# Rolling a trike over.



## byegad (5 Dec 2011)

Over on BROL there are threads about how easy it is to roll a trike.

I've seen two people rolling, or nearly rolling a trike, out of the two dozen or so trikers I know this is still a fair %age. But in both cases the rider was doing something stupid.
One tried to ride up a 45 degree slope and lost traction, rolled backwards than rolled over as he couldn't keep it straight in reverse.
The other was trying to ride on two wheels, got it up onto two wheels then overcooked it and the bottom of the ICE rack touched the road and he went into the hedge on his side.
These people know who they are!!!

So the question is. How many of you have *accidentally* rolled over? A brief description of the incident(s) would help me and other readers understand the risks and what to avoid.


----------



## e-rider (5 Dec 2011)

No


----------



## Bicycle (5 Dec 2011)

As a very young child I was furiously jealous of my older siblings, who were riding bicycles when I still had a tricycle.

We had a big, stone flower pot in the back garden and I went past it repeatedly, thowing my weight into the bend to achieve the lean than my brother and sister managed on two wheels.

Eventually I succeeded in lifting my outside rear wheel, tipped the thing right over and got a nasty bump on my head. I wept. 

This incident proved to me that there is no God and that tricycles are not the way forward.

I continue to adhere to both fundamental beliefs. This may be the wrong thread on which to admit to that....


----------



## sunnyjim (5 Dec 2011)

Umm Yes. Twice. Not including results from the experimental research programmme trike dynamics..

First time I hadn't been triking for very long, & was pootling along a narrow unsurfaced footpath alongside a river. The ground got slowly slope-ier and the trike rolled gently over into long grass on the bank. It struck me later that rolling down a bank towards a river clipped into a trike could go from mild amusement to serious disappointment quite easily.

2nd time was after getting enough experience to judge cornering speed to just keep 3 wheels on the ground. I'd a pair of (small) loaded panniers which put the CoG a bit higher than normal. A sharp muddy corner rolled me over into a tree instantly and unexpectedly. (also surprised a lady cycling along behind). Centrifugal force & trike/rider mass were probably nicely balanced, but the trike skidded sideways on the mud and hit a concealed stone edge, giving a pivot point.


----------



## Tigerbiten (5 Dec 2011)

I've rolled my old Trice Q once.

It was before I locked my left hand to the left handle bar with an elastic band.
Leaning hard in a fast left turn while I had the right hand off the bars.
Left hand bounced off the bar and I went from left lock to right lock and lifted the left front wheel.
I got it mostly under control after lifting the front wheel twice under brakes/steering before hitting the opposite curb with the right wheel.
This flipped the trike to the left but because I had managed to get most of the speed off I crawled out from under it unhurt.
I just ended up with a very bent front wheel, I had to take the mudguard off to ride home.

Now the hand is held in place with an elastic band, even if it comes off I can just keep control.

Normally I'm going +25 mph before I lift a wheel and the fastest I know I've lifted a wheel is 37 mph .......


----------



## MartinG (5 Dec 2011)

Rolled once.
I had rented a trike to take on holiday (before I had bought mine) so it was during my first fortnight of tricking. Rolled to a stop on a gently sloping grass bank (in from of a restaurant terrace full of people) stopped leaning into the slope and slowly toppled over - much to everyone's amusement. Biggest problem was unclipping from the pedals because I was laughing so much.


----------



## byegad (5 Dec 2011)

So far this confirms my prejudice as far as driving riding standards in the USA goes.


----------



## dellzeqq (5 Dec 2011)

I've seen Tigerbiten, who rides something akin to a teatray on wheels, coming downhill toward me at some mahoosive speed (I was pointing the way at a road junction) taking a turn at a speed that no two-wheeled bike could managed, leaving a trail of smoking rubber. That he's actually turned the sucker over is truly terrifying.......


----------



## byegad (5 Dec 2011)

Well I've lifted a wheel now and then but silly speeds downhill and corners are plain fun!


----------



## plantfit (5 Dec 2011)

Yes, rolled mine this year on one of our trips to the Derbyshire reservoirs, riding along the road at the side of a 5ft high bank leading to the footpath I thought it a good idea to take a pic of my trike with Derwent dam in the background, rode up the bank at a too shallow a angle and over she went, I managed to unclip after laughing at myself but was covered in Lucazade from head to foot as the stuff poured out of my drinks bottle, great fun though

Roger


----------



## markg0vbr (6 Dec 2011)

five times for me
the most memorable was pirouetting along the road at the bottom of a hill with a tight turn and lots of greasy oil and muck; i hit a tall curb going backwards at some considerable speed, the back wheel disintegrated and the trike flipped over backwards.
even extreme out rigging, i still lift the odd wheel about 1", you realy have to work hard to do that on a low wide ice-q
though the delta hand bike spits me off terrifyingly quickly, there is just no time to react.


