After putting some miles in on my new Trice Explorer, I wanted to offer you some customer feedback. My wife, Mary, and I both own Trice Explorers. Hers is a 2000 model. We enjoy recreational riding and touring.

First, let me say that The Bike Rack, in St. Charles IL, USA, is one of the most professional bike shops I've ever been in. Hal Honeyman and his staff are courteous, skilled and friendly. They go out of their way to offer exceptional service. They are cycle enthusiasts and they ride what they sell - I like that! Most importantly, for me, when I discussed my order with Hal, he listened and I got exactly what I asked for.

My Explorer ... I have never owned a better built bike. I have had two custom built bikes prior to my Trice, and neither bike compared for fit and finish to the Trice. The design, build quality, paint, welds, materials .... superb.

PERFORMANCE - Ultimately, as a trike rider, I believe I will need to be in somewhat better condition to go as fast on my trike as I did on my Easy Racer Tour Easy. As it is, on a straight line run, under ideal conditions, an Easy Racer TE (Tour Easy) or GRR (Gold Rush Replica) would blow my doors off, no contest. Mind you, I still think the Easy Racer TE and GRR are the most beautifully designed and fastest two wheeled recumbents on earth. But, the fact is, in real world riding conditions, over a 10-60 mile run, piloted by average cycling enthusiasts rather than elite athletes, I believe a lot of these factors start to even out, and here is why ...

COMFORT & ERGONOMICS -- My trike is THE most comfortable cycle I have ever been on, yes, even more so than the Tour Easy. The suspended mesh seat is very comfortable, offers a modicum of passive suspension and I have no trace of any bum-numbing going on. Don't get me wrong, you feel the bumps, but no more so than on the Tour Easy, perhaps even a little less.

GEARING and the SCHLUMPH MOUNTAIN DRIVE ... I have a single 65-T TA crank in front, with a Schlumph Mountain Drive, and an 11x34 cluster in the back with a single Dura Ace barcon bar end shifter to handle the rear shifting chores. Mine is an 18 gear setup. I really like the simplified drive train, with no front derailleur. I have had a bit of a learning curve getting used to the mountain drive, but I’m doing quite well with it now. My trike has a higher gear than I can sustain on level ground (122) and such a low gear (15) that, if I don't care how slow I am going, it seems I can climb walls! So I am quite pleased to say that my bike shop and I did a great job of getting the gearing right!

HILLS - The Trike is faster on down hills than my TE, more stable, safer and offers more control, BUT, it loses momentum sooner on climbs, so I climb slower. However, I find that I climb EASIER, because I can use much lower gears and I do not waste energy fighting for my balance. This means that, on the killer hills and grades, once I get to the top of the hill I am not as spent as I was on my TE and my knees aren't as sore. Also, with the low gears I have, there is no hill I cannot climb. It may take me a while, sometimes at 2-4 mph, but I can get there.

I had issues with this very situation on our last tour, specifically when we faced long climbs with traffic present ... When I was forced to go slow - (3-4 mph) - on the TE, I had many a tense moment as I fought for balance and worried about falling into a traffic lane. Going 2-3 mph on a LWB bent, with the wind trying to knock you down and cars flying by, well, this can put you a bit on edge! This was a major concern when our bikes were fully loaded for touring! Too many times, to my consternation, I ended up walking my bike up a long hill while my wife passed me, whistling and pedaling along on her trike, la-dee-dah-thank-you-very-much!

Now that I have a trike, this is a non- issue. When faced with a long climb in traffic, I no longer concern myself with having to hold a line and I never have to walk up a hill, so as far as I am concerned, I have IMPROVED on the hills with a trike! But then again, I was and never will be a gifted climber. The point is, again, under my real-world conditions, this is a GOOD thing!

TURNS – My TE was faster in turns because I could lean the bike over, whereas the trike cannot lean. This causes wheel scrub on the trike, which translates into some momentum loss in the turns. However ... get this ... real world conditions again ... most of the time I take turns faster on the trike that I ever could on the TE! This is because road conditions do not play nearly as significant a role as they did on the TE!

See, even though I COULD be faster in the turns on my TE, I often elected not to be. Now, mind you, on a familiar course, with a good road, no traffic, no kids running around, etc., I could lean that TE over so far, you wouldn't believe, and I could take turns at amazing speeds. However, most times I don't get to have these ideal conditions. Often, you just don't know what's around that next turn ... could be a wrong-way cyclist (we have lots of them!), a car, little kid, skateboarder, oil, gravel, a jogger, who knows? I can turn faster now because if I need to slam on the brakes, I won't crash because I'm not leaning over! Faster turn, no stress ..... aaahhhhhhhhh!

BRAKES - The Sturmy Archer drum brakes are better than any other brakes I have ever had. Since I live in a relatively flat area of the US, disk brakes seemed like overkill.

TIRES - I am currently running 3 Tioga Comp Pool 120 PSI 406x1.75 tires. They are fast and tough, but I think I will be changing over to Schwalbe 100 PSI 406x1.5 Marathons. Reason is, the 1.75's push the clearance limits of fenders and drive train and it's too close a shave for me. The fenders barely clear and the chain tube brushes against the rear tire when in first gear. Simplest solution is to go a little thinner on the tires. The Schwalbe's are said to be puncture resistant, tough and fast so I don't think I'll be giving up much. I will switch out the rear tire only for this season and if it performs well I will switch all 3 over the winter.

TRAFFIC SAFETY - What a non-issue this is! I consider myself safer in traffic on my trike than on any other cycle! (Yikes, watch me get smacked by a semi truck now, for saying that! HAHAHA!) People obviously notice me sooner when I am on my trike. They also give me more room and are more courteous too. My wife and I think this is because most folks think we are handicapped or something ... we really don't care, but the fact is, we get a more positive response from traffic now than ever before. I take the usual precautions and try to avoid blind spots. I suppose, ultimately, in seriously heavy traffic, we would be less visible, but, heck, we avoid that kind of situation 99.9 percent of the time anyway, always electing to take alternate roads, and, in extreme situations, sidewalks or off road! So, while traffic is always a major concern to us, this is not any bigger an issue than it was when we rode any other kinds of cycles..

I must say, sadly, that we have curtailed a few of our old cycling routes due to increased traffic in our area, but this has nothing to do with the trikes. And the good news is, more and more bike trails are being built around here and we make sure to find new, lesser trafficked roads to travel, so it works out.

CONCLUSION - If you want to go as fast as you can, this is not the right cycle for you. If speed is your issue get the Micro or a TE or a GRR! That aside, my Explorer trike is all that I had hoped it would be. It is stable at speed and on the road I am stress free. It's the most comfortable bike/trike I've ever ridden, and it's overall performance pleases me more than any other cycle I have owned. It is a solid, beautifully crafted ergonomic wonder, a true piece of functional art and I can tour with it anywhere I want to go. There is no perfect cycle, one that has every possible attribute and no faults ... but my Trice Explorer comes very close! This is the only machine that could have made me give up my beloved TE.