oh yeah, let's go for a ride - show me your bike

[Gail O'Rourke]

Oh, the show me your tattoo thread is my next one.. (I have 2)

[Ralph Barhorst]

Gail,
Really cool bike! I had a Triumph 650 many years ago and I loved it. Later I converted a Harley Hummer into an electric motorcycle. It had two 12 volt batteries and a 24 volt motor. Its top speed was 31 MPH and it had a range of 20 miles on a charge. I mainly used it to get to work and back. In town, of course. It was really quiet since the only sound was the chain. I usually had to hit the horn when I passed kids on bicycles so that they would not accidently turn in front of me. I never had to pass cars, I couldn't go fast enough.

Ralph

[Brett Baldwin]

Hey Per, I learned to ride in north Jersey so I have an idea of what you're talking about. Come to think of it, Phoenix drivers aren't any better but at least your sightlines aren't blocked by plants here.

[Robert Miller]

I started riding motorcycles when I was 14 years old. I'm 53 now.
Here's my current ride, 2001 Suzuki Intruder 1500 LC.

[Kurt Strandberg]

This is our 2001 GL1800 and our Aspen Classic camper, if we are not riding the ATV's we are riding cycle, a little over 72,000 miles since we bought it

[Chris Padilla]

I got all excited based on the title of this thread and then saw the pictures. This is basically the bike I'm riding to work these days. My 1-way commute is about 8 miles, which is nothing for even a fairly casual cyclist. I do need a new backpack, though.

Awesome, Rob and good for you! I have a 14-mile one way commute so I'm doing about 140 miles per week on my Trek 6700 MTB. I set it up more for the road with semi-knobby tires, a road cassette, and a real nice suspension seat post from Cane Creek called a Thudbuster--check it out.

[Chris Padilla]

Oh, the show me your tattoo thread is my next one.. (I have 2)

Are they in a, uh, 'showable-for-a-family-forum' place?

[Frank Guerin]

I quit riding when panheads, rigid frames amd kick starts went out. Is the brake still on the left on the turnips?

[Bruce Boone]

Like a few of the other guys, the horsepower of my bike depends what I had for breakfast. Even though I used to make bike parts and even worked at a bike factory, I haven't had a new bike for a LOT of years, so I decided to go all out. I love this thing. 16 pounds and stiffer than snot!

[Randal Stevenson]

Has anyone here built a bike or trike?

What about riding a trike verse bike?


I have two motorcycle experiences (one was a facsimile of a motorcycle so it don't count). The experience that counts has left me off of one for years. It involves being told to take one for a test run (guy had been restoring a dirt bike). I took it out and he hollered something (couldn't hear it), I about lost it coming around, and did loose it when coming to a stop over by them (with it going airborne and landing tailpipe on me).
He was hollering, "I forgot to tell you, it has no rear brakes yet!"

Now I am MUCH older, and have been thinking for years, about building a trike. I'll trust it a little more since I will know the mechanics of it.

[Art Mulder]

Has anyone here built a bike or trike?

What about riding a trike verse bike?

Do you mean a motorcycle or a bicycle?

I built a recumbent bicycle back in '95 -- at the time I had a friend who was really into bikes and bike-building, and he taught me a little bit of brazing and helped a lot in getting it built. Was a lot of fun
1299-bike.jpg

I've never done it since, as I don't have any welding gear myself, and I would rather spend my limited spare time on woodworking.

I've ridden a tadpole-style (two wheels at the front) recumbent trike once or twice. My 5-minute view is that they're lots of fun. But you'd want to give one a test ride for sure, as the steering is a bit different than expected, and you want to be sure it is comfortable for you. kind of cool that it can't tip over

[Bruce Boone]

Art, I assume Randall was talking about a motorcycle trike. My mom had one built from their Honda Gold Wing after crashing on loose pavement when touring the country. They pulled a nice trailer with clothes and stuff. It was very nicely done.

Another bike more similar to your recumbent is this one I've done. The aero body helps it go a lot faster. I used to race these. At one time, we got it to 53 MPH on the Indy race track. The record for these now stands at 81 MPH. It has to be level ground and no wind assist.

[Al Willits]

Randall, I built drag bikes for a few years and if your a beginner, I'd suggest looking for kit trike or contact a builder and see if they can work something out with ya.
I know a good friend of mine (Extreme Custom Choppers) offers a 2 wheel bike kit, but not a three wheel version, maybe check with the custom builders.

Good luck, some of the new three wheelers look pretty comfortable.

Al

[Joe Chritz]

A trike will keep you from falling over at slow speeds. I haven't gotten any updates on the handling characteristics at speed, but I intend to as I have been seeing several around here. (I do accident investigation so it is important)

FWIW, if you can get confidence back, a motorcycle is the only vehicle that can actually exceed full drag factor of a roadway while performing evasive or stopping maneuvers. This assumes a trained rider.

Maneuverability, visibility and vehicle dynamics off set some of the dangers. Gravel, sand, debris and lack of training negate this somewhat.

I would be worried about stability in a high speed (35+) evasive maneuver, but this must have been designed into the vehicle. I'll so some checking and post back.

Joe

[Jeffrey Fusaro]

... a motorcycle is the only vehicle that can actually exceed full drag factor of a roadway while performing evasive or stopping maneuvers.

joe--

what does this mean? i have not heard this statement before.

This assumes a trained rider.

Joe

amen to that!

Maneuverability, visibility and vehicle dynamics off set some of the dangers. Gravel, sand, debris and lack of training negate this somewhat.

Joe

even bigger amen to that!