----------



## sunnyjim (6 Dec 2011)

markg0vbr said:


> *five times* for me
> the most memorable was pirouetting along the road at the bottom of a hill with a tight turn and lots of greasy oil and muck; i hit a tall curb *going backwards at some considerable speed, the back wheel disintegrated and the trike flipped over backwards*.
> even extreme out rigging, i still lift the odd wheel about 1", you realy have to work hard to do that on a low wide ice-q
> though the delta hand bike spits me off terrifyingly quickly, there is just no time to react.



The master. Those of us who merely roll sideways are humbled in your presence.


----------



## byegad (6 Dec 2011)

Not really he's mad!


----------



## Bigsharn (7 Dec 2011)

My little brother managed to roll my quadricycle when I still had it... Ask either Arch or Night Train and they'll tell you it's a hell of a feat to manage


----------



## PaulM (8 Dec 2011)

No, never done. I've lifted a wheel a couple of times on fast downhill bends but have controlled it OK. If you put a loaded tail bag on a rear rack then the higher CoG can make it more tipsy.


----------



## starhawk (9 Dec 2011)

I can't imagine what it would take to roll over in my Trice Q, admitting I have had one wheel in the air but not very high and definitely not on the way to a flip (going fast downhill and some bumbs in the road).


----------



## pubrunner (9 Dec 2011)

I was talking to a very experienced trike rider recently; he told me that in order to ride a trike, you need to forget all that you've learned about riding a normal bike. He said that cornering, in particular, is totally different and that those who pick up riding a trike fastest, are usually those who have never ridden *any* kind of bike.


----------



## byegad (9 Dec 2011)

pubrunner said:


> I was talking to a very experienced trike rider recently; he told me that in order to ride a trike, you need to forget all that you've learned about riding a normal bike. He said that cornering, in particular, is totally different and that those who pick up riding a trike fastest, are usually those who have never ridden *any* kind of bike.


 
That's very true of Upright trikes, but frankly anyone can ride a recumbent trike.


----------



## Ian Bristol (9 Dec 2011)

Prior to going two wheels I rode an Hp Velo Scorpion for about eight months. I never rolled it but on one accoasion I came close. I was speeding down a very big hill in Cornwall ( there's quite a few of those ) and upon realising I was going way too fast and needed to slow down for a junction I hit the brakes. However I going into a bit of a corner and put on too much left hand brake. There was a big skid and my right hand wheel lifted up quite a bit. I just about managed to stay upright but it certainly got the adrenaline pumping, in a I-won't-do-that-again kind of way.


----------



## markg0vbr (10 Dec 2011)

byegad said:


> Not really he's mad!


sanity is vastly over rated, i tried it for a weekend but i got a rash and had to give it up.


----------



## redflightuk (10 Dec 2011)

Rolled the qnt once. Had a bob trailer with a sack of horse feed on board, arrived back at the farm and took my usual line over a 2ft high bank(gate was closed) which i hadn't done before with the trailer, the angle and speed i hit the bank and the weight of the load all led to one result. The left wheel lifted and before i had time to react i was on my side.


----------



## ufkacbln (10 Dec 2011)

byegad said:


> That's very true of Upright trikes, but frankly anyone can ride a recumbent trike.


 

... but crashing in style requires experience!


----------



## byegad (10 Dec 2011)

Well I witnessed at rather close hand a Newton rider pitch into a hedge while descending a straight downhill. I was catching him fast, I was doing well over 30mph and he was travelling at well under 20mph, and I was working out if I'd need to hang back or be able to pass him when he touched his brakes and one front wheel got onto the gravel into the middle of the road and he was gone! Fortunately he was unhurt, but it was a graphic illustration that I could descend way faster and still a lot safer on a recumbent trike than he could on an upright trike. I even pulled up alongside him under hard braking on the same gravel that had caused him to crash.

Recumbent trikes are so easy to ride maybe some people forget that they still have a limit!


----------



## Bill B-J (16 Dec 2011)

QNT, mounting a 1" curb at 45 degrees, about 10mph. Rear tyre slid, then gripped, equivalent of a motor cycle high side. Blink of an eye, you would have missed it. Ended up side down, flag, head and hands on pavement. Potentially embarrassing. No damage.
Taken by surprise. Have done the same move many times before, no problem. Different rear tyre this time. Marathons. Hard. Don't like them; let go and regrip digitally, on off. No warning, unlike marathon racers. (Any news on the Shwalbe trike tyres?)
Learned to mount even shallow kerbs at a more acute angle.
I have front suspension. Much harder to lift the inside wheel, since fitting. Sometimes outside slides, rather than inside lifts. (Could be desirable to have a tyre that gently lets go just before the inside lifts!)
3 wheeled recumbent, so good in this weather!


