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The benefits of using a recumbent trike are endless. Baby boomers suffering from physical ailments, riders looking for a new hobby or speed junkies who just want to go faster all gravitate toward the burgeoning market of recumbent vehicles. Perfect for zooming down mountain roads, traveling across paved trails, racing against other enthusiasts or just zipping around town, recumbent vehicles are built for speed and comfort.  Tired joints and restless knees can experience all of the perks of riding – and then some – without any of the painful aftermath. Recumbent bicycles and tricycles are a perfect remedy for avid riders who have neck and back injuries or other ailments that make riding an upright bicycle difficult. The ergonomic features of a recumbent tricycle offer all of the comfort of a recumbent bicycle on three wheels instead of two. The laid back position of a rider helps to evenly distribute weight, relieving target areas of common discomfort associated with riding a traditional bicycle. Additionally, this laid back position creates an aerodynamic line that increases speed without risking safety while the tricycle’s third wheel offers stability and ease of use. For those who crave speed, a recumbent ride reduces wind resistance allowing riders to go faster than ever before. In fact, the advanced speed led to the banning of recumbent trikes by Union Cycliste Internationale in 1934. Trikes offer a convenient, environmentally friendly alternative to driving around town in a standard four-wheel vehicle. Save on gas and get a workout by taking your trike to the grocery store, the movie theater or out to lunch. Cargo add-ons are available to make lugging groceries and other goods easier, while various clips and hooks make storing and toting your recumbent vehicle simple. Learn more about recumbent tricycles by stopping in to Laid Back Cycles at 3808 Auburn Blvd., Suite 54, Sacramento, CA 95821. Experienced sales associates can help you choose the right trike for you and answer questions about the wide selection of recumbent trikes on the market today.

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We offer “How To Work On Your Trike” workshops every other month. Our next workshop is in August, so check back for more details!

By Tony BizjakThe Sacramento BeePosted on July 14, 2013 Sacramento-Area Bike Shops Peddle Recumbent Tricycles To Aging Pedalers Tricycles are for tots, right? Fair Oaks businessman Mickey O’Brien is betting that’s not the case. If you’re a baby boomer with health issues, O’Brien predicts that your three-wheeling days may soon return. O’Brien opened Laid Back Cycles in Fair Oaks, Sacramento a year and a half ago to catch a ride on what he sees as an upcoming trend: more boomers buying recumbent tricycles when their backs, shoulders or wrists can no longer handle the stress or balancing requirements of upright road bikes. Priced from $1,000 to $5,000, the tricked-out trikes – with attachments for mirrors, smartphones and cameras – are a niche product in a market dominated by mountain bikes, road bikes and urban cruisers. Two- and three-wheel recumbents account for only about 2 percent of national bike sales, according to National Bicycle Dealers Association data. But O’Brien, who started triking three years ago because of a sore back, said the market is already growing as the population ages and people with physical limitations look for new ways to exercise. Many trike sales are not counted in the national data because manufacturers don’t publicize numbers. O’Brien is not the only shop owner making a bet on trikes. Gold Country Cyclery in Cameron Park and AlphaBent in Sacramento also focus on trikes and other recumbents. Trike customers are often distinctive. Standing in his store on Sunset Avenue last week, O’Brien showed off a photo scrapbook of trikers he says inspire him: One has polio, another cerebral palsy. One suffers from obstructive lung disease. One is recovering from a stroke. Another has her entire spine fused. One, whose leg is so damaged he has trouble standing, told