I Would Like to Introduce You to My New Friend - "Red"

My trike "Nitro" has introduced me to a new friend. His friend's name is "Red" and "Red" is a Catrike Model 700. Red and I rode together for the first time this past weekend down in Bethany Beach, DE where Spencer and I were visiting my Dad over the weekend. We rode a course very much like the one we will ride in the Seagull Century. I must tell you, Red and I liked each other at first sight.

Red is a bit scary, though. Red is faster, lower, and more of a challenge to ride than Nitro. That's because Red has a regular 29" bike wheel on the back, and two 16" wheels on the front. He looks like a trike version of a hot rod. All of the tires are skinny like road bike tires. Red's seat is set at a 27 degree angle, which is much flatter than Nitro's (which is set at 50 degrees). Getting a good view of the road is a bit more of a challenge. There is 2 1/2 inches of clearance between my bottom and the road when I am in the seat. The Catrike website says that Red is "...arguably the fastest trike in the world." And yes, Red is red.

In the heat last Saturday, I averaged 12.9 mph riding Red and I know I could have averaged 13 mph if I had focused on that average as a goal earlier in our ride. Compared to what a rider can do on a regular bike, 12.9 mph is slow. But, for me, that's an increase of about 2 mph in average compared to my average on Nitro.

Never anywhere in my mind did I think I would ever be riding anything ever again. Now, during my subway rides home from work, I catch myself thinking about how to get that average mph up a couple of more tenths of a mile. Hmmmmmmm.

Thanks for the introduction Nitro. I'd like to get to know our friend much better. I'll keep you posted on how this works out.