linberl

I guess it depends where you live. I live in the Bay Area and actually there are very few recumbent shops. And not one of my lbs has a recumbent of any kind on the floor. in fact, i ended up buying a recumbent trike blindly as i could not easily find a shop to see them, without driving more than an hour to get to it. So for this major urban area, you're not going to see recumbents when you go to your local shop. i guess every area is different. The other factor, I think, is that recumbents (trikes anyway) are not as easily used on public transit for commuters compared to DF, and require a bit more space to lock up. They don't fit in the Bart lockers at our Bart stations and cannot easily be taken on trains so not a commuter choice and many folks have one bike for commuting and recreation. Now maybe if there had been a recumbent 2 wheeler in the shops around me I might have tried it out - I certainly have no great love for regular bike seats, lol. Even the most comfortable one is not as comfy as a recumbent seat. They don't make them anymore but i recently learned Bike Friday used to make a folding recumbent 2 wheeler - would have been awesome to have had one of those to consider in my DF days.

linberl

Now that we have actually had some rain here in the Bay Area, I can see why recumbent trikes would not be popular in Portland. Riding that close to the ground with most of your body close to parallel to the ground is not a good thing when it is wet. On my DF I can use an inexpensive poncho to stay dry. On a recumbent trike, I think it's either full rain jacket and pants AND water proof shoes or a canopy and fairing. Both are more trouble and more expense than a poncho you can whip on and off and stuff in a bag. If this thing where water from the sky falls down on us keeps up here in the Bay Area, I may have to buy fenders!!!!! Haven't used them in a decade, lol. But we do need the rain.........

rydabent

Most trike riders have sense enough to come in out of the rain.

linberl

It's the post-rain roadways, lol. We've had so much rain that instead of puddles we have mini-lakes on the roadways. It's gonna take days to dry everything out to where I'm not getting crap sprayed everywhere.

7up

Once in westchester after a hill climb, guy was as surprised as I was to see another tadpole rider.

rydabent

Actually with the two front wheels on both sides of you, any water they kick up goes past you. It is DF bikes and recumbent bikes that has a wheel right in front of you to throw water on you.

linberl

That may be true in theory, lol, but the underside of both my forearms are soaked and covered in road mud everytime I ride after a rain. Probably because I'm fairly short with "t rex' arms and end up sitting close to the front tires. On my DF bikes
nothing ever hit my upper body, just the end of my pants. And a simple poncho worked great for riding IN the rain, hooked over the bars and kept me very dry. Doesn't work on the recumbent, lol, the wind blows straight up the end of the poncho
and even with a strap and buckle the legs get wet. i can see why folks put on fairings and make velomobiles! i'm finding my usual methods just need changing now that I'm on a trike. Have to find a bigger tree to hide under or a bigger awning, and reroute around
places I know tend to flood, etc. All good, just a learning curve.

easyupbug 

Two or three a year, and it surprises me as I now have a Catrike for bad arthritis days and we are in a semi-retirement type community in AZ with 5' and 8' bike lanes everywhere. I also have a Trident folder for our month or so in WA in spring where I have seen one and where we summer in WY I doubt I will ever see a bent.

rydabent

With so much site seeing to do in the Bay Area, I would love to ride my trike there. Trikes are the most ideal cyclist machine to do site seeing with. You can ride as slow as you want to, or completely stop to take pictures.

linberl

I'm seeing more and more new trike riders almost daily here. The Bay Trail is an extraordinary place to ride with unparalleled views. You can stop on your trike and watch the Great Blue Herons, or enjoy the. view of the Golden Gate Bridge and the City from comfort. Sometimes I take along a nice lunch and enjoy lunch with a million dollar view! If you ever come to ride here, come near the end of September.......it's warmer than summer.

