Brian 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 you - can't balance? - ha ha ha ha!"
So I always thought that people who ride trikes never learned to balance 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"
1) I believe that your sign-off partly answers your question. When I lived in both Ottawa and Toronto, I didn't need to miss riding during the winter months, not even when I had a cast on my lower leg and had to carry crutches and school books with me. In the winter, when there was black-ice, and when otherwise prevented from riding on a two-wheeler, I rode my trike. Riding a two-wheeled bike was at times nihilistic, but at such times, the trike allowed you to make reasonable time. 2) As far as width goes, the measured width of the rear wheels of my trike is less than 2 inches wider than my elbows (one inch on each side!) On the plus side, drivers do leave you a far greater birth on the road because of the perceived increased in width and in the unwanted event of an actual collision, you do have a certain degree of side protection. 3) As far as mates laughing, the laughing usually stops immediately when you challenge the person laughing to try and ride the contraption. The mocking is then completely directed at the person laughing first. 4) In the city, especially in the winter with shoe covers, riding a trike also makes clipping/unclipping from pedals totally unnecessary. No track stands, no timing lights...
There is perhaps an off-chance that Mike Barry may still have one of my old trikes in Toronto, perhaps you might want to ask him and take it for a ride. That particular trike, if it still exists, was made starting with a Favorit F1 frame, to which the rear end was home made. The rear axles were made out of steer tubes running inside headtubes, the rear bearings were effectively headsets, the hub flanges large washers...
Otherwise, anybody in the Philadelphia area is welcome to take my trike out for a ride. Just contact me off-list.
Steven Maasland
Moorestown, NJ