I am pleased to announce a new addition to the biking family:
This is a Catrike Pocket - it's a recumbent tadpole-style trike. I have wanted a recumbent trike since... well, honestly, since I realized they existed.
In fact, I've wanted a three wheel vehicle since I first read about the Trident Trihawk in Car and Driver whiling away my study hall hours in the Mendota high school library (what was I supposed to do? Study?). And while teenage and early-twenties-me loved cars, I've also always loved human powered vehicles, and many of my early noodling designs included three- and four-wheeled, pedal-driven machines. I thought I was drawing something unique until the internet became a thing and the Human Powered Vehicle Association website showed me that I was just one of many who had such things running through their heads. Fortunately, some of those others (unlike myself) had the technical know-how to actually build the things they designed.
Enjoying this post? Check out our Cycling page for links to other cycling articles on Applied Life
Several companies build recumbent trikes. In addition to Catrike, I am aware of ICE, Scarab, and TerraTrike available in the US (and there are probably others). Like any specialty bike, however, recumbent trikes tend to run in a price range well outside of what you will find for a bike in your local big-box store. But this lovely blue Catrike popped up on eBay and offered an opportunity well below what they cost new, so I let myself be taken along for the ride.
And along for the ride is where I will be today as soon as I finish a bit of coffee and sort out how to mount my phone to the trike (more on that later, most likely)...