I maintain that riding a trike involves more planning than 2 wheeled cycles; in my terms that means it does involve planning, while 'regular' cycling simply does not a lot of the time. This I believe could potentially be more important when thinking about going on a tour; going to new areas, staying in different accommodations, getting lost...
With a bike, I'd often take it into the room, and with 2 of us, that's 2 bikes in a room. In other cases, we'd be welcomed to put them in a store room behind reception or similar, otherwise squeezed next to the owner's car in the garage if staying at a B&B. I can't see the above being feasible, not without bothering others anyway.
When camping, the bikes'll be locked to a tree/fence near the tent, or perhaps in a rack near the office. On display. Left there as we wander to the pub, dinner, etc. until we stagger back in the dark. Hmmm. Little difference bar the value and level of external interest I guess.
Getting to places beyond a ride is far less likely to involve a train with a trike, but then with train prices for the route we're considering, that's a no go anyway.
Luggage can really only go on the rear, and as I've mentioned in the dream trikes thread, the situation with the Sprint 26 is duff, and unless it's feasible to move the rack forward and remove the silly spacer, I'd no way put a full load on the one rack: about 25-30mm of leverage on an m5 into around 5mm of aluminium? Into a mount that is not straight anyway, and has a rounded contact surface?... No ta. Perhaps if I put on an old disc specific rack, but then that's going to mean trouble with regards to front supports. Fail. I know lots of folk have used Sprints for loaded touring, I guess I must be a pessimist. OK, I know I am.
The Radical Banana Racers, etc. are marketed as the way to go on the ICE site, but 1) they aren't waterproof (OK, I've read the R site, and they argue their point), 2) they are rather saggy and quite tacky in the flesh (IMO), 3) they're still daftly expensive, despite 2. 4) R claim they don't need racks, which (see above) would be good, but ICE sell some kind of spacer, I notice, so perhaps something is still needed.
Is it that trikes are good for a ride, but not really so suited to touring? Or am I looking at this all wrong? I know some of you have toured extensively on them, so is it that you enjoy the challenge aspect? Perhaps more than the 'just have fun' side of things?
Perhaps fortuitously, the plan is Cornwall, so a visit to the source of all things ICEy could be a good education. Do you think they'd be offended by my turning up on a cycle instead?
