Trike Testing

After my very successful trip to Edinburgh and ride around on the Ice Trike I wanted to test it on my local roads. After all, urban riding on cycle tracks and in the hurly burly of town traffic is not what I do. I wanted to see if it (or rather I) could climb some of the local hills and if we could have fun coming down them again. Very kindly David from Laid Back Bikes agreed that I could "borrow" the trike and give it a test up here. Of course that also meant seeing how the trike folded up so I could fit it into the car. It's not exactly bijou when it's folded but it just about fits in the boot of my saloon. On the return journey I found I could keep one of the split seats up which held it nicely in position. The problem with something with wheels is that it has a tendency to roll! It is great to know that I can transport one relatively easily.
The fun part arrived when I got back home. Man handling a folded up trike is, without doubt, something that comes with practice. Which I don't have. Added to the mix the fact that it is not mine and you might see why this was a nervous operation. The darkness didn't help. I got it out and into the garage. I now know that an easier method would have been to unfold it and carry it in. Although the package would have been longer it would also have been more rigid. However, I did the unfolding in the garage and suddenly I had a more recognisable shape in front of me. Next the seat. It took me a little while to get this right but for a first effort it was ok. A trike in my garage ready to roll. How exciting was that?
Actually it wasn't quite ready to roll. I needed to put a bag on it and get the right tools in there, add a front light etc. But that's all quite mundane so we will skip that. Suffice to say the rack bag that fits the tandem slipped nicely onto the sightly narrower rack on the Sprint. David's worries that it might slip proved groundless the next day. Good old Carradice! David should get special thanks for fitting a rear light and providing an spare inner tube for the 20 inch front wheels. There's real service. And I'm only a potential customer!
I'd love to say that the next day dawned bright and sunny but it didn't. Grey and wet was what it was, much to my disgust. The forecast promised better, and soon, so I got ready. And right enough I didn't have to delay my intended departure long for the rain to stop. Up and down the street to see that I'd got the cranks at the right distance and to test that I remembered how and then I was off. Then it rained again. Thankfully not for long.

Ready to roll

My plan was to do a relatively hilly loop, nothing too extreme, just a good test. Actually the first little hill came before I even started the computer. My ride start point is just opposite the West Port in St. Andrews and there's a little ramp I need to go up to get there. I notice it on all my bikes, so it was no surprise I ended up plodding my way up it in the trike. Then a left, hit the start button on the computer and the test really had begun.

I got my first surprise of the day when I needed to turn right up the hill to Strathkinness. Obviously I needed to cross the lane coming the other way. So I indicated, pulled out and got in position to turn right. A car was coming the other way so I slowed down only to find them coming to a halt and signalling that I should proceed. Either the trike and I looked very scary or so different that something needed to be done. This has never happened to me on my upright bike and I don't think it has ever happened on the tandem. What makes trikes so different?
Thanks to the overnight rain the roads were soaking and there were puddles everywhere. I felt sorry for the trike. And even more sorry for me when I got a soaking despite the mudguards. The problem with the recumbent position is there really is nowhere to go. The downhill section after Strathkinness was fun. I was mindful not to roll the trike so took it a little bit more easily down the hill than I might on a two-wheeler but it was still fun. Over 30 mph that close to the road feels really fast.
The climb to Dairsie was ok apart from another soaking and I headed out to Thai Teak. This is a road well known to me but, along with all the others I did, it really was a new perspective. Although much lower down and, therefore, unable to see over walls etc the overwhelming sense is one of being able to look around and enjoy the view. My serenity got a rude awakening as I made my way along to Thai Teak though. I realised (my hearing is not too bad) that the front left mudguard had come loose and was a) rattling something awful and b) interfering with the wheel. Now here's something you can't do on a regular bike. I slowed a little, took the mudguard in my left hand and held it away from the wheel until I could make the turn into the bottom of the hill and its much quieter road. There I fished out the multi-tool and tightened up the fittings. I checked the front right and the rear as well for good measure. Fife roads must be rougher than Edinburgh ones!

Up that?

