donate home previous entries where is rob now? about rob the route the reason the trike the charities donors sponsors gear list FAQ's media resources gallery reader contributions links technical support contacts RSS feed donate

 

The Trike

 

My mode of transport is a three wheeled recumbent trike. An odd looking machine that never falls over and is more efficient than a bicycle in many ways. The best part is that it offers a comfortable ride, looks like a sofa
and is basically a go-cart. Every kids dream.

 

 

 

Admittedly its very low and you maybe wondering how I'll be seen. That's where the two big flag posts will come in handy which aren't shown on this photograph.

The trike is a fantastic way to access areas of China that are rarely visited and in a way that's on the same level with the people around me. The trike is a very friendly mode transport, creating great interest and fascination. By using the trike it will allow me to break many cultural barriers that I will face in China.

Why did I choose this over a normal bike ?  I can't really explain that one. Once I saw pictures of it I was sold, even more so when I tried bombing around a car park on one in England. Impossible not to love it. Like the trip itself once the idea had set root that was it.

Custom built in Australia the trike is extremely simple, yet robust, having a tough frame, strong double pannier racks capable of storing up to 80kg of supplies, a 42 gear hub system and disk brakes for added safety when going down steep hills and a full Busch & Muller dynamo lighting set.

This machine is designed to cover long distances without getting an aching neck, a sore arse or severe chaffing, plus there is no need to wear those ridiculous lycra cycling shorts either. Excellent. I just don't have the legs for them !

Overall this machine is a superb bit of engineering. It wont be that great on rough terrain but I'll just have to deal with it. More than likely I'll have to pull the trike through tough areas as I cant push it easily. On flat roads and hills however which will be accounting for about 70% of the journey there just isn't any other choice, it had to be a trike.

 

Update - 12.03.06

Its now been over 8 months on the road so I thought it would be a good idea to share my views on the Trikes performance. Actually, to me my trike is no longer a trike. Her name is 'Little Wheelie'. 'Wheelie' for short and she is alive. We have been through a lot to together and she has never let me down. I'll make a rough list of the pros and cons of using a tricycle to tour China, and details on the various parts to Little Wheelie.

The main reason for choosing a recumbent Trike is that its bloody good fun. You get on it each day and smile.

You do get a lot of attention and cannot roll into a small village quietly without attracting a crowd, but this has its advantages. You meet a lot of people and people will help you because you are doing something so strange. It acts as the ultimate cultural ice breaker.
When not over loaded its extremely quick and you can pedal for hours and not feel exhausted. On the flat even when over loaded it is still really fast.

Going down hill is simply fantastic. As long as you haven't made the trike top heavy by loading too much onto the top rack, and have kept the panniers low, you can rocket down mountains with little worry of tipping over. It took me quite sometime to build up confidence in Wheelies handling but now its a cinch. She loves it.... Down hill racing.

General Handling

Fantastic, fast, safe and easy to ride. The steering is incredibly responsive. The joy of three wheels is that if you need to suddenly swerve to avoid something or slam on the brakes, you wont go over the handle bars.

On flat roads it is very fast. Your position causes less wind drag and you can really motor.

On rocky roads the front wheels just roll over or plough though.

 

On deep muddy roads you at least wont fall off.

 

 

I'm still amazed at what the Trike can handle. Even on bumpy roads the ride is quite comfortable. The elasticated seat takes alot of the bumps. There are no shock absorbers on the Trike. This is mainly due to reliabilty and also that it would restrict the loading capacity on the back wheel.

 

Brakes

The disc brakes initially gave me some concern with regards to stability at high speed. There are two disc brakes, one on each front wheel, but none on the back.

 

Each one works independently so you need to apply even pressure to both when braking. When your going fast down hill this can cause the trike to wobble. This only lasted for a week or so before I began to relax with the system. Now its not even an issue anymore. Zero wobble. I can pick up speeds of up to 65km/h down hill. I heard of one guy hitting 90km/h...... I haven't dared to try that yet.