Velocivixen

I bought my first trike about a year ago and live near a regional paved trail, so that’s where I ride the trike. Mostly I trike & take binoculars and go birdwatching. I’ll ride along then park somewhere, lock my brakes and watch nature in action, then head on down the trail to the next interesting spot. Since I own a trike I notice them much more than before.

friday1970

I do wonder if the E-Bike craze has moved some trike riders back to the 2 wheelers? I rarely see a tadpole riding around now. Maybe 4-5 last year. But E-bikes are everywhere.

The Howard's Friends Ride coming up in April in Michigan usually brings out a few trikes and bents. It about the only time I see any sort of bent gathering anymore.

rydabent

Turning a tadpole trike into an E-trike is very simple. Why would they want to go back to all the problems of a DF bike.

Notso_fastLane

Since moving to FL. I see a lot of trikes. I've only seen a couple recumbent bikes, and no other velos yet, although I know some are around here.

Bob Ross

Yeah, I would bet >25% of the tadpole 'bents I see around Tucson are E-Bikes...er, I mean E-Trikes.
Hard to tell whether they came that way new or were retrofitted, but they're pretty popular here.

Velocivixen

I see a man & woman “driving” oh I mean “riding” their electric bike down the trail. I don’t think I have seen them actually pedal. I stopped & chatted & the guy was encouraging me on the ways of electric motors….told me I’d get up hills easier. Huh. I don’t have problems going anywhere on my trike.
Oh well.

rydabent

With a trike, you can stop and smell the roses WITHOUT putting a foot down. That is one of the great pluses of riding a trike. You stay clipped in and can ride straight off without wobbling around and annoying car drivers.

linberl

I bit the bullet and ordered fenders finally, Many days with breaks in the rain of several hours and super wet roadways with mud; once I get the fenders installed i can get a ride in between the rains. Guess the drought is mostly over. And yes, you don't have to put a foot down with a trike. Makes it easier to be a law abiding driver, lol, and stop at stop signs.

rydabent

Gee and I thot that Southern Calif was supposed to be the enlightened area of the country.

On the internet there is a group that calls itself the trike squadron that posts videos of their rides on bike trails in the Huntington beach area. Watching their videos, I would love to ride with them.

rydabent

Almost all of us trike riders say cars give us far more room on a trike than on a bike. Again the reason is they perceive us as some form of handicap machine. Drivers dont want to see their name splashed all over the front page of the local newspaper as a driver that hit a handicap person. As long as they want the think that about trikes, the better for us that it is.

rydabent

But Lincoln has 130 miles of hard surface hiker biker trails. There is even one right thru the down town that is a protected path, with its own traffic light signals.

SoCaled 

We are enlightened, the sun is always shining.
Since my last post I have seen ONE, and I was scared for him, he had a proper tall flag and was doing everything right, but, he was riding in San Pedro (the port of Los Angeles) and that traffic doesn't care about your flag it is just who is bigger. I saw him almost get squished by a fully loaded rig that made a last minute lane change, under a bridge in the shadows. He was definitely covering territory though, I saw him later clear across town on the PV side of the peninsula.
There is a least one more out there, I had a Terra Trike Rambler GT (for about 15 seconds until I confirmed I prefer 2 wheels) I passed along to my friends father in Orange county. He has been tearing around in the parks and the strand on the beach. He came to visit and saw my trike and said, "my doctor told me I should get one of these" I sent him off for a test ride and he came back smiling, so I sent him home with it.

tamss13

When I started in 2000 (Allen Tx) people would stop me an ask what is that you are riding....I got stopped all the time....took a year off...started back a month ago and I've ran into at least 8 people with trikes on my morning quick ride.

linberl

Ran into a group recumbent ride this morning - 8 tadpoles, 2 of the other, and a couple 2 wheel recumbents. Cool group.

PDR

I have been riding my ICE Sprint X (trike) on the roads for 6 years now and I can confirm that car, bus and truck drivers all give me way more space than when I'm out on my Moulton AM Speed, or Brompton 2-wheel bikes.