Brought the upright trike home!

[Annie]

Picked-up the upright trike today. I test road it in the car park first. It was the most undulating piece of space you can imagine and the trike demonstrated clearly to me where the reputation for being troublesome on camber comes from  I managed fairly well, but it was a little disconcerting! Looking forward to taking it out tomorrow after work along the cycle paths.

I have two questions for others who ride these things: 1, how long did it take you to get used to it? And 2, does it cause total brain chaos to ride both bikes and upright trikes alternately? 

[border-rider]

I'm completely unco-ordinated and fearful, and it took me a while, but after that while it clicked. It still has the potential to startle though.

No problems switching back to 2 wheels

It took me weeks to get to the "I managed fairly well" stage so you're doing miles better than me

[Annie]

I'm completely unco-ordinated and fearful, and it took me a while, but after that while it clicked. It still has the potential to startle though.

No problems switching back to 2 wheels

It took me weeks to get to the "I managed fairly well" stage so you're doing miles better than me

that could be because I only learned to ride on two wheels a matter of months ago and I'm not really accomplished at it!

[Ian H]

The more experienced you are on two wheels, the harder it is to master a trike. Even then they will occasionally surprise you, as Mal says. A friend who'd ridden barrows for years nearly came a cropper during a hard ride - tiredness, adverse camber, bend and on-coming car.

It was fun letting others try to ride mine (it wasn't an expensive beast).

[jogler]

My experience is same as M.V.'s.
Having a variety of cycles adds some interest to the scheme of things. :thumbsup:The trike is currently my flavour of the month.
When are you having a fixed wheel bike?

[Annie]

My experience is same as M.V.'s.
Having a variety of cycles adds some interest to the scheme of things. :thumbsup:The trike is currently my flavour of the month.
When are you having a fixed wheel bike?

fixed wheel  Or are you taking the proverbial out of a beginner?

[Kim]

Fixed wheel means a (usually single-speed) bike with no freewheel mechanism, so whenever the wheel turns so do the pedals.  Advantages are mechanical simplicity, lightweight and the ability to control speed by applying braking force with your feet.

As you might expect, this requires the development of several knacks to avoid doom, and isn't recommended for a beginner:  He's taking the proverbial.

[jogler]

  He's taking the proverbial.

not guilty milud Kim.Simply asking when/if Annie has considered even broader cycling horizons.

Assuming that Annie's trike is not dual-wheel drive it is,AIUI,easier to change from freewheel to fixed on a trike than an DF bicycle in that it's not necessary to remove a wheel.At least trying fixed onna trike is less likely to result in falling to earth.

[Kim]

The great thing about fixed trikes is you can ride them backwards.  This makes the steering a lot more intuitive.  DAHIKT.

[jogler]

^^^^^
  & 

[mtrike]

I swap between bikes and trikes and most of my mileage is on bikes.  However once I got used to trikes I have little problem when I go back to riding one.  However they can bite I recently found myself upside down in a ditch on a perfectly straight road after a 30 mile ride and only few hundred yards from home.  Reason I had stopped concentrating missed a camber change and turned sharply left.  Also be very careful on reducing radius and negative camber corners they usually only give you two choices a spectacular and often painful somersault or having to go straight on and hoping the brakes slow you down before hitting something.  I have shot through a couple of woods at speed and last capsized a couple of years ago from which my shoulder still hurts.  Great fun though.

[Annie]

Well I took it out today and it took a bit of getting used to, but I always managed to steer where I wanted to go - slow ride though. I'm not really into speed, I just want to tootle along an enjoyable ride, but this practice ride was too slow even for me. By the end of the ride, the steering was more precise and I was going a little faster. It surprised me that I found riding it less physically comfortable than my bike! Anyway, not bad for a first ride I guess. Be nice to take it further over the weekend. Thanks to those commenting Thant it's easy enough to switch between bike and trike. Very rearing

[YahudaMoon]

Annie I want pics


John

[jogler]

Well I took it out today and it took a bit of getting used to, but I always managed to steer where I wanted to go - slow ride though. I'm not really into speed, I just want to tootle along an enjoyable ride, but this practice ride was too slow even for me. By the end of the ride, the steering was more precise and I was going a little faster. It surprised me that I found riding it less physically comfortable than my bike! Anyway, not bad for a first ride I guess. Be nice to take it further over the weekend. Thanks to those commenting Thant it's easy enough to switch between bike and trike. Very rearing

I find that my trike & speed are mutually exclusive.

