Three-wheelers are back? As reported in RePlay, “A New Zealand invention may just give go-karts a new market competitor. A recently-published article detailed the new, three-wheeled “driftkarts,” found at BayStation in Tauranga and Velocity Karts in Christchurch.”

Experience Drift Triking.  Here is the link to a short video: https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/destinations/nz/112104854/move-over-gokarts-drift-triking-a-new-kiwi-invention-is-here

“Drift triking,” the phrase equivalent of “go-karting,” is simple. The trikes are powered by an electric front wheel. Riders kneel on the bike and use a throttle. However, they take more tact to ride than go-karts because they skid sideways each time you turn.

Writers who experience the driftkarts say that during the first few laps, “You’ll be doing circles all over the place, heading in the wrong direction and banging into everything … once you start to understand the delicate balance between power, steering and skidding – it becomes much easier to get around the track.”

The above facilities also have an invention from the same New Zealanders called “blokarts” that operate at the two locations. They are essentially wind-powered three-wheeled karts referred to as “land yachts.”

More information about the fun centers is available at www.baystation.co.nz or www.velocitykarts.nz.

BROOK SABIN  – You can get up to 25km/hr drift triking indoors.

After two years of development, a world-first electric drift trike was launched by Paul Beckett – the inventor of the blokart. Today, they can be found at BayStation in Tauranga and there’s also a fleet at Velocity Karts in Christchurch.

What this could mean? Drift triking reminds me of the 3-wheel all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) that I had and rode every weekend, enjoying the tight turns on two wheels. Then the 3-wheelers disappeared (too dangerous) and the 4-wheelers became popular.

I also remember riding jet skis and it didn’t take long for my knees to get banged up so I switched to riding wave runners (nice to sit on). So, my somewhat biased take on drift triking is that it looks like a lot of fun but do not think that go-kart operators have anything to worry about, at least here in the U.S.  The insurance companies are also encouraged to weigh in on this.

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