On 18 Apr 2006 18:19:22 -0700,
[email protected] wrote:
>Hello...
>
>I have been wondering if I can use an adult tricycle for carrying my
>son.
>
>I feel that if I could put him in a car seat behind me on a tricycle,
>it may be better than if he was being pulled in a trailer behind me or
>sitting in a bike seat on the rear rack.
>
>That said, it was not obvious to me that commonly-sold tricycles in the
>US would accommodate such an arrangement.
>
>Does anyone have experience with this? Any suggestions about tricycle
>brands or websites/stores?
Bad idea in my opinion, for two reasons.
First, although the appearance of stability of the tricycle might make
it seem like a good choice, the reality is that a regular adult trike
is less stable than a regular bike in one important respect; when you
must make a turn suddenly, conventional upright trikes are very tippy.
It's distressingly easy to flip them over. I speak from experience on
this; to maintain anything more than a lazy walking speed, you have to
develop skill in leaning heavily into the turn while off the saddle.
Such trikes are, in my opinion, best suited for use as groundskeepers'
vehicles in botanical gardens and the like.
The second reason that I think that a trike is not better than a
conventional bike is that the ride is actually *bumpier* than with a
two-wheeler. That's because you have not one wheelpath in which you
can hit bumps, but three of them. To avoid a bump with a trike, you
have to maneuver to avoid it with *all three* wheels; potholes in the
street become a much greater menace.
Although it can be a pain in the neck to keep a regular bike upright
with a squirmy toddler in the back seat, most people can master it
with a little practice. A sack of cat litter in the seat as a
surrogate for the kid should give you an adequate mass that won't
complain if you lose your grip and let the bike flop over a couple of
times.
Trailers, on the other hand, have such a low center of mass that they
seldom have any problems with tipping, which may be why they're so
popular.
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
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