Electric Trike, The Method

Sports
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I’m not sure this is the right place for this because I bought my electric trike a couple of years ago not for sport but for insurance against being marooned far from shops if the car was off the road and also for daily exercise.

However, I am learning a bit more each day about the best method of using the 5 levels of electric assistance in conjunction with the 7 derailleur gears.

So far pretty straight forward. Level 5/gear 1 for the 2 10% hills (we are in between the 2 of them). Level 4/gear 4 for the long pull up the back lane, about 500 metres. If up the 2 hills and down the long one, I arrive at the turn into our drive naturally in L5/G1, no other way of doing it because of the 10% climb. . But if I go the other way round I arrive at the top of all of them to turn into the descent of the top hill in L4/G7, because there is a levelling off before I get there. But I then have to keep pedalling in order to change the gears all the way down from 7 to 1, and up the level from 4 to 5 to give me the best chance of getting into our drive without mishap (had a couple of those). It is tricky, cutting across the downslope on the loose and rocky surface.

There is only one line to take and that means it is essential to maintain weight on the front (electric) wheel while at the same time weight outboard to counteract the slope. This means leaning forward to the right with my chin outside and in front of the handlebar grip. Normally the front wheel does lose some grip and skids sideways but I must keep going, to stop is to fall off.

Today I turned in from the down slope headed for the only line, thought I had lost power in my legs but pressed on and arrived safely through the gate. Couldn’t understand it till I closed the gate behind me and remounted the trike to take it back to the shed. To my amazement it was in L4, not 5. Then I began to think about it, pretty chuffed at the achievement and suddenly realised that the front wheel hadn’t skidded sideways on the slope but maintained the line.

So that’s it. I can obviously manage with L4, even though there is a large gap between 4 and 5, but by using 5 up till now I had been putting too much power into that front wheel thus inducing the loss of traction. I should have known before because in the car the only way is to hold the throttle steady half way otherwise the front, driven, wheels lose grip.

Sorry if all the above seems to be gobbledygook, so if you haven’t understood it, suffice to say that power, like size, isn’t everything. :rofl:

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I’m happy you’ve found a safer way to take that corner! You worry me with your crashes!

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Indeed, the secret is not to exceed the ‘slip angle’ of the tyre on the driven wheel. Get some low profile soft compound tyres and you’ll be going everywhere at break neck speed.
Sounds like there is scope for some real fun experimentation, provided that you have a good Mutuelle of course. :slight_smile:

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Or perhaps simply let some air out of the front tyre? :grinning:

Incidentally when I got it, and for some time after, before I got the hang, I had a 5 litre cubitainer filled with water of course, in the rear panier over the driven (by the pedals) wheel and a similar one in the front panier. The extra 10 kgs of weight must have strengthened my legs a bit. :joy:

BTW @Robert_Hodge the mutuelle is more likely to be called upon during the 35 km/hr freewheel down the long back lane. It feels much faster. I really miss the engine braking available to car, and especially lorry, drivers having availed myself of that for so many decades. But here I am at the mercy of the brakes and use them sparingly, hence the speed. Incidentally, an interesting point for discussion, do I preserve the brakes more by allowing speed to build up with short bursts of relatively hard braking, or ride them all the way down?

I once in my lorry followed a French lorry down the long winding descent from Mont Blanc with him trailing clouds of smoke from his trailer wheels. I shouted to him on the CB that he was on fire, and the terrified response was ‘je sais, je sais!’. But he got down safely and after we parked at Cluses for the customs he stood white and shaken by the almost glowing wheels. Unlike me, he had no engine brake on his wagon, so I think on balance short and hard is better than long and light. :wink: :smiley:

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Your braking technique depends entirely on what brake design and materials your trike has.

If it’s the traditional rubber blocks being pressed against the metal wheel rims, short bursts of progressive breaking are your friend. Motorcycle style brakes with metal rotors can cope with sustained breaking as they have better means to transmit the heat away.

  1. Start gently, then squeeze that brake lever like it owes you money and then release pressure gradually.

  2. Brake in a straight line.

  3. Keep your weight over the axle doing the braking.

  4. Wear a helmet, wear gloves and remember how long it takes even a minor cut to heal these days.

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Not rubber, they are definitely disc brakes, but I can feel it after a few weeks or more that the levers travel more than before, so there is gradual wearing the way I do it.

  1. That is the way I do it and it brings the speed down by 5 to 7 kp/hr.

  2. Definitely in a straight line, or as straight as possible on the slight curve of the road.

  3. My weight is evenly distributed at all times except when cornering, but I always use both brakes at the same time. At the bottom of the long hill I have a fairly tight sweep left to the bottom of the lower 10%er. At this point I lean out far to the left and release the brakes. Sadly I get no benefit of the descent in starting the climb because my wheels have to cross 3 strips of loose gravel before attaining the relatively firm tarmac where car wheels have worn it away.

  4. No no no, if I was that stressed about injury I would have to wear leathers too, or at the very least knee pads. :astonished: :rofl: But there is always a bottle of Betadine waiting at home. :joy:

Update: Approached from the lower hill, thus left into the drive today, and swiftly dropped from L5 to 4 as I turned in. Again the extra effort was required but again, no loss of traction and thus no side skidding. So it does work. :joy:

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Yesterday afternoon I went up the top 10%er to the T to turn left down the long drag back lane. Paused a little to give way to a bicyclist (as opposed to a tricyclist) from my right and swung in behind him after a quick ‘bonjour’, peddling fast on the almost level bit in order to get right down to G1 ready for the climb at the bottom.

Now I thought I go down that hill pretty fast but he was rapidly disappearing out of sight round the bend and when I got my first view of the bottom, no sign of him at all. :astonished:
Mind you, he was wearing a hat and some streamlined dodads, so my flapping shorts and shirt must have slowed me down a lot. :rofl:

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That is the picture I have David :rofl:
Would it be safer for you if you have concrete laid on the gravelly area ?

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Whether you mean the loose rock on the drive or the loose gravel on the lane (everywhere car wheels do not scatter it), in both cases not my land.

Some years ago the commune tarmaced a short stretch (about 2 metres) from the lane towards our gate when they built up the parking area for the neighbours (their house is rented from the commune) and I approached the Maire to ask if they could extend the work because of our problems getting in and out and offered to pay for part of the work, but the idea was rejected.

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How things have moved on, I don’t brake at all down that long curve now, not until 50 metres from the sharp turn into the 10% climb. Then I brake hard for a few seconds while getting my lean out stance in good working order. As a result 35 is long gone, max so far now is 44km/hr. :rofl:

I have never been turned on by speed, whether on moto, in car or lorry, but the rush through the wind down there is really exhilarating. :joy:

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