In article , Clive George wrote:

Interesting - I didn't find getting used to ours a problem, noticing no
problems with either steering sensitivity or brake pulling. Has he improved
the handlebar mountings? Ours suffered from swivelling if you yanked the
bars too hard while playing around.

I'd spent some time test driving ICEs, so it was a change from those I
suppose. No problem with the bars on this one, though I'd learned on the
ICE that you don't pull on them as their demo trikes were set quite loose.


The best thing about ours was that it was great fun - looning downhill with
corners was excellent. Lifting a front wheel was a good way to scare a
passenger!


We didn't get that fast on the corners.

I don't think we ever lost the front chain, but it was quite tight. I wonder
if this was a factor in the way the drive train felt like pedalling through
treacle.

I found it was a balance between that, getting it slack enough not to feel
like treacle, but tight enough not to bounce off. On a perfect race track
there'd be no problem at all. I also wonder how older Sturmey Archer or
fixed gear bikes handled it, as I don't remember the problem as a child
on that kind of bike. Maybe the chain run was shorter on these. I think
some sort of spring tensioner, even maybe a rubber bush of some kind
on the pulleys on the return side, would make it easier to set up. Once
set up, it wasn't a problem.

But eventually it had to go. All the fun in the world didn't help it go up
hills - weight and an inefficient drive train counted against it, and I
found visibility an issue when taking it round somerset lanes (that is, my
visibility - I didn't have any worries about people seeing us). The size was
jolly inconvenient sometimes too. We decided to stick with our upright
tandem (now plural).

At 15kg per rider I don't think its bad for a trike. We're looking
at loading up with camping gear, which outweighs our upright tandem
(old Vango Force 10 tent, Trangia, sleeping bags, even the weight of
modern bike locks), and eating less chocolate will probably make more
of a difference for me ;-).

We're going for singletons, though it really is a difficult choice. I
wouldn't be surprised if one day we own a tandem as well, but singletons
do give us a lot more flexibility. We both commute in different
directions for example. That said, riding together you can't beat
tandem. It really is great fun! It's between buying the tandem and
commuting on our uprights, and selling the upright tandem which would
otherwise collect dust - or singletons for commute, some leisure, and
remember to take out the upright tandem sometimes.

Someone who doesn't already own an upright tandem should consider the
recumbent as a going out together vehicle. It really is great fun! You
can talk more easily, and if you're mismatched on speed then tandem
keeps you together. Its also cheaper than two singles, and not everyone's
commute would be best on recumbent.

- Richard

--
_/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ Richard dot Corfield at ntlworld dot com
_/ _/ _/ _/
_/_/ _/ _/ Time is a one way street,
_/ _/ _/_/ _/_/_/ Except in the Twighlight Zone.