Thursday, August 25, 2016

Catrike Road

Funny story,  I saw a great deal on a Catrike Expedition on a local ads site.  I went and bought it and when I got home I realized it was actually a Catrike Road.  Oh well, it should still be an awesome bike.  I'll have to get used to the lower ride and it seems a little bumpier over bumps than my Sunseeker ecotad, but we'll see how it goes.

Here she is:

Here is my comparison of the sunseeker eco tad sx and this catrike road.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi RC,

I ended up ordering a Sun Seeker Eco Tad SX in large part due to your review. (As you say, there aren't many reviews for it out there, so thanks much for yours!) I had test-riden a Terratrike Rover and didn't totally like the way it handled, and was thinking about getting a Trident, but good luck actually finding one, so I decided to get the Eco Tad instead.

The Eco Tad is a super-fun trike. I really like it. The steering is a little twitchy, and it seems like pedaling hard, braking, uneven ground, squirrels--anything--can "steer" it. But after a couple of long rides, I'm getting used to that, and otherwise find riding it to be a complete joy. It is so comfortable, and seems just effortless to pedal. Even going up hills is not so bad. I used to have a Rans Tailwind long-wheelbase recumbent, and loved many things about it, but spinning it up hills was not one of them.

I ordered my trike from industrialbicycles.com. They're sort of "local" to me so I wanted to support them, and the shipping was a little cheaper than from utahtrikes.com, but I really regret buying from them.

They were happy to take my money, but it took repeated calls to finally get someone to go check their warehouse for stock (only one left) and move it to the prep area. The person who finally helped was actually a mechanic who was standing in for the (unfriendly and unhelpful) sales people. He promised to get the trike out the door within a couple of days, and he did. The trike arrived in a giant box, in pristine condition.

However, the trike was "completely assembled" in the sense that they bolted all the parts on the bike, but didn't tighten anything down, didn't adjust the seat, boom, or chain to my x-seam, didn't adjust the derailleur, nothing. Well, they did put the handlebars on and ran the chain through the guide tubes (but didn't add a master link, d'oh).

I ended up digging out my old chain breaker and master links to adjust the chain length myself, set up the derailleur, adjusted everything and tightened it all down, all that stuff. I would guess that if I didn't DIY it, it would have been a $100 trip to the local bike store to get it completely set up.

Icing on the cake is that I ordered a bell and flag with the trike, which they forgot to install or ship. Then when I asked IB to ship them, they told me they did and gave me a tracking number, but the post office says they haven't received the package yet.

I honestly wonder how they manage to stay in business. You bought from the right place.

Anyway, thanks again for the review and continuing adventures! And have fun with your new Catrike! What will you do with the Sunseeker?

rcstanley said...

Glad to hear you're enjoying your trike. Sorry to hear your buying experience wasn't better.

As for the sunseeker eco tad, I'm keeping it for now. I bought a trike hanger from terra trike and put the eco tad on it, so it doesn't take up as much room.

It's great having two trikes. My husband is a much faster rider than I am. If he rides the eco tad and I ride the catrike, we're much more evenly matched in speed.

The sunseeker is a great trike if someone else wants to ride it, so easy to adjust for height. I can ride with my husband one day and my twelve year old son the next. The catrike just isn't easy to adjust.