tcs

IIRC, the absolute pedal cycle record for Lands End to John O'Groats is held by a fellow making use of a trike. Trike speed is what it is.

GFish

Guess it depends on the style of trike.

The trikes that appear to be fun, were traveling over 20+ mph into a 15mph head wind. The low profile with a 700c rear wheel combined to make a very fast trike. I couldn't keep up. This was on an organized metric century. I talked with both riders for awhile, then they said time to move and both were gone. The 2 riders easily pulled away. Guessing one rider was 30+ and the other 60+, likely father and son. I was thinking right then, that I was riding the wrong style of bike.

So the trikes that intrigue me are fast, now I see them regularly on organized and group rides. A LBS sells a couple models, haven't tried one yet, but very tempting.

BlazingPedals

Where in Oregon, GFish? (Maybe I know them.)

martianone

N+1 is the time for a tadpole trike.
Makes you feel like a kid again.

DropBarFan

It's a bit of a mystery to me why (non-recumbent) trikes aren't more popular. Schwinn used to make a couple of nice (if heavy) models aimed at retired crowd. Huge basket to carry groceries or toy poodle. I like to ride in snow/ice but it's always a challenge even with fat knobby tires. Last winter I rode a MTB over snowy/icy roads, worked fine for majority of ride but in last 200 meters the front wheel slipped & caused a minor spill. A trike would be a breeze in such conditions. Some bike fanatics own 5-10 bikes but strangely don't include a trike.

Locally I see a lot of oldsters on bike/trike recumbents, <1% seem to be doing anything other than slow local fitness rides. Their cycles seem to have even less rack/pannier capacity than avg commuting bike.

UK was a hotbed of performance trikes, Bob Jackson made nice trikes. I suppose that with adequate budget a US buyer could get a sweet road/touring-type trike built by custom builder.

chasm54

The unpopularity of upright trikes is no mystery. Like StephenH said earlier in the thread, they are less stable than a two-wheeler unless you restrict your speed to a few mph. Try a fast downhill on one. If it's perfectly straight, that might work out. If it contains anything resembling a bend, have an ambulance standing by. Even the racing versions have to corner in slow motion.

OldsCOOL

Remembering the days of the 3-wheel ATVs. Tricky when cornering.

tcs

Don't gotta remember back when; I see Harley trikes out on the road all the time right now. The riders hardly look like they're scanning ahead for an ambulance - they look like they're having fun. Harley ended 90+ years of sidecar production a few years ago because trikes, which they've built since 1932, were so much more in demand.

But certainly, if one had particular concerns, an adult upright pedal trike could be (and in fact on occasion has been) built with a wide stance, longish wheelbase and low center of gravity and be quite stable, like a Can Am Spyder.

OldsCOOL

Sidecars. I love watching them race.

tcs

Sidecar? Here ya go.

OldsCOOL

That man needs a Huffy.

Matariki

When I broke my wrist last year, I had a flash that perhaps I "should" be worried about stability so while recovering, I browsed for info about tadpole trikes. This led to browsing ads, which in turn lead to a purchase of a used ICE Sprint. My stability concern turned out to be more of a "confidence" thing, from which I am fully recovered. Nevertheless, I am thrilled with the trike. It's a blast to ride, especially when you lift the inside front wheel and it seems to impress pre and early teen kids (and how hard is it for an old guy to do that?). It's a bit slower than my other bikes, but still respectable. I rode the whole 44 miles of the Withlacoochee Trail in Florida earlier this year at a 14+ average speed.

Also, try tackling the South Pole on a bike. World's first cycle to the South Pole achieved

JanMM

Hey! I resemble that remark. Except for the trike part - not that old, yet. Am I in the <1% club? Almost 2% today - on a ride this morning, out of 65 riders, I was the only one on a 'bent (bike).

BlazingPedals

The difference is in weight distribution. A Harley has a lot of weight down low - the engine and tranny. Not so with an old-style upright delta trike. Plus there's the efficiency issue. An old-style delta only drives one wheel, which is off to the side. That can be rectified with a differential, at the expense of weight, complexity, and cost. A Harley has power to burn, a cyclist does not.

VegasTriker

It is no mystery to me as to why I see so few adult (non recumbent) trikes ridden in my area even though the weather is conducive to year around riding. The cost isn't prohibitive. I can go on Amazon and buy one for $300 or less and have it shipped to my door for free. It is all about the weight and inefficiency of the trike. $300 gets you a 70 pound one-speed trike. Even a slight hill is a challenge for a rider with a trike that heavy. No gears means you have to pedal really hard up a hill and really spin going down the other side if you want to go any distance in a reasonable amount of time. You have to factor in that a fair number of adults are overweight (69%)* or even obese (35%)* which makes it even harder to ride such a trike. Then, there is the general laziness factor for a lot of folks. Ride a bike? Why should I when I have a car?

