RickSycle Tandem Bike
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.11.06
So we looked at the weird bike thing and asked the guy in the booth "um, where are the handlebars?" and he pointed out the joystick between the two seats. And then we asked "it takes up a lot of space in the road, doesn't it?" and he pointed out that bicyclists have a legal right to occupy a lane and it is more dangerous to try and hug the curb, which is legally true, practically a little dicey in downtown Toronto, but Rick is in a small town, Kerwood Ontario, 100 miles from Detroit. The more we looked, the more we liked- unlike a conventional tandem you can comfortably talk to your partner; it has been adapted for disabled riders and seniors; it is adaptable to up to four passengers.
Here is one designed for a disabled passenger and two other riders in the rear, each independently powered. As we look for alternatives to the car, something so easy to get into, easy to ride and so stable and safe is attractive.
We suspect that up in Kerwood Rick gets more demand for his pig gates and scales than he does for his bikes but he is on to something here- Side by side comfort, stability and absolutely no fuel required other than a healthy breakfast. There is a tradition of ingenuity and invention in rural North America that rarely gets the exposure it needs- we need more Ricks and more places to show what they do. ::RickSycle found at the ::National Home Show
Very nice mixing of geometry from the traditional "delta" recumbent trike with "Sociable " seating. We need lots of inspired thinking like this to keep us moving through the transition out of the oil economy.
Interesting, I'm still on the lookout for something like this for my husband and I, but I'm not convinced that this is the one. Those cantilevered pedals look a bit flimsy for climbing big hills and I'm not sure about the joystick. But it's good that more people are working on two-person HPVs, since they are so practical. And at $2200 (CN?) these things are one of the cheapest tandem trikes/quads I've seen.
As for taking up more space on the roads, I agree with Rick, when you hug the curb, you're more likely to be treated like an unimportant "outisder" and get sideswiped because people aren't paying attention to you. I live in Boston - notorious for the most crazy drivers in North America - and I take the lane most of the time. It's not dicey at all. Sure, some car drivers get annoyed that they have to pass more carefully, but at least they are passing more carefully and they can't possibly claim that they "didn't see" me.
I've also found that having a larger vehicle - a bike with a wide trailer and a flag sticking out the side a few inches past my elbow - has made my communing far more safe and friendly. I think that people tend to think of bikes as being two-dimentional vehicles that require no road-space (when in fact they need about 8-10 feet of roadway for safe operation). So when I'm riding around with my bike and trailer set-up (I call it my SUV) people are forced to notice that I'm most definitely three-dimentional.
I bought one of these things and am VERY impressed with it. We've done over 1000 miles on ours. I'm so impressed with it, that I created my own FAQ page about it at:
http://ricksycle.rdstokes.com
I'll be more than happy to respond to your comments or questions about the Ricksycle.
Rob