Catrike, Part Deux: I am now the proud owner of a Recumbent Tadpole...

I have entered an odd little corner of the world...

Some of you may remember this thread from last year:

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/catrike-recumbant-trike/102287/page1/

TLDR Version:

My Dad is 85 and lives in Florida. He has been an avid bicyclist for all of his life, which for reference, began in 1931. I remember riding on the handlebars of his bike when I was three, and then going for rides together on almost every nice evening once I had my own bike.

A few years ago, he had a mild stroke. He has no muscle deficit from it, but has balance issues that kept him off of bikes for about two years. He was bummed.

Last year, he learned about recumbent trikes, took a test ride and was hooked. He bought a Catrike Villager. It was expensive, but for the past year, he has been riding 14 miles every morning before breakfast. Sometimes, he goes out again at night. We are all happy again.

He comes north to visit me several times each year. Last year, I could tell that he was missing his daily rides when he was here.

When he first started thinking about buying one, I immediately checked Craigslist to see if I could save him some money. I learned that these things don't turn up for sale very often. On the rare occasion that I found one, it was usually pretty expensive and far away. Every ad read the same: "I bought this after I had my knee/hip replaced. I only rode it a few times and it's like new. It has a bunch of really expensive options. I paid over $X,000 but I'm only asking $x,ooo. I live very far away from you."

I continued to check CL periodically, and last week one showed up semi-locally. According to the seller, it had only been ridden about 50 miles and it was offered for less than any other one that I had seen for sale over the past year.

CL Photo:

It was like new and had a bunch of expensive options. The seller said that the price was firm.

My father is coming up to spend a few weeks with us this summer and I don't know how many more chances we will have to go riding together. I decided to forego the purchase of a project car this summer and buy this trike for him to ride instead. I was happy to pay the very reasonable asking price. This was an easy decision.

I guess that wasn't really a TLDR Version.

So now I have this thing home. It's a 2010 Catrike Trail. It's not exactly the same as the one my father rides in Florida. He has a Villager, which is more or less designed for senior citizens. This one is a little lower and a little narrower, but we can make it work for him while he's here.

In all honesty, I can't wait to put a few miles on it myself. It needs a good cleaning, but everything operates as it should. Each model only comes in one size. The forward boom adjusts easily, but the really, really long chain needs to be the proper length for it to shift right. I am about six inches taller than my father, so I'll adjust the chain to fit his leg length and then add in an additional length of chain with an easy to use Sram Powerlink for when I want to ride it.

These are made in Florida and assembled with quality components. This one came with a few hundred dollars worth of accessories: a pair of fitted saddlebags, front and rear strobes, a bike computer, mirror, bell, flag, water bottle cage and full fenders. Some of it I will keep, and some of it will be removed.

Here's how it looked when I got it home:

And this is how it looked after I removed the bags, the wired bike computer and adjusted the boom:

I was worried about having to reroute the (very long) chain when I tried to splice in a longer section, but I learned a little trick in the owner's manual. Use an old spoke or piece of coat hanger to create a little slack in the chain and to keep control of things as you work. Fortunately, I had a few extra links of Sram nine speed chain and a package of Powerlinks down in the basement from one of my old mountain bike projects.

It is surprisingly light (36.5 pounds with bags and fenders), is very, very comfortable, shifts well (27 speeds) and is faster than I expected. Steering is really easy. I had to spend some time tweaking the locations and angles of the controls. The disc brakes are really powerful and easy to modulate.

This is going to be fun!

Here's a cool video from the Catrike factory in Florida:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABcY-DT7w_o#t=1.525419

And a two part video interview with the designer and founder of the company:

Part 1

Part 2

Have you grown a long beard yet?
Or attached a doofy little mirror to your helmet?
AFAIK it's not legal to ride one of these without both of those things.

Always thought the recumbants were interesting animals but never had the chance to try one out.

84FSP wrote: Always thought the recumbants were interesting animals but never had the chance to try one out.

Drop by the house sometime and you can take it for a ride.

Woody wrote: My father is coming up to spend a few weeks with us this summer and I don't know how many more chances we will have to go riding together. I decided to forego the purchase of a project car this summer and buy this trike for him to ride instead. I was happy to pay her very reasonable asking price. This was an easy decision.

I like your thinking!

^^^^^ Yep. Strong work Woody.

In reply to 84FSP:

They're fun. And fast. And addicting. I would probably get back into biking if I had one. My old neighbor built a funky one that had pedals and hand crank!

Woody wrote: It is surprisingly light (36.5 pounds with bags and fenders)...

Holy E36 M3! It's been a long time since I've been around bicycles, but I think my 30yo Trek weighs about 22 pounds. Adding a third wheel and bags and a bunch of other stuff means the frame must be made out snakeskin! Sweet.

