Posted 17/03/05

Visiting the ICE “Candy Store” (Long)

My father liked to say, whenever he found a particularly fine and thoroughly-stocked hardware store, that visiting it was like going into a “Candy Store”. As trike riders, my wife, Vicky and I recently managed a visit to the ICE workshop in Falmouth, Cornwall and there, we found our version of a superb “Candy Store”. Yet, as delightful as the shop was, the four fellows who make up the Inspired Cycle Engineering team really made our visit special.

Cold March winds, drizzle and the occasional, suspect white flakes followed us down from London as we traveled to Falmouth, in the SW corner of the UK, to combine a holiday with the opportunity to test ride one of the newest of the ICE Trice tandem trikes. It was fortunate that Neil Selwood agreed to pick us up for the short final ride to ICE’s unobtrusive shop because little marks the exterior of this “candy store” - no sign, no window-front displays (there are no windows), only a low trike or two parked in front of a roll-up door in a small, blue industrial building.

Inside the door however, the “candy shop” aspect quickly became apparent. The small vestibule/loading dock was packed with trikes, some on the floor, many hanging by their rear wheels from the overhead and boxed trikes awaiting UPS pick-up. An ICE “S” fitted with the new carbon tailbox lurked just below a hanging XXL. Through an opening, the main portion of the ICE workshop beckoned with sparkling frames and gleaming new components apparently everywhere. Trikes again hung from the overhead, shrouded in plastic cocoons like butterflies waiting to emerge. It is not a large shop by any means, but it appeared to reflect considerable thought and experience in its layout. Tool racks looked to have been placed to minimize wasted steps and trike stands held frames at comfortable heights. Labeled bins and boxes of frame parts and components lined the walls of the dense, but neatly organized work bays.

Neil explained that a production run of their new model ICE trikes was underway and as he showed us about, we were introduced to the other three members of this talented crew. At a station where a row of metallic red rear triangles were “plugged” into a rack, we met bearded, sea-wise John Olson, who was carefully fitting rear derailleurs and racks to the frames. A stack of front booms lay on a nearby workbench, already outfitted with gleaming front mechs and chainsets. In another bay, quiet, meticulous Ben Dickinson was assembling steering components onto a gleaming red ICE “Q” mainframe while the often-humorous and always-irrepressible Chris Parker worked alongside, putting the final touches to a new rear-suspended, rotor crank-equipped Explorer which was due to picked up momentarily by its new owner. Neil tends to handle the increasing volume of sales and communications, most of which is Internet-based, from his small office in one corner of the shop.

We found it revealing to see that the ICE “letter” trikes are hand-crafted right alongside trikes from the higher-cost custom Trice line, by the same men using the same techniques and frame materials. Neil explained that the cost savings achieved with the ICE line have come from some simplifications of frame details and from the component choices. The quality of build and finish of the frames appeared identical to us, which we felt ultimately would probably add to value perceived by the purchasers.
It has been our experience that after someone has ridden their first trike a few thousand miles, they tend to develop opinions concerning desired features or ideas they would prefer should a successor trike become possible. Having a line of the“introductory” ICE trikes available to feed future buyers towards the custom Trice line appears to make good business sense.

We took the opportunity to study a couple of examples of the customized Trice machines created by these four fellows. Chris Parker’s exquisite 22 lb. Monster reflected the hours he spent during his lunch times butting and filing tubing, drilling and machining components, all to pare away grams in his effort to create a feather-light fast touring personal trike. The labor might have been prohibitive for production purposes, but this trike was a work of art. We also watched as Ben and Chris assembled a refurbished, freshly-powdercoated metallic red X2 tandem. Sporting twin hard-shell carbon composite seats and rear suspension, this long machine ought to provide its new American owners with opportunities for fast, comfortable rides.

These men all ride their own trikes, so it was not really too surprising to learn that the continuing evolution of the machines has developed from customer feedback and their own considerable experience. They shared with us their desire to create top of the line recumbent cycles as well as provide responsive support to their buyers. Development of the line of trikes seemed to be a passion for all of them and each felt it very important to keep in mind the realities of day-to-day usage, real roads and the need for reliable durability. Interestingly, Chris mentioned that even after he had constructed his light Monster, he still felt that steel-framed trikes have considerable room for development and refinement. He also stated that he feels steel will remain the sensible material of choice for sometime to come due the ease when evolving or changing a design feature compared to, say, amortizing mold changes for carbon fiber.

Lately, the market for trikes has grown highly-competitive and the ICE/Trice trikes also face the tough current exchange rate situation between the British pound and the US dollar. In light of this, we were impressed by the pricing on the ICE series of trikes is , given the quality of these machines. The semi-custom Trice line may be considered expensive in dollar terms, but our observation was that these were very well-built machines individually-tailored for the person who rides extensively and can afford the lighter, top-quality components.

Our visit to Falmouth left us with the observation that Inspired Cycle Engineering is quite an impressive outfit. These fellows appear to be tightly organized, with an innovative approach, have what appear to be well thought-out products, and are following a careful business plan. Ben, Chris, John and Neil seemed to also be having a lot of fun. It was our impression that they should be able to provide the trike market with a variety of world-class, high quality recumbent trikes for some time to come.

Disclaimer: We have no financial ties to ICE, other than we have bought and currently ride a couple of their single trikes. We do feel that people like Gardiner and Sandra Martin (Easy Racers), the Simms family (Greenspeed) and these fellows at ICE are all a tremendous help to the growth of our sport.