From Speed to Tricks

We are still waiting on Donna's Catrike and Catrike will not give a date certain, come on this is 2011 not 1911, I can get an exact date on a $50 Ipod. Ok enough bitching.
It was such a beautiful day that after all my chores were done I had to take a ride. I discovered one section of the neighborhood that has nice smooth asphalt. So I decided to do some performance testing to understand the limits of my trike better. I learned a few things.

1. The max entry speed to prevent inside wheel lift in a parking lot type 90deg turn is about 9.5mph.
2. At 10mph I can keep the inside wheel lifted about 3 inches around the entire circle.
3. Adding body English, i.e. leaning to the inside of the turn, elevated max entry speed to about 13-14mph while keeping the wheel down. 
4. At just over 10mph I can lift the inside enough to balance and ride on two wheels!

WOW, now that's fun! It does hit me as absurd that I spent all this cash to get a three wheeler only to ride in on two. But hay it's fun!
With just a little practice I was able to ride in a straight line and making left turns and much less sharp right turns. I didn't try lifting the right wheel. I'm right handed but I'm more comfortable making left turns. I'm sure this isn't great for the wheels to have this kind of side loading but these seem OK so far.

Beginning a run

Passing Donna who is taking these pictures

Ready to drop and come back to see the pictures.

My landings could be smoother, basically I just drop at the end of a run. I think that if I initiate a left turn maybe I could drop easier. Something for another day:)