Only toddlers ride tricycles
Yesterday I went and got myself a tricycle.
Truth be told, I haven’t ridden tricycles since I was a toddler. And more truth be told, I was never really into tricycles anyway. I preferred those little plastic cars you straddle and push along with both feet. But I definitely used to be into cycling when I was younger. I had (have) a classic Bianchi Campione d’Italia, currently stashed away somewhere up in a garage in Canada, that I used to love to ride around Toronto.
The thing about riding bikes, however, is that they never really get comfortable. I went on a few century rides (100 miles), and even after riding bikes for many years and getting accustomed to the way that you sit on and pedal a bicycle, after a few dozen miles on a bike you start to hurt, especially at those points that contact the bicycle – your lower back, your wrists on the handlebars, and yes, your tush (even with a gel seat).
It is for this reason that this time around I decided to get a recumbent bicycle – to be more precise, a recumbent tricycle. Recumbents operate like regular bicycles, but place the rider in a laid-back reclining position to ride. This helps to evenly distribute a rider’s weight along the seat, minimizing contact point stresses. During the past several months I visited a few dealers to try out a few trikes, and found them quite comfortable. In fact, other recumbent trike riders have confessed that they often feel like falling asleep in their trikes when they’re not on the move. Not only that, while riding on a traditional diamond frame (DF) bicycle often hurts the lower back, most sources I have researched indicate that riding a recumbent bicycle can help strengthen your lower back, and is very good for general back health. How cool is that?
I researched several different trike brands while deciding which trike to purchase. The three main contenders were ICE Trikes out of the United Kingdom, HP Velotechnik out of Germany, and Catrike, located right here in Florida. In the end I chose a lava red Catrike 700, a surprisingly comfortable trike with a mesh seat that was built primarily for speed. There were several reasons I chose this trike in particular. One, it is very light, and reputably very fast – I want a trike that I can keep up with other riders on traditional bikes with, as I plan to join rides with cycling clubs here in Central Florida. Another reason is that I managed to get a brand new 2016 model at a very low price. I bought the Catrike in the same community where my parents live, which is targeted toward retired folks. The people there simply don’t choose to ride speed trikes; they would prefer a trike that is easy to get in and out of and more focused on comfort over performance, like the Catrike 559, Catrike Dumont, or Catrike Villager. So the trike has been sitting on the rack in the store for some time, and they wanted to get it out of the shop so that they could replace it with something more likely to appeal to their clientele. I am not a retired person (quite yet), so I was happy to jump on the deal.
Today I went on my first official ride around my neighborhood on the Catrike 700, and it made me very happy. It has been so long since I’ve ridden a bicycle, and it was great to feel the wind in my hair (or helmet), the fresh air in my lungs, and that burn you get in your calves after a good bike workout.
Will I be back out there tomorrow? Heck yeah…
