Originally Posted by
greatbasin
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I would love a trike. I noticed a beautiful ICE Sprint RS for sale. I'd have to pay substantially over $2K for something like that, plus the luggage. I have some concerns about safety alongside traffic and about the weight going over mountain passes with 15% grades. A trike involves even more unknowns for me than a touring bike. I have a lot of questions that I think only riding one would answer, and since the entry-level price is around the same as a very well-equipped touring bike, I've put it off for now.
I have not ridden a trike, but I know a guy that bought one a bit over two years ago. I also was part of a group tour, one of the people in the group had a trike with a one-wheel trailer for gear.
Safety, being that low you are harder to see. But almost every trike I have seen has a flag pole and flag, the flag fluttering aids visibility greatly, as to blinkers if you have them one. The guy I know that bought one two years ago, his flag has a stiffener, likely added by the marketing department to hold the flag horizontally with the company name, and it does not flutter in the wind making it less safe. But he added some streamers of flagging tape to make up for that.
The group tour I was in, the guy with the trike pedaled up Going to the Sun Road on his trike. I think I averaged about 3.5 mph and took frequent breaks, but he pedaled slower, when you do not need to balance and can't fall over you can pedal as slow as you want as long as your gearing is low enough.
The one in the photo, I took that photo in Iceland, the owner was from Germany, I have no clue how he got it there but it is not the sort of thing you put in a box and bring to the airport.