That left me at the bottom of the Thai Teak climb. An ever steepening ramp of about 0.7 miles. It's good hill climbing training. Once I had the correct chainring selected it went relatively smoothly. Not quickly but ok, and my heart rate was lower than normal. So there's definite room for improvement. As I was to find for most of the ride my cardio vascular system was not the limiting factor. For better times I need to build some "recumbent legs".

The ride into Cupar was ok. It rolls a little and then you get a good run into Cupar itself. I was still a little apprehensive about letting trike roll so didn't achieve personal best territory here. It's also urban so not the best place to be trying to see just how fast the trike will go downhill. I was pointed out by a father to his child as I swept through the corner at the bottom. A rare sight indeed, then!
Through Cupar and on to a fairer test of my recumbent climbing ability. Garlie Bank is a 1.4 mile climb of around 3-5%. One I tend just to pick a gear and spin on. And that's what I did. To my surprise I was faster than I've been up it on the tandem but of course much slower than my single bike. That didn't detract from the fact that I climbed it without much fuss and with a reasonable heart rate and cadence. The irritating moment came near the top when I managed to drop my water bottle as I was attempting to put it into the cage. With the trike it's a bit harder just to stop because you need to find a safe place for the machine. I did, parked up, and then strolled back for the offending bottle. That did give me the excuse for some photos.

Water bottle replaced...

The little climb in Craigrothie went ok (I didn't beat the tandem here) and then it was time for some fun, or so I thought. The ride home. From Craigrothie it should be relatively quick to Ceres, and then the same from there to Pitscottie after which there's a bit of climbing before the blast down from Blebo to St. Andrews. But this is where my major problem with the trike reared it's head. It's called pedal steer. And from what I read, Ice Trikes are supposed to have only a little (or none). What happens is this. As you pedal the bike steers towards the active leg. So on what I hoped might be good fast bits I found myself being very alarmed as the bike went left, right, left, right etc. To be fair it happened all the way round on my ride but it was worse at speed and high cadences. Which was annoying, as that's how I like ride fast; lower gear with a high cadence. It was pronounced enough to cause me to back off. And that's not good for my long term relationship with trikes.

Still, I made it back to St. Andrews and for the most part it was great fun. My route home from the edge of town was slightly longer than usual as I had promised The Groover a look. Most of the office disgorged to have a look at the odd contraption. Some even got in (on?) to see if they liked it. Slippers and pipes came up in the conversation.
On my way home I passed the nearby primary school. Again the trike proved popular with kids running up to the wall to look at, and pass comment on, the strange human powered vehicle. It's very odd getting even more attention than we receive on the tandem.
Once home I had to give the poor trike a clean. It looked like it had been in a war with mud and had lost. I got most of the obvious muck off and, to my shame, left David to clean the insides of the mudguards etc. Then, fold and pack into the car for transportation to Edinburgh. This whole operation and the reverse, once in Edinburgh, was so much easier and this was only my second attempt so I can confidently say that this part of the package Ice have got very much correct.

The Ride

The Verdict

Will I be riding a trike soon? It's a fair question and one I can't answer yet. And there in lies my disappointment. Without the pedal steer issue I'm 99% certain the answer would be yes. And then my further decisions would be what kind of seat (I want to try the hardshell one rather than the mesh one in the pictures) and what gearing. I also don't know if it is a non-issue, something that might go away if I rode the trike more regularly. All new skills take time to master. With it I might be re-looking at the weird world of two wheeled recumbents.
As a message to David, at Laid Back, you've certainly not seen the last of me, sorry!

Cycling the laid back way

This post will put the blog a little out of date order but I wanted to get it down quickly before I forget. So here it is. The photos in this are by kind permission of David Gardiner.

Yesterday I spent a very entertaining and instructive half day in the company of David Gardiner, of Laid Back Bikes in Edinburgh who specialise in recumbent cycling. I had a few reasons for doing this. There's the interest angle. Cycling lying down is somewhat efficient as you reduce your frontal area. It's also more comfortable as you spread your weight over more surface area, you can take the weight of your hands and you don't have to pull your head up as much. The last two points are of great interest for me. This year I've been suffering from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (almost certainly but not entirely diagnosed)  in both wrists and from back and neck problems. Both of these could be caused in part, or all, by my day job; sitting with computers. But neither are helped by the cycling and that's a fact. So the comfort thing appeals.

