The 700 is a tadpole recumbent. A tadpole has two wheels in the front (whereas a trike has one wheel in the front and two in the rear). My daughter was very excited to go for a ride on the new bike, so we hooked up the trailer and went out to see some "horsies" and cows. As you can tell from the picture I am equal to if not lower than the height of the trailer. I got the baseline model that has three gears on the front and 10 in the rear. I swapped the cassette out for a 11-36 for more climbing gears. The tadpole by itself weighs about 30 lbs.
Some first impressions of the 700:
- There is really no torque or brake drift.
- For me, there is very little or no speed loss on flats and downhills are much faster compared to my road bike. Depending on the hill, climbing speed is a little slower. When going over a really steep pitched hill or a roller on a road bike, a rider can stand up and power through it. On a recumbent, you are stuck sitting, so you lose that technique (although you can pedal harder by using your back on the seat to push off of).
- Despite being such a small bike, there are ample places to store gear.
- Currently the Catrike wheels are not able to run a hub generator for lights (like the Son Deluxe).
- Compared to a standard road bike, it takes very little pressure on the brake lever to stop the bike (mainly because the brakes are disc).
- Despite the bike being wider, I have had zero problems with any drivers. Dare I say they seem to be more considerate? Doing some of the same busy roads on a road bike, I get honked and cursed out consistently.
- All Catrikes come with a generic four foot flag to increase the bike's visibility to cars. I run three strobes on the rear, so I ditched the flag thus far.
- If you don't pedal with a high cadence, the quads will get wasted quick.
- The best part, no saddle soreness, numb hands or sore neck\arms as of yet. Woot!
I'll post some more pictures at a later date with closeups and gear mounted.
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