ROADSMITH Adjustable Swingarm and Differential (Belt-Drive)

ROADSMITH’s new adjustable-length swingarm features an all-new adjustment system and also carries our differential, which features a housing that encases a set of spider gears and is filled and permanently-sealed with gear lube.

It’s this kind of attention to detail and modern engineering that looks simple for the outside, but are actually quite labor-intensive to produce. However, the end result for you the consumer is a much simpler and efficient design to both use and maintain; we don’t want to leave you halfway through some trip, out in the middle of nowhere, and in need of some special parts or tools to be able to make a simple adjustment or minor fix to your trike!

Not to mention, our aim with all our conversion kits is to keep as many of the parts on your ROADSMITH trike readily-available and off-the-shelf, making them easy to find for many more years to come.

ROADSMITH’s new, adjustable-length swingarm and differential now features a unique-to-trike’s adjustment system. This system works, more-or-less, by turning a hex-key that directly connects to a central cam-style adjuster.

When the hex-key is turned in a clockwise direction, it moves the cams inside the swingarm evenly backwards, thus moving the differential away from the center of the machine, tightening the trike’s drive-belt by moving the large sprocket rewards until the your belt has the desired amount tension on it (turning the hey-keys counter-clockwise moves the large sprocket in the opposite direction and reduces the amount of tension on the belt).

Once in the desired position, simply tighten the nuts that sit on the ends of each of the swingarm’s legs to lock the rear sprocket in place, and you’re done.

This setup is very similar to that of a traditional, high-end modern-motorcycle, but is relatively new to the world of three-wheelers. Why? To put it simply, engineering in this level of adjustability for the rear differential on a trike is a bit more difficult.

This is because you are now doing it with an added rear wheel and the additional parts needed to power that added wheel. Add into the equation that all these added parts are now in the confined space that comes as a result of the enclosed rear-end of a trike conversion kit, and you can see where the difficulty comes in.

But just cause something is difficult doesn’t mean we at ROADSMITH are going to shy away from trying to make it work, especially if the benefits are as substantial as those gained with our new adjustable swingarm.