As luck would have it I needed to be in Edinburgh to do some other stuff (luckily after the sun had gone down) and that meant the opportunity to go and have a look. If you look at the Laid Back website you'll see some odd opening hours but David agreed to open up and let me see what I thought. And, then, perhaps a ride to see how I felt about the machine. I arrived at the appointed time and there was no mistaking my host for the day. His lovely looking recumbent was outside the shop and he was opening up. I suspect I wasn't too difficult to spot either. A man dressed in cycling gear but walking along is probably the potential customer. So in, a wee chat and then "how about you try the recumbent?".

So I did and it wasn't an entire failure but on the day it wasn't for me. Just too odd and too much like I was 8 years old again and learning to ride. The experience for me wasn't helped as I found David's seat uncomfortable to sit in, yet alone try to cycle. I was very wobbly. David said I was doing all right but I think he was probably holding on. It was a very strange experience. But one that hasn't left me going "Oh, no". I think I would like to try it again.

One of objectives of my visit was to see if I even liked lying down whilst cycling. I've never really got on with recumbent exercise bikes, I've always found them uncomfortable too. I've always put that down to bad design, hence the visit.

Back in the shop I could see the other option; a recumbent trike. Far less chance of falling over but with all the benefits of testing the "feet first, head last" position. Davis suggested a trip out to Silverknowes and back to see how it went. A little bit of fettling to get the cranks in the right place for me, a shuffle through the door and we were off. City cycling is not something I do so as well as an unfamiliar vehicle, I was also dealing with unfamiliar roads and shared paths. Luckily David is used to giving guided tours and his instructions floating back to me and his ever present hand signals were great all day. We got through the Meadows, out past the Kings Theatre and onto a nice quiet cycle path. I would not have wanted to ride a two-wheeler though that so the the stability of the trike was ideal. To stop all I needed to do was put the brake on. No worries about falling over which left me to concentrate on the traffic, David, my gears and steering.

Starting out - in the Meadows

Survived to the next cycle path

I was riding an ICE Trike which meant I had under seat steering. It's very intuitive. If you've ever ridden a sledge, or indeed built an old fashioned go kart with string and a crossbar, you know how to steer one of these. The gears were relatively easy too, once I worked out which way the to move shift levers. I did however drop the chain off the front derailleur (it really is at the front - you look straight at it) at one point. But this showed the brilliance of a trike design. Stopping required no panic. Stop, apply parking brake and then unclip. Fantastic. A quick apology to David, who was waiting patiently at the top of a slope, and after fixing the problem I was off again.

All this ease of riding left me able to enjoy the experience. Which was great actually. I grew up in Edinburgh but the never cycled there so all the cycle paths were new to me. Every now and again we would pop up (or down) to join the normal roads and I would know where I was. And then get confused at David's next hand signal indicating another path. We soon reached Silverknowes and a basic but excellent cafe. As any long term readers of this blog will know I do it for the coffee and cake so this was an added bonus. I particularly liked the question we got from one of the other customers "When you grow up, do you get bigger bikes?" I'm sure David's heard them all.

After some refreshments and general bike chat we decided to head off. David suggested extending the run a little (it must have been my talk about riding up to Glenshee and other idiocies) which meant we were going to make our way to Holyrood Park, underneath Edinburgh's iconic Arthur's Seat.

Crammond beach

More cycle paths ensued with me watching David cycle effortlessly on his two wheels while I tried to make it look like my three wheeled machine was the most natural thing in the world. We got an interesting array of glances, stares and other looks. David would announce his presence with a polite bell and I would follow it up with a "slightly wider, coming through". Occasionally we managed two abreast and some conversation. Apart from the odd sight of my feet whirling round and round in front of me, it felt just like any other meet up on the road. 

