I am considering getting a trike for loaded touring, Just wondering how many others use them for that purpose.

I have seen it once, one guy on a group tour that I was on had one. He pulled a two wheel trailer for his camping gear, thus five wheels total.

He was hard to see from behind because it was so low, if you do that make sure you use one of those fiberglass flag poles to increase visibility. He did and that help immensely.

I had a Catrike Road trike for a few years, also had a 2-wheel Rans Vrex. Did some tours with the trike using a 2 wheeled trailer. I liked/disliked the trike overall for several reasons:

Likes: relaxing to ride, never having to balance on very steep hills, Really fun on downhills, can stop anywhere and you have a seat to relax in, that also makes taking pix's easy, also my experience was that cars gave me a wider berth when passing than when on 2 wheels - no proof on why but I believe that they thought I was a handicap vehicle.

Dislikes: you seat so low that car tire noise is right next to your ears making for a noisy ride, also you are low, so I found many times I was missing nice views because I was staring right at guardrails, and while I never had a flat, I had 5 tire tracks to consider when trying to avoid road hazards/

It was fun having it for a few years, but I eventually sold it, along with the Rans Vrex. I found the downsides to recumbents more than offset their upsides

I have done a few supported and unsupported tours on my trike. It is very stable when loaded. I use side pods and panniers, no trailer. It is great for taking in the sights and having a seat for rest stops and camping. Long days (60-100 mi) are far more comfortable but you will need more sun block. Cars do give you a wider birth when passing. The downfalls are you have 3 tracks instead of 1 to watch out for, difficult to put into motel room, and you will be slower. What VT said about being lower is true although some trikes sit a bit higher. It will take you a while to build recumbent legs. I use a cheap lock to keep honest people at bay as most people don't know what to do with a trike so after a while I just locked my trike outside overnight. Here is a link to my blog on a Florida trip.

Don't know if a trike dictates a two-wheeled trailer, but if it does, you have potential conflicts with rumple strips. When planning a tour in MT and Canada I came across a CrazyGuy journal written by a woman who was towing her child in a two-wheeled trailer. The placement of the rumble strips combined with the width of the shoulder meant that she had to travel with the left wheel of the trailer in the roadway to avoid the strips.

I used mine for a couple of overnight trips. I couldn't imagine having enough capacity for anything much longer. Although in fairness, my overnight trips were in cooler weather so I had bulkier clothes to wear when I got to my destination.

But honestly, I found size difficult to put anywhere but outside when I got anywhere with indoor storage. And I disliked the 3 wheels after a while. Same reason I don't want a 2 wheel trailer on my current bike.

The one big advantage the 3 wheels had is I could climb anything (as long as I didn't lose traction)

Obviously Mr. Vermont gave you an experienced opinion but I will add that when I toured with my brother in law while he was on a trike, we ended up on a rail to trail that was no more than a pair of tire tracks with a grass median and his pair of wheels in the rear had a difficult time negotiating those small strips. Smaller shoulders and rumble strips on the roads were also less forgiving.

By being in a streamlined body a Velomobile is a recumbent trike that is faster too.


One competed in the transamerica tour- race last June.
west to east coasts.


Gearing super low at least you wont fall over when momentum goes to zero.

That reminds me of one thing, the guy on that group trip that had one said that on steep gravel uphills he could have a traction problem because so much of the weight was on his four wheels that were not driven, only one wheel was part of the drive train and it did not have as much weight on it as most two wheel bikes have on their rear wheel.

But he could climb any hill because there was no minimum speed that he needed to stay upright.

I appreciate all the replies.I decided to go with the Catrike 559.

Assuming that my cracked ribs heal, I'm scheduled to ride from Chicago to Colorado with two other seniors, both of whom are riding trikes and pulling trailers. In fact, one of them plans on riding from Colorado to Chicago to join us at the start. The other one is the ride captain of the Elgin Bicycle Club, and several of its members are driving out to St. Louis to do the Katy Trail with us. Now if I can just keep up with their 15 mph average...

Here's the blog of a fellow who does quite a bit of trike touring, home based in Denmark:

Trikes and (odd) bikes.

You can see that these bikes, with the addition of a front rack and panniers, could carry 'round the world cycle touring dunnage.



Trikes of the other basic pattern can of course fit standard rear racks & panniers, plus the largest handlebar bag imaginable.

There are a great many other trike designs (1, 2) that would probably be more applicable to moving your place of residence across country rather than just touring!

Nice choice! Best of luck and many happy miles with your trike