First impression of riding a tricycle.

[border-rider]

^This is another reason why 2-wheelers find triking so hard at first

[Cudzoziemiec]

How many wheels are driven on that trike? Just one, and if so which one, or both rears?

And how does an upright tadpole trike compare to this (apart from being a rare beast, but I assume there must be some around)?

[drossall]

Can someone explain why people, capable of riding a bicycle, should choose to ride a tricycle?

Why cycle when you could drive? Why ride fixed? Why ride a mountain bike, especially on the road?

Britain has cycling clubs, not bicycling clubs. It does that because, when cycles were being developed as a concept, people came up with all sorts of configurations. Quadricycles died relatively quickly and unicycles are a bit specialised. Bicycles were easily the most popular, but a significant strand of tricycling has never ceased to form part of British club life.

So basically trikes have been ridden since cycling began.

For me, a clubmate lent me one in a pub car park thirty years ago, and I made the usual mess of steering it. As a teenager, I couldn't afford to get one and learn properly, but it was something I wanted to do from then on.

And what tatanab said.

[resus1uk]

Mostly it is fun. Always wanted to try one after I saw Leeds trikers on Bob Jackson trikes when I was a kid in the fifties and I rode a Tri-ang.

At my age a trike doesn't seem out of place & is great for winter riding.

Mrs Resus can't ride a bike but has taken to a Pashley Picador which I bought for her, refurbished but she has taken 3 years be confident enough to get on it.

I couldn't ride it home as I was so used to a bike. I went round in circles.

With a Longstaff conversion from Ebay (now the winter trike with spiked tyres) I had a few offs into hedges with witnesses, but now no problem.

I like the straight-line stability (& the scary turning at speed). Less risk of a tumble.

I can still ride two wheels (Brompton & a hybrid). Some locals think I am handicapped to ride a trike & are surprised when I ride a bike.

The Higgins Ultrlite was fun to refurbish, quite a project, again fun

[border-rider]

How many wheels are driven on that trike? Just one, and if so which one, or both rears?

Can be either

Mine (and Wow's) are single (left) wheel only, which gives it a crab-like tendancy on hills, but helps oppose the  UK camber

Better ones are 2-wheel drive

[Arch]

I have a theory about why someone often gets on a trike, and then instantly turns the opposite way they mean to when they first try a turn, something I've seen a lot (and done myself, at first):

On a bike, you lean into the bend. On a trike, you can't. So your brain is expecting you to be at an angle when you turn, and you're not. So your brain thinks you're leaning the wrong way, and instinct makes you overcompensate, hence suddenly turning the other way.

And yes, it's funny how many times you have to tell some people not to put their feet down when they stop.

I think our work Maximuses are two wheel drive with a diff.  I've never yet had the nerve to get one up on two wheels - I've done it with a Pashley Picador type though.  That was one wheel drive, so to sustain any distance on two wheels, you have to get it up on the right one, or you pedalled and pedalled and just slowed down.

I watched some grass track trike racing at the CTC rally some years back, and it looked way more exciting than the bikes - perhaps just because of the amount the riders were leaning in.

As to why - well, I ride a recumbent trike instead of a recumbent bike, and I like it so much because of the stability. I ride upright bikes though, easier to store and get out day to day.

[oncemore]

As above - would I'm sure be much easier if never ridden a BIcycle. Our street has a pronounced camber - and took me a few hours to manage up and down its few '00 yards without veering into the curb(s).

I sold mine because I reckoned that would only be a practical proposition if never rode a two-wheeler.

Mastered it sufficiently for a few >25 mile rides, but that was enough for me. Main road traffic made me distinctly nervous!

Well done!

[drossall]

So is a forum trike ride coming on to match the fixed ride?

[tatanab]

I have a theory about why someone often gets on a trike, and then instantly turns the opposite way they mean to when they first try a turn, something I've seen a lot (and done myself, at first):

On a bike, you lean into the bend. On a trike, you can't. So your brain is expecting you to be at an angle when you turn, and you're not. So your brain thinks you're leaning the wrong way, and instinct makes you overcompensate, hence suddenly turning the other way.

