So today I rode around Los Gatos trail on my second new vehicle: an ICE Trice T recumbent tricycle.

My fond readers will certainly recall I was working on a two-wheeled recumbent. I did, in fact, get to being able to ride it, a little bit. I had a little cheering section the day I finally got it started up without physical help; A– and M– were rooting for me. It took over a dozen tries to finally get my right foot up on the pedal (along with the left) and wobbling down the residential street. Further assisting was J–, who had recommended to A– that I get used to just riding around, to get the balance of the thing. In fact A– and I tried the tactic of helping me start up; it did work better to just ride first, then get into getting started. Of particular note was A–’s ability to verbally break down the physical intelligence needed to get used to the new way of riding, which I can summarize as “take all your instincts about riding and rotate them ninety degrees against gravity.” A– got it in a few minutes; but he’s a master of kung fu and stuff (OK, Tae Kwon Do and more recently Jeet Kune Do, technically).

With all this, and a new feeling of confidence, nonetheless it was very clear it would be many miles of training before I could ride it loaded and in traffic and on windy mountain roads.

Luckily for me, I had already decided, somewhat half-heartedly, to test-ride trikes at Baytrail Trikes. After my victory on the two-wheeler I very nearly canceled; now I’m very, very glad I didn’t. It took a couple of hours to get to Albany by transit. Steve, the proprietor, patiently answered all my questions, and shared his enthusiasm in a really human, low-pressure way. Also, he’s a former VMS systems administrator, so we had fun swapping horror stories. Of course, riding the trike made the sale–I was cackling like a madman just riding it in a big parking lot.

So, let me count the advantages: in a trike, if I want to take a break, I pull over and engage the “parking brake”–a velcro strap around the brake lever–and that’s it. There is no step three. You’re already sitting in a nice chair. Getting started after stopping: start pedaling. Because you never took your feet off the pedals, because you don’t need to. This is critically true on hills, where being in a really low gear may rob you of enough momentum to keep your balance. Going slow on a trike is merely slow, full stop. It’s also much, much less fatiguing–indeed, the ride is so relaxing I have to be a bit careful to pay attention. When I’m done my legs are tired. And the Trice trikes come with hub brakes. Why has the world not noticed how awesome these are? They don’t get wet and muddy, they’re not finicky, they’re easy as hell to adjust, and they require basically zero maintenance and last more or less forever. Oh yes. They’re heavy. Whatever. If you live in Vancouver, I recommend these things.

There are some disadvantages, of course. The thing is pretty heavy: 37 pounds in the stock configuration, and then you add on the usual stuff like a rack and fenders and it probably ends up over 40 pounds. Also, it’s big. Finding parking is a bit of a challenge, and getting around narrow obstacles meant to keep motorized vehicles off trails can be a nuisance too. Luckily this model breaks down into a more manageable size for going on trains and the like, but it’s not a quick fold, so going multi-modal with transit isn’t an option. So for me, it’s decidedly a dedicated long-distance or cruising machine. Some people regard the low-to-the-ground seating as less safe. It’s true you’re not so much at eye level with drivers, but I feel pretty good with the whippy flag sticking up seven feet into the air, and the width of the trike definitely encourages drivers to give me plenty of room–and I can really take the lane when I need to. Finally, trikes are even more expensive than two-wheeled recumbents. Mine was discounted for being last year’s display model (the 2008 has nifty new-fangled goodness for a higher high gear without sacrificing the low end).

Altogether though, the advantage of “I can take this out on the road immediately and feel better in nearly every respect than I did on the diamond-frame bike” is hugely overpowering.

“Where’s the philosophy, JB?” Thanks for asking. A lot of this was me again encountering my weird thinking about luxury, necessity, learning, endurance, and so on. I had actually originally planned on a trike but didn’t want to travel so far to look at one. That got me into the mail-order world (and for the record, the folks at The Hostel Shoppe were really wonderful from initial set-up to handling my eventual sad return of their lovely machine). And then, as noted before, there were delays from a damaged part. So, because I didn’t want to spend a couple days trucking around on perfectly comfortable and inexpensive transit, I actually ended up waiting a couple extra weeks, and spending rather more money than I’d hoped to.

In sum, I’m basically ecstatically happy with this choice. I’ll post some pictures soon, taken by my way-better-photographer host M–. The front lights are mounted on a little stalk, so the trike totally looks like some kind of freaky moon rover at night.

I hope to be back on the road, off to see my sister in Long Beach, in less than a week. At last! I’ve enjoyed being here of course but I’m really itching to get some miles under my bum again, and more amusing road travails for you all to read about. So, that’s it for now, and I’ll get the pictures up ASAP.

P.S. “HPV” stands for “Human-Powered Vehicle,” not “Human Papilloma Virus.”