----------



## Riding in Circles (19 Dec 2011)

45mph. pothole, corner, add water, simples.


----------



## machew (26 Dec 2011)

Just got back from a Cycle ride and rolled the Trail twice. Only difference this time was that both the front tires were pumped up rock hard. It appears that if the tires are a bit soft then the trike is a bit more forgiving. BTW any one know were I can get a replacement fender set in the UK as both the front ones are broken.


----------



## CopperBrompton (27 Dec 2011)

Twice. The first time doing something stupid (trying to cycle up a 45-degree grass bank, which seems to be a common theme), the second just over-cooking a bend. I'd got more and more confidence in fast cornering on the trike and hadn't yet found any limit. That day I did. :-) Cuts, grazes and knowledge of where that limit is to be found ...


----------



## Riding in Circles (27 Dec 2011)

Alcohol can help too.


----------



## CopperBrompton (27 Dec 2011)

In my case it played no part in the incident, but certainly played a part in the recovery. :-)


----------



## Sheffield_Tiger (4 Jan 2012)

Nearly rolled the catrike yesterday

It was a combination of slippery road, tight corner and a fresh pothole

Rolling it with a laden trailer would have been something to remember I suppose...


----------



## Tigerbiten (4 Jan 2012)

Sheffield_Tiger said:


> Rolling it with a laden trailer would have been something to remember I suppose...


 
When I rolled mine I had the trailer on, I just snapped the quick release skewer.
So I tend to carry a spare one on tour.

I've also flipped the empty trailer twice.
It was always a combo of speed (+30 mph), hard tyres (~85 psi) and a deep pothole.
Running the tyres at around 40 psi has fixed that problem.

The closest I've come to flipping a full trailer was hitting a speed pillow with 1 wheel at close to 40 mph.
This had the trailer on one wheel for a few yards .......


----------



## BlackPanther (16 Sep 2012)

I thought I was a fast rider but it's very rare that I even lift a wheel on the Trice 'S'. I did once do a rather pathetic 90° handbrake turn. It was on a trail, and the trike didn't flip, but it did pinch flat my front Durano.


View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLltDz_xVUU


----------



## Night Train (17 Sep 2012)

I have rolled a KMX at SPEZI last year.
We were taking it in turns to do 'handbrake turns'. Mine went a little wrong and I flipped it.
I went all the way over with the trike for the first 180deg, then the trike finished off on its own stopping on its side at 270deg while I stood up next to it.
I landed on my wrist and might have twisted it a bit. It hurt but as I had an audience I ignored it until I was alone.


----------



## CopperBrompton (2 Oct 2012)

First rule of trike-rolling: there's always an audience. Though I doubt anyone has beaten my record audience: must have been a few hundred when I rolled it on the London to Brighton.


----------



## byegad (2 Oct 2012)

Second rule is that nobody will have a video camera running and the rollee will decline, with feeling, any attempt at a re-shoot.

The ones I've seen had two common factors. One incident resulted in an attempt to climb a 45 degree grass bank, the other from a misguided attempt to ride a Trice Q on one wheel and the rear rack. OK he was trying for two wheels but the rack intervened, this is a little known property of ICE racks.
The factors were:-
1. The rollee was being an idiot.
2. The rollee had taken drink shortly before the incident.

There is a third factor. The witnesses first reaction (Perhaps linked to both items.) is to roll around laughing, spluttering and generally making the rollee as embarrassed as they can, and then make multiple requests for a repeat performance. This occurs long before they enquire about the health or otherwise of the lunatic rollee, or more importantly the rolled trike. In both cases I have seen, which happened within 20 minutes of each other, the audience were also riding trikes and had also taken a small sherry... or three. Well maybe not sherry, unless the pub serves it in pint glasses, and maybe it had been slightly more than three in some cases.


----------



## CopperBrompton (3 Oct 2012)

My first roll did involve a 45-degree grass bank, but no alcohol. People were kind enough to release me from underneath a trike and enquire as to my health before laughing.

My second (and hopefully) final roll involved neither grass bank nor alcohol, merely the inevitable conclusion to my observation that TRICE Qs can apparently corner at any speed without incident.

However, your rule 1 applies in both cases.


----------

