Winter Cycling - 3-Wheeled Bike as Winter Rider?

I'm currently on the hunt for a decent winter bike. I am looking around at any option I can think of and recently have been toying with the idea of using a 3-Wheeled Bike (adult tricycle). The one I'm looking at has front lever brakes and two rear brakes from a pull lever. The wheels are 26" and fit the specs for the 26" studded tires I'm looking at. It is great for me because it has all the room in back for groceries, which I need.

It may be harder to menuever on the harder days (which is about once a week maybe) but the extra wheels give me more traction so slips are immenent.

What do you guys think?

Oh yeah, here is the bike - http://www.amazon.com/Schwinn-Meridian-Adult-26-Inch-3-Wheel/dp/B000IORU06/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=sporting-goods&qid=1250324808&sr=1-1

How're your fabrication skills?

http://www.atomiczombie.com/gallery/bradgraham/hammerhead.htm

Well....don't consider this the last word on the subject, but I'd think long about a 3-wheeler as a winter bike.

when the snow is fresh it'll be hard to pedal through. You'll likely do a lot of drive wheel spinning. For that matter, it's hard enough on a two-wheeler when it's deeper than, say, 3 inches.

The other thing about winter cycling that is an actual problem is when the roads are more or less clear, but the snow is banked up at the side in an unrideable ice heap. At those times you are forced to be more in the lane. A wide, slow three wheeler in those circumstances may be a true impediment to traffic. That would put you in a position of encountering more road rage, not to mention the idiots who will not slow down until the last moment and, under winter conditions, slide right into you.

Road conditions are a bigger problem for bicyclists, in my opinion, than the weather itself. I'm afraid a 3 wheeler might make this worse.

Thanks for the input guys. I never thought of having a harder time maneuvering within the snow itself, but it makes sense. The wider stance is one of the reasons I wasn't sure if it would be good or not. I know I use my bike to ride to work and would not want to deal with the hassle all the time. I only get groceries maybe once a week and those times I can deal with pulling a trailer in the snow (on the better days).

One the biggest problems I have on snow are ruts that have frozen. They force your wheel into a certain direction which is not perhaps where you intended. With tricycles, each wheel will be fighting to get into a rut. You wont suffer the risk of a spill but you may have a problem making progress. Its an interesting concept and one worth exploring.
There some advice on trike/snow (http://www.haleytrikes.com/faq.html) use.

I think I have found the right bike for me though. Instead of having a "full time hauler" I'm just going to have the occasional one with the use of a trailer. The bike I really want is a Surly Pugsley with those huge wheels (imagine putting some studs through those treads). But I have been looking around Craigslist and found a promising bike that closely resembles the Surley -

It's a Gary Fisher Wahoo, Gold Series bike. It's lightly used, which doesn't bother me as it's in my price range. I know enough about how to work on bikes so I'm not too worried about a mechanical issue.

http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/6071/13214383.jpg (http://img199.imageshack.us/i/13214383.jpg/)
:love:

I plan on getting that and doing a good tune-up (take everything apart and clean/grease it up) then getting some good mudguards, studded bike tires (front and rear), rear bike rack, saddle bags, bolt on trailer hitch, and the trailer all from Amazon (free shipping of course).

That Fisher sure looks like a good bike for the job.

And just in case you're interested, here's how I handle the cargo issue. It might even save you the trouble of using a trailer, which has a few issues of it's own in winter. A large duffel bag on the front rack makes an excellent wind screen.

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=566657&highlight=%28mostly%29+DIY

I've tried to ride my wife's recumbent trike in the snow. It sucked, basically. I even rigged up a form of tire chains for the drivehweel and mostly spun.


Now, out on the lake on lake ice, it's fun, though. Yu can power slide it and spin it out to your hearts content. :p On rutted, icy roads, though, not so fun.

Well I finally got my future Winter Warrior today. It wasn't the Fisher I posted above because the deal didn't go through. I ended up getting a Trek 3700, in really great shape. I took a bunch of pics before I start cleaning it, I'll post them in a new thread about building up a winter bike from a stock bike.