Eventually we popped out on to the roads. As I said before I don't really do city cycling so the amount of traffic was a slightly unusual experience. And then we needed to go along a little bit of London Road. My mirror became much more useful here although I had been checking it regularly as we went along. This one item highlights a big difference between my upright bikes and this trike.
Riding the trike I had much more of a feeling of being in the machine rather than on it. And in the town my riding was much more like driving a car. Indicators would have been great. David decided we should cut down a little lane which meant we had to cross the traffic. This was probably the only time I was a little concerned about my height; the trike is low. Over speed bumps I did occasionally catch my lower heel; I'm sure that's one of these things you just get used to. It was here we were treated to a lovely piece of driving. A big 4x4 slowed and let us cross the other lane. Cooperative driving is always great to see but this really brought a smile to my face.

We'd been working hard enough to get up a sweat (well, I had) and after a trip down the lane and through a narrow gate I had to dispense with my waterproof. Luckily David had room in his rack bag otherwise I might have melted. The problem with the seat is that you can't just stick something like a waterproof up your jersey. I'm not too sure how flapjacks, gels and all the other paraphernalia work on a recumbent. Although the trike was easy to ride no hands, or just with the lightest touch with one. Feeding youself shouldn't be onerous.

Arthur's Seat and our wheels

Getting rid of the waterproof was part of my plan to take David up on a throw away offer of a ride up the hill road on Arthur's Seat. So far we hadn't really done anything remotely serious in the hill category and I wanted to see what it was like. David agreed with the warning that the traffic might be "interesting". But in the end when we made our way across to the hill road we found it closed to cars so it was a non-problem. At the bottom David signalled that I could try riding under the barrier but I didn't understand so I missed my chance of a trike limbo moment. The hill wasn't too bad at all. I know it wasn't long or overly steep but it was a good try out on a first day out. Of course it also gave me the chance to try out a steeper descent. Another warning from came David about carrying too much speed into the roundabout, and it was probably quite wise. It may have been that he wanted to get ahead though!

Heading to the hill

Proper climbing

Still going up

Admiring the view from my armchair

What a great day to be out - Dunsapie Loch

I got a bit confused here when David seemed to turn away from where I thought we were going but he wanted to show me the Innocent Railway Tunnel. I actually found this the toughest ramp of the day. Perhaps I was just getting a little tired. It is one of those very slight inclined drags. Your eyes just tell you that you should be blasting along but somehow gravity grabs at your wheels. Up and out of there and back to the roads. Here we had a definite indication I was getting tired when I mis-judged a traffic light and went flying through as it changed to amber. Quite rightly it earned me a "horn of rebuke" from a driver. My apologies. David, the gent he is, had stopped properly so my punishment was to sit by the side of the road waiting for him. Then it was a short trip back to the shop. And bacon rolls from the cafe next door, nice!

I can't thank David enough for an excellent introduction to the mad world of lying down while cycling.

The ride

I'm really disappointed I didn't take my Garmin and gubbins because I'd love to have the metrics from this ride. But I don't. I think all told we were out for about 2.5 hours and we went about 18 miles. However we weren't riding all the time, and it's not the kind of riding where you get to blast along for hours at a time. So I have nothing to judge it against. But I do know it was fun. This is the route as far as I remember.

What's next

I've done one of David's excellent tours and I would advise anyone with even a passing interest in self propulsion to go and try the trike experience. It's like grown up go-karting; that's the only thing I can compare it to.
However a good part of the day for me was to see how I like the idea of going recumbent on a more permanent basis. Or at least on a more than occasional basis. And right now that's where I'm stuck. I think I need to answer some questions before I can think about going forward:

• Can I ride a two wheeled recumbent? That's still an largely unscratched itch. I need to find a recumbent where the seat isn't instantly uncomfortable. Maybe just a different size.
• Is the trike good enough for longer solo days on the road? It was great around town but that's not my style.
• Can I be fast enough on the trike?
• Or on a two wheeled recumbent?

What I can say is that distance on the trike gave me no back or neck issues and my hands loved me. No weight on them at all. And the brakes were much less painful to apply. But if I have wrist surgery that might not be a problem at all.

And the other thing I can most definitely say is that riding the trike didn't put me off the whole laid back approach at all. And that just doesn't help one little bit. Watch this space as they say.