vagabond

I know I am showing my age just from the thread title. And yes, I mean adult tricycle and not adult diapers. I never learned to ride a bike and have no sense of balance whatsoever, but I really want to ride a bike before I die. Does anyone here ride one of these things? Any make and model I should consider? Do I need a helmet? How fast can I go?

Tony and Cubdriver, I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts. And for the others - please no snickering or I'll hold you in contempt.

Pilotpip

I worked at a bikeshop for most of highschool/college. We saw quite a few that were used by special needs kids and McDonnell-Douglas had quite a fleet of them.

There are a couple brands out there, but Worksman was the most common ones with what seemed to be the best support. Recreational Cycles

I wasn't a big fan of them. Riding them was kinda like driving a dumptruck but I really appreciate the fact that they open the door to people that don't have the ability to ride a bike and they are a very effective way of covering a large area like a hangar without using gas but they are a PITA to work on. Lots of specialized parts, difficult to transport, and heavy. One of the reasons we got a reputation for being the authority on them in St. Louis was because one of the guys I worked with had a special needs child, he was also a wizard when it came to adjusting the Sturmey-Archer three speed hub. I spent more than a few hours cussing while trying to build/repair these for customers. Most of the time it involved after-hours work because they took up so much space.

I always advocate wearing a helmet when riding. They've saved my life on a couple occasions (hit by a car and hit a tree head first at nearly 30mph and walked away from both) and I've seen first hand how bad it can be when you're not wearing one.

Take the lumps and learn to ride a real bike. You'll be happy you did. You'd really be missing out on some beautiful scenery in the Seattle area if you limit yourself to a trike.

Cubdriver

Vagabond, Pilotpip offers perfectly good advice on this. Manufacturing plants like to keep trikes on the floor because they are so durable and they do not require much maintenance. But they are heavy and not at all suited to extended riding on non-level surfaces; the plant environment is flat and small by comparison. Trikes are like dumptrucks and are not that much fun to ride so I am sure the novelty of it will wear off when you realize you have gone 2 miles and you are already tired. Weight is the arch enemy of the bicycle no matter what the design, and for this reason you are best trying to learn to ride a two wheeler. You will have more options in terms of styles as well as places to go on them. If you really insist on a trike, then I recommend doing your shopping homework carefully with an aim to finding the lightest one you can. Be prepared to spend a lot of money, two to five grand, because the lightest materials are titanium and carbon fiber or a combination of carbon fiber and aluminum parts and these materials are far more expensive.

In the meantime you could buy a quality aluminum or molybdenum steel two wheeler for less than two grand. Balancing on a bike is not that hard as long as you maintain forward motion of a few mph. There are simple 3 speed bikes on the market with frame cutouts for your legs to drop through as soon as you feel your balance is giving out. There is also at least one brand of bike without any gears at all. It has a variable gear ratio that changes as you speed up using flyweights for shifting. If you want a good two wheeler look at Trek, Cannondale, Bianchi, Lemond to name a few.

As for helmets they are an absolute necessity for a novice rider. They are also recommend for advanced riders too, but there are times when it is arguably not required but you definitely will need one. Try a bunch of them on in the store and see which one gives good enough comfort while allowing you to turn your head. Rear visibility is a problem with helmets but mirrors on the helmet can help. I recommend staying off the streets until you are proficient in stopping, starting, one hand riding using the other for hand signals, and you know how the bike reacts to a variety of surfaces types like pea gravel and grease spots. Carry some water and have a flashing LED light on the back of the seat.

There was an argument on talk radio yesterday about bicycle behavior and car- bicycle conflicts in traffic. The car people were saying the commuter bicyclists are generally lawless and unpredictable. They said it bothers them when that bikes do not realibly follow the same traffic rules and are not even held responsible for their behavior. The commuter bicyclists were saying that in this country there are not enough infrastructural accomodations for bicycles, bikes are simply not cars and they do not have the same need for traffic control devices that cars require, and that rather than being a nuisance to motorized traffic they are actually a way to reduce congestion on roads. This in turn saves on road maintenance and reduces the demand for gasoline. I thought it was an interesting discussion.

Pilotpip

Two grand? Few people need to spend anywhere near that on a bike.

You can buy a nice cruiser with a coaster brake (perfect for learning) at your local bike shop for a couple hundred dollars. There are a ton of great bicycles out there for less than $500.

If I recall Seattle has a good bike path network so you should be able to ride a lot of miles without dealing with cars.

de727ups

I ride just about every day, weather permitting. It's great excercise. Try to find a trail system nearby where you can stay away from cars and the flatter the better. I don't like going real fast cause you just never know. I think I average about 10 mph on the level and hit the brakes somewhere between 15 and 20 mph on a downhill. And, yes, wear a helmet. Some places it's illegal not to. Green Lake would be okay except you'd need to go really early in the morning to miss the crowds. I used run around that lake 15 years ago and I remember thinking it was too croweded for bikes then.

Cubdriver

True, you can get a cruiser for a few hundred and use it for the short term as a training bike. I was talking more about the long term- a cheap bike will last one season (or less) before it gives trouble and ends up being useless. I bought a cheap cruiser at Sears once for two hundred bucks and the first curb I hit it was toast. Took it back and bought a good bike.

Pilotpip

Yeah, even the brands you mentioned in most cases make great bikes for a couple hundred dollars.

Your local bike shop is a great place to start.

Cubdriver

How about these spiffy looking trikes.

I don't think you will find a trike that weighs less than 50 lbs for less than a grand, and the ones on that link start at about 40 pounds. Weight is the big problem with a trike and unfortunately it is expensive to design it out. In case you were wondering, cheap two wheel road bikes weigh in the low twenty pound range. I would not want to regularly ride a bike that weighed thirty pounds, let alone forty, but if you ride less than twenty miles at a time it would be alright I guess. I also do not think very positively about trikes as commuter vehicles because of the low visibility to other traffic in terms of sitting position, but if you mounted a flag on it for extra visibility it would be adequate.

Lindy

Vagabond:

Try looking on Craig's List to see if anyone is selling a bicycle you could pick up inexpensively. See if anyone has a "Townie" -- I think you would enjoy that type of bike.

Also, go to a local bicycle shop. Many shops have used bicycles for sale and can help pick the right make/model for you.

For someone not going to do a lot of riding, initially, try a Hybrid.

Good Luck

MiserDD

Why not just try training wheels? It might seem gay, but you’ll get no worse looks than you would riding an adult tricycle. (Unless it’s a WizWheelz TerraTrike Path, those are pretty cool and will eliminate the odd looks.)