Awesome that you did this for your dad, Woody!

In reply to RealMiniParker:

Not only is it light, but when you're just moving it around, you only lift one end at a time and it feels like nothing at all. It's rare that you have to lift the whole thing up like a bike. I was worried about my dad's ability to manage it, but he can easily load it into the back of his Ford Flex one end at a time.

Once I finally got the chain adjusted properly for my leg length, I was able to take it for a few short road tests around the neighborhood and I learned a few things.

I spent a lot of time looking in the mirror. You feel really vulnerable sitting down that low with cars around. I had considered riding it without the flag, but now I'm considering getting one with more visible colors, along with a higher and brighter rear LED light.

All of the pedestrians and most of the bicyclists want to stop and ask you about it.

It's incredibly comfortable.

You can carry a lot more stuff with you.

It's really fast on the flats and downhills, but doesn't carry any speed at all into the uphills.

Because of the seating position, going uphill blasts your quads. Since your body weight isn't directly above the crank, you can't use it to help you climb. It's all muscle.

For the same reason, accelerating from a dead stop can be difficult and slow if you start off in the wrong gear. You need to downshift before you get to an intersection.

Three way intersections are a lot scarier than four way intersections.

Average time over a given distance is about the same as it is on a bicycle, but you can ride this a lot longer. After two days of short rides, my third day's ride was over two hours long and I just had knee surgery eight weeks ago.

Those are really cool. One of the guys I used to ride with had a Catrike that he pulled out occasionally for charity rides and such. They look like tons of fun, but I'd have a hard time riding it on open roads in this area - especially without other cyclists along on a big ride. The visibility is just so questionable. I sure as crap wouldn't take it out without the flag. and perhaps a blinkie on a pole. and maybe a follow drone with a strobe. and perhaps a dedicated chase car.

Great purchase, Woody. Makes me want to get one for my dad, put the baby in my bike trailer, and hit the path!

Pretty cool. Is the extra width problematic when being overtaken by cars on two lane or is it not really as wide as it looks in pics? How is it on gravel/uneven surfaces?

just put Catrike into craigslist's and WOW, they are not giving them away are they? There are a few ranging in price from $1,500 to $4,500!

Huckleberry wrote: Pretty cool. Is the extra width problematic when being overtaken by cars on two lane or is it not really as wide as it looks in pics? How is it on gravel/uneven surfaces?

The handlebars on my mountain bike are 27.5 inches wide. The trike is about 33" at the hubs, but it feels wide. It's such an oddity that cars have been giving me a lot of space. They usually cross the yellow line to go around me. It's very controllable and I can keep the right front wheel right at the edge of the pavement.

This trike is a little narrower than the one that my Dad has in Florida. He says that this one is harder to steer, but I think that's only at full lock, and the only time that even comes into play is when you're making a U-turn in the driveway.

I live on a corner and my driveway starts about 200 feet up a dirt road. That's really been the limit of my offroading with it. It doesn't feel bad, but I try to avoid it because there is so much chain to clean. Sometimes, I go across the lawn and avoid the dirt all together.

Rusnak_322 wrote: just put Catrike into craigslist's and WOW, they are not giving them away are they? There are a few ranging in price from $1,500 to $4,500!

That sounds about right. This one was $1500, and it was the cheapest used one that I've ever seen.

When he started looking at them last year, I thought that it was a crazy amount of money. I couldn't find any used ones at the time, so he bought a new one and spec'd it out exactly the way that he wanted it.

In retrospect, at age 85, he has ridden the thing daily for almost a full year and it's made a huge difference in his life. He's lost 25 pounds, his energy level is way up, his mind is sharp and he has a very positive outlook on life. He is happy and it was worth every penny.

Here's a photo of my Dad. Today was our first ride together. We rode for an hour and fifteen minutes on the Farmington Canal Line.

What a stud! Hopefully I can still be on the bike at his age.

Awesome.

There's some DIY ideas for building, modifying or carrying your own:

http://www.instructables.com/howto/Recumbent/

So my dad has come to Connecticut for a few weeks and has now returned to Florida. We rode together a bunch of times and it was worth every penny that I have invested in this thing.

Along the way, I made a few more additions and adjustments. The front chainring was looking pretty vulnerable hanging way out front like that, so I added a chain guard. I will admit that i was also worried about the teeth of the chainring damaging one of the cars if it rolled away from me in the garage. The chain guard also helps to keep the chain from falling off if you overshoot the big ring when you shift. This happened on my first ride, but I think I was still trying to find the proper chain length at that point.

This thing sits pretty low to the ground, so I put it up on a set of Home Depot jackstands to save my back when I'm working on it.

I also added a pair of SPD clipless pedals.

This was a pretty important upgrade. Because of the seating position, if your foot slips off the pedal, you will immediately run it over. This would not be cool.