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General Category >> rbent Lobby >> Adult Trikes and Recumbent Bike Instincts Bad!
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Message started by Tiger_Mike on Jan 8th, 2021, 7:40am

Title: Adult Trikes and Recumbent Bike Instincts Bad!
Post by Tiger_Mike on Jan 8th, 2021, 7:40am
I had a very interesting experience with one of those “Adult Trikes”. One of those big upright jobs with two wheels in the back, the pedals nearly under the seat, and a big 10 lb wire basket between the back wheels. One of my neighbors bought one for his wife so she could ride around the neighborhood with the grandkids. Lots of assembly required. He got it put together ok, but he isn’t a bike guy and had trouble getting the shifter to work or getting the front wheel to turn. I helped him out, trued up the front wheel and adjusted the brake. That was pretty easy. The shifter almost had me stymied, but eventually I got it to shift thru the gears reasonably well. On a scale of 1 to 10, the component gruppo is about a -2. When I finished up I took it for a test ride and nearly crashed it. Multiple times. Almost hit my own car in the driveway, as well as a parked car on the street. Almost ran it into the curb three times. It’s a little wobbly, and when you turn left the whole thing leans a little to the right and vice-versa. So I would steer toward where I wanted to go, the trike would lean the opposite way, and I would instinctively counter steer to remain upright. The camber of the road amplified the tipping over feeling. It pretty much took all my attention to get it to go where I wanted - because of me, not the trike. If I was paying attention to the shifting and listening to the chain noise and feeling how crisp or poor the shifts were, I would find myself veering toward the curb because of the instinctive counter steering. I got better about it after a quarter mile or so. It was kinda like the YouTube video on the backwards bike put out by the “smarter every day’ guy. I think I need to get out on the Xstream today and make sure I can still ride a bike!

Title: Re: Adult Trikes and Recumbent Bike Instincts Bad!
Post by jayg on Jan 8th, 2021, 8:16am

Tiger_Mike wrote:
I had a very interesting experience with one of those “Adult Trikes”. One of those big upright jobs with two wheels in the back, the pedals nearly under the seat, and a big 10 lb wire basket between the back wheels. One of my neighbors bought one for his wife so she could ride around the neighborhood with the grandkids. Lots of assembly required. He got it put together ok, but he isn’t a bike guy and had trouble getting the shifter to work or getting the front wheel to turn. I helped him out, trued up the front wheel and adjusted the brake. That was pretty easy. The shifter almost had me stymied, but eventually I got it to shift thru the gears reasonably well. On a scale of 1 to 10, the component gruppo is about a -2. When I finished up I took it for a test ride and nearly crashed it. Multiple times. Almost hit my own car in the driveway, as well as a parked car on the street. Almost ran it into the curb three times. It’s a little wobbly, and when you turn left the whole thing leans a little to the right and vice-versa. So I would steer toward where I wanted to go, the trike would lean the opposite way, and I would instinctively counter steer to remain upright. The camber of the road amplified the tipping over feeling. It pretty much took all my attention to get it to go where I wanted - because of me, not the trike. If I was paying attention to the shifting and listening to the chain noise and feeling how crisp or poor the shifts were, I would find myself veering toward the curb because of the instinctive counter steering. I got better about it after a quarter mile or so. It was kinda like the YouTube video on the backwards bike put out by the “smarter every day’ guy. I think I need to get out on the Xstream today and make sure I can still ride a bike!


If I didn't know it was a delta trike, I would have guessed you were trying to ride a Cruzbike for the first time.  :D

Title: Re: Adult Trikes and Recumbent Bike Instincts Bad!
Post by rmillay on Jan 8th, 2021, 1:47pm
In England, where they race anything with wheels on it, they used to race trikes like that.  I've seen pictures of racers leaning on one side near the ground, like a TT racer, to counterbalance on the turns.  It was one of the things that got Mike Burrows to invent the Windcheetah.

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