500km On My New Greenspeed GT20

I've clocked a little more than 500 clicks on the new trike, actually and, while I still feel like the mid-drive doesn't help as much as my hub motor helped on the tourer, it is certainly more battery efficient and is still a measurable boost over riding unassisted. I still feel I need the seat a tad more reclined but, where the battery is mounted, under the seat, this restricts using the seat's full reclining range. I could go one more of the 6 remaining notches on the seat recline, but a bad bump might flex the seat into the battery and I actually feel like I need 2 lower more of the 6 available notches to prevent slipping forwards on the seat, especially downhill. That position isn't possible at all where the battery is. So I need to consider moving the battery onto the top of the pannier rack.

A portraight of the writer 3 months ago, on test ride day.

Having the battery bracket outboard-left of the frame and below the seat also puts it in the line of puddle splashes and mud, even with a mudguard so, while minor, there's an electrical shorting risk in having the battery there. As I've opined before, I'm the heaviest thing on the trike, so raising the height of the battery by 15 to 20cm won't much effect handling, while lowering my 71kg another 3cm will improve my overall mass distribution. So, to that end, I've just bought my first ever thing on Ali Express, a battery mounting bar that can be clamped to my standard pannier rack, designed specifically for my slot-and-lock style of Cap Rouge battery bracket.

I'll also be replacing the standard Greenspeed pannier rack with a taller one to keep my right pannier off the deraillier without having to ziptie a pipe bracket onto the bottom of the rack to step the pannier out 2cm on the right side.

Hover, despite all of these niggling annoyances that would have had me tearing a bike down in frustration to completely rebuild it, I'm still super happy with the GT30! This is rare for me. No bike I've ever bought has avoided modification. I've always had to "grow into" a bike, compromising on features at purchase, modifying payday to payday, until the ride was exactly what I wanted. Pretty much everything on the GT20 is spot on, bar the rack rail height and the battery position, and the latter is being fixed for less than AU$5, thanks to a hard rubbish rack resto and an Ali Express aluminium bracket plus a bit of ofcut aluminium flatbar.

Still regarding "Greenie", the GT20, I had a funny experience on Wednesday just gone. I was riding a cycle route and rang my bell to warn a pedestrian I was about to overtake. Clearly a bike-friendly young bloke, he stepped briefly off the path, thanked me for warning him and, as I took the next corner, he called out praise for my "drifting skills." I chuckled, shouted my thanks, adding, "No skills necessary, this things a drift monster! So much fun!" And, of course, it totally is. It's something I don't understand about the handling. My centre-of-mass is directly over true centre point bettween the three wheels. It's absolutely perfect weight distribution, yet the back wheel happily keeps a little momentum before shouting to the front wheels, "Oh yes! You guys are going that way, I'd better join you!" It's kind of hard to be crabby at a machine for the sort of quibbles every ride has brought me, when the handling feels like a redlined supercar and the effort required to overcome a headwind is less than half that of an upright.

A little over 2 months of riding this machine, including a 40km ride from Woodend to Sunbury, uphill, and many 25 to 30 kilometre rides within Melbourne, have put all potential buys remores aside forever. The energy used to weight shift for stable cornering of this trike is less than the energy required to balance a bicycle. The pedal force is about the same, despite the extra wheel and a fraction more weight. Climbing isn't any different, despite what people warn about recumbents on hills, maybe that's the electric assist, maybe I've just always been a hill grinder, rather than a gear spinner. I really should have spent the money on one of these decades ago, when Ian Sims was still alive, rather than the tragic collection of crappy cars that I never really wanted and almost never used if I could cycle instead.

Don't doubt the usefulness. Don't doubt the cost/value factor. If you're reading this, to this paragraph, you know you want one. Don't be like me, don't wait until you have a health problem that makes an upright too hard to ride anymore! Get yourslef a Greenspeed, or a Trisled, or an Ice, or a Catrike...

Never put of to tomorrow what you know you want today! That has been my only mistake!