Talk:Reliant Robin

Comments

Is it a car or is a tricycle as far as taxation goes? I haven't the foggiest so I came here, however the history seems to suggest both sides of the coin. I think a reference is needed to back up the argument. --Philip Corner 00:40, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

It's classified the same as a motorcycle and sidecar (a "combination", or "outfit" in British parlance). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.2.254.222 (talk) 04:25, 14 August 2012 (UTC)

The categories it could have fallen into has changed over the years regarding licenses, I presume the same is with the vehicle classification. Pleasetry (talk) 14:22, 4 September 2012 (UTC)

Last line

It's called, "Chicken Killer", also, as that centre-mounted front wheel gets 'em every time.

I'm not sure if this is true, but regardless it's phased more as a joke than as fact so I am dubious. If it is true then can a citation be found? Might I suggest a more formal rewording before it's included in the text. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Philip Corner (talk • contribs) 00:45, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

Can't say I ever heard it in 30 years of life in the midlands. Jasper may even have made a joke about it being deadly for hedgehogs, but nothing about chickens. A normal car's undercarriage would break a chicken's neck anyway, unless it was somehow smart enough to duck pretty low. 193.63.174.211 (talk) 12:22, 12 July 2012 (UTC)

I'm not from the UK so I'm not totally sure, but can an vehicle really be registered as an "electronic donkey" or is this mere vandalism? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.24.25.146 (talk) 20:43, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

It was just vandalism, along with a number of other items. --MCB 19:36, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

Gelvan tullibole 3rd (talk) 19:09, 1 November 2008 (UTC) I believe the Robin was classed as a car as it left more than two tyre tracks unlike a motor bike sidecar combination.

It's classed as a tricycle for taxation as it weighs less than 8 cwt. They used to insist on no reverse gear as well, but that was dropped long since (factories made them with the gear blanked off and I believe people unblanked). Can't give reference - just know it! (The old Bond Minicar used to get round the reverse problem - you stopped the engine and then started it the other way round. Two stroke, of course. Reliants are four stroke.) Peridon (talk) 19:27, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

My late father who lived in NW England had a Reliant Rialto for many years and it said "Motorised Tricycle" on the tax disc as I recall, when I looked at the tax disc back in about 1989. Ours had reverse. Father had not got a full car license as far as I know. He could and did drive it on the Motorway back then but he wouldn't have been able to now since they changed the law. --Live Steam Mad (talk) 14:57, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

Nonsense. Unless he'd swapped the engine out for a 50cc (or a 125cc and was driving on a provisional license + CBT which might, possibly, maybe allow you to drive a modified Robin without a full bike license?) or made some other changes that meant it was no longer classed as a proper vehicle. Your general requirements for being allowed on the motorway are a full license, UK registration/tax/insurance/MOT, an engine over 50cc (or some permitted alternative power source with suitably high output (50s can typically manage 4-5HP, hence even a G-Wiz is allowed)), pneumatic tyres, engine and bodywork suspension, a lack of caterpillar tracks, and a free-running speed (ie straight and level road) of at least 25mph. That's it. Number and arrangement of wheels, gears, seats, open or closed body, even the laden weight or number of trailers doesn't matter (though you're limited to 40mph or less over certain weights or with more than one trailer). Most classes of agricultural, invalid-carriage or site work vehicles are prohibited by dint of their maximum speed being limitered to 20mph or less...

The actual law is often a lot weirder, but still more permissive, than many people think. If you could get type approval for a 10-ton, 250cc motorised gyro-balanced unicycle (suitably tuned and streamlined to just about reach 30mph on the level), then you'd be able to ride it on the motorway. Just with a tacho and a 90km/h speed limiter.193.63.174.211 (talk) 12:15, 12 July 2012 (UTC)

Incorrect--one can absolutely drive a Reliant Robin on any Motorway in the UK. here are the prohibited vehicles:

Rule 253 Prohibited vehicles. 

"Motorways MUST NOT be used by pedestrians, holders of provisional motorcycle or car licences, riders of motorcycles under 50 cc, cyclists, horse riders, certain slow-moving vehicles and those carrying oversized loads (except by special permission), agricultural vehicles, and powered wheelchairs/powered mobility scooters (see Rules 36-46 incl)."

