Rode to work in the snow this morning, ok I admit there wasn't much snow, but it's more than I've ever been in. The falling snow even stopped for a 1/2 hour, giving me glorious clear skies!

I did some doughnuts in the carpark before heading out, sliding out the trike is bloody cool. The snow crunched under the tyres and flew up in the air. I passed a couple of kids on their sleds - gave them the thumbs-up. It was a good morning.

Does all the salt on the road rust the carp out of your bike?

cheers,
(Mr)Wibble

Yes, it can - just make sure your bike gets a good clean and re-oil after the last of the snow has gone... however, we are lucky in Basel, that, unlike some towns, then don't go over board with the salt on most routes in and out of town for cycles.

Pat

Am.... Why does you bike have 3 wheels???

But seriously... what is it... you got more info about it? Looks interesting. Strange... ...but interesting!

because in his dreams he's called "Maverick"

Yes it does,Carp are fresh water fish!! ha ha ha

It's a GT5 greenspeed recumbent trike (http://www.greenspeed.com.au), but there's a few other manufacturers of this sort of thing (e.g. CatTrike, Hase, KMX). I haven't had it very long (~9 months, and 3 months of that it was on the container ship). So far I've only been riding to work, no touring.

cheers,
(Mr)Wibble

As long as I don't have to Eject!

So he can ride it on snowy roads?

Wibble, how do you go with the extra width of the bike on Swiss roads? I know back home in Sydney with the narrow roads there, and especially when I was living in London, a bike that wide would be the target for massive amounts of abuse as it would block off a whole lane. Would also make lane splitting impossible aswell as dodging pedestrians on shared paths, which is essential in big cities like that.

Most of the bike lanes/shared paths around here (outside Basel) are fairly wide, so it hasn't been an issue. In Australia, the trike has a bit of WTF! factor, so instead of getting the usual 30cm of clearance drivers tend to give you a wide berth.

The trike does take up 90% of the Swiss painted-on-road bike paths though. It's about a metre wide, which sounds big on paper, but isn't a huge amount more than a person on a bike. I'll go out on a limb and say that if the trike blocks a lane (for a car) where a person on an diamond-frame bike doesn't, then there is probably not enough room for the car to safely pass a DF bike anyway! If I do end up blocking the way, I try to ride really fast, and/or get over when I can.

Dodging pedestrians is usually not a problem, I do make the effort to get over as far as humanly possible. You have to be reasonably courteous, it's not like you're an anonymous bike rider.

cheers,
(Mr)Wibble

Is that thing equipped with snow tires..?

I've seen mountain bike tires in the shops here with metal studs in them for snow and ice..! Guess you have to be hard core if you're going to need tire studs on a bike.

I'm sure you can commute on a 3 wheel bike on the snow.

On a 2 wheel bike is dangerous.

Tell that to the guys that are doing the glacier downhill race in Saas Fee in a few weeks!!!

I commuted non-stop through several Canadian winters (in southern Ontario). I kind of miss the challenge since moving here, but I don't mind the fact that I can take the good bike out on the weekends even in the middle of winter here . I also don't miss riding old beaters because of the wear the drivetrain and everything else would get when riding in those conditions (even with moderate maintenance, things didn't really last two full winters). I had studded tires, but they didn't seem to make much of a difference to the grip except in very specific conditions, running the tyres at a lower pressure than normal (and so having a larger footprint) normally made a much larger difference. As long as it was reasonably cold (below -5 C), I never found the snow to be too slippery unless there was a ton of it. It is the snow falling at around zero and the possibility of ice that you have to be really careful of, which is more of a problem here than it was in Canada, where it could be below -10 for a couple of months.

Wibble - that looks like a nice rig you have there, certainly great for touring. I've also heard that drivers give extra space to recumbants and 3-wheelers because they are so unusual, and I agree that actually you don't really need any more space than a diamond-frame machine.
A couple of quick questions:
1. Do you have special gearing to compensate for the small drive wheel?
2. Are you allowed to take it on the SBB trains?

No, it's a fairly standard shimano 105 drivetrain, triple on the front, 9 on the back. You can get all sorts of options, including Rolholff hubs, schlumpf(sp?) mountain drives, etc. I ride up a hill on the way home (just for fun), but going both up and down I run out of gears. I guess I'd like a bigger range, but it's manageable.

You can see the gearing specs (and options) here:
http://www.cyclepartsonline.com.au/p...products_id=29

I've never tried taking it on a train. You can pull the seat off, and fold it in half, that might make it easier. It's fairly awkward to carry either way. Guess it depends on how busy it is. I think you'd be hard pressed to argue it's not a form of bicycle, so technically it should be ok. Practically would be another story.

cheers,
(Mr)Wibble

PS> The Swiss Greenspeed dealer is at Hinwil if you want to go for a test ride (or PM me)

Switzerland
HaSo's Velo-Lade
Oberdorfstrasse 1, CH-8340,
Hinwil
Ph - 044 937 43 30
Fax - 044 937 35 73
Contact - Hans Sonderegger

(Hmmm, that phone number doesn't look right)

cheers,
(Mr)Wibble

The 01 prefix was replaced by 044.

Thanks for the link. The gearing may be called "standard" for that machine, but the 9 speed rear cassette is certainly not standard 105 stuff because it lists the smallest cog as having just 9 teeth. I believe this is a special cassette made specifically for small-wheeled bikes, and it also needs a special hub to mount it on.

If you need a lower gear, you could probably change your smallest chainring on the front from a 30 tooth to a 26 tooth, which I have done on some of my bikes, as I described in this post. You can get one for 18 CHF from veloplus online or in the Basel store, so it might be worth trying. The top gear would be more difficult to change much, the biggest chainring you could get easily would have 54 teeth, which wouldn't make a huge difference compared to the current 52.

Anybody any experience of the HP Velotechnik Spirit? I am really interested in this one and have found a dealer in Kriens, Lucerne area, where I can have a try of one. Just wondered if anyone had any experience through ownership of one of these.

I will answer my own question! For a first recumbent this is brilliant, tested one yesterday. Will buy one.

For anyone interested here is a really good list:-

http://www.recumbentbicyclesource.co...ufacturers.htm