Bushman Gets Bent

November 27, 2008 By: thenhbushman Geotag Icon Show on map Category: Taiwan, Technology, riding

Photos by MJ Klein & Hui-chen

Yeah, I got bent, but not in the typical sense where I go drinking with my friends. This time my getting “bent” refers to my purchase of a recumbent tricycle.

MJ with Walter, the designer of the recumbent tricycle model shown here – The Artifice

Getting fat comes with getting older and not exercising. I love to exercise but I dislike pain. I’ve had enough of that already. I’d like to be doing fun things for exercise and this is one of the most fun experiences you can have while getting quality exercise.

Not your typical “adult tricycle”

The wide seat is unbelievably comfortable. The leg position is like sitting on the sofa with your feet on the coffee table. This takes pressure off one’s heart and actually makes fitness goals easier to achieve.

Here, Kevin Kao, the owner of TW Bents adjusts the length of the boom for my “x-seam” size. Just looking at this photo of how fat I look in the trike makes me want to ride until I drop. That’s ok. I’m not the first person who bought one of these trikes to get into shape. The goal is to ride something and keep riding it. The angle of the seat and the headrest perfectly supports my spine and neck. This is the most comfortable thing I’ve ever ridden. The first ride I took when I got it home was over 7km long, with speeds topping 30KPH. When I’m finally in shape the possibilities are endless. Many recumbent riders have toured the entire island of Taiwan. I’ve met a few of those riders.

In addition to the speed, since this design (called a tadpole trike) doesn’t lean in turns, you feel G-forces similar to a sports car.

One cool feature about the Artifice is that it is a folding trike. You have to disassemble some parts to get it to fold up small enough to fit in your car, but it only takes about 10 minutes to do the disassembly and the parts are designed to come off and go back on easily. You could pack it up and ship it somewhere for an adventure ride. I haven’t tried to take it on a bus or the THSR, but I imagine if you had a couple of bags you could manage it. In this photo, the rear rack is preventing it from folding up small and we took the rack off to put it in our car for the ride home. Daily transportation would be better served with an automotive roof rack to get to ride sites, rather than folding. But still the folding feature is great when you need it.

Look for more articles about trike riding as I put on the miles!

Next in series Last in series

TW Bents in Taichung
Photo by MJ Klein I love to ride bicycles. The problem is that I am too big for conventional type bikes. I own a Giant mountain bike, and whi ...
Recumbent Trike Photos
Photos by MJ Klein Last Tuesday was a very nice day, sunny, bright and with an almost warm wind. So I decided to take the trike out for a spin ...
Bushman's Best of Nov, 2008
Too many posts to handle? If you missed out on a great post from last month, here's a quick digest of the top posts that you may want to check out ...
Trike Gets New Headrest Bracket
Photos by MJ Klein As some of you may recall, when I visited the Taipei Cycle Show, my friend Kevin Kao showed me a new bracket for the headres ...
The State Of The Artifice
Photos by MJ Klein A few days ago I took a ride on the trike. I left Hukou and traveled up to the Yong An fishing port area and then headed ba ...

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15 Responses to “ Bushman Gets Bent ”

# 1 Colby Says:
November 28th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Looks like a nice ride, I see you have your matching shirt on. A bent bike club with weekly rides would be cool.

Chris is in an old school/custom bicycle club in Dover, NH. Its cool to see the group out riding. Its not a bad way for single guys to meet girls too. A few ppl in the club have an extra bike for guests to join in the fun. :O

Reply to Comment
thenhbushman reply on November 28th, 2008 5:15 pm:

Colby » lol @ the shirt.

club rides would be good, i guess, except for the fact that it would be a club. i’m not big on clubs because sooner or later, someone takes control and tries to make others do what s/he thinks is best. bike clubs in particular are normally fully of some strongly-opinioned individuals who feel a certain way about biking. i just don’t want to hear it. i’ll ride by myself because i can go wherever i want and do whatever i want.

Reply to Comment
# 2 Todd Says:
November 28th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
When I first got my bike after moving to Nantou, I rode with a group of cyclists who are parents of a few of my students. Now, I definitely prefer riding by myself: It allows me to enjoy two hobbies at the same time (biking and photography) because I can stop wherever I please to take a photo and not worry about slowing anyone down. I can also explore any interesting road along the way instead of just hearing the standard, “Oh, there’s nothing interesting over there.”

Todds last blog post..Daily Photo – Spider

Reply to Comment
thenhbushman reply on November 29th, 2008 12:41 pm:

Todd » i’m with you on that one Todd. my “goal” is to have fun and not accomplish any distance or time based feats. i’m sure that you and i could ride well together though. bicycling is a great way to do photography i think. thanks for the comments Todd.

Reply to Comment
# 3 Stevo | China Travel Says:
November 30th, 2008 at 5:25 am
Cool-looking ride. I’ve been thinking about getting a bike, but the roads here are far too dangerous. I’ll stick the stationary bike in the gym.

Reply to Comment
thenhbushman reply on November 30th, 2008 10:24 pm:

Stevo | China Travel » there are lots of expats riding in China, and blogging on it too. you may find that it’s easier than you think Stevo.

Reply to Comment
# 4 Links 1 December 2008 - David on Formosa Says:
December 1st, 2008 at 8:43 am
[...] The Bushman buys a Taiwanese tricycle. [...]
# 5 cfimages Says:
December 1st, 2008 at 10:08 am
I know. David can ride down from Taipei to your place, then you guys can head down to Taichung and pick MT up, cross the river and I’ll join in and we can all descend on Nantou and join Todd on one of his great rides.

cfimagess last blog post..Nighttime @ Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall

Reply to Comment
thenhbushman reply on December 1st, 2008 10:21 pm:

cfimages » man, that would be a cool ride, Craig! we should do it!

Reply to Comment
# 6 Todd Says:
December 2nd, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Sounds good to me!

Especially since I would be traveling the least distance

Todds last blog post..Daily Photo – The Print Shop

Reply to Comment
thenhbushman reply on December 3rd, 2008 11:09 pm:

Todd » hehehe!

Reply to Comment
# 7 Mitesh Damania Says:
December 11th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
AKA the lazy man’s bike.

Reply to Comment
# 8 Mitesh Damania Says:
December 11th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Hey when are you going to put neon and spinners on that thing?

Reply to Comment
thenhbushman reply on December 11th, 2008 12:53 pm:

Mitesh Damania » how about never?

Reply to Comment
# 9 recumbent tadpole tricycles | Digg hot tags Says:
December 19th, 2008 at 9:46 am
[...] Vote Bushman Gets Bent [...]