In most places North of here, the little three wheeled taxi/transporters are of the sort with tiny little wheels... They are either Piaggio or Bajaj brand... and they work well enough.
But here in Peru, they are different... They are of a larger wheeled variety...
In fact, on closer inspection, they are all made from the standard parts for the ubiquitous 125cc motorbikes that are everywhere south of the US. And they are not just cobbled together out of spare/used parts, they are manufactured new here by Honda and Yamaha, and a bunch of directly copied designs (called reverse engineering) from Chinese and Indian companies etc.
But, the striking thing to me is that these little vehicles have a remarkable resemblance to the original mass produced vehicle, the Ford Model T... particularly the view of the rear end.
I guess its the human design equivalent of convergent evolution... The same need for a simple, effective, versatile transport system for people and their stuff has resulted in very similar design choices... even though many decades have passed... The challenges and choices are still the same :)))
They seem to be made out of one engine/front end section of the motorbike, and two rear wheel sections... With a simple welded frame in between for passengers and cargo...
They work great and are larger and can carry bigger loads than the smaller wheeled varieties.... There are even some which are the three wheeled equivalent of trucks with very solid frames and a bolt-on modification that converts the motorbike front end's chain drive system into a shaft drive to a differential at the rear... very nice :)
And the bicycles have been given the same treatment here too... There are huge numbers of them that are modified for carrying large cargoes... In this case, the standard modification is to keep the back end of the bike, and replace the front end with a platform suspended between two wheels.
They are all very popular here... But, I expect they work best down here on the flat land... I suspect they will be less common in the mountains
