Report after one weekSo... after a week of Alfie and 193.67 miles I thought I'd summarise my experiences so far.
Firstly, the trike is utterly fab. Utterly. And it still looks clean and shiny (which is a miracle with me as an owner). And attracts many admiring glances (this is a group of chums before the Dunwich Dynamo)
The major highlights (to be detailed further below) are:
1. Hub gear.
2. Dynamo and light.
3. Quiet running.
Alfine-11 Hub GearThe hub gear has been a real revelation to me. Now I know most people get on fine with derailleurs but I have always found them awkward - dirty, noisy things that never index quite right. I seemed to always be in the wrong gear at inappropriate moments (i.e. in top after an emergency stop). I also found that changing the cassette every 6,000-8,000 miles meant twice a year to me and the micro cassette is nearly £70 so the cost added up. I also had the one memorable experience when the gear hanger got bent on my old trike (possibly hit a stone when riding?) and I had to be rescued by car. So a hub gear seemed like a good idea. The 14-speed Rohloff was too expensive (plus ICE aren't keen) but the Shimano Alfine seemed a better option, especially with their new 11-speed one.
So how does it ride? ICE suggested I might find the rear wheel felt heavier to ride but that hasn't been the case. It feels just like the other trike in terms of effort to get it started. The other trike's low-hanging jockey wheels were usually full of gunk and grass so this may account for extra drag on the derailleur system, but whenever I cleaned it out it got mucky again very quickly.
It seems much, much quieter than the derailleur. At speed I can hear a low whine from the back if I listen out for it but if I have panniers on it masks the sound and it's not that significant anyway. There aren't any of the ticking sounds I used to get from my derailleur system (the jockey wheels?).
And the magic thing is that when I approach a junction at full speed, ready to slam the brakes on (and with discs I can stop VERY quickly) if there's a car coming and I have to stop I can change gear when stationary and then pull away comfortably, rather than doing myself an injury trying to pull away in the top gear on the Trice Q (which was, I believe, 110 inches).
The Alfine hub also has a wider gear range. ICE did explain to me what it was but my brain doesn't retain that kind of information, suffice to say it feels like one or two higher gears at the top end and three or four lower gears at the bottom end. The fact I have 33 gears rather than 27 is immaterial, it's just a nice, steady range of gears which are always available. The bar-end front shifter is good too.
The shifter for the Alfine is the standard handlebar one on its side. ICE are awaiting J-Tek (who make bar-end shifters) to produce a bar-end for the Alfine so this is the stop-gap option. However, it's so comfortable and natural feeling when riding that I suspect I'll save myself some money by just keeping with this option. Its only disadvantage is that it's fairly easy to get toggles/bits of clothing caught around it when you stand up.
Both those photos seem to obscure the upshifter lever which is behind and to the right of the downshifter one (the large vertical lever you can see). So there are two levers, the 'down' you push away from you with your thumb, the 'up' you pull towards you with your forefinger, and as fitted there both levers are naturally where your hands fall. You can also just see the orange indicator thingie to let you know what gear you're in.
You can just see it in this picture ('scuse the top of my head in the mirror!)
I did find my hands became uncomfortable towards the end of the Dunwich Dynamo - I realised that I used to rest my hand on the collar of the Grip-Shift shifters on the Trice Q and not having that on the Sprint is slightly less comfortable, but this was a 95 miles ride and I don't usually go that far in one go so I imagine I'll get accustomed to it.
Dynamo and LightI've got many friends who are audaxers and they all seem to have Schmidt SON dynohubs with Busch & Müller lights. I now know why.
My light was so bright that on the Dunwich Dynamo I had several people cycle alongside me (at my tortoise-like pace) presumably so that they could actually see where they were going. The light illuminated the country lanes beautifully - I never felt like I couldn't see where I was going or that I didn't have enough light. I had a backup head torch in case I got a puncture but it wasn't needed and I certainly don't need to supplement the front light for normal running conditions.
The Schmidt hub is a special one for trikes and is a fairly neat and unobtrusive bit of kit. I suppose it must make a very minor difference to the rolling of the trike (i.e. create a fraction more work) but I can't notice anything at all when riding it; my trike does still pull to the right as a result of the spoke lacing not being quite right, but I have already learned to subconsciously compensate for this when steering so I don't notice it at all unless I take both hands off the handlebars (which one does quite often on a trike, to adjust clothing or whatever).
