...pros and cons of a tricycle? Sidecar?

[drossall]

I saw many tricycles in my youth time trialing. Never see one now.

There still are tricycle time-trial events. Even hill climbs

[LittleGreyCat]

Thanks to all so far.

A lot of fascinating stuff that I didn't know about.

[Sid Aluminium]

Fun stuff about trikes:

In Hanoi, a cycle rickshaw will have the passenger bench and the two wheels in front and the pedaler in back.
In Mumbai, a cycle rickshaw will have the pedaler in front and the passenger bench and two wheels in the back.
In Singapore, the cycle rickshaw's passenger bench is a double-wide sidecar.

The Swiss Smike is a thoughtful sidecar outfit - in as much as that isn't a contradiction. There's a fun Smike video on Youtube.

Faster than a speeding bullet: the outright pedal cycle record of LEJoG was set on a trike (in the form of a fully aerodynamically enclosed Windcheetah).

Saw a picture in the news this past year of some new Royal Mail e-trikes.

Welshwoman Maria Leijerstam rode a trike to the South Pole in 2013! Wow!

The Italian DiBlasi R32 trike cleverly folds in seconds. Amazing to watch.

Guy Martin and Jason Miles set a new 24 hour tandem cycle distance record on (or perhaps 'in') a trike.

Queen Victoria owned a trike. Yes, really.

Here are Danish Crown Prince Frederik and Prince Christian riding their trike:

[Grandad]

TA South East region used to have an annual hillclimb up Exedown hill on the North Downs. It was discontinued when most of the riders reached the age where such strenuous exertion could provoke a heart attack

We currently have an e-trike rider in our oldies group. He sits at the back and most cars perform exaggeratedly wide overtakes!

[pjclinch]

You don't necessarily need a differential on the back of a delta, you can just have one driven rear wheel (may sound odd, but simpler versions of the Hase Kettwiesel use this arrangement quite successfully)

For those thinking that trikes implies slow, note that the LEJoG record is actually held by a (recumbent, fully faired) trike.

I know all about the steering differences, so every time I try one I tell my self over and over not to lean but to steer, not to lean but to steer, not to lean but to steer, and end up drifting down the camber in to kerb in short order. I do get there after a few goes, but it's surprisingly tricky to "unlearn" bike steering for at least some of us!

Maybe I missed it in the previous page, but there can be issues getting them on to trains. There are folding recumbent trikes that will get you around that, but any sort of transport by another vehicle is likely to be more of a faff.

Pete.

[[XAP]Bob]

And just because I haven't seen it mentioned yet on this thread...


not all recumbents are trikes...