Can you safely share the road on a Trike?

I admit it... I have been lusting after the ICE trikes for some time!
But I live in an area that is constantly being built up. Traffic is
getting worse by the year. I have only road riding options locally.
Can I safely share the road on a trike?

Jim Reilly
Reading, PA

"cyclist inferiority superstition" here? Of course *you* can share the road
safely. I suspect that the motorists are the unsafe hazard.


"stratrider" wrote in message
...
I admit it... I have been lusting after the ICE trikes for some time!
But I live in an area that is constantly being built up. Traffic is
getting worse by the year. I have only road riding options locally.
Can I safely share the road on a trike?

Jim Reilly
Reading, PA

stratrider wrote:
I admit it... I have been lusting after the ICE trikes for some time!
But I live in an area that is constantly being built up. Traffic is
getting worse by the year. I have only road riding options locally.
Can I safely share the road on a trike?

Jim Reilly
Reading, PA

Riding anything on the road cannot be guaranteed to be done "safely". There
are people who just can't seem to drive, much less share the road.
There are some roads that I won't bike or trike on. And those are the ones
that have all of these: no paved shoulders, blind curves and/or hills, and
high-speed traffic. Of course, I don't even like to *drive* on such roads!
But if there's room on the road, along with adequate sight lines, I'll trike
on them. I've ridden trikes for several years now, and been on quite a few
centuries and multi-day tours. And so far, I've only encountered one stretch of
road - I believe this was somewhere in Indiana - where I wished I had not been
there. It was four lanes that had been knocked down to two because of
construction, the shoulder was broken up and unrideable, and there was heavy
traffic. No one tried to run over me, but one guy made some unflattering
comments once I was able to find a place to pull over and let the string of
cars get by.

--
Larry Varney
Cold Spring, KY
http://home.fuse.net/larryvarney

"stratrider" wrote in message
...
I admit it... I have been lusting after the ICE trikes for some time!
But I live in an area that is constantly being built up. Traffic is
getting worse by the year. I have only road riding options locally.
Can I safely share the road on a trike?

Jim Reilly
Reading, PA

Having ridden around Australia on a LoGo trike (www.logotrikes.com) and
towing a Bob trailer, my wife and I can attest to this not being much of a
problem at all. You will still get the usual rednecks and bad drivers so you
need to take safety into your own hands, but suffice to say, I think trikes
are as safe as anything on the road, maybe slightly safer as the driver
see's more than just a skinny 2 wheel bike in front and often slows to pass
for a look, mind you, that can be a traffic problem in itself.

In a word "yes".

regards

Andrew

http://www.where2pedalto.gr8m8s.net

Doug Huffman wrote:

"cyclist inferiority superstition" here? Of course *you* can share the road
safely. I suspect that the motorists are the unsafe hazard.

Especially ones towing trailers at near 3 digit (Imperial) speeds.

--
Tom Sherman

"Larry Varney" wrote in message
...
stratrider wrote:
I admit it... I have been lusting after the ICE trikes for some time!
But I live in an area that is constantly being built up. Traffic is
getting worse by the year. I have only road riding options locally. Can
I safely share the road on a trike?

Jim Reilly
Reading, PA

Riding anything on the road cannot be guaranteed to be done "safely".
There are people who just can't seem to drive, much less share the road.
There are some roads that I won't bike or trike on. And those are the
ones that have all of these: no paved shoulders, blind curves and/or
hills, and high-speed traffic. Of course, I don't even like to *drive* on
such roads!
But if there's room on the road, along with adequate sight lines, I'll
trike on them. I've ridden trikes for several years now, and been on quite
a few centuries and multi-day tours. And so far, I've only encountered one
stretch of road - I believe this was somewhere in Indiana - where I wished
I had not been there. It was four lanes that had been knocked down to two
because of construction, the shoulder was broken up and unrideable, and
there was heavy traffic. No one tried to run over me, but one guy made
some unflattering comments once I was able to find a place to pull over
and let the string of cars get by.

Jim, pay attention to Larry Varney on this issue of what constitutes safe
trike riding on the roads. As you may well know, Larry
and I are most often at loggerheads on most issues, but he is right about
some roads being totally unsuited for trikes. When you are planning on a
trike tour, you need to carefully consider whether or not the roads have a
shoulder that you can ride on. If not, you may be in serious trouble. Roads
with rumble strips on the shoulder are especially problematic. Bottom line,
if you need to get off the road to let traffic clear, then for God's sake,
get the **** off the road!

--
Regards,

Ed Dolan - Minnesota

"stratrider" wrote in message
...
I admit it... I have been lusting after the ICE trikes for some time!
But I live in an area that is constantly being built up. Traffic is
getting worse by the year. I have only road riding options locally.
Can I safely share the road on a trike?

Jim Reilly
Reading, PA

It depends on the road, I ride a low racer and many roads with light to
moderate traffic I have no problems with, heavier than that and forget it

A trick I'm using more and more is to find a parallel road to a major
interstate. This summer I rode from Conneaut, OH to home on the east
side of Cleveland on Route 84 which is a meandering road between two
highways. This coming summer I'm riding Bike Route 17 in NY State
which was essentially the old I-86. (I also have two blinkies, a
safety triangle and a flag. I wear Alert Shirts in hi-viz lime colors
with 3M tape, too!) My #1 fear is being rear-ended although I've not
had any bad encounters yet, thank G-d! Certain states seem to provide
better roads: NY roads generally have wide, paved, clean shoulders;
Ohio and Michigan many times have NO shoulders. In Ontario, even
though the roads had minimal shoulders EVERYONE patiently waited to
pass safetly. It was a real pleasure!

BentJay
GS GTO

See my tour journal at: http://aroundthelake.crazyguyonabike.com

This coming summer I'm riding Bike Route 17 in NY State
which was essentially the old I-86. (I also have two blinkies, a
safety triangle and a flag. I wear Alert Shirts in hi-viz lime colors
with 3M tape, too!)
here is what I did on my bent
http://www.knight-toolworks.com/pict...flectors10.jpg
I used some PVC pipe to get height and attached my blinkies to it added
reflective tape to it too. this is a pic with the camera flash it shoes up real
well.

--
Knight-Toolworks & Custom Planes
Custom made wooden planes at reasonable prices
See http://www.knight-toolworks.com For prices and ordering instructions.

(stratrider) writes:

Can I safely share the road on a trike?

Yes: I commute everyday though town on a trike: the problems are the
same as on an upright (*), but you do not have to worry about balancing
!! And I think you get a bit more space when being overtaken.

* for me the problem is not whether you are seen or not, it is whether
the driver looks. If I can see the driver look me then I am usually
OK, if not then you need to avoid them. It does not seem to matter
whether you are on an upright, or on a trike.

--
Simon Kellett, Darmstadt, Germany | http://home.arcor.de/zoxed
Hase Kettwiesel trike | ex-Pashley PDQ SWB
Flux V220 CLWB | Zox20 Lowracer