I almost gave up touring because of the discomfort I was experiencing on a tour I did on a DF 2 years ago after 40 years of racing, touring, mountain biking. I fell in love with trikes on my first ride and bought 2, a Trice T and a Catrike road specifically to see which one would work best for loaded long distance touring. After riding both for several hundred miles, I sold the Catrike even though it was faster and more fun to ride than the Trice, it is not nearly as good a touring machine IMO, and the 1200 mile tour I did this summer proved this out. The Catrike is a very stiff aluminum, unsuspended frame and very unforgiving on all but the smoothest pavement, and is very limited in rack space for panniers and I did not want to take my Burley nomad on the tour I was doing. The Trice floats over rough surfaces with ease, rides over curbs and down stairs with aplomb, and will handle not too narrow or technical mtb trails surprisingly well, but still have a couple of problems inherent with trikes.

The tour I did this last summer was from St. Augustine to Pittsburg following the ACA Atlantic coast route and maps. At least as far as DC where I picked up the C&O canal to the GAP trail and into Pittsburg. I used 2" Maxxis Ringworm tires and they performed really nicely in the dirt and pavement as I could vary the pressure between 50 and 100 psi depending on the surface I'm on. However they are quite heavy and slow down an already pretty slow machine on climbs. Problem number one with trikes for touring, they are slower. Not horrible but for me noticeable. I was still able to do between 50 and 100 miles a day and probably averaged about 80 on pavement. On the dirt I was doing 45 - 60 miles per day. My average speed was 12 -15 mph on pavement and dropped to 7- 14 on the dirt. There were were some very rough paved chip and seal back roads on the ACA Atlantic Coast route I took. Even the best on road touring routes frequently have some very rough pavement miles on them.

There are 2 problems with touring on unpaved surfaced with a trike. One, unless you want to go really slow in the rough stuff and be beat to death, you'll need some kind of suspension. This is the reason that Trice, HP Velotechnik, and several other recumbent manufacturers are coming out with FULL suspended trikes in 2009. Problem #2 with trikes in the dirt, as someone mentioned earlier is double track. On the C&O there is probably 70 miles of the trail that you have at least one wheel running in grass or rocks or looser dirt. Mostly grass though. Yuck. Not fun.

This brings to the point I'd like to make about how we (recumbent riders) here in the USA tend to think solely in terms day rides or touring on nice American highways, where as in Europe, many cycle tourist take recumbent bikes and trikes into 3rd world country expeditionary riding conditions. This I see reflected in the types of recumbents made here in the US. I have been giving this a lot of thought lately because I'm planning on riding the ACA Great Divide mountain route along the continental divide next summer. After using my Trice this summer on 350 miles of dirt, I have been looking for a recumbent bike for loaded touring so I no longer have to experience "the heartbreak of doubletracking on a trike". My criteria for this tour is essentially the same as for a long road tour on recumbent except with fatter tires and maybe front suspension. I want dual 26" wheels, a rear rack or racks that will support 2 sets of Ortlieb panniers, disc brakes, full suspension, Rohloff hub, and 3rd world country proven reliability. As far as my research has turned up, there are several recumbent bikes made in Europe that fit the bill and are advertised as "trekking/expedition" capable, but only 3 are available here in the us: Challenge Seiran E, HPV Scorpion Streetmachine GTE, and the Optima Orca.

I test rode the Orca today and it was an awesome bike. Meets all my criteria for the ideal offroad touring bike except for the Rohloff which I plan on building up. It had 35mm marathons on it and was so much faster than my Trice it was amazing. Could cruise a good 3-4 mph faster with the same effort. I even blasted down a rough gravel track for a few miles in it. I am planning on doing a crazyguyonabike journal and a podcast from the road on this trip for anyone interested.

Oh and for anyone that thinks you can't ride a bike like this offroad, do a youtube search for : azub + recumbent + off road. Go there, you'll see.