O’Brien his trike helps him pedal his depression away. “We are giving people their freedom back,” O’Brien said. O’Brien did not cite sales numbers, but said his business is strong. He recently opened a second shop in Fairfield to tap what he sees as the underserved Bay Area market. He and a trike manufacturer are leasing a booth at the California State Fair this month to get the word out, and O’Brien has begun leading recumbent group rides on the American River Parkway trail. “People don’t even know what these bikes are called,” he said. “It is really about getting the word out there’s a better way to ride. Your back, your butt, your knees won’t be sore.” Trike riders say they love the feel of gliding along without having to worry about balancing or holding their neck in an awkward position. Hugh Kern, owner of the AlphaBent shop in Sacramento, said the low-slung three-wheelers with tilted back rests are simple to learn to ride. “Trikes are like plug-and-play.” Matt Morbeck, 32, of Sacramento rides a trike since a car crash left him with a herniated disc in his neck and nerve damage in his shoulder. “It is like being a kid all over again,” he said. “I get all happy and excited.” Bruce Thompson, 67, of Citrus Heights, a longtime road bike rider, recently made the switch. Thompson bought a $2,600 trike after a knee replacement surgery persuaded him his upright, two-wheeling days are over. “My physician said if you (crash) on an upright bike with an artificial knee, it can be pretty serious,” Thompson said. Some cycling industry experts say they are skeptical that trikes or other recumbents will ever rise beyond niche standing. Marc Sani, publisher of Bicycle Retailer and Industry News, said his gut feeling is that most boomers who have been riding upright bikes will stick to their two-wheelers to the “bitter end.” Sani’s brother rides a recumbent and a friend took to triking after a stroke, but Sani points out that trikes are expensive enough to make people think before buying. They typically cost at least $1,000 and often much more. Some cyclists say they aren’t attracted to recumbents because they aren’t as cool-looking as road bikes or cruisers. And some riders express concerns about the potential safety risk of trikes’ low profile on the street among cars. Bike industry consultant Jay Townley is more positive about the sales growth potential. Trikes could get a boost, he said, from what he calls “latent” riders, older people who haven’t ridden a bike since they were kids, but who are looking for a comfortable way to get out and exercise. He noted that trike manufacturers design their adjustable seats similar to lawn chairs. “How did they arrive at that? People who haven’t ridden before are looking for comfort,” he said. “A lawn chair is what they are used to.” Jeff Yonker, head of marketing for the TerraTrike brand, said his company doesn’t focus marketing on existing cyclists. Instead, it pitches its product to a larger audience as a healthy lifestyle purchase. “Our customers would not be caught dead in spandex,” Yonder said. “We don’t show that in (advertising) photographs.” Yonker said O’Brien of Laid Back Cycles understands that, and his shop has quickly become one of TerraTrike’s top-selling outlets. Thompson of Citrus Heights, who has a black brace on one knee, is among trikers who don’t care about looking like a Tour de France rider. “I love to exercise, I like biking, I tried these, and I’m telling you, I love it,” he said. He has two safety flags on his trike that make the low-to-the-ground cycle easier for car drivers to see. He said he hasn’t had any close calls yet, but he makes a point of riding as far as he can to the right side of the road. O’Brien said his recent move into trike sales stems from a lifelong enjoyment of cycling. As a kid, he painted “The Bike Shop” on the family’s backyard shed, where he took bikes apart and put them back together. Later, he ran a bike shop in Folsom. A few weeks ago, he tried out an upright bike again after lending out his trike. Nope, he decided. “Once you ride a trike,” he said, “you’ll never go back to a bike.”

