rydabent

Thousands of people ride recumbent and trikes cross country because of the lack of pain and the view.

adablduya

Leisesturm:
nice on the trikes. due to health issues, i am making the move to a recumbent trike. man, that's a whole new world of parts and especially, with gearing, that i never messed with on touring and triathlon bikes. any general suggestions to make ? are front/full suspension trikes worth it ? do you know which trikes might be best suited for touring ? any thoughts on deltas vs. tadpoles ? etc.....

rydabent

A guy?? Actually hundreds of people ride trikes cross country. They get comfort view, and 3 wheels carrying the weight gives less wheel problems.

Maelochs

As was noted and duly ignored by the "my crankarm is longer" crowd, that we are talking about an Upright Tricycle, not a tadpole recumbent.

We are talking about something like a child's tricycle with bigger wheels ... a diamond-frame bike with duallies.

Those trikes are Exactly as visible as any other DF bike or more so, because they are wider and take up more space.

Tyhe lady told us the specific brand of trike she bought, did no one think to google it? Trikes | Sun Bicycles

We have probably scared her away forever by now.

klucabike

I am 66 and have had a 24-inch Sun trike for three years. I love the trike itself, but it has the 5-speed Sturmey-Archer hub, with coaster brake, and I hate the gearing. The bike shop that sold it to me has never been able to make all 5 gears work correctly (even after a free replacement by Sturmey-Archer) so I am only using gears 2, 3 and 4. Anyway, I would encourage you to get a coaster brake on your trike, as well as the front-wheel hand brake. A single wheel hand brake is NOT going to stop your trike if you need to do so suddenly. Even then, avoid the Sturmey-Archer. (They have now come out with a 7-speed hub, but I simply don't trust them at all anymore.) Twice I have had the small chain come off the hub for the coaster brake, and not only did I lose gearing, but my coaster brake. It could have been extremely dangerous had I been going down a moderate hill.

I am looking at replacing the Sturmey-Archer with a 3-speed Shimano, with coaster brake. Does anyone have any recommendations about the safety of this hub and coaster brake?

khyricat

Interesting- one of the employees at the LBS has a Sun Trike with the 7 speed hub, and let me ride it, it worked fine, so I am planning to get the same.. I didn't think about the coaster brake being so important, but some of my riding will be on roads with some hills, so I will probably need it! Thank you.. I am not the OP, but will be ordering my trike in about 6-8 weeks depending on weather (they told me 1-2 weeks for delivery, I won't be able to ride it until Late March for more than the odd day here or there...)

Maelochs

Let me know how that works please .... it sounds like exactly what my wife needs ... (well, that plus an attitude change and Scarlett Johanson's body ...)

klucabike

That's great! I think you will really like the Sun trike. In my case, because I am disabled, with bad knees, I can't peddle up hills very easily, so I also bought a battery-assisted front wheel e-bike kit to help me. It's made all the difference in the world! That's why I'll go with a 3-speed hub this time. I don't need more speeds than that, with the electric wheel.

khyricat

That makes sense, I'm not disabled, my issues are back and balance... so hoping this works well for all of my issues.