Cycling UK Forum

Iffy,ish ........

Moving to a recumbent would help.
You would be closer to the ground if you did faint, so hopefully would do less damage if/when you fall off next.

But as for a recumbent trike ??
Its a question if you fainted and did not fall off, where would you end up as you'd keep on going untill you got control again ??
Going uphill, you'd probably be ok, traveling sub 5mph.
Going downhill is more iffy, as you'd be traveling at +20mph.

But go for it, if it got you out on a bike more.

Luck ............

Another thing to think about is .....
Will mains power will be readily available to recharge it or will you want to run it on AA batteries.

Luck .........

The sign's also assume that it is easy to push your bike safely.

I ride a recumbent trike and pull a trailer with it.
The only real way to move it by hand is to hold the pannier rake behind the saddle, as its the only part of the bike that taller then knee height that you can get hold of.
The easiest way for me to push it by hand is to actualy move it backwards. If I try and push it forwards the trailer hitch digs into the right leg and I cannot push from the left due to no left arm.
The handle bars are around knee height, so I don't have a lot of control of strearing over uneven ground.
Finally, do you leave the parking brake off and risk it rolling away on any slope if you let go of it, or leave it on and have to lift the back wheel off the ground when moving it.

So I must admit, I ignore these signs.

Luck ..........

Si wrote:Uphill, slow, went past one of those "Your speed is..." signs and it was down at 8mph. But then down the other side was a blast - hard not to shout "WWWWHHHHEEEEEEEE".

I beat that by a mile.
My minimium speed uphill is a whopping 2.8 MPH.
But I do have 3 wheel to keep me stable.

My max speed downhill is only 39.9 MPH so far, but I now know the best hill in this area to try to get +40 on ......... "WWWWWWHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEE"

Luck ..........

If you think bike parking is bad then try riding something very non-standard.
I ride a recumbent trike and pull a trailer with it.
The whole combo is around 3' wide and 9' long.
If I park it in a row of cambridge stand I take up 2 or 4 bike spaces, depending if I need to fold the trailer back towards the trikes front wheels.

Sometimes if there's something to lock it to, I'll just park it in a car space in a normal car park.
I can arrange it to take up most of the bay.

Luck ...........

I've got the origial hitch and it's held on the back axle.

Good report on the trailer mods, Mick.
I thinking of doing the same mods to my trailer as I ride with it empty ~95% of the time and thats when it at its most noisy.

Luck .........

In theory I think it could be a good idea.
When I think back, all the accidents I've had with cars in the past, It was the car cutting/pulling infront of me that caused the crash.
I don't overtake on blind bends, cross double white lines, etc, etc.
So if there was more blame on the car then I think its a good idea.

BUT ............

Would there be more pressure on cyclist to use cycle tracks/pavments if this came in.
I ride a trke and refuse to use a cycle track that is less than 5' wide in its entire lenght, on the theory that I need 3' and somebody coming the otherway needs at least 2' to pass.
Plus I won't stop for side streets, so that rules a lot of tracks out as well.

Then again I do play chicken with cars if I think I've got right of way.
So far I've got away with it ..........

Luck .............

2 new milestones for me.

59 miles, was going for 63 miles but the extra 20kg of shopping in the trailer over the last 7 miles just sucked the last of the energy from the legs.
I'm getting better at spinning the legs as the knees don't hurt much.

I got the trike onto 2 wheels on a corner.
Turning right at a mini-roundabout and a car caused me to tighten the route around it slightly.
Hit the bump in the middle at around 15 mph and that bounced the inside wheel into the air.
Luckily I had enough room to streer left a bit and droped the inside wheel back on the ground and still made the exit I was aiming for.

Luck ...............

I only ride my recumbent Trice Q trike, as I don't feel safe on an upwrong with my artifical arm.

I feel no need to wear a hard hat for all the above reasons, but I do need to wear a cycling cap to keep the sweat/rain out of my eyes.

As for gloves .....
I may wear one on the right hand to keep it warm when it gets cold.
The left hand's not there, so no glove's needed but I do wear a thick wooly stump sock.

Luck ............

If you do get a trike, then you'd almost need a fail safe brake.
That way if you did have a seizure while on it, the trike would stop and not keep rolling.
My Trice Q has a parking brake on the back wheel, that when pulled on, will hold the trike still.

Luck ...........

Gearoidmuar wrote:Eating cold food is the cheapest of all. I've heard of people who do that.

I tend to do that.

I find it very hard to cook on a camping stove due to only having one arm.
I can either hold the pan and the food burns to the bottom of the pan.
Or try and stir the food and risk tipping the whole lot over.
The artifical arm is not very good at doing the other job.

A microwave is a bit heavy to carry around on the back of a bike ..........

Luck ..........

I had a classic one on my ride today.

I'm out on my Trice Q & trailer, so the trikes around 9' long and 3' wide.
Going down one of the back lanes around Northampton, straight and slight downhill so I'm doing ~20-25 mph.
The car sat behind me all the way down a ~1/4 mile straight with no cars coming the other way, and then overtook just before the corner at the end.
If the car coming the other way around the corner had been a bit quicker, it may have got interesting.

Luck ............

Walk:- under 1 min.
I live ~30 yards from work, so no point in doing anything else.

I wonder .......
If the axles are glued in place so they cannot rattle, will the trailer run quieter when empty ????
If so, I may do that.

How much are the plain axles to buy ??

Luck ...........

He said it was funny that when he sounded his horn at them and they all fell into the hedge.

Would he still think its funny if one of the cyclists had fallen under his car wheels ????

Thats the risk with this type of stunt.

Luck ............