[Laws HA 1980 sects 16, 17 & sch 4, MT(E&W)R regs 3(d), 4 & 11, MT(E&W)(A)R, R(S)A sects 7, 8 & sch 3, RTRA sects 17(2) & (3), & MT(S)R reg 10] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.123.62.239 (talk) 02:14, 5 January 2011 (UTC)

17/11/12 - In the citation regarding UK B1 licence category the description erroneously states that the vehicle must not have reverse gear. This point has been covered above, and the webpage cited does not make any reference to a presence or absence of reverse gear, so I have removed the phrase "without reverse gear" from the citation description.Baldy Bill (talk) 00:09, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

Space Robin

From the video, I count 6 of the Ceseroni engines in just the "external fuel tank" part of the space robin. There were also engines in the strap-on boosters and in the car itself. Each engine had about 1800 lbs of thrust. DonPMitchell (talk) 04:04, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Tamworth

"In the United Kingdom the Reliant Robin is sometimes affectionately nicknamed the "Plastic Pig" because of its distinctive shape and fibreglass body shell also because the cars were built in Tamworth." Annnddd so? I don't get the reference. Are there a lot of pigs in Tamworth? - Guest —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.207.242.4 (talk) 15:33, 7 July 2010 (UTC)

Not really relevant to the car, but there is a breed of pigs known as Tamworth pigs, presumably also bred in Tamworth. That's probably what was being referred to. Madgenberyl (talk) 14:51, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

Tamworths are a fairly well known breed (heck, the only one that I could name apart from yer Vietnamese pot-bellied ones). I've even - not by choice - ended up with a set of tea/coffee/sugar jars. The coffee pot features a cow... the sugar a sheep... and the tea a... pig. With tamworth patterning :) So couldn't that little factoid be re-added and kept? It's not like even the name itself could be that easily referenced. 193.63.174.211 (talk) 11:58, 12 July 2012 (UTC)

Among British motorcycle couriers the Honda CX500 was also known as the "Plastic Pig" so I think the "plastic" part is more relevant than Tamworth. Mr Larrington (talk) 17:34, 5 October 2014 (UTC)

Other occurences in popular culture

Wasn't this car also the butt of many jokes in the television series Mr Bean, in which he could crash in to it and cause it to roll over? Can anyone confirm this or provide more information? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.122.251.29 (talk) 12:32, 29 November 2010 (UTC)

- another editor has clarified this section as relating to the Reliant Regal. Baldy Bill (talk) 01:42, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

'French Correction': Tomber does not mean 'falling' in French; it means 'to fall'. Falling would be 'tombant' in French.

Rolling Over

It should be mentioned that the design of the car makes it more prone to roll over. Dsyn22 (talk) 03:23, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

If you can find a reliable source that states that then put it in, but in truth it's a bit of an urban myth and in normal driving, Reliants are actually no more prone to rolling over than most four wheeled road cars of the same vintage. Mighty Antar (talk) 19:19, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

OK, that's just not true. I'm including a source that sites how easily it'll turn over. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.63.114.63 (talk) 19:22, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

There was a bit about how Reliant Robins are much less prone to tipping over, which I found to be not credible. I followed the citation, and the author of that information clearly misconstrued or misunderstood that statistical information. They took the fact that today there were very few Reliant Robin accidents to mean they were safe vehicles. Well, today there are very few accidents involving 1985 Yugo GVs, but they are still one of the most dangerous cars ever made. So I deleted that section, I didn't replace it with my opinion. The cited article did not support the claim presented anyway. ForeverZero (talk) 16:03, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

Rear-two, front-one wheel tricycles with a steering front wheel are just inherently more prone to tipping due to the way they're balanced vs the forces placed on them... especially if you're braking at the same time. It's part of why many other manufacturers, such as Morgan and Messerschmitt, chose to make their 3-wheelers with two wheels at the front instead, despite it being somewhat less efficient in terms of interior space and engine location. Much more difficult to knock over as the tilting forces act on a corner wheel, rather than an unsupported bit of the body. (VW Beetle or motorcycle based trikes, or other rear-engined ones, don't have the same problem - at least, not anywhere near as much - as their centre of gravity is that much closer to the 2-wheel axle... and the rider can have more influence by shifting their bodyweight...)