Repairing them is relatively easy once you have figured it out. With me being me I learnt the hard way. Before leaving Hong Kong I undid the wrong bolts and the brake fell to bits, spilling all the brake fluid on the floor. Luckily I was in a bike shop so the guys fixed it for me. I thought I had memorised how to do it, so when my first disc pad wore down coming off a mountain in Chongqing I eagerly made an attempted repair.

I repeated exactly what I did the first time and succeeded in emptying out the fluid again. In a nut shell, practice draining your brakes before you set off on a 2 year journey. It may save you a lot of screaming and shouting whilst sat under a +40 degrees sun at the top of a mountain. ooo and don't drop the disc pad pin. It looks remarkably like a dry bit of grass if you do.

There is no need for a brake at the back. The weight of the panniers and you is plenty enough to never cause the trike to flip over. A parking brake would be really useful though. I got around this by using a cable tie that could loop on and off the brake lever. Cable ties have a limited life span so be careful, narrowed down to about 3 days in severe cold weather. String is better. I normally just angle Wheelie so that if she breaks free she will only roll into a bush. Rocks under the tyres are also a great method.

Gears

Bloody brilliant. I have the Rohloff Speedhub 14/500. and 3 gears on the headset. So in total I have 42 gears to play with. Going up hill can be very slow, but you don't need to worry about falling over. You can just lie back and take in the surroundings. Because of the 42 gears I can creep up mountains, never needing to push and enjoy it as I go up. With a conventional bike you need to stare at the ground as you pedal up a hill. I watch birds and clouds instead.

The gears on Wheelie are designed for going up hill, so there are more geared towards this than reaching high speeds on the flat. That’s not an issue however. You can easily hit 30km/h plus on good road. Good luck maintaining it ! I stick to 20km/h if I'm feeling up to a long endurance day.

 

Head set gear shifter.

In very cold weather (below -7 the chain set gear cable starts to freeze and you get stuck in one gear, but you can still shift between the 14 gears in the hub.. so not a serious problem.

 

The biggest problem I've had is with the gear shifting unit on the hub. Basically the gear hub is in the centre of your wheel with all the spokes radiating off it. The device is an amazing Germanic feat of engineering... just don't open it to have a look though. Unless you want to experience the goose and the golden egg story first hand.

 

When you want to change gear you use a twisting force on a twister fitted to your steering. This then pulls on gear cables that travel down cable housings to the shifter attached to the hub. Inside the shifter the cables cause a metal disc to rotate, which then turns a hexagonal shaft on the hub and shifts the gears. The whole system is exceptional simple to use, but there is one major draw back, one that has caused me hours and hours of frustration and sweat. The shifting unit can get clogged up with dirt easily. The actual gear hub is completely sealed so no worries there. The shifter however is not. Completely daft in my opinion. With only a 20" wheel it means the shifter is sitting close to the ground and picks up dust, mud and water easily. My biggest problem was when I was travelling in wet weather. The cables slowly collect grime and then the shifter jams up. You can strip it down and clean it, use WD40, or just wipe it. Using more grease helps but that collects dirt too so you end up with a greasy mess that still doesn't work. Best way is to wrap a plastic bag around it and tape it up. Try doing that on the cable housing end caps too, such a low tech solution for such an expensive piece of gear. Also be careful not to tighten up the hex screws too tightly on the shifter box. They can burr easily and when they do its game over time. You need a replacement.

The twister is quite small and is designed to be used on conventional mountain bikes. It is perfect for twisting between your thumb and fore finger. Mounted vertically on the trikes shifting gear is somewhat harder to achieve. A longer version would be far superior but as yet I have not found a replacement. When it’s very hot and sweaty, even when using a glove it can still be hard to shift., especially when the shifter is playing up. But all in all I would recommend the gear hub system. The best part is that you can change gear whilst stationary, amazingly useful when going up a mountain.

 

Chain

All I can say is that it is really long and hasn’t broken yet. Stupidly I carried a whole spare chain with me at the beginning. It took me over 4,000 km to realise I just didn’t need it. 8 spare links will suffice. Obvious really but I started on this journey clueless.

