Would or have you ridden a 2 wheeled handcycle?
Would or have you rode a 2 wheeled handcycle?
I have a buddy who rides or did ride a lean-steer Lightning and for him it’s still not close enough to that bicycle feeling he is missing. I must admit that the third wheel does seem to “subtract” something from the experience. His Lightning frame is beginning to break in random places at the edge of the HAZ causing a loss of skin and on the road repair. We have decided that it’s time for a replacement handcycle and we don’t really need that 3rd wheel. He wants a 2 wheeler and at one time you could buy one. We have seen a 2 wheel production handcycle from the 90’s (Grove Designs) on Ragbrai and there is another one I have seen on the internet that is really tall and more of a recreational style (think chase lounge with cranks) although I don’t think it was ever in even small scale production. In both cases they require a set of retractable landing gear outriggers that are deployed by some mechanism.
I have built recumbent bicycles in the past and am the MacGuyver type so I tackled it. As a proof of concept we zip-tied and duct taped a road bike fork on the rear axle of an Invacare XLT and removed the original rear wheels. This was done because the XLT was available and we knew the only new variable was the single wheel at the back. It was immediately apparent that this could work as we were both able to ride it quite well especially considering the redneck engineering attachment.
So this began the journey to make something light and maneuverable based on the head angle and wheelbase we knew worked from the Invacare bike. I drew up what I wanted in CAD and had enough tubing bent for 4 bikes frames in case we ruined some in the process. The design keeps the things we like about the Lightning and the Invacare XLT. They both have the upright body positioning we prefer for long term comfort and clear vision. We were not after the luge style bike I see so much of even though I am fully aware of the speed benefits. I also kept the headtube angle and wheelbase that was created on the “redneck special”. Adding the fork on the rear increased wheelbase and rake, both of which should help stability. On our first bike we will just swap out some of the Invacare drivetrain. The seat is going to be full mesh over a bent tube frame since I don’t enjoy how sweaty the rubber foam style ones are. We are making headway on this and should be ready to tackle the drivetrain next. Our short term goal is to have it rideable on Ragbrai this year. It’s going to be close based on the speed of progress lately.
My question for all of you is... has anyone ridden a 2 wheeled handcycle and what were your thoughts? Awesome? Terrifying? Fast/slow? Heavy? Complicated? Pointless, no benefit etc. Would anyone purchase one if they were available? Would you test ride it if you saw it up close? Our collective experience on the “redneck special” was a combined ten minutes or less so it’s hard to have a valid opinion. All I can say for sure is it was fun and we are excited about building a few.
Does anybody have any experience they would be willing to share? Does reading this make you want one or make you think I’m crazy?
Kwog