Trike Testing

After my very successful trip to Edinburgh and ride around on the Ice Trike I wanted to test it on my local roads. After all, urban riding on cycle tracks and in the hurly burly of town traffic is not what I do. I wanted to see if it (or rather I) could climb some of the local hills and if we could have fun coming down them again. Very kindly David from Laid Back Bikes agreed that I could "borrow" the trike and give it a test up here. Of course that also meant seeing how the trike folded up so I could fit it into the car. It's not exactly bijou when it's folded but it just about fits in the boot of my saloon. On the return journey I found I could keep one of the split seats up which held it nicely in position. The problem with something with wheels is that it has a tendency to roll! It is great to know that I can transport one relatively easily.
The fun part arrived when I got back home. Man handling a folded up trike is, without doubt, something that comes with practice. Which I don't have. Added to the mix the fact that it is not mine and you might see why this was a nervous operation. The darkness didn't help. I got it out and into the garage. I now know that an easier method would have been to unfold it and carry it in. Although the package would have been longer it would also have been more rigid. However, I did the unfolding in the garage and suddenly I had a more recognisable shape in front of me. Next the seat. It took me a little while to get this right but for a first effort it was ok. A trike in my garage ready to roll. How exciting was that?
Actually it wasn't quite ready to roll. I needed to put a bag on it and get the right tools in there, add a front light etc. But that's all quite mundane so we will skip that. Suffice to say the rack bag that fits the tandem slipped nicely onto the sightly narrower rack on the Sprint. David's worries that it might slip proved groundless the next day. Good old Carradice! David should get special thanks for fitting a rear light and providing an spare inner tube for the 20 inch front wheels. There's real service. And I'm only a potential customer!
I'd love to say that the next day dawned bright and sunny but it didn't. Grey and wet was what it was, much to my disgust. The forecast promised better, and soon, so I got ready. And right enough I didn't have to delay my intended departure long for the rain to stop. Up and down the street to see that I'd got the cranks at the right distance and to test that I remembered how and then I was off. Then it rained again. Thankfully not for long.

Ready to roll

My plan was to do a relatively hilly loop, nothing too extreme, just a good test. Actually the first little hill came before I even started the computer. My ride start point is just opposite the West Port in St. Andrews and there's a little ramp I need to go up to get there. I notice it on all my bikes, so it was no surprise I ended up plodding my way up it in the trike. Then a left, hit the start button on the computer and the test really had begun.

I got my first surprise of the day when I needed to turn right up the hill to Strathkinness. Obviously I needed to cross the lane coming the other way. So I indicated, pulled out and got in position to turn right. A car was coming the other way so I slowed down only to find them coming to a halt and signalling that I should proceed. Either the trike and I looked very scary or so different that something needed to be done. This has never happened to me on my upright bike and I don't think it has ever happened on the tandem. What makes trikes so different?
Thanks to the overnight rain the roads were soaking and there were puddles everywhere. I felt sorry for the trike. And even more sorry for me when I got a soaking despite the mudguards. The problem with the recumbent position is there really is nowhere to go. The downhill section after Strathkinness was fun. I was mindful not to roll the trike so took it a little bit more easily down the hill than I might on a two-wheeler but it was still fun. Over 30 mph that close to the road feels really fast.
The climb to Dairsie was ok apart from another soaking and I headed out to Thai Teak. This is a road well known to me but, along with all the others I did, it really was a new perspective. Although much lower down and, therefore, unable to see over walls etc the overwhelming sense is one of being able to look around and enjoy the view. My serenity got a rude awakening as I made my way along to Thai Teak though. I realised (my hearing is not too bad) that the front left mudguard had come loose and was a) rattling something awful and b) interfering with the wheel. Now here's something you can't do on a regular bike. I slowed a little, took the mudguard in my left hand and held it away from the wheel until I could make the turn into the bottom of the hill and its much quieter road. There I fished out the multi-tool and tightened up the fittings. I checked the front right and the rear as well for good measure. Fife roads must be rougher than Edinburgh ones!

Up that?

That left me at the bottom of the Thai Teak climb. An ever steepening ramp of about 0.7 miles. It's good hill climbing training. Once I had the correct chainring selected it went relatively smoothly. Not quickly but ok, and my heart rate was lower than normal. So there's definite room for improvement. As I was to find for most of the ride my cardio vascular system was not the limiting factor. For better times I need to build some "recumbent legs".

The ride into Cupar was ok. It rolls a little and then you get a good run into Cupar itself. I was still a little apprehensive about letting trike roll so didn't achieve personal best territory here. It's also urban so not the best place to be trying to see just how fast the trike will go downhill. I was pointed out by a father to his child as I swept through the corner at the bottom. A rare sight indeed, then!
Through Cupar and on to a fairer test of my recumbent climbing ability. Garlie Bank is a 1.4 mile climb of around 3-5%. One I tend just to pick a gear and spin on. And that's what I did. To my surprise I was faster than I've been up it on the tandem but of course much slower than my single bike. That didn't detract from the fact that I climbed it without much fuss and with a reasonable heart rate and cadence. The irritating moment came near the top when I managed to drop my water bottle as I was attempting to put it into the cage. With the trike it's a bit harder just to stop because you need to find a safe place for the machine. I did, parked up, and then strolled back for the offending bottle. That did give me the excuse for some photos.

Water bottle replaced...

The little climb in Craigrothie went ok (I didn't beat the tandem here) and then it was time for some fun, or so I thought. The ride home. From Craigrothie it should be relatively quick to Ceres, and then the same from there to Pitscottie after which there's a bit of climbing before the blast down from Blebo to St. Andrews. But this is where my major problem with the trike reared it's head. It's called pedal steer. And from what I read, Ice Trikes are supposed to have only a little (or none). What happens is this. As you pedal the bike steers towards the active leg. So on what I hoped might be good fast bits I found myself being very alarmed as the bike went left, right, left, right etc. To be fair it happened all the way round on my ride but it was worse at speed and high cadences. Which was annoying, as that's how I like ride fast; lower gear with a high cadence. It was pronounced enough to cause me to back off. And that's not good for my long term relationship with trikes.

Still, I made it back to St. Andrews and for the most part it was great fun. My route home from the edge of town was slightly longer than usual as I had promised The Groover a look. Most of the office disgorged to have a look at the odd contraption. Some even got in (on?) to see if they liked it. Slippers and pipes came up in the conversation.
On my way home I passed the nearby primary school. Again the trike proved popular with kids running up to the wall to look at, and pass comment on, the strange human powered vehicle. It's very odd getting even more attention than we receive on the tandem.
Once home I had to give the poor trike a clean. It looked like it had been in a war with mud and had lost. I got most of the obvious muck off and, to my shame, left David to clean the insides of the mudguards etc. Then, fold and pack into the car for transportation to Edinburgh. This whole operation and the reverse, once in Edinburgh, was so much easier and this was only my second attempt so I can confidently say that this part of the package Ice have got very much correct.

The Ride

The Verdict

Will I be riding a trike soon? It's a fair question and one I can't answer yet. And there in lies my disappointment. Without the pedal steer issue I'm 99% certain the answer would be yes. And then my further decisions would be what kind of seat (I want to try the hardshell one rather than the mesh one in the pictures) and what gearing. I also don't know if it is a non-issue, something that might go away if I rode the trike more regularly. All new skills take time to master. With it I might be re-looking at the weird world of two wheeled recumbents.
As a message to David, at Laid Back, you've certainly not seen the last of me, sorry!