Top Ten Reasons to Own a Trike

On Mar 29, 3:52*pm, "gotbent" wrote:

Are you the fellow on the red Trice that I've met along the Fox River Valley
Trail?


I do have a red Sun EZ-3, so I'm probably that guy you met.

Unfortunately, my head trauma makes my memory absolutely horrble, so I
don't remember the meeting.

Cullen

aka Cullen Carter wrote:
On Mar 29, 3:52 pm, "gotbent" wrote:
Are you the fellow on the red Trice that I've met along the Fox River Valley
Trail?


I do have a red Sun EZ-3, so I'm probably that guy you met.

Unfortunately, my head trauma makes my memory absolutely horrble, so I
don't remember the meeting.

I think we are discussing different Fox River trails here. Cullen lives
near the Fox River that flows from Pardeeville to Green Bay, "gotbent"
lives near the Fox River that flows from Menomonee Falls to Ottawa.

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
The weather is here, wish you were beautiful

"Tom Sherman" wrote in message
...
aka Cullen Carter wrote:
On Mar 29, 3:52 pm, "gotbent" wrote:
Are you the fellow on the red Trice that I've met along the Fox River
Valley
Trail?


I do have a red Sun EZ-3, so I'm probably that guy you met.

Unfortunately, my head trauma makes my memory absolutely horrble, so I
don't remember the meeting.

I think we are discussing different Fox River trails here. Cullen lives
near the Fox River that flows from Pardeeville to Green Bay, "gotbent"
lives near the Fox River that flows from Menomonee Falls to Ottawa.

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
The weather is here, wish you were beautiful

And I did mean a red Trice, not a Sun EZ-3.. The fellow I met lives
somewhere in the Elgin, IL area. If you fellows are riding around with
walkers stowed on back, good onya mates!

gotbent, aka frvt rider
recumfortable since '99



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

wrote:


Top Ten Reasons to Own a Trike:


The problem with your reasons are that most people I know of who have
trikes, have low-slung tadpole trikes--which are pretty useless for
conveniently carrying much cargo or passengers on.

---

I also contend that the steering system (of two forward wheels steering)
allows undesirable scrub losses from the two front wheels being
misaligned, either due to poor adjustment or due to frame/steering link
play and/or flex while riding.

The only thing a tadpole trike really does well is turn corners
hard--and most of the time you are riding a bicycle, you are generally
going in straight (or nearly-straight) lines. To construct a
human-powered vehicle that corners better at the expense of
straight-line efficiency makes no sense.
~

"DougC" wrote in message
...
wrote:


Top Ten Reasons to Own a Trike:


The problem with your reasons are that most people I know of who have
trikes, have low-slung tadpole trikes--which are pretty useless for
conveniently carrying much cargo or passengers on.

---

I also contend that the steering system (of two forward wheels steering)
allows undesirable scrub losses from the two front wheels being
misaligned, either due to poor adjustment or due to frame/steering link
play and/or flex while riding.

The only thing a tadpole trike really does well is turn corners hard--and
most of the time you are riding a bicycle, you are generally going in
straight (or nearly-straight) lines. To construct a human-powered vehicle
that corners better at the expense of straight-line efficiency makes no
sense.

It is rare that you ever see a defense of the delta style of trike. Tadpoles
have been all the rage for decades now. It is too bad because tadpoles are
inherently flawed for the very reasons you point out above. The damn things
are unstable at speed -period! But guys like them because they look sexy.
You do not want a trike for that reason any more than you want a gal for
that reason. Thus spake Zarathustra.

Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota

Hey guys -

I'll echo Harry's rebuttal of DougC's comment:

...most people I know of who have trikes, have low-slung
tadpole trikes--which are pretty useless for conveniently
carrying much cargo...

I'd like to invite anyone who seriously doubts the
suitability of tadpole trikes to tour with a substantial
load to spend a few minutes poking around on Andrew and
Joanne Hooker's website:

http://www.where2pedalto.com

Regards,
Wayne Leggett
3-2-GO: The Trike Store
Ventura CA
Email:

DougC wrote:

The problem with your reasons are that most people I know of who have
trikes, have low-slung tadpole trikes--which are pretty useless for
conveniently carrying much cargo

I've learned to travel light. A combination of buying small light equipment
rather than large and heavy (and albeit cheap). You can also strap your
waterproof bits to the various areas around the trike (lots of room there).

or passengers on.

Are you kidding? The passengers can pedal themselves on their own bikes*.



* (Yes, yes, I clearly don't have any kids of my own... But if I did, I'd
make them pedal their own damn bikes.)
--
Linux Registered User # 302622
http://counter.li.org

"John Tserkezis" wrote in message
...
DougC wrote:

The problem with your reasons are that most people I know of who have
trikes, have low-slung tadpole trikes--which are pretty useless for
conveniently carrying much cargo

I've learned to travel light. A combination of buying small light
equipment rather than large and heavy (and albeit cheap). You can also
strap your waterproof bits to the various areas around the trike (lots of
room there).

