Cycling UK Forum

Would like to get a trike, ICE trikes look good, but I have a concern about recumbent trikes being too wide to use cycle lane. Been told that they are no wider than a bikes handlebars or your shoulders, yet the specs for the ICE ADventure quotes overall width as 31.5-32.5 inches which is considerably wider than the 17 inches of my endurance bike.

Has anyone had trouble using a trike in cycle lanes?

Common problems with barriers, unfortunately:
search.php?keywords=trike+barrier

But do you mean lanes without barriers, in which case:
search.php?keywords=trike+width+lane

Jonathan

Not particularly a recumbent trike problem as a trike problem, and I think it's a case of "for some values of cycle lanes".
Anything that's built to current standards (e.g. latest Cycling by Design or LTN 1/20) will be fine, but of course lots of stuff isn't.

Main problem tends to be those idiotic gates to notionally prevent motorbikes using traffic free paths, and there's no shortage of those where you'll need alternatives, but there's quite a lot of folk using trikes who obviously don't consider that a deal-breaker.

Pete.

Jdsk wrote: ↑12 May 2023, 10:14am Common problems with barriers, unfortunately:
search.php?keywords=trike+barrier

But do you mean lanes without barriers, in which case:
search.php?keywords=trike+width+lane

Jonathan

I am referring to lanes like the following which are common in edinburgh. Would make me feel very guilty if I couldn't use it as would be holding up all the traffic behind me.

https://www.instantstreetview.com/@55.9 ... X6nabQTrvA

Hi I ride an Ice sprint X and looking at your picture I doubt I would ride on that cycle lane as your left wheel will be in the "gutter" I also wouldn't feel guilty not riding on it but that's personal choice

My ICE tadpole recumbent (ICE Sprint X Tour) is slightly wider than handlebars/shoulders though bike with loaded panniers maybe less so.

What cycle lanes are you thinking about? UK or elsewhere.

In Norfolk we don't have many dedicated cycle lanes (at least not round where I local cycle) but roads are fine. You are very obvious to motor vehicles and they generally give you more clearance than when riding a bike.

I have taken the bent round NL where it's mostly dedicated cycle lanes and no issues (though NL cycle lanes are not really comparable to UK cycle lanes).

Like yourself, before I purchased my bent (in early 2021) width of the lanes (road lanes) was a concern (my local rides are generally on narrow to single track lanes). I started several threads here (each phrased slightly differently) and was repeatedly reassured. I spoke to others and was reassured. And it turned out the reassurance was right - I've had fewer issues with motor traffic on the bent than I had on the bike.

Round me there are very few "shared use cycle paths". What little shared use there isround me is generally outskirts of towns and I don't use them on the bike so wouldn't start using them on the tadpole.

It's certainly not been a problem for me to the point where poor old bike stays leaning against the wall collecting cobwebs and bent gets all the outings and fresh air. I seem to be riding the bent exclusively.

Ian

jrs665 wrote: ↑12 May 2023, 11:01am ...
I am referring to lanes like the following which are common in edinburgh. Would make me feel very guilty if I couldn't use it as would be holding up all the traffic behind me.

https://www.instantstreetview.com/@55.9 ... X6nabQTrvA

As FCasey said, I also probably wouldn't ride in that cycle lane but there is plenty of space on the road and you are a road vehicle with every right to use the road. There looks to be space for motor vehicles to overtake and if you accumulate a queue or car waiting behind you for longer than you like you can always briefly use the cycle lane as a "pull-in passing point". On both bike and bent I'll normally pull-in for a vehicle behind me as I'd prefer have a happy motorist in front than a frustrated motorist behind.

I don't know about Edinburugh traffic but I suspect in many cities if riding on the roads the traffic would be holding you up rather than you holding it up. They may pass you at one point and you'll catch them up/pass them at the traffic lights or junction a short distance ahead.

Highways building inadequate cycle infrastructure should not restrict your riding. There are options and my experience is that people who don't ride them make a big issue about aspects that really are not issues (and I was the same before I started riding one).

Ian

jrs665 wrote: ↑12 May 2023, 11:01am I am referring to lanes like the following which are common in edinburgh. Would make me feel very guilty if I couldn't use it as would be holding up all the traffic behind me.

Don't feel too guilty about holding up motor traffic. Cyclists have a right to use the road; motor cars and motorists only have licences.

