Trident Spike: Any Recommendations
 

I am getting ready to purchase a recumbent for my 65 year old wife with balance issues. Pretty much narrowed it down to a Trident Spike.
Anyone out there have experience or recommendations with regards to this recumbent trike?

Thanks so much,
Scubaquarius

I had the chance to see one up close a few years ago when a young teenage boy showed up for a cycling merit badge ride. Two of the adult leaders were regular trike riders (both Greenspeed at the time). We took a look at the trike and we were impressed . It appeared to be well made and with acceptable components. It was the owner's first ride on the trike and he managed 10 miles quite well. Unfortunately he did not continue with the merit badge so we never saw him again. Thom Flor, the owner of Trident, is a regular contributor over on Bentrideronline. He seems to be very responsive to anyone who has questions or problems with one of his trikes and posts about it there.

If you do buy one, I strongly suggest buying the Spike 2 over the basic Spike. It's a few hundred dollars more but well worth the upgrades on the gear range and components. The gear range on the basic Spike is 24.2”-58.7” while for the Spike 2 is 17.4-88.1″. You wife will definitely like having the lower end at first for climbing hills and the upper end when she has ridden for a while. One of the complaints I read a lot about are trikes like the old TT Rover was the top gear being too low. Owners would outgrow the limited top end. It's far less expensive to get the right trike the first time than to buy the wrong one and then try to upgrade and retrofit it to be better.

Thanks so much for the information,

Scubaquarius