I know exactly what you mean... except the AB being confiscated.
First I'm going to ask this... since it always seems to be the case:
Why are *you* getting a new trike and the wife's getting the hand-me-down???
Okay, enough for the guilt trip and on with the show:
I have the ABTT... Gen II... idler on the frame and poor Ackerman geometry implementation... and a weak idler design.
Now my Ackerman is properly compensated; idler upgraded [in stock location!]; and the brakes have been upgraded to Avid BB7's. I LOVE THIS TRIKE!
But I wanted to try out something newer... so I went to Coventry Cycle Works to try out an '07 Expedition. Amazing how familiar that trike felt... there was zero learning curve... it handled exactly like the ABTT!
I went to try out the lawnchair seat option over the hardshell of the ABTT. What I was after was ordering an '08 Speed.. the Bengal Orange special edition. I was ready to place the order... 'til:
The upright *ergo* angle of the top of the seat was jabbing my shoulder blades. I am about your size... 6'2", 240#... I was really disappointed! This extra bend in the seat is included on ALL the Cats except the Trail and the new Villager. It was such a bummer that I walked away [actually rode away on my ABTT].
I did take the Expedition out for almost a half hour. It took about 20 minutes but the Expedition seems to have a design flaw... it only shows up on bigger riders [longer boom settings and riders over 200#'s]... The trike breaks out in a shimmy... even hands on... and not just a little shake, but a violent shaking at about 15mph. We have discussed this on the forum at length without conclusion, but it is obvious that larger riders seem to be affected... '07 and '08s alike.
My only other hesitation was the top end of the gear range on the smaller wheel. I've been seeing where I ride most of the time on my Actionbent. Seems the middle ring is used most of the time but sometimes, when building up speed on a hill, I'll grab the 52T chainring for the momentum on the climb after the downhill. Seems a 559 wheel is just to big and a 406 is just to small for nice climbing granny and high end downhill gearing.
ICE does have the new 9T cassette on their new trikes... and the Q does have the hardshell seat option... but $3500 for a trike??? Not from my budget... $2550 for an Expedition is even a bit on the steep side... and the risk of it having a death wobble was a pure turn-off.
Why not another ABTT? T1A? New wide bottom seat, Ackerman Corrected Geometry, the right price!?
Good luck on your quest!