TerraTrike announces the beginning of it’s annual “Bag and Flag” holiday promotion. From now through January 1st, any customer who purchases a new TerraTrike either directly through the company or from one of their dealers will receive a free TerraTrike seat bag and safety flag: a $70 retail value. In order to participate in the promotion, customers must send in a copy of their registration card along with a receipt showing where the trike was purchased to the TerraTrike corporate office. Once verified, the accessories be mailed to them free of charge. Customers ordering direct from the company will have their bag and flag included with their trike delivery.   “We have 5 different models that fit any type of riding, the most comfortable fully adjustable seat in the market, a lifetime warranty on the frames with prices starting at $699,” says Director of Marketing Jeff Yonker. “A TerraTrike makes the perfect gift for a loved one who is looking to get out and get active, so take advantage of this great deal for the holidays!” said Yonker. Your Sacramento Valley and Bay Area Recumbent Tricycle Dealer

Why Recumbent Trikes Are Becoming So Popular? Top 10 Reasons Making The Recumbent Trikes Popular Across The World Trikes combine the comfort, efficiency and stability. Recumbent trikes meets the needs of recreational riders wanting to ride in comfort, high performance for the enthusiasts, and is perfect for many riders with special needs. There is no learning curve on a trike, just sit down in the laid back seat, pedal and ride. No longer do people with balance problems have to settle for heavy, slow trikes that aren’t much good for anything but an occasional ride around the block. If you are looking for fun, adventure, getting fit and better health, then a trike can provide all of those, it’s just missing you. Advantages to hill climbing with a recumbent trike are: you can take it slow and easy without worrying about falling over. On a trike, you can use lower gears and go as slow as you like with complete stability. It’s easy to maintain control on soft, mushy shoulders due to the stability of three wheels. Recumbent tadpole tricycles such as Greenspeed and TerraTrike are aerodynamic, light and offer a full range of gearing. Transporting trikes is becoming easier with folding trikes and with more carrier options coming available as trikes are becoming more popular. You can also find a full line of accessories for trikes such as bags, mirrors, computers, lights, safety flags, fenders and more. These new generation of trikes are cool to ride! When people ride them for the first time it’s inevitably a big grin begins to form. The first thing to do when looking for a trike is to find a local dealer that offers the best recumbent trikes. I recommend either Greenspeed – the god-father of recumbent trikes, or TerraTrike – the dominant driving force in the modern day trike.

By Bryan J. BallManaging Editor – BentriderOnline.comPosted on March 21, 2012 About this time last year, TerraTrike’s model line-up was approximately as long and confusing as a Leonardo DiCaprio film. There was the Rover, Rambler, Path, Cruiser, Tour, Zoomer and Tandem. To make matters even more complicated, most of those models were available in several different trim levels. This was all fine and good when TerraTrike was a smaller manufacturer, but now that they’ve grown into the largest recumbent company in the country, something had to change. The Path, Cruiser and Tour all used pretty much the same frame so combining those three lines into one seemed like a pretty logical step. That basic design has been around for a decade and a half so it also seemed like a smart to make a few updates. And thus was born the Tour II. The Tour II’s frame shares the same frame geometry as the outgoing Path/Cruiser/Tour models. However, some bits of the steering linkage have been changed to improve the trike’s turning radius. It’s still made of chromoly steel and has the same mesh seat that comes on all TerraTrike models. When I heard that this project was coming, I expected that TerraTrike would go with a sliding boom but they chose to remain with the current three-size system. However, they did make one major change in the area of size adjustment. The new sliding seat mount is infinitely easier to use than the old bolt-through-the-hole seat mount. It also allows much more fine adjustment. The old Tour was one of the most difficult trikes to adjust on the shop floor. The Tour II is now one of the easiest. In order to cover all of the pricepoints that were occupied by the Path/Cruiser/Tour trio, the Tour II comes in three different specs starting with a $1399 8-speed model and culminating in the $2399 blinged out Pro Model. I chose the $1599 Base Model for this test. Last year this would have been a Cruiser which has always been one of my favorite TerraTrikes. Since the Tour II comes with such a wide range of component choices, I won’t get into every little detail here but I will say that the Base Model’s 24-speed MicroShift drivetrain and Bengal disc brakes all worked without issue. You don’t see a lot of MicroShift components out there