You can still drive it with some speed fairly safely, but you have to adapt your driving style - brake as much as possible before the corner and try to keep a steady or even slightly increasing speed through it (a bit tricky if one of the drive wheels has already lifted off...), and be gentle and progressive with the steering so you can feel if it's about to turn over. If something requires to swerve "Elk Test" style - a sudden, sharp swerve under heavy braking, the way Clarkson and the Stig tend to drive almost all their cars - you're going to tip. There are 4-wheel cars that infamously failed this test even though they had a wheel at each corner... the Robin doesn't even have that advantage. Or the EPS type systems said 4-wheelers were then fitted with. 193.63.174.211 (talk) 12:07, 12 July 2012 (UTC)

Top Gear

I saw the episodes in question, the letter as read, bet that the Stig could drive the Robin with out tipping, rather than saying it couldn't be driven at speed. 98.206.155.53 (talk) 05:27, 7 April 2011 (UTC)

Instability

The primary cause of the Robin being rollover prone, even compared to most three wheeled cars was due to the fact that it had the engine and other heavy items up towards the front, meaning that all that weight got flung around in a turn and overturned the car. Other three wheeled designs that use a single front wheel tend to have a rear engine, see Scammel Scarab and Townsman, mazda three wheeled trucks, and more. All of those used a rear engine and were much more stable. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.137.108.52 (talk) 02:56, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

I used to have to make a sharp right turn on a steep hill on my daily drive to work. No problem until the offside rear wheel once hit a small stone during the turn. I only just managed to stop the car from rolling down the hill!

2010 Cleanup tag

While the editor who set the tag does not state a specific cleanup reason, the article appears heavily focussed toward the "popular culture" section instead of a more encyclopaedic tone focussing on facts about the vehicle. In my opinion it would be unnecessary to remove any of the popular culture section, as the car does hold a prominent place in British culture, the balance simply needs redressing by the sourcing of more vehicle-related information. A bit of grammar cleanup would also be beneficial. I have started this process by updating the Infobox to the current Wiki template and have moved the note under "production" (date-related) about Greece to "assembly" (location-related), as it seems to fit well there. Baldy Bill (talk) 01:38, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

Safety statement

The last line of the initial section currently states: "Despite the car's reputation for being unstable, a 2011 survey reported that Reliant Robin owners were statistically Britain's safest drivers." The fact that drivers of Robins are statistically safe drivers does not actually imply the inherent safety of the vehicle. On the contrary, the article seems to imply that the drivers of this vehicle simply learn how to handle it safely, and that 'They aren't unstable in corners if you don't take stupid risks or do what Jeremy Clarkson did and roll it over on a sharp bend'(Daily Mail article, 6/13/2011). In other words, the drivers are simply more safe because they know how to handle this vehicle (and they take the time to learn), not because the vehicle itself is inherently safer or more stable. I'm not really sure about this one, but I'd suggest we change it to "While the car has a reputation for being inherently unstable, a 2011 survey actually reported that the specific handling of the car lead many of its drivers to be incredibly safe drivers", or something a little less repetitive. Of course, I could just be reading this wrongly. 64.134.101.99 (talk) 18:10, 24 April 2013 (UTC)

Single Use

Can someone clarify the law a bit as trikes with a cc under 850 and designed for single use only (cannot carry a pillion or passengers) it appears on DVLA that you can ride one on a "L" plate — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.182.222.123 (talk) 22:53, 31 May 2015 (UTC)

Unfounded Myths

Nothing in this section is cited, and apparently it's been that way since March at the very least. Original research or not, it should either be tagged with sources or removed entirely. 73.170.250.204 (talk) 22:05, 23 July 2015 (UTC)

"British coalminers.... up North". This is surely vandalism!78.148.198.192 (talk) 16:22, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

For some reason I landed on your comment and find I agree with you. I removed the offending para. (You could have removed it yourself, though such actions do somehow carry more credibility if you get yourself a wiki-identity first: it's not THAT difficult, and you've already done the more difficult - and most important - bit which is thinking about it.) Success Charles01 (talk) 16:47, 10 March 2017 (UTC)