I've seen a fair number of recumbent trike riders recently. Far more than the few granny trike riders. We even have a trike dealer in town for the first time in years though it isn't a brand I would want to ride.
* obesity statistics from Center for Disease Control and Prevention 2011-2012 (most recent data)

tcs

You say trikes are slow; I point out one that's an absolute record holder. I point to examples of modern trikes, you respond with perceived faults of trikes of the 1950s. You are resistant. That's cool; we're just a bunch of folks yakking about cycles.

tcs

It's been a while since I've surveyed the market. What does $300 get one in a recumbent trike these days?

VegasTriker

The $300 was for a traditional (granny) trike, not a recumbent trike. It gets you a one-speed Schwinn with the basket and all that stuff mentioned by one of the people who replied to this thread. Here's a price list for a large recumbent dealer in the east: https://www.bicycleman.com/files/Bicy...Price-List.pdf As you can see, even Sunseeker doesn't have anything much below 1K and while their trikes are made with quality components (brands you would at least recognize) they are on the heavy side. That's why you don't see many young recumbent trike riders because they simply don't have the kind of disposable income to justify plopping down $2K or more for a trike when that money will buy you a pretty nice (much lighter) road bike. Of course you don't get the trike grin and comfort with the road bike.

BlazingPedals

Sorry, I over-clipped. Of course ALL trikes aren't slow. I was referring mostly to the old-fashioned single-speed upright delta trikes as being heavy and slow. Modern recumbent tadpoles are, for the most part, still slower than 2-wheelers but they're efficient enough that they shouldn't scare folks away. OTOH, some are pretty fast and some are VERY fast. The very fast ones cost more than $300 though.

Put a full body on a trike and it can be 'blazing-' fast. This is me, modeling a sort-of-fast one.

DropBarFan

Schwinn Meridian is 70 lbs even w/aluminum frame--higher-priced Town & Country (3-speed) doesn't even list the weight, prolly 70 # also. Oof. Sure a trike requires extra wheel & tubing but that much extra weight is absurd. I could see an industrial trike weighing that much but a light-use trike? So you're right, weight alone is a big drawback. & moving to a lightweight upright trike is probably a huge price jump. Still think it might be handy for commuting in snow though. A heavy trike is slow but locally when it snows car-commuting is a nightmare so even a slow trike will beat the cars/metro/buses. On local path there's a fair # of folks that bike commute even in snow/ice but it's tricky & stressful often.

DropBarFan

There's a nearby LBS that specializes in recumbents which might explain local popularity. I'm sure if your group ride was long enough some of the other 64 riders might envy the comfy cockpit. Even top pros can suffer from saddle pain after all.

trackhub

The late, great Sheldon Brown was stricken with late-in-life MS. It really did a number on his sense of balance. So... his solution was to switch to a
Greenspeed, recumbent trike. Folks, I saw the man ride this, and he was able to move right along, with respectable power. Alas, the MS also
did a number on his energy level, so when he got tired, he would simply stop and find a good spot to watch the Kayak folks on the Charles river.
As he put it, he already had a built in easy chair. These greenspeeds are not in-expensive though. Good news: They do seem to be well-made.

So, when it time for a three wheeler? Unknown, but your mortality just dictate that you get one some day.

Mobile 155

I have been looking at a cat trike for some time and pretty well realize that sooner or later I will have to give up cycling or move to a trike. A good friend of mine rode with our group well into his mid 80s. By switching to a cat trike.

It was more than normal balance he told me once. It was those days when you were pushing up a hill and can just turn your cranks over you feel like you are going to fall before you can clip out. He said with the Trike he could simply stop and rest till he could go again.

StephenH

A trike works great in snow or ice in the right conditions. With a bicycle, you're dependent upon friction with the ground to keep you upright- get on something slick and you're in trouble. With a trike, if you go around a corner too fast, it's friction that'll turn you over- lose friction, and you may slide into stuff, but you can't turn over as easily, so it's great. With my Worksman trike, on icy crusty snow, it's fine. In loose snow, up to about 2", it's fine, over that and you can't go. You're pushing three wide tires through the snow, but only have traction on one, so it doesn't take much to stop it. I think on a lot of the adult upright trikes, only one rear wheel is driven, so you'd have the same problem.

Here's some videos I made several years ago, just out having fun when nobody else could ride:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA_I6jH7DY8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57P-OhgxulM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgbIG1FUB2o

OldsCOOL

Dude, drifting a tricycle in the winter. Hmmmm.