It was one of our earliest thoughts
to do the ride on a three person bike. Unsure whether such things existed,
it took us some time to locate a suitable machine. This may have been
due to the combined obstacle of searching for it under the wrong name
(we guessed "trident"), and there apparently only being one
available for hire in the country! We were finally put in the right
direction, and quickly secured the hire of this bizarre bicycle. The
principal of basic cycle design means that you could keep adding seats
indefinitely, each with their double triangle section of frame.
Unfortunately, to steer you can only really have two wheels, so you have to stop before too much frame is suspended between the wheels, and the whole thing snaps. The upshot is that the machine has a wheelbase (distance from front to rear wheel) of over ten feet, making it about as maneuverable as a grand piano, and probably as heavy. Unpeturbed, we have reasoned that with three legs peddling we should vastly increase our power, since the air resistance is the same as for a single bike (amazingly, aerodynamic drag is the greatest obstacle to speed on a bicycle). Whether this is standard tandem enthusiast myth remains to be seen - we may yet be discovered peddling wearily into the night as we vastly overestimate our pace (rest assured, though, that we will definitely get there!). It is largely because of the triplet
that we have managed to enlist a |
