Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => Freewheeling => The Dark Side => Topic started by: Sigurd Mudtracker on 05 October, 2008, 09:22:32 pm
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I'm looking for a bit of advice from the experienced members of this forum.
I have a two wheel drive Ken Rogers trike which I have enthused about here and elsewhere. Mrs Mudtracker has expressed some interest in it for very practical reasons - she's unable to handle stopping and starting on a conventional two wheeler because of foot problems. Unfortunately the diamond frame of my KR is too high for her to get over (same reasons). We acquired a Pashley Picador trike (20" ish wheels) which proved to be extremely disconcerting to ride, even for me with a few hundred trike miles under my wheels now.
There's a one wheel drive Ken Rogers on eBay at present (says 26" wheels, probably 27" or 700C) which might be the very thing. Needs a wider spread of gears for round here, but I don't anticipate that causing any problems. Given that Mrs M is not going to be riding up 1:4s, is an OWD Ken Rogers likely to prove to be as unridable as our OWD Pashley?
I also have some concern that the more athletic nature of really getting a trike moving (ie hanging over the inside wheel, etc) might mean that the upright trike thing might not be an option. But riding an recumbent trike round town isn't particularly good, either (visibility, nickability).
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is an OWD Ken Rogers likely to prove to be as unridable as our OWD Pashley?
Depends what you mean by unridable.
Like many people I rode one wheel drive for 20 years until the mid 80s when I bought a Longstaff TWD. Almost 20 years later I bought a one wheel drive Rogers as a hack. I found I had forgotten just about all the tricks of keeping a OWD in traction. Where I lived at that time was very hilly and I could not get it up the hills on the snow and ice. I'd simply got too used to a TWD. I still use the Rogers sometimes but usually on flatter roads and not in slippery conditions.
I suppose your wife has not developed any tricycle steering/handling skills so has nothing to lose and plenty to learn. So she may have no difficulty having no preconceived ideas. The fact that you have trouble with the Pashley might simply because, like me, you are not used to OWD and need time to develop the skills.
Is a large wheel trike easier easier than a small wheel? I have no practical experience of small wheels, but rumour is that a small wheel is easier. Why I do not know, there can be no argument about a lower centre of gravity because that is negligible versus the weight of the body in the saddle. The biggest difference I suppose is that the geometry of the Rogers is likley to be better. I really do not know.
I think that Rogers would make a good buy for somebody.
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I never found OWD a problem on my upright trike, but then I didn't go up icy hills.
OWD does have the advantages of (other things being equal) being lighter and of tending to push you up the camber of most British roads.
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Thanks for your comments. A quick tour round the block last night on the KR resulted in a rather tremulous Mrs M vowing "never again"! I did try telling her that I used to visit hedges regularly in my first few weeks of riding...
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Only in the first few weeks! Try an off road trike!
(http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w49/mbike_photos/DSC00074-1.jpg)
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Stop trying to tempt me! If the KR had a normal diamond frame, I'd have put in a bid if only for myself to test out the differences. Fortunately something called sanity (not something that my family generally associate with me when it comes to pedal-power) intervened.
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you should try mrs m on a newton tricycle. the two wheels at the front make this much more stable and there are no steering / camber problems . more tempation ;D
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Stop trying to tempt me! If the KR had a normal diamond frame, I'd have put in a bid if only for myself to test out the differences. Fortunately something called sanity (not something that my family generally associate with me when it comes to pedal-power) intervened.
To be serious of the three trikes there are huge differences in stability. The pink off roader is extremely stable, the race longstaff is ok but probably like you I have had a few high speed negative camber/wet corner trips into the undergrowth. The old fashioned black one is an absolute b*st*rd, if one of the back wheels drops below the other, camber, ruts, wheel grooves in the road etc it takes an immediate 90 degree turn in the direction of the lower wheel. I have never had the nerve to go over 20mph on it and the longest ride I've done without unexpectedly visiting the scenery is 15 miles. It's now reserved for local shopping trips. At first I put this trait down to a fairly narrow track or the 26" wheels however these are much the same as the yeti so it must be the trail on the front forks?