From kathy at fred.net Tue Oct 30 09:52:49 2018 From: kathy at fred.net (Kathy Bilton) Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2018 10:52:49 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [Whirl] Trike article in Saturday's Washington Post Message-ID: Hi - Len made a post to the email list but it had an attachment too big for the list. So I found his letter online and have provided a link to it as well as the text in case you can't get to the Post's website. --Kathy From: Lennert Thunberg Subject: Trike article in today's W. Post Message-Id: Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2018 17:13:34 -0400 To: WHIRL Some of you might be interested in the trike article I had published today in the W. Post (Free for All Page). Len Thunberg Getting it right on trikes https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/readers-critique-the-post-hurricane-michael-trikes-and--yoda/2018/10/26/84e7994a-d93c-11e8-a10f-b51546b10756_story.html?utm_term=.5f43428a0c79 Text copied below in case you've run out of pageviews on the Post: As someone, at 82, whose enjoyment of retirement has been greatly enhanced through the discovery of recumbent bicycles (20 years ago) and tricycles (10 years ago), I was surprised and gladdened to see the trike article in your Oct. 11 Local Living section [?Recumbent trikes: Why adults are loving these hot wheels?]. Although the article was generally informative, there were some misleading statements. To say that trikes ?are easier to balance? is like saying that a go-kart or a sports car is easier to balance. There?s no balancing involved, except for leaning into high-speed turns to keep from rolling over (not likely to happen unless the rider is being very reckless). There is also zero loss of lateral or directional stability on a relatively low trike at high speed. It is true that trikes are predominantly ridden by older or physically encumbered riders. I find this sad, because younger people don?t get exposed to the joys of riding a high-performance version of one of these marvelous machines. What?s not fun about riding a human-powered go-kart? It?s a shame that these rather complex vehicles are necessarily priced at a level that is beyond the resources of many bike riders. Len Thunberg, Alexandria