but they all seem to work great. Other than the shifter action being a bit on the heavy side, it all felt just as nice as anything from SRAM or Shimano. My only real gripe with the components is the same one I’ve had with TerraTrike for a long time now. I just don’t see why they continue to insist on putting 40 psi tires on most of their trikes. I also ordered our test trike with the optional 26” rear wheel extension kit. I’ll start this review with the more common 20” stock wheel set-up and then review the 26” version at the end. When you order a trike direct from TerraTrike it arrives fully assembled. All I had to do was cut open the box, lift it out and ride away. Everything on the trike was perfectly adjusted. It couldn’t be easier and the shipping isn’t even that expensive. The Tour II comes in a bright yellow color that is quite eye catching and really seems to fit the trike well. It also comes with three different colored sticker kits. Silver, Blue and Brown. This is something that TerraTrike is doing on a lot of their trikes now. It’s cool in that it allows owners to personalize their machines a bit. However, I really wish that the Tour II came with black stickers to match the ones that are already on the trike. I’ve always thought that this particular family of TerraTrikes were very comfortable. The Tour II is no exception. The seat adjusts to a wide variety of angles, is plenty wide enough for most body types and breaths very well. The frame is compliant enough to soak up most smaller bumps without rattling your teeth and the controls all fall readily to hand. As I mentioned above, TerraTrike made a change to the Tour II’s steering linkage to allow a tighter turning radius. This was a much needed improvement. The Tour II still doesn’t exactly turn on a dime but it’s now much more in line with those of the competition. The steering feels a bit lighter overall but the change didn’t seem to effect the high speed handling at all. The Tour II is a very easy trike to handle up to about 25 mph or so but does require your full attention over 35 mph. The Tour II isn’t marketed as a performance trike. It says “Tour” right in the name, but I found its speed potential perfectly acceptable in my day-to-day usage. The Tour II does have a lot of idlers and I’m sure there’s some loss in driveline efficiency but everything runs smoothly and relatively quietly. TerraTrike does offer a full line of accessories to go with the Tour II. You can order racks, fenders, seat bags, panniers, flags and a host of other goodies right from the company. Since this frame design has been around for so long, there are also a slew of aftermarket upgrades available. So is this old bird totally modernized? Not completely. There’s still a bit more brakesteer than you find in some trikes and there are still a lot of chain idlers. But the Tour II is definitely a much more viable contender than it was last year, especially when you look at the prices of the lower end versions. It’s not easy to get a high-end 24-speed trike at this price. You also can’t find a company with better customer service reviews than TerraTrike. The Tour II is also a stout, well crafted platform that’s well worth upgrading later on if you so choose. TOUR II 26 As I said before, I also asked TerraTrike to send me the 26” wheel upgrade for our test trike. Installation was shockingly simple. TerraTrike even provided a pre-cut length of change that was the perfect size to make up for the trike’s additional length. The whole process took less than half an hour. I reviewed the old Tour with the 26” kit a couple of years ago and liked it a lot more than the standard 20” trike. The effect on the Tour II was pretty much the same. I really feel that it makes a good trike even better. It’s rolls faster, is more stable at speed and (in my opinion) looks better than the stock version. You do lose a few gear inches on the low end, but that’s a small price to pay. The Tour II 26 isn’t exactly a wedgie-hunter when it comes to performance but it’s pretty quick for a trike. It definitely was fast enough to make me one of the more rapidly moving entities on the bike path. It also makes the Tour II a bit more comfortable on rougher roads. Bumps that made me wince with the 20” wheel were much less spectacular with the 26”. The only downside I found was that if you use the 26” rear wheel, lay the seat all the way back and put too much stuff in the seat bag, it may rub a bit. The price of this substantial upgrade is between $145 and $214 depending on which model of Tour II you have. Unless you really need the lower gear inches of the 20” wheel, I’d say that this upgrade is a no-brainer.

Jim and his lovely wife Dana bought (2) TerraTrike Ramblers from Laid Back Cycles and loves riding them. They have ridden them on the American River Bike Trail and with friends that met at Laid Back Cycles. If you also want to be a part of a great community and have a fit for life lifestyle join LaidBackCycles Facebook page or visit LBC to take a test ride on a new recumbent trike.     Laid Back Cycles is your Sacramento Valley and Bay Area recumbent trike adult tricycle dealer.