Hui-chen and I went to the TW-Bents warehouse last Friday, and we met with Walter and Kevin. They had some new stuff to show us.
The main star of the day is this new trike. It’s a giant of a trike, built for larger, heavier riders. The main feature of this trike (besides it’s size) is the material it’s constructed of. This is an all-aluminum trike, and it is very light weight for it’s size.
Look how massive the boom is! Take a look at the BB to get an idea of just how big the tubes are. The wall thickness of the tubes is 2.5mm.
This shot shows one of the rear dropouts. Look how massive the rear triangle members are. This is one monster trike!
Shot from the front of the trike.
This cockpit shot shows how massive the tubes are. Don’t be fooled by the perspective though, as this trike is also considerably wider than any other trike they make. The seat is the same as the Artifice, so that should put it all into perspective for you.
You may want to view these photos in the large size. Clicking on any one of the photos will take you to the Flickr page where you many view the alternate sizes.
This is the junction of the boom and the main cross member. Look at the beautiful welding!
This bracket is massive! I know I keep using that word, but nothing else adequately describes this trike and it’s components!
Closeup of the rear triangle joint. Notice that this is not a folding trike. This trike was built for stability and it does not flex!
This is Walter on the trike. Please note that Walter is over 6 feet in height. I saw Walter take this trike on a test ride. He purposefully took very hard turns, where the front tires were drifting. Due to the wide track and excellent geometry of this trike, the front wheels did not come off the ground.
This trike will not be shown at the Taipei Cycle Show coming up soon. However, the following item will be shown:
This is a beautiful recumbent tandem. A full sized seat with a back will be used on the rear position (captain). The bike features dual drive, and a set of frame couplings that can be opened to shorten the frame for transportation. This beauty will be shown at the Taipei Cycle Show!
Former field engineer MJ Klein now lives in Taiwan, and writes articles that primarily feature photographs of travels of MJ and wife Hui-chen, plus daily goings on in the bustling island nation of Taiwan, and other places in Asia. Articles feature people, culture, food, situations and sometimes the trials and tribulations of traveling in places such as China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Laos and of course Taiwan.
