Photos by MJ Klein
Today’s ride was 4 and a half hours long. The main problem that I have with riding that distance is not the distance itself, but the fact that I get pretty bored after being on the trike for more than three hours. Anyway, on this ride I did some of the familiar bike trails and also went to places not reported on before.
The Taiwan Straight looked just beautiful today. This shot was taken on the Yong An bike trail.
This is one of those military structures that I neglected to report on the last time.
Apparently there was more to this structure than meets the eye, but it’s all broken off now.
Notice that there is no shelter. There are, however, some seats out in the open sunlight. I’ve never seen anyone sitting there. Who would?
Now, you know that I just had to get one good shot of the Artifice in this article! Once again, the equipment configuration has changed around so I’m going to have to do another update soon.
On this ride, I went all the way up to the Yongan fish market building, and beyond – right to the very edge of the land. I saw this cool boat coming into the harbor. I would love to have a boat like this. It’s just right for fishing, sightseeing and partying!
There were quite a few fisherman out today….
This is the very edge of the harbor.
The harbor entrance markers….
On the other side, there were even more people fishing.
The fishermen that I saw were all using bobbers. When the float goes down you know that a fish is on the line.
I also ran across a group of three horses.
If you ask me, they’re a little thin looking.
I went on the trail that connects the Yongan trail with the Sinfong trail. This is the little trail in between.
This trail is not bad, and it has some curves and small hills to make it interesting too.
What I like about these trails is that they are all marked with the distance to the red tree area, so you know how long the trail is.
This trail does have it’s issues though, and one of them is some deep cuts across the trail. This gives quite a shock on the trike, which has no suspension.
Around this place, someone’s dog came out and gave me a half-hearted growl. I used my spare flagpole and “explained” to the dog that it’s behavior was inappropriate for a bike trail.
I came to an intersection in the trail and I took a right to see where the trail went, having never been down that way before.
The bike trail intersected with the new Route 61. Would the trail go across 61 and continue on?
From all indications, the trail did indeed continue across Route 61, to an area previously unexplored by Yours Truly.
It sure didn’t look like the bike trail went anywhere that I could tell.
But there was the familar trail marker, and off to the left….
Was the trail itself. This one was way overgrown, so much more than the other end of the Sinfong trail. I’ve geotagged this article with this position.
Look at this trail! It’s almost like a jungle trail. I wondered if I could even make it through!
I passed an abandoned building on the left….
And went through a section with no pavement….
Eventually coming out to some place familar. I took a little side trip to see where the connecting road went. Once I figured out where I was, I went back to this section of the trail, seen to the right. The connecting road that I’m on went here:
I’d been here before. Now it’s starting to all make sense. I turned around and rejoined the trail.
But I found out that it only went a few hundred meters before ending. This is the strangest trail I’ve seen because there are 3 separate and distinct sections (maybe more), and 2 of the sections don’t connect directly. In this shot I’m facing East, towards Route 61, where I have to get on 61 to make it to the next section of trail.
This is where the trail begins/ends (depending upon your viewpoint). The path I’m on comes from Route 61 and the trail is to the left.
This is a shot of my going onto the first of 2 sections that connect on the Sinfong trail.
This is that area I reported on before, with places to sit and do nothing, only I’m facing the opposite direction now.
Eventually, I got bored after so much time on the trike, and I went back home.
Ride Stats:
- Distance: 51.42 KM
- Maximum Speed: 39.8 KM
- Average Speed: 16.1 KPH
- Total Time (including stops): 04:29
Thanks for reading! We look forward to your comments and ratings below!
MJ, looks like you had a great ride and did a little exploring too, I love the looks of the trike and would love to take a short trip on one ,just to get the feel of the thing, but to be honest bike riding is not my cup of tea ,I am more at home on our little Honda Wave 100 cc Scooter and Ciejay on back hanging on for what she feels like , is dear life , neither , bikes or scooters are her cup of tea and she feels real safe taking our little sight seeing trip in she calls it Her Truck, even tho she can;t drive it , she does have her scooter license tho, and will go to the market by herself if need be .especially love the left out of last time picture of the war pill box.I would love to sit and have a picnic someday. Thanks again for the trike ride. Malcolm
hi Malcolm. funny you should mention that bike riding isn’t your cup of tea, because recumbents were designed from the beginning to be more comfortable than diamond frame upright bikes. i often say that with the angle of the seat and the position of my feet, riding my trike is almost like sitting on the sofa at home, watching TV! if you tried it you just might enjoy riding for the first time.
i’ve ridden a Honda wave or two in Thailand. of course we have our famous Taiwanese scooters here but the wheels are smaller and they are not allowed on any of the freeways. if you and Ciejay ever make it out this way, we can have a nice cookout in Yongan with Brunty too. the other Taiwan bloggers would love to meet you also. thanks Malcolm and take care.
hmm do all recumbent trikes have no suspension?
hi Dennis. no, some trikes do have suspension. TW-Bents is working on a new design for a suspended trike. of course i’ll be very interested in that! thanks.
yea all bikes for general road use should have suspension i reckon, ideally, there will always be bumps on the roads