I've had my trike for a while & continue to fettle it for optimium comfort.

[tatanab]

I swap between bikes and trikes and most of my mileage is on bikes. 

Other way around for me.  So far this year, 4000 miles on trikes and 200 miles on bikes.

It surprised me that I found riding it less physically comfortable than my bike!

Given the same riding position and equipment a trike is potentially less comfortable to a novice because it pitches around in directions that bicycles do not.  Just something you get used to.
 
A tricyclist needs to pay more attention to road surfaces than a bicyclist because there are three wheel tracks to consider and optimise which wheel lines up with the hole or lump.  40 plus years of trike riding and it still catches me out sometimes; like last winter when it refused to climb a small ridge of snow and deposited me on my side.

[Wowbagger]

The trike's propensity to unship its cargo form time to time is something which concerns me. I'm a wimp at the best of times but since I was diagnosed with osteoporosis it seems foolish to tempt providence with gratuitous falls.

[tatanab]

The trike's propensity to unship its cargo form time to time is something which concerns me.

I find it is very very infrequent, and normally caused by going too slowly.  The snow ridge was one I approached at slightly too acute an angle and at walking speed.  A little more momentum would have seen me over it with no problem.   The rare tumbles are usually at very low speed when turning onto a rutted and often soft surface (gate to a field).  Experience salvages the higher speed "moments" caused by not paying enough attention, just as it does with a bicycle -- usually.

[Annie]

I'm posting on an IPad and they do odd corrections without so much as a by or leave! The reference to 'rearing' and the end of my previous post should have read 'reassuring'! I have no plans for my bike to rear!

Yahudamoon, Can't post pics onto a forum on a iPad, will do so when next I'm on my Mac.

Jogler, I am a Lancashire lass and familiar with some Yorkshire expressions, but could you explain 'fettling a bike for optimum comfort'  I think I'd like to do it, but I need to know what it is first 

[Exit Stage Left]

The earliest known portrait of someone on a tricycle forms part of the Ford Madox Brown exhibition in Manchester.

She was the daughter of C P Scott, editor of the Manchester Guardian. I know these things, because I'm an actual Guardian reader.

[Biggsy]

Jogler, I am a Lancashire lass and familiar with some Yorkshire expressions, but could you explain 'fettling a bike for optimum comfort'  I think I'd like to do it, but I need to know what it is first 

Experiment with saddle, handlebar and brake lever positions, to find what's most comfortable.  Up/down/back/forth/tilt.

[Annie]

Jogler, I am a Lancashire lass and familiar with some Yorkshire expressions, but could you explain 'fettling a bike for optimum comfort'  I think I'd like to do it, but I need to know what it is first 

Experiment with saddle, handlebar and brake lever positions, to find what's most comfortable.  Up/down/back/forth/tilt.

thank you, so "to fettle" is "to fiddle with" 

[mtrike]

My road trike accidents seem to mostly at high speed which is probably more of a reflection on my stupidity than trike stability.  The mountain trike accidents however are usually slow speed and often embarrassing when I tip over crossing slopes.

This year so far is 4k miles on the bikes and 2 k on the trikes

And finally my I pad makes up all my posts

[drossall]

Like others, I don't have trouble switching between trike and bike. The different behaviours pretty soon remind you which you are riding

I rode my trike from time to time, so it was a gradual process of building confidence. I got pitched into a hedge once when I thought I had mastered it. Now I'm happy on it. I did a 100k Audax on it earlier this year. No problem at 30mph on descents. Bit slow up-hill mind

I can relate to the comfort issue though. After 100k of keeping it going in the direction I wanted it to, my back was stiff. Still more to learn then