Boss Hoss Trike. Many riders turn to trikes either because of injuries, advancing years or the desire to haul more stuff to all those rallies held every year. From the rider’s perspective, you are still out in the wind and the only people who notice you have three wheels are spectators; all you can see is your handlebars and tank, just like a two-wheeler.

The benefits of triking are immediately apparent: you don’t have to put your foot down when you stop, there’s no wrestling a heavily loaded touring bike off its kickstand, traffic jams aren’t much of a pain since your feet stay up all the time, your gear stays dry in the trunk, and you command more space on the road and hence are more visible. The drawback to triking is mainly just the expense, no one makes a cheap one.

I would argue that the best deal on the three-wheeled road is the Boss Hoss Trike. It comes in four body styles: ‘57 Chevy, Corvette, Sierra pickup, and ‘32 roadster. It also gives you a choice of three engines: a 200 hp V6, a 355/385 hp V8 or the no warranty, best wishes 500 hp Big Block V8. The price range is $33,000 to $40,000 with most models concentrated in the low to mid-30’s. While this sounds like a lot, try putting a Lehman Trike kit on a twin cam Ultra Glide for under $30K; it can be done but only on a high mileage used Harley, not a new or low mileage one.

Let’s say you’ve figured out that there’s a trike in your future, the kids are out of college and the asking price doesn’t deter you. What do you get for your money? You get a brand new aluminum-headed, 350 Chevy engine with a four barrel carburetor, a stout frame made from 1.5” chrome molly tubing and a 350 Turbo Hydromatic transmission with three speeds, reverse and park. This drivetrain/ chassis combo puts the power to the road through a narrowed, Ford 8.8 rear end. Basically, you get a very powerful, lightweight automobile with just one wheel in front. Kind of like a kit car Cobra with a wide glide front end. From a maintenance perspective, how many miles do you think you could put on such heavy duty car parts, understressed at having to carry just 1500 lbs? You might factor this into the purchase price, since with a little luck, you will be looking at only oil and filter changes for many thousands of miles. Our experience with Boss Hoss trikes at Barnett Harley-Davidson has been 100% positive. They rack up miles just like cars.

Sitting on the trike for the first time, you’ve probably just banged your foot on the right rear fender. It is hard to remember those wheels are there for a while. Once seated, you look down at the fattest fat bobs in existence, 27” across at the bow and about 16” at the stern. They hold about nine gallons. An array of five gauges entertains you, with the only one missing, the gas gauge, being most necessary (V8 four barrel, remember?). The super wide beach bars reach back to greet you and everything within eyesight glitters with chrome. Boss Hosses are more or less Titan class in the custom world.

Hitthe starter and the light-flywheeled engine quickly pops to a start and settles down to a lumpy, powerful sounding idle. The pronounced rightward torque reaction on the two-wheelers is pretty much totally absorbed by the 60” wide, ten to twelve foot long trike (the length varies according to the body style). Reach down with your left hand, grab the Hurst style automatic shift lever and drop her into drive. You take off just like in a car, with the tranny shifting for you. The trikes actually feel a little faster off the line than the bikes since there are three gears and the Turbo Hydromatic is less squishy than the two-speed; seemingly absorbing fewer horsepower to operate.

The Boss Hoss trike tracks straight and true and there isn’t a hint of instability in turning even at high speeds. Again, the long wheelbase and five foot width act together with the super low center of gravity to give the Boss Hoss the safest feeling of all the trikes.I doubt you could ever get the trike to lift an inside wheel on a turn. I couldn’t get it to do it, even horsing around treating it like a sidecar. The purpose made giant forks and rear shocks on the Boss Hoss soak up the bumps reasonably well and the brakes are more than adequate.

Overall, from a safety perspective, the Boss Hoss trikes are tops. As long as you are judicious with the throttle, but that goes without saying. I admit here and now I didn’t hold the throttle wide open on this test, I didn’t open the secondaries and I didn’t do any burnouts. Afterall, I’m looking at the three wheeler as a practical, rally going, luggage and passenger toting, vehicle-for-life-type-bike. I’m sure the Boss Hoss can handle burnouts and general bad behavior but the biggest surprise I had on my three hundred mile, two mountain pass, three city tour was how pleasant and useful the vehicle was. When my knee finally gives out and I retire from the shop and take Rodent’s rally job, the Boss Hoss trike will be a top pick, especially if I plan a live-on-the-bike rally year as a reward for all these years of selling bikes and writing about them.

When I started the trip, I was a little apprehensive. I didn’t know if an all day trip was going to be comfortable and pleasant on the beast. But I can report that all my worries were in vain. The heat of the engine you are so tightly wrapped around was insignificant at highway speeds and even when I was caught up in traffic. The ceramic coated headers are well-shielded. The riding position was all day comfortable and the vibrationless engine kept away any numbness in the extremities. The other surprise was the roto-tiller steering which many riders forget about when buying a trike was not tiring since the factory fitted the widest bars around and thought out the rake and trail figures correctly. I’ve seen other trike riders panting after a curvy mountain section, pushing and pulling on their too-narrow bars and stabilizing the front end with their arms instead of engineering.

I plan to test a Lehman trike kit soon and one of the bolt on “training wheel” style kits as well. I will report on how well these handle compared to this purpose built, trike-from-the-start Boss Hoss. Overall, after my first trike test, I’m glad to say that there’s life after two wheelers. Injuries, balance problems or overly-luggaged wives do not have to take motorcycling off your schedule.

- Mark Barnett