Musings of a newbie: In the weeks preceding my ordering, waiting for and actually taking possession of a new Catrike 700, I spent lots of time reading the
Catrike Board, not understanding all, sometimes asking questions, maybe opinionating a couple of times. Two weeks ago it arrived.
We have a couple of ordinary bikes here, one a hand-me-down from someone who got a better bike, another for my wife, I doubt we rode them 50 miles in 20 years.
I did use to ride my bike a lot as a kid--my first 2-wheeler was a Schwinn New World, with skinny tires, the only one I ever saw with tires like that in
1949-1950. A couple of years later, I was given a Schwinn Black Phantom, with a brake light, chrome fenders and all! Later, in my early 20's, I bought a
derailleur bike, but I ddn't find it that much fun, living in Manhattan at the time (almost got "doored" by a parked car at least once). Much
later, with our present 2-wheelers, I tried several different saddles, but found them WAY uncomfortable, and therefore, to my way of thinking, not that
healthful for me. Recently, I was looking for an exercise outlet, not finding going to the gym to be that great, and, for some reason, recumbent trikes came
strongly to mind, so here I am.
My user name, Groundspeed, came because I enjoy speed -- I drive my car pretty fast, not so much for a "rush", but for safety -- I think
there's nothing more dangerous than riding inside a 'knot' of traffic, you're generally a lot safer to stay out ahead and be super-alert. But I
thought, how much GREATER to be able to do something physical like pedaling (instead of just feeding gas), and go really fast (relatively at least),
and even get a health bonus from doing it!
Several hours away from home at my LBS, I tried a Speed, a 700, and a used Trice, which even had a fairing. Riding in the shop's vicinity was (for me)
pretty hilly, and I was surprised that even though I was really out of shape, I was actually able to go around several times, and I could see it would be a lot
of fun once I got accustomed to it. Although I didn't have the physical sophistication (the "feel") to be able to tell much difference between
these three machines (some of you are groaning right now I'll bet), the Trice felt too heavy, the Speed felt a little lighter than the 700 when I picked it
up, and I thought I might buy the Speed, but a neat part-timer at the LBS (he was not on commission!) convinced me to go with something that I wouldn't
outgrow too fast, and so I saved up some more and bought the 700.
The part-timer also told me about something called 'Cadence', and said I should have a speedometer with that feature so I could learn to pedal
properly, and I ordered that too, among other things. When I actually picked up my new trike and took it on its first spin around the countryside near the
LBS, I said to someone at the shop, 'I think it said my cadence was around 40, is that a good cadence to have?' He didn't say too much to that (!!)
Wow, what a revelation to read later that a good cadence is considered to be at least 80, 90 is standard (and Lance Armstrong is 110, and presumably
that's just loafing for him!) And, I think some people even said you might hurt yourself if you were much slower than the 60's or 70's. So I kept
driving around my neighborhood. At first 70's were difficult for me, then I discovered since my shoes were clipped to the pedals, I could PULL as well as
push, and then I was able to pretty much stay in the low-mid 80's, with some 90's and even low 100's sometimes. My speed is, well, pretty much
non-existent (10-11 MPH average), though I did get to go 30 downhill tonight. WOW! I am amazed that some of you can do 30 on the flat-even bigger WOW!
Something to shoot for!
Bottom line, I am not going to rename myself GroundSLO or Tortoise or anything like that, but am going to slowly work my way up the scale and at least attempt to live up to my name!
Here is a picture of my black
beauty! I have ordered a flag from Jerry, and will show that when I get it!
