This is OT but I have to defend trikedom.
The last first. Odd as it may seem cars seem to treat trike riders much better than two wheelers. I believe recumbence adds to the effect. When I ride with upright folks it is very obvious and I often use my protective force field for their benefit.
The other bit of "trike vernacular" that doesn't sink in until you try it i s that is is really sweet to ride absolutely as slow as you like with out a care for balancing. For progress at speed you can give less attention to gravel and sand. A flat tire is so innocuous that I have ridden miles thinking I was seriously dragging butt before realizing I was riding a rim.
>From the trike perspective the comeback is, "What, you have to balance? Ah
ah ah ahhhh." It is nice not having to reserve a corner of your mind for
all that nonsense.
I was forced from up-riding by various unmentionable ailments. I had a squirrely 2W bent that gave me heebie jeebies on brevets at night in the hills. A trike! I thought, would be the hot ticket for really long rides. Though I haven't yet ridden beyond 200K on the trike there is no question i t is more comfortable. You can't even use the same scale to measure it.
After twelve hours in the saddle do you not want off that thing Right NOW? True be told I don't have a chair in in my house that is as comfortable as my trike.
I haven't ridden an upright trike. They wouldn't solve my problems the way a bent does. But I am sure the extra care autos take near one and the joy of slow are the same.
Regards,
mike
On 3/13/06, DoubleB <swiftybjb@rogers.com> wrote:
>
> I must admit that I have never really understood the facination with
> trikes. The way I look at it is that when you are a toddler, say 3 years
> old, you start riding on a kiddies trike, later you learn to balance and
> ride on 2 wheels and the trike ends up in a garage sale. This seems like
a
> normal progression, if you were still riding a trike when all your mates
> were on 2 wheels you'd be laughed at big time, "what's the matter with yo
u -
> can't balance? - ha ha ha ha!"
>
> So I always thought that people who ride trikes never learned to balanc
e
> and ride on two wheels, why else would you ride a trike?
>
> With the amount of traffic on the roads today it's danferous enough
> riding on two wheels, surely the extra width of a trike just subjects you
to
> more danger?
>
> Brian (on the road at last after a severe winter) Booth
> Toronto, Ontario, Canada
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
--
Michael Ross
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Cycling in Central North Carolina
Linear LWB, Greenspeed GTO, BikeE CT