Trike shopping
 

Are there any tadpole trike owners in Calgary, AB on here ?
I'm looking to buy one and I wanna take one for a test ride, the closest dealer i can find is closed currently till November 5th and the one in Edmonton is down to 2 trikes for the winter months, not worth my effort to get out there.
I don't know of any other dealers in the area.

Right now its a tossup
http://www.catrike.com/#!expedition/c2465
or
http://www.catrike.com/#!trail/cc67

The adjustable seat and single tire size is attractive on the trail, but the expeditions larger wheel will allow higher cruising speeds.
I would love to test ride and expedition if anyone has one.

When I bought my TerraTrike it came with 3 20" wheels. I upgrade to the 26" rear for the main reason to get the RD and chain further up out of the dirt and a safer location. Check out how low the RD is to the ground in higher gears. It also allows pretty much "conventional" gearing. Last for no logical reason, I think the larger rear wheel just make trikes look better.

A larger rear wheel:

* Keeps rear derailleur further from the ground. This is the biggest selling point of big wheels.

* Has higher gearing (although you can use a Capreo hub and cassette on smaller wheel to get this as well). Getting lower gearing is often more important than getting higher gearing.


* Larger tires (of same material and pressure) have a little less rolling resistance. Both sizes have a decent selection of tires. - Given that there are two 20" wheels anyway, I'd call this a wash.

* I will neither confirm nor deny Rydabent's last point that it looks better.

cplager +1

I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To me the small rear wheel makes trikes look toy like. The up side is the fact you only need one size tire and tube.

I have ridden a Catrike Road for the better part of the last year. I have not one single time come across any situation where the smaller diameter wheel in the back caused the derailleur to come in contact with anything. I have ridden "off road" in pullouts smooth enough (and that is truly the key) for me to ride. The bottom clearance of the chain pulley (curb height) is about the same under normal conditions, so if it won't hit.... I could see where riding in mud or something that would rut could cause this to happen and it certainly has to posters here, I am just saying that for 100% of the miles I have ridden it has not been an issue one single time.
I have noted that my average speed is lower, but the smaller gear inches as a result is a benefit for my condition/situation. The additional convenience of having only one size tire and tube all the way around is nice as well.


Wanted to add, the two models you are linking there are about as different from one another as they could be in a lot of ways. The trail (as I see it) is designed more for running around the park day, where the Expedition is a get out of the road and travel trike. There is a lot of middle ground there to be looking into as well. I would consider the (older) Road model to be more comparable to the Expedition in most respects other than the rear wheel. Might look into the ICE, or if you have the pockets a Greenspeed.

I agree, the big tire makes it look cooler. Theres wheel extenders from Utah-Trikes designed for the Trail that lets you slap a 26 or 700 on.
I've settled on the 2013 Trail. The expedition is nice and all but I get all the features they've packed into the trail, and with the extenders I can have a big wheel too. Example

I went from a 20" rear to a 700x35c, a major difference it was to me.

The 20", the rear bottom roller and chain hit many sidewalk edges when I would have to drop off or climb up on to go around pedestrians.
The tires were 20x1.5's and the lower roller's bottom edge was at the top of the rim in the gears I seemed to use most often making it about 2 inches off the ground, less when the tire deformed on an impact. It filled up with wet grass every time, stopping to pick it out was a pain.

The larger tire, the above issues were gone and it rolled so much better, small side walk cracks and side walk drop offs had so much LESS of an effect. The larger diameter helped keep the tire out of smaller holes and minimized the impact of small drop offs and bumps.

Gearing and speed, a very obvious difference. I could spin higher gear inches and acceleration was very much improved.
The better acceleration was IMO due to far less rolling resistance of the larger wheel.

Just my observed differences.

I must include the 20" rear was on the EZ-1 sx with my 20" front wheel mod, and the 700 rear was on the Sun Made Tour Easy SE

Both bikes had the same cassettes and chainrings as in number of teeth on the large chainring.

I could spin out all but the top gear on the EZ-1 and maintain for a given time
I could not spin out the top three gears on the Tour Easy due to the much greater upper gear Inches of the Tour Easy.
But I was spinning a taller gear inch than the top one on the EZ-1..

The EZ-1 top gear Inch was 83"
The Tour Easy tallest was 127"

The Expedition WILL be my choice and I will have one as soon as I can save up the coin to pay cash for one.
maybe next year XD

A quote from the Terra Trike site about 26" wheel upgrades:

One of our most popular trike upgrades, adding a 26" rear wheel to your trike gives you plenty of advantages, and looks pretty cool too! The larger wheel allows for greater maximum speeds (by increasing the gear inches) and faster acceleration. It also makes for a smoother ride, eliminating some of the road noise felt on rough bike paths or gravel roads. The 26" rear wheel works best for those who ride mostly bike baths or roads with a moderate amount of hill climbing.

For use on the Tour II, this upgrade requires a Dropout Extension. See our Recommended Products area below to order.