Consider this: Tricycle riders are in a exceptionally tiny minority of people who use the public roads. Most motorists have never even seen a trike, they are so rare. As trike pilots, it is highly important to ensure our safety in every manner possible. Part of that safety factor includes having motorists respect us, and extend courtesies to us in situations where our riding area is minimal. How do we build that respect? One way is always being considerate ourselves, and always obeying all traffic laws we expect motorists to obey.

If we are pedaling on a narrow road with little or no shoulder, which is not uncommon as most governments pay no heed to the safety of human powered humans, and a few cars are piling up behind us due to heavy oncoming traffic, the courteous thing to do is pull over at the first opportunity and let the queue pass. This will earn all trikers a good name in the eyes of the motorists who witnessed your kindness. When we come to stop signs, we stop … just like everyone else has to do. Not only is it always the law, but this seemingly trivial event also earns us respect. Our own selfish reasons for running stop signs, riding on the wrong side of the road, or any other infraction are irrelevant.

When I’m out in traffic, I wish to be respected and treated courteously by motorists, but if their only other interaction with a trike was a negative one, then that unconscious triker has indirectly put me in peril through a resentful motorist who is less likely to cut me any slack. This is why I make this point in my writings. We all need to be ambassadors for tricycling! Whatever your own private feelings on this topic, please remember you are an ambassador for a very rare form of transportation, and because of a trike’s unique appearance, all eyes are always upon it when in traffic. Do the right thing for us all. Make us all proud to be trike pilots. The life you save may be your own!

Most trikers use special cleated shoes that attach to a binding mechanism on the pedals, something akin to ski bindings, which can be adjusted for tightness. Does it matter how tightly these cleats are adjusted?

Consider this: What happens when a skier falls on the slopes if their bindings are too tight? It can result in a broken leg, damaged tendons, or a knee that never works properly again. This is because the ski, which stayed attached during the fall, applied tremendous twisting torque to the leg, hips, and spine. The whole idea of bindings is that they release in the event of a mishap. Trike pilot bindings are no different! We may get the erroneous notion that we won’t fall like a skier, being so low to the ground, but don’t be fooled.

Normally, this is not an issue, but what happens if an outside wheel runs off the pavement on a steep slope in the hills? Or what about a driver who is asleep at the wheel and accidentally forces you off the road? Going over even a modest embankment on your trike may well result in rolling it over, and while you may just get bruised and scratched because you are wearing a helmet, ponder what it would be like if one or both of your feet don’t release from your pedals! This could be very disastrous, even worse than a skier, because you have an entire tricycle with loaded panniers applying colossal force to your human frame, perhaps 100 pounds twisting and tweaking you in ways that result in breakage and severe bone and tissue damage. One ski is bad enough (ask a skier who knows), but a tricycle could be a nightmare.

So, tighten your SPD or other binding mechanism just enough to keep your feet attached under normal riding conditions, but loose enough that it is easy to remove your feet when you want to get up and walk around. If you crash, you most assuredly want that trike to go its own way!

Triker Polls: http://trikeasylum.wordpress.com/triker-polls/

Trike Links: http://trikeasylum.wordpress.com/trike-links/

Both of these new pages also may be accessed in the main menu at the top of each page of this website.

“ActionBENT Bicycle Company is no longer in business in the US but when I bought the bike, it was located in Redmond, Washington. The company was run by these two very dedicated and enthusiastic guys who possessed a great connection with Asian bicycle manufacturers. But alas, the party for them is over. For reasons behond my comprehension, Actionbent as a US importer of bikes and trikes is officially out of business.”

That website may be visited HERE. This may have been known for a while, but it took me by surprise only moments ago. Well, I guess I can’t say you heard it first at Trike Asylum, ha ha. Leave a comment  to this post to let us know when you heard about it. Let us know how far behind the times TA really is!

Can you add this upcoming charity ride to your event calendar? Detailed information about the event is posted below .

Event: Ride Ataxia

Date: March 24, 2012

Location: Denton, TX. UNT Apogee Stadium

Website: http://rideataxia.org/dallas

Brief description: 6, 25, and 50 mile route options. Full SAG support with post ride food provided by Outback Steakhouse. Fundraising benefits the Friedreich’s Ataxia Research Alliance (FARA). Fundraising not required but strongly encouraged.

Details:

Come ride with Outback Steakhouse and FARA- enjoy the grounds of UNT Apogee Stadium, amazing North Texas views of Ray Roberts Lake, plus delicious food. Appealing to all levels of cycling abilities, Ride Ataxia will include 6, 25 and 50 mile route options with a meal provided by Outback Steakhouse after the ride. Founded by Kyle Bryant, a young man with Friedreich’s ataxia (FA), the Ride Ataxia event has funded over $1 million is FA research. Ride Ataxia is a fundraising program of FARA with ride locations in Dallas, Northern California, Philadelphia and Orlando. FARA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to research and a cure for FA- a debilitating, life-shortening, degenerative neuro-muscular disorder. For more information or to register, visit: www.rideataxia.org/dallas or email info@curefa.org.

Thank you,

David / Spinner

Trike pilots are usually in the sun’s light and heat all day long, everyday, for perhaps weeks. The light brings with it a form of radiation that can damage and destroy human skin, and that heat that keeps you warm can also cause extensive overheating of the body’s systems. How do you get relief from the potentially harmful aspects of our closest star? After all, shade is not an expected commodity on a recumbent tricycle.

Consider this: You must make your own shade! How is that done? Well, some folks have developed interesting canopy devices that affix to tadpole trikes, thereby providing a brief period of midday shade. It is brief because the existing solutions essentially extend only over the immediate top of the pilot, being useful only when the sun reaches its daily zenith (if you are traveling perpendicular to the sun’s path), or slightly longer if you are traveling into or away from the sun directly. The longest periods of time of sun exposure come before and after the sun reaches its daily high point, thus these canopies have limited value. Depending on their design, they can also create substantial wind drag, or act as a sail in side winds. So what options are available that are not costly, cumbersome, and limited?

Your clothing is probably the best solution for sun relief. Long pants and long sleeved shirts keep most of the body covered, but what about the face and hands? Gloves take care of the hands, but cycling helmets do virtually nothing to protect the face, even the ones with tiny visors attached, which only keep the sun out of your eyes if traveling into it. Sunglasses cover a little more of the face, but the nose, cheeks, jaw, and neck are still exposed to sunburn. A good overall head solution is a baseball styled hat (without one of those annoying buttons on top) with side panels that extend down to cover the neck and face, something along the lines of the stereotypical foreign legion hat, or what you see camel riders in the Sahara wearing everyday in the sun. You can find these hats made of lightweight material, which easily fit under a traditional cycling helmet, at outdoor recreation or backcountry supply businesses.

If you don’t mind exposing your skin everyday to the sun, then a chemical sunblock must be applied to the exposed skin on a regular basis, which will result in a deep tan by trip’s end (some studies now support a carcinogenic connection to typical chemical-based sunblocks). The paradox is this: To remain cool in the hot sun, short clothing is desired, but can lead to permanent skin damage. While to keep the skin youthful and supple, long clothing is necessary, but can lead to overheating. It all boils (bad word?) down to personal preference obviously, as does just about everything else on trike trips.

Oh, another partial solution is to grow a full beard prior to departure, which covers much of the face (that is of course, if you’re a guy).