Let's say you want to haul a week's groceries from the store to your house
on your trike. You will never be able to do that with a tadpole unless you
do it with a trailer, a complication which I do not like. On the other hand,
a delta upright trike, the kind with a big basket in the rear between the
wheels, easily allows for this. It is the only way to go for hauling
anything big and heavy.
[...]

Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota

wrote:

**Six Reasons Why You Should Own A Trike**

1. Environmental reasons

That's a reason to own a human powered vehicle: it doesn't have to be a
trike.

2. Unlike a bike, a trike can carry a lot of cargo

Implementation dependant.

Because a trike has three wheels, it's much easier for the cyclists to
carry heavy cargo.

Not really: cargo is usually as much about where as how much, and the
layout of a trike doesn't really help you that much. I can sling
panniers under the seat of my bike, I've seen few 'bent trikes with a
similar facility. Most people wanting to carry serious loads use
trailers, the exceptions being serious heavy work trikes/bikes which are
much too heavy for general purpose cycling. One of the lightrer
dedicated load bikes is the Burrows 8 Freight, at 20 Kg actually lighter
than a few trikes.
http://www.personal.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/8f-sofa.jpg has a picture of
mine carrying a two-seater sofa: can you do that on a typical trike of
the same weight?

Plus, a trike has more room to store the cargo. I
think all one has to do is look at this [http://justcoffee.coop/files/
images/On%20the%20Cargo%20Trike.preview.jpg] guy to get a clear idea
about the trike's carrying capacity.

That's a specific cargo trike, and would he get a two seater sofa on it?
All trikes and bikes aren't created equal.

3. Groceries

I know this ties in with number two, but since most of us don't live
on a farm or have close, friendly farmer friends, we rely on the local
grocery store to supply the food we use to fill our hungry, growling
bellies. And we regularly drive our automobiles to the local grocery
store to stock up on our food needs.

One could easily complain that, by using a slow bike instead of a fast
car, their milk would will spoil, or ice cream melt. Because, as point
two states, trikes have a lot carrying capacity, a trike could easily
carry a cooler of some sort to keep those cold perishables from
spoiling.

Again. ,y 8Freight will carry a cooler a lot more easily that most
trikes, because the cehicle itself is lighter and thus easier to get
about. It can take 50 Kg loads routinely and because of other useful
design features like a remote operated wide legged propstand and a
parking brake plus a low bottom bracket it's not intrinsicallt harder to
use than a trike. Only once you get to ~80Kg+ routine loads does the
extra wheel become a real asset.

4. Attracting girls [or, for girls: Guys!]

I'm a very happily married gentleman to a beautiful, smart, cunning
woman named Allyson. However, my trike has tested my fidelity toward
her.

See, every time I take the thing out for a ride, some beautiful and,
dare I say, sexy female stops me to talk about my trike.

Again, implementation dependant. You'll get bikes that do that too.

5. Passengers

After you've attracted that eighteen year old babysitter, you might
want to take her out on a date. As one can see from the picture below,
it's possible transport people via trike:

Again, implementation dependant. Where will you put the passenger on a
a Windcheetah? Why can't you carry a passenger on a tandem bike or a
Cargobike?

6. The Coolness factor

Again, implementation dependant. Some trikes are cooler than others.
Some bikes are cooler than others. Plus coolness is in the eye of the
beholder. You haven't actually isoltaed anything unique to trikes. I
can't really help you isolate the Magic X Factor becuase I don't feel
it... when I've tested trikes I've felt they're good fun, but nothing
that I feel gives me something I don't get from a bike, except less
flexible storage options and a bigger hole in my wallet. I'm not saying
there is no magic spark, just that you have yet to pin down what it is.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

32GO wrote:
Hey guys -

I'll echo Harry's rebuttal of DougC's comment:

...most people I know of who have trikes, have low-slung
tadpole trikes--which are pretty useless for conveniently
carrying much cargo...

I'd like to invite anyone who seriously doubts the
suitability of tadpole trikes to tour with a substantial
load to spend a few minutes poking around on Andrew and
Joanne Hooker's website:

http://www.where2pedalto.com


Yea but that's touring, and most of us don't spend most of our time
touring.

A touring bike can carry a lot, but it has expensive bags that can get
damaged or stolen while you're in the grocery store, and you have to
arrange the contents ideally. Touring bags are built for stuffing
clothes in, not cans of soup.

A cargo bike has a big basket bolted to it, and you toss in whatever
junk you're wanting to move and you roll. No strapping down necessary,
minimal arranging necessary.

---

I am particularly interested in the Lightfoot delta trikes, though I
don't exactly have the $2500 free to buy one, and (perhaps more
significant) I have no space to store it.

http://www.lightfootcycles.com/trikes.htm

~