[blindkid] Bicycling & Other Fun Activities

[DrV]

Hi Richard,
Thanks for sharing all the info & insights.
Weight & portability certainly are important considerations.
I think it would be fun to rent a quad for a ride along the beach/strand.
The tandem tricycle looks very intriguing for longer-term us.
Have a great summer!
Eric




On Fri, Jul 18, 2014 at 1:38 AM, Richard Holloway via blindkid <
blindkid at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> Eric,
>
> I don’t know if I posted a picture of it or not, but we bought one of the
> four-person quads like you had mentioned as well— similar to some of the
> rental designs with two rows of two seats.  (Yes, my wife is vary patient
> and understanding about my cycling passion!) The Quad-cycle design (ours is
> a "Rhoades Car") is fun, but unlike the in-line setups, they are really
> heavy (like a couple-hundred pounds or more), and extra-hard to haul. More
> than that, the most frustrating part (at least around here) is they are so
> wide, that you can’t take them on most bike paths— not even the retired
> railroad lines which have been converted to riding trails can be used,
> because they put up posts to keep cars off the paths at road crossings.
> These quads and some of the side-by side tandems (often called “social
> tandems”) won’t clear these posts, so check where you want to ride before
> you order one! I suspect you’d be more likely to get a side-by-side system
> working on suburban, or rural neighborhood streets, though they may fit on
>  broader paths near some beaches, but you want enough path width that you
> aren’t running oncoming cyclists off the path as they approach you too…
>
> If I had it to do over, I’d probably just rent a pedal car now and then,
> but I was all excited, and anxious to have a family bike, and I got the
> Rhoades before I had ever heard of tandem tadpole trikes. Tandem tadpole
> designs are absolutely my favorite solution for tandem pleasure riding!
>
> Some of our triple and quad in-line rigs are 18 or 20 feet long (our
> Rhoades Car is only about 10 feel long), but my in-line designs have all
> been narrow enough that we can ride them on most any paved bike path we
> encounter- just something else to keep in mind before you buy, and while
> you can buy the tandems and the trailers ready-to-ride, you will probably
> have to do some fabrication to attach the trailers to tow with a tadpole
> cycle, because most trailers are intended to mount to a seat-post (not a
> part of a recumbent cycle!), though the fabrication isn’t terribly
> complicated...
>
> One other big issue with kids is that some of these bikes are sold with
> the fact that they can be disassembled to transport easily as a big selling
> point. That might be just fine for adult solutions, but when kids are
> waiting to ride at the trailhead, we have found it is FAR better to go to
> the trouble of trailering the bikes in read-to-ride. Expecting kids,
> super-full of excitement and anxious to get underway, to be able to sit and
> wait while you bolt a bike together is probably not realistic for families
> with young children, and after the ride is done, nobody really likes
> waiting to head home or off to eat either.
>
> There are car-top carriers for tandem (conventional) bikes, but the tandem
> tadpole trikes are much longer because bodies are stretched out more while
> riding, (That also makes them incredibly comfortable to ride on!) Because
> of this, the tandems are nearly 12 feet long assembled, so again,
> transportation can be complicated. One of these days, I will manage to rig
> a car top carrier for at least one tandem tadpole, but the best solution
> we’ve had so far has always been some sort of a trailer.
>
> If all of that makes it sound like a hassle, let me close by saying if I
> had it all to do over again, I would not hesitate to re-buy a pair of
> recumbent (tadpole) tandems and a few trailer setups to meet out needs. I
> absolutely LOVE riding them!
>
> Good luck finding a setup that works really well for you...
>
> >> Also, at a number of beaches I have seen a number of style of 4 person
> >> buggy bikes for rent – that looks like a fun family activity (you can
> >> google that too).
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> blindkid mailing list
> blindkid at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> blindkid:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/icdx1111%40gmail.com
>