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Dimanche, 21 septembre 2008

Recumbent Trike

Traduction: [ Google | Babelfish ]

Catégories : [ Bricolage ]

Gasoline is expensive, at a current price of about 1.50 EUR/L it costs me currently 950 EUR/year. Especially now that I live closer to work, the consumption is higher because the trip is so short.

The previous plan was to get an electric car, but it would cost a lot and need to keep the old car for longer trips (for example I wouldn't trust the e-car to take us to Tampere, wait 4 weeks on the airport's long-term parking lot and drive us back home). That means more insurance costs, parking space worries and so on.

The current plan is to build a recumbent trike based on one (or two?) old (or new) bycicles. Ready-made devices cost about 2,500 EUR (with one exception at 900 EUR, that's suspicious), home-made may take years to build (I have to learn welding first, but Reijo would probably be happy to teach me) but it may cost less than 500 EUR. Such a trike would be perfect for going to work daily, although coming back from work maybe difficult without electrical assistance (the hill back home is definitely steep).

Another requirement would be to have a protection from rain and snow, and ready-made such trikes cost 4500 EUR (5500 EUR with electrical assistance, that's over 5 years of gasoline at current rate). I have no idea how to build a hull for a trike (most people building trikes seem to live in countries where snow and cold is something that happens to other people). Also, it needs to support an extra seat for a child (this one could be mounted over the back wheel, but getting it below the hull will be difficult.

[ Posté le 21 septembre 2008 à 19:03 | pas de commentaire | ]