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The current issue is Issue 12. The next issue is out early March 2004.
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Mitka moves on
Concept machine now rideable...
Remember the concept drawings in Issue 2 (June 2001) of the Dutch Mitka leaning trike electric-assist semirecumbent? Well, thanks to a link spotted on Velorution we can bring you an update.
It looks like the electric-assist aspect may be gaining in prominence over human power, though: when we wrote the original article their target weight was 35kg - now it's 45kg. And they say 'the prototype is a little heavier'...
The updated website is at:
http://www.kathalys.com/mitka/
The prototypes are undergoing tests now - but the (Dutch-language) website still says it's too early to say anything about when it might go into production.
Incidentally if you're interested in tilting three-wheelers, human powered and otherwise, this site is probably the definitive resource.
Posted on 27 June 2003
Your comments ...| From: andy scaife ([email protected]) on 27 June 2003 |
| It's a bloody car! I've had Austin Seven racers with less about then that that. Hope nobody expects me to recover one from the roadside. That reminds me, I must write electric machines out of BikeRescue's conditions along with loadbikes. |
| From: Sue ([email protected]) on 28 June 2003 |
Oh, I don't know, it depends how long your extension cable is on the charger... And think of how smug you could look, towing an electric assist home. Cue story from Tom on 2CV rescuing Land Rover if I remember it rightly.
I suppose the tilting and tadpole layout would overcome 'tricycle blindness', seen frequently on try out roadshows. So many people assume that if you can ride a bike, a trike is childsplay. Some of them can't even master not needing to put your feet down when you stop. It can be fun for the first half hour, watching them career round in a series of U turns... |
| From: Dave Walker (acxdjcw at nottingham dot ac d) on 28 June 2003 |
Tricycle blindness! So that's what it's called! Yeah I rode a trike for the first time last week at York and I couldn't get on it - took me ages to figure out that it wouldn't fall over if I just sat on it, and then I couldn't get it to go in the right direction. "Steer! Steer it!" cried the man from the Tricycle Association. "I'm trying,but it won't!", I called back as I veered ever closer to immobile solid objects. "Try turning the handlebars!", he replied. Incredibly, I did, the trike turned, and I didn't fall off. Hurrah! But I was very glad I didn't have to get down an Alp on the thing.The most fun I've had at 3mph for ages.
Dave |
| From: sue ([email protected]) on 01 July 2003 |
| Congratulations on mastering it. It took me ages. The next trick to master is riding it up on two wheels (front and one back), which I finally cracked last week. |
| From: Ralf Grosser ([email protected]) on 01 July 2003 |
The classical layout of a trike in the UK is to have two wheels in the rear, with the wheel on the left driven.
Because roads have a curvature from the middle to the curb, this makes sense.
Trikes tend to roll to the deepest part of the road.
The driven wheel keeps the bike going strait and steering towards the middle of the road
A friend of mine from London visited Germany on a tricycle tandem.
He was swearing from Calais to Heidelberg and back because he had problems keeping the bike on the road in right sided traffic,
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