Pedals

I was using Welgo SPD clip pedals at the beginning. Nothing too fancy and have good sealed bearings. They can also be used with normal shoes too (but not too comfy) If you go for the SPD option its worth getting some sandals with SPD function. I reached Shanghai and decided to just use normal pedals together with trainers. The SPD's do improve efficiency but I feel more comfortable now in a pair of light shoes or flip flops. One thing you need to watch out for with SPD's is when you are going cross country on bad roads. The trike can dip into a trough and your feet may hit the floor whilst pedalling. As they are clipped in you can easily hurt yourself if you get the timing wrong. Most people won’t experience this but I've hit a lot of bad roads. No SPD's means I can lift my feet off the pedals quickly if needs be. The down side is that if you hit a bump your feet can slip off and hit the floor. With the weight of the trike and your speed you could get your leg forced under the frame. Not a pleasant thought. These things have never happened to me though.

One more thing about SPD's. They work very well on trikes because you never have to worry about falling off or toppling over at traffic lights. But .... if you need to get off the trike in an emergency it can be a real pain in the arse. Numerous times I've wanted to get my feet out of the clips but they were just too stiff. Keeping the connecting parts clean is an obvious plus, but even fatigue can stop the separation. Tunnels in China can be very long and dark, with cars not adhering to the 'No overtaking' in tunnel rule. When you see two trucks coming towards you it feels good to know you can get off the road and on to the verge quickly. again.. many close shaves.

The pedals I use now are solid work horses, with adjustable grub screws allowing for grip. They are BMX pedals I think, probably too bulky but I like them.

Tyres

Schawalbe 'Marathons'.... what a great tire. I used the standard Marathon on the two front wheels and a Marathon plus on the back.

My left Marathon tyre lasted for 8,000km getting me all the way to Beijing. The right one turned into a bloated sausage for some reason after about 4,000km and split open.

The back wheel with a Marathon plus on it lasted all the way to Beijing too. I'm sure it could have lasted another 2,000km but I replaced it just to be safe.

The Marathon Plus's are twice the price and weight of standard Marathons. but the Plus is it is virtually impossible to puncture. Mine had the weight of all my panniers resting firmly on it and it never faltered. To put it simply, I love them. After Beijing I opted for Plus's on all wheelies with a lighter Standard Marathon as a spare.

Lighting

I use a Busch & Muller dynamo system. These come as options for Green Speed trikes, but I was luckily sponsored so got my set free. Up hills forget it, but that’s not surprising. On the flat or coming down a mountain it has proved itself time and time again. My only regret is that I did not ask for the 12v version. This is twice the brightness, but uses a Bulb not an LED. At the time I thought that with all the bad roads the bulbs wouldn’t last long.

 

I also use battery lighting. The dynamo illuminates all the potholes, my battery LED lights warn on coming traffic. I bought a telescopic fishing pole, shortening it to make a lighting rig that could be extended when I felt I needed greater visiblity in traffic.

 

 

 

In some areas of China, big trucks drive without lights and weave all over the road to avoid the pot holes too. As many lights as possible is a good thing, but saying that, virtually the whole of the population here doesn't use them, but then again the traffic accident casualties here are pretty high. Up to you…Its all down to weight vs. safety.

Frame

I don’t know how it manages to stay in one piece. There is no suspension on Little Wheelie, just a solid frame that keeps on taking a beating. In the east of China the frame hasn't really been stressed, but in Hunan province earlier last year I often thought it would snap.

The build quality of Green Speed trikes is superb. That’s why they are also the most expensive. But for a journey this long I know I can trust the frame.

I was told that Little Wheelie looked ugly by a trike builder in Shanghai. It may not be the sleekest design, but it is built to last, built to endure. I don't need fancy tubing works or pointless angles for aesthetics. She is a work horse and that to me is her beauty. I love you Wheelie.