Wrong.  It is simple physics.  To balance a bike, if falling left you steer left to correct it.  On a trike on UK camber you are falling left but you certainly don't want to steer left, but the bicycle experience causes you to do so.    On a bike, to turn right you start by steering left (the much vaunted counter steering).  So, bicyclist on a trike is falling left so tries steering left to correct - it doesn't work so he tries to induce a turn to the right to get back up the camber, of course this means a left tweak of the steering as well and the bicyclist heads straight to the ditch

None of this explains why it seems that this applies only to a cripper configuration (that's tadpole to those of the lay-z- boy persuasion) and not to the Kendrick (delta to lay-z-boy) where the bicyclist does not seem to have a problem, at least at low speed.

Recumbent trikes and upright trikes seem to have little in common when it comes to the practicalities of riding.  I have ridden recumbents, but the riders of those recumbents have failed to ride the upright.  This is possibly because the upright has a much higher centre of gravity and just needs practise before enjoying the acrobatic fun in corners.

Whatever flavour, they are all fun.

[Ian H]

None of this explains why it seems that this applies only to a cripper configuration (that's tadpole to those of the lay-z- boy persuasion) and not to the Kendrick (delta to lay-z-boy) where the bicyclist does not seem to have a problem, at least at low speed.

Should that be the other way round?

[tatanab]

Should that be the other way round?

Yes you are right.  Close to bed time so I had my brain in backwards, I even changed it at one point.

[Wowbagger]

I've just had another try.

There was a camber-related collision with the kerb. I managed to stay upright. The trike did not.

I'll have to raise the bars a bit. My wrists hurt after less than a mile, all on off-road cycle lane.

Back to the comfort of two wheels this afternoon.

[Arch]

I have a theory about why someone often gets on a trike, and then instantly turns the opposite way they mean to when they first try a turn, something I've seen a lot (and done myself, at first):

On a bike, you lean into the bend. On a trike, you can't. So your brain is expecting you to be at an angle when you turn, and you're not. So your brain thinks you're leaning the wrong way, and instinct makes you overcompensate, hence suddenly turning the other way.

Wrong.  It is simple physics.  To balance a bike, if falling left you steer left to correct it.  On a trike on UK camber you are falling left but you certainly don't want to steer left, but the bicycle experience causes you to do so.    On a bike, to turn right you start by steering left (the much vaunted counter steering).  So, bicyclist on a trike is falling left so tries steering left to correct - it doesn't work so he tries to induce a turn to the right to get back up the camber, of course this means a left tweak of the steering as well and the bicyclist heads straight to the ditch

None of this explains why it seems that this applies only to a cripper configuration (that's tadpole to those of the lay-z- boy persuasion) and not to the Kendrick (delta to lay-z-boy) where the bicyclist does not seem to have a problem, at least at low speed.

Recumbent trikes and upright trikes seem to have little in common when it comes to the practicalities of riding.  I have ridden recumbents, but the riders of those recumbents have failed to ride the upright.  This is possibly because the upright has a much higher centre of gravity and just needs practise before enjoying the acrobatic fun in corners.

Whatever flavour, they are all fun.

Maybe.  But I was talking about places with no camber - the sort of carparks and flat tarmac spaces I used to work on doing try-out sessions.  It wasn't the camber that got people, it was what happened as soon as they tried to turn.  I suppose the physics also applies then, but I know that until I got the hang of it, I distinctly felt like I was leaning the wrong way going round a turn.

Best tricycle tale ever, was the day a gran and grandad and grandson turned up at a roadshow.  The grandad and grandson (cocky little sod he was, about 11 or 12) were a bit dismissive of poor gran, who'd never learned to ride a bike.  Seemed they'd brought her along to hold their coats, and be laughed at.  This annoyed me somewhat, so while they were trying out all the different sorts of bikes, I talked her into trying the Pashley Tri-1.  She managed a lap - very slowly, with a few stops and starts, and with me walking alongside, but she did it.  Once back at the start, she got off, and cocky sod grandson leapt on, presumably to show how much better and faster he could do it.

He managed about 10 yrds, before jumping off in a panic and announcing that it was impossible.  One up to grandma, I think.