Chris Jeggo wrote: ↑12 May 2023, 11:53am

jrs665 wrote: ↑12 May 2023, 11:01am I am referring to lanes like the following which are common in edinburgh. Would make me feel very guilty if I couldn't use it as would be holding up all the traffic behind me.

Don't feel too guilty about holding up motor traffic. Cyclists have a right to use the road; motor cars and motorists only have licences.

Will adopt your attitude. In the past I rode a few thousand miles on a mobility scooter on the road; would ride it though only when I could use bus lanes which cars don't use and at night when not much traffic, avoiding roads like the above when I could. When I used the road above when I had to, cars were very patient,I did feel guilty though.

Going through a gap my ICT trike is a similar width as a bike, if a bike easily goes through then my trike will normal fit through as well.
But on the road my trike is a lot wider than a bike. The reason being is that on the road I'll put my inside front wheel where a bikes front wheel would be. That's a safe distance from the curb and out of the gutter. Then the centre line of the trike is where a bike handlebar ends and the other half of the trike is even further out.
This makes it safer as I'm almost always riding in a primary position. Anything wanting to overtake me needs to pull out into the other lane and cannot just squeeze through. If I'm doing sub 4 mph uphill then I may move over into the gutter to let traffic squeeze through. But that's my decision and if the traffic starts going passed to fast, I'll move out to slow it down as is my right.
If a cycle lane is to narrow to safely fit the trike then I tend to straddle the line. Inside front in the cycle lane, back on the line, outside front outside the cycle lane. If asked why I'm not using the lane, then my answer is "I am" as I've one wheel in it, but it's not my fault the lanes to narrow to fit the whole trike in it.

Luck .........

My Sinner trike is about 29" across the wheels, being quite a narrow track. The USS bars being fractionally wider. The USS bars on my Linear are fractionally wider again than that but are lower. Either of them fill up the painted on lanes on the local roads, as would a flat barred upright bike. I imagine either of the recumbents are more likely to be given the required 1.5 metres passing space than an upright bike. The local shared use pavement ones are wider in both the pedestrian and cycle parts. The trike fits quite easily through our local "A" frame barriers after a slight tweaking of the one piece "W" shaped steel USS bars.

[imghttps://forum.cyclinguk.org/download/file.php?mode=view&id=102388][/img]

Although it's a delta trike it's quite small.

jrs665 wrote: ↑12 May 2023, 10:10amBeen told that they are no wider than a bikes handlebars or your shoulders

The point there is that it is no wider from the perspective of an overtaking driver -- IF they give the correct passing clearance.

Obviously the machine is wider when considered on its own, which is a factor in storage. Many cycle lanes are too narrow to ride within, and very often I will be straddling the white line as Tigerbiten has said. This from 54 years upright trike experience.- do not worry about it.

That Edinburgh example is crazy because of the upright "wands". How would a user of a Christiana utility box trike cope with it and that is surely the sort of use (utility) they might say they are trying to encourage .

tatanab wrote: ↑12 May 2023, 4:19pm

jrs665 wrote: ↑12 May 2023, 10:10amBeen told that they are no wider than a bikes handlebars or your shoulders

The point there is that it is no wider from the perspective of an overtaking driver -- IF they give the correct passing clearance.

Obviously the machine is wider when considered on its own, which is a factor in storage. Many cycle lanes are too narrow to ride within, and very often I will be straddling the white line as Tigerbiten has said. This from 54 years upright trike experience.- do not worry about it.

That Edinburgh example is crazy because of the upright "wands". How would a user of a Christiana utility box trike cope with it and that is surely the sort of use (utility) they might say they are trying to encourage .

Dunno what happened here, the cyclist probably hit one of them. it is at the bottom of a long hill, his speed will been about 30mph.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YJEkif ... sp=sharing

More of this sort of post please!
I've always felt that recumbents never got the attention they deserve and even on this forum, there's a 'chapter' for them which means even regular posters aren't exposed to recumbents in the way they should...
...just looking at that trike with perhaps a tiny teeny electric motor on it might be the sort of thing to think about when the car goes...

cycle tramp wrote: ↑12 May 2023, 5:13pm More of this sort of post please!
I've always felt that recumbents never got the attention they deserve and even on this forum, there's a 'chapter' for them which means even regular posters aren't exposed to recumbents in the way they should...
...just looking at that trike with perhaps a tiny teeny electric motor on it might be the sort of thing to think about when the car goes...

Had an ebike, got rid of it due to range anxiety.