Seat

The seat is a durable mesh strung across a frame welded directly onto the main tubing, The mesh however is always slipping up the frame, making the seating area smaller and smaller. It’s not that easy to reposition alone but with the help of a random pair of hands (rural Chinese farmer) you can sort it out. I then used string to keep it in place. This stretched so I opted for cable ties. One guy I met in Shandong province had a trike and applied tennis grip tape on the frame. When the mesh seating has this as a slip stopper, it never changes position. I'm hope Greenspeed have added something to their later models to stop this happening.

Mudguards

A royal pain in the arse! The front mud guards come as an added extra and to be honest are a waste of money. The design is really bad (I think later models have  been improved on now). They fit onto the steering pivot bolts and have a frustrating tendency to twist, resulting in them getting caught on the wheel. They are also too close to the wheel so clog up with mud, and the rubber flap at the bottom is fixed in place with a bolt that collects mud and causes friction.

The back one on mine was fitted off centre (manufacturing error), using a plastic clip but sits too close to the tyre. On bad roads they are just a nightmare.

 

 

 

I don't use the front ones anymore, opting to get filthy in bad weather. You only get flicked on if you turn the wheels sharply.

Also, if you choose the dynamo system with a rear light, don't mount it to the mudguard. Mount it directly to the frame. This will saves you loads of hassle.

I often considered cutting the front mudguards in half to save weight. In essence you only really need the bare minimum to stop the water flicking up at you. If they didn't always twist then I would have done that.

Under seat rack

This extra little rack started to come in handy when I was carrying more food in Inner Mongolia.

 

The manky bit of wood is something I added just to make the food boxes more secure.

The GTE can really carry a lot of stuff anyway, so I guess an extra rack is asking for trouble. The advantage though is that stuff is stowed away on the trike and doesn’t need to come off with the panniers. I had a couple of airtight boxes of noodles and a selection of tea / coffee strapped down there.

Panniers

Wheelie can take two sets of panniers as she has a longer frame than conventional trikes. I started off with a pair of Carradice Super C recumbent panniers and a set of Ortlieb Classics. I still can’t believe I carried so much stuff at the beginning. I was fully loaded all the way to Chongqing, but after sweating up all the mountains to get there I realised just how heavy Wheelie was. In Chongqing I stripped her down and by the time I had left I was down to the two Ortlieb panniers. No tent, no sleeping bag, not much at all.

 

 

The wooden platform shown here was used as a makeshift means of fixing Ditch's dog box. The TREK shop in Suzhou kindly hacked it together for me.

 

 

 

It snapped and has been replaced with a light weight bamboo chopping board.

 

Fixing points on my light weight Ortlieb.

I dumped the Carradice panniers for a few reasons.

They are not completely water tight and I was travelling through the rainy season.

The flap is not really long enough to cover the opening sufficiently when the pannier is full.

They were too big and due to the heat I’d become obsessed with travelling light.

The Super C’s have that old school feel to them that I love, but that’s not enough to keep them.  The Ortliebs do feel like you are storing all you gear in a rubber welly but I can live with that. I’ve got camera equipment, note books and provisions that I’d rather keep dry.

 

Additional Storage

Handy storage is a must on a trike, or even a standard bike for that matter. When I’m on wheelie I need to access the following without having to stop and open panniers.

Compact digital camera

Note pad and pen

Compass

Biscuits (lots of them)

Pocket knife

Dog beating stick

Dog Zapper

Tool kit and pump

I have a small ‘Fastback’ pouch that Velcro’s nicely on to the frame. This is used for Note pad, Compass, Knife, and dog zapper.

I also have a ‘Fastback’ under sling bag that is designed for pump storage and repair kit.

 

This is one of my favourite bits of kit. It hangs under the main frame just below the Chain set. It’s completely out of the way, yet very handy.

I also had a hydration pouch behind the seat. I never really liked using it drink from so I converted it into a spare parts pack.

You can't see it here as it is hidden behind a waterproof fabric section I put on so I wouldn't get wet when I took the rear mud guard off

The yellow and black bag cost 7RMB and is perfect for biscuits.