I think the absolute optimum option would be a Schmidt on both sides - one side to power the front (and rear if desired) light, the other one connected up to a Busch & Müller E-Werk which provides a USB charging point for various gadgetry. If you go cycle camping it would be ideal. Come to think of it, do you think ICE would notice if, when they send me the new wheel-with-hub, I send back the old wheel-without-hub so I can end up with two hub dynamos?
Quiet runningMy old Trice Q was noisy and rattly, particularly with the mudguards on (so I tended to use it without them). A lot of the noise was from the chain through the chain tubes and this was the same when I fitted new chain tubes after about 18,000 miles. The rear freehub sounds like a machine gun on freewheel and there are general creaks and groans from the seat/rear suspension which are, I imagine, complaints about having travelled 25,000 miles with me as a heavy weight on it.
This Trice Sprint seems almost silent in comparison. Chain noise through the chain tubes is minimal, the freewheel is quieter (although much stiffer with the Alfine), the mudguards are currently rattle-free and the seat doesn't complain so much about me moving around on it. Almost all the noise coming from the trike seems to be tyre roar. It's so peaceful!
ConclusionsOverall, this has been yet another great purchase from Inspired Cycle Engineering. It definitely helped that I had experience of trikes so that I could decide what suits me best - the hub gear, for example. I imagine it's not everyone's cup of tea but it's just great for me.
I attempted to ride the Dunwich Dynamo on it last Saturday (five days after completing building it) but in the end only managed 95 of the 120 miles. This was no reflection on the trike which was brilliant, it was more that I was so sleepy that, at the 40 miles to go point, when I knew that I was only 15 miles from home, I decided to take the easier option. It was a very handy ride, though, as a shakedown ride - nothing shook down, all was fine, I had no mechanical issues and I found the seat exceptionally comfortable.
My previous trike cost £1,900 with about another £200 for extras after I bought it (radical sidepods, chainring guard, etc). This new ICE Sprint has been rather more pricey - £3,646.31 for the trike as delivered in the box, plus £35 for pedals, £57 for the B&M Lumotec IQ Cyo Senso Plus light, £47 for bar-end mount and cycle computer mount, about £20 in total for bottle cage, bottle and mirror, £15 for my naff cycle computer, so Alfie is working his way steadily towards 4k. I have robbed from the other trike the Garmin mount, a mirror, some high-vis reflectivity and lots of other peripherals (decent panniers, various SPD shoes etc) that I would have had to buy new if this were my first trike. So it's not a cheap hobby but boy is it fun! And I imagine if I'd done the 25,000 miles from the last trike in the car instead I would have been much worse off. But what price fun, health and freedom? Alfie is definitely worth it!
Various people wanted to know the prices of the individual pieces of kit, so here they are:
Your Sprint RS in [colour] package consists of:
1 Sprint frame and boom Red 638.81
1 Back end - 20 inch suspension - red 307.88
1 Seat pack (incl mounts) - mesh 163.69
1 Drivetrain - J.Tek left barend, Alfine 11 shifter right 172.92
1 Chainset/front mech - 170 firex + X7 136.16
1 20" rear wheel with Alfine 11, fitting kit & Racer tyre 471.78
1 Sprint 20" Chain tube pack with chain 84.09
1 Brake Pack BB7 tektro lever 119.01
1 Complete V brake parking brake Production 13.44
1 ICE Kingpost per pair - 2010 aluminium - IS calliper 120.77
1 Axles - disc brake 23.70
0.5 RIGHT disc front wheel with tube and marathon racer 77.43
2 Sticker - Sprint RS 2.73
1 Flexibility pack 20" susp (FMG, RMG, CRG, Rack + Sides) 278.59
1 Convenience pack - MESH (FLM, Neck Rest - Mesh - QR 111.59
1 Left Side Schmidt dyno hub wheel with tyre and tube 299.27
These prices are all excluding VAT (add another 20%), and not that the half a wheel is because the front wheels come in a pack of two and I only had one 'standard' wheel.