Originally Posted by
corrado33
Having actually ridden a motorized trike at one point in my life, there is no way in hell I'd ever want to ride a trike that's as high up as 700c wheels would put it. A recumbent? Sure... sitting on top of 3 700c wheels? No way.
Recipe for disaster as soon as you hit just about any turn.
I know this is an old thread but I came across it looking for something else. I thought the record should be set straight for anyone else tripping over it as I did.
I have to tell you, you are very, very wrong.
700c trikes are alive and kicking at Longstaff Cycles in Chesterton, Staffs in the UK and have been built for racing, touring, load carrying and any number of other uses, for both able bodied and disabled riders.
They have been built and ridden for many years all over the world, although they are probably widely felt to be a slight eccentricity on the part of the (predominantly) British builders.
If you try and ride a trike like a bike, regardless of wheel size, it's all going to go very wrong. If you ride a trike like a trike, you'll be fine. Different skill set.
Actually, a trike on bigger wheels is more stable not less so, as the CoG of the rider / bike system is not significantly different to a small-wheeled trike (although it is higher, of course, than a recumbent trike) but it is lower, relative to the wheel centres, which is what matters in terms of the stability.
Correct geometry and materials use make a trike perfectly rideable on pretty much any size of wheel, so long as the rider knows how to ride a trike - and pretty much unrideable, if they insist on treating it like a bicycle ...