 

Extra bits

The wing mirrors are really useful in traffic and for entertaining yourself when you are bored.

 

The thermometer and compass attached are useful too.

 

 

 

 

Well the compass anyway. A compass funnily enough comes in very handy when your trying to negotiate your way out of Shanghai's impossible road networks.

 

 

Spare parts

 

I had it all, far too much and had no real idea how to use it. That’s all changed now but I learnt the hard way for sure.

Now I carry -

1 x Marathon tyre

2 x Inner tubes

Puncture repair kit

Alien DX multi tool with chain breaker (all the useless bits like scissors taken off)

Brake fluid changing kit (syringe, adaptors, Royal blood oil)

Replacement brake pads

Gear cables

Bike Lube

8 spare chain links

Spoke key

Spare spokes

Spare spoke nobly things (forget the real name now)

Tyre levers

Bike pump

Spare disc brake head.

Spare disc


Using it

Once you’ve tried it you’ll be hooked. Off course there are restrictions, I won’t lie.

The size (trying to get it into guest houses is awkward sometimes, but usually you can lock it up down stairs)

Portability (although your supposed to be cycling everywhere),

You can’t single track. Hit a hole with the back wheel and you’ll feel it. Front wheels are fine though.

Get your panniers stuck in deep rutted muddy roads.

On the other hand you can never fall off. I started off carrying a helmet, now I don’t bother.

It is totally relaxing

Pull over and look at the view whilst still sat in a chair.

The gearing means you can go up any incline at any speed without pushing.

Far more fun

Long distances do not give you a sore arse.

You meet hundreds of people because everyone wants to talk to you.

 

Safety on the road

My first thoughts about using a Trike in China was of me getting flattened by a truck. Riding in China is a lot safer than other people make out. Yes its true accidents happen all the time, you see cars in ditch's, smashed into trees, lorries over turned with their contents blocking the road. But..............in general the roads are wide and have a hard shoulder. This does get used occassionally by three vehicles all trying to overtake each other, whilst three other vehicles coming the other way do the same..

When you ride a Trike everyone will see you. You are basically an alien and people want to look. This means the traffic speed around you completely slows down so they can have a good look.

To be honest I think there is more danger of causing an accident than being in one as drivers block the road to stare or wave.

Traffic in small towns tends to potter along at a relxed pace, country roads are empty. The most dangerous areas are in major cities, on express lanes and roads with barriers or a curb running along side. You can't get off the road in an emergency, this is not common though.

The good thing about a Trike is that you can quickly get off the road if needs be. You just swerve and plough into the dirt without falling off.

 

Security

I use a Kryptonite lock and cable. Locking it is not really an issue most of the time. People warned me about how stuff gets stolen in China really quickly. This is true but because the Trike is so different people are shocked and just stare at it. The advantage of a Trike is that if someone steals it, 100 people will see them.

“Excuse me. Have you seen a thief riding a tricycle?”

“Yes, he went that way”

“Thanks”

 

People issues

China is a land of bicycles even now. The Chinese have grown up with bikes and use them for everything. Tricycles are a common means for family transportation and goods deliveries.

So when the Chinese see Little Wheelie they have more than a healthy interest in her. Virtually in every instance the Chinese are extremely respectable of other people’s property. Well this is what I’ve found in regards to Wheelie. Most of the time crowds gather around and simply squat down and discuss how they think it works.

Where is the engine, How do you steer it, where are the brakes etc….

Then you get the odd adventurous rice farmer who wants to sit in the chair and have a laugh with his friends. The Chinese love to laugh. You get the occasional teenager who wants to show off or a nasty mechanic that cares little for other people. They will just jump onboard when your backs turned and try to pedal around. This can be frustrating and annoying sometimes, but these moments are very rare.

On the whole travelling by Trike in China is an amazing experience. You get to see stuff and access areas that most people never will. If you’re not into engines, then a recumbent trike is the ultimate touring machine.      

 

Next Update

I will post another update in August 2007. By that time I should be right in the thick of it again.

 

 

Comments:

 

You must log in to leave a comment.