When I lived in Orange County, California, I frequently had the opportunity to cycle along the Santa Ana River Trail (SART). It was fun, and great exercise, but a little boring given the bland, almost desert like terrian.
I doubt that I would have had the courage and fortitude to cycle the same route, and combine it with surface street legs on a daily basis. So my hat’s definitely off to Glenn, a.k.a. dregerclock, who uses his neat recumbent trike to cycle 13.5 miles (one way) for an hour every day to work and then back again.
That being said, I’m really impressed by both Glenn and his trike. The ride is smooth and appears almost effortless. It totally blew me away when I realized that he is hand-holding the video camera for many of the shots, and is even passing it from hand to hand while continuing his ride, and in at least one case making a major turn. There is no way that I could do that on a regular bicycle.
Here’s what Glenn had to say about his daily commute:
“This is my 1 hour, 13.5 mile commute to work, condensed to 10 minutes. I ride a recumbent trike (TerraTrike) on the streets of Orange County and the Santa Ana River Trail (SART) to get to my office. I wanted to give people an idea of what it is like. It is a lot more fun to commute by trike, plus I get exercise, and it costs me nothing in gasoline.
In this video you will note that I ride streets where there is bike lane, where there is no bike lane and how I handle those areas. There is a segment where I ride the wide sidwalk, but only because there is no side lane at all on the right side of that street. using hand signals, and taking lane control when there is need is also demonstrated.
Notice when I get off the trail and onto the last street portion near my office, I wait for an 18 wheeler and a few other cars to pass before entering the bike lane. That truck and those cars were driving VERY close to the right almost on the bike lane stripe. But later as I rode that lane and cars approached from behind you can see they do see me and keep good distance from the bike lane.
Because the Trike is so unusual, most cars notice and give me more room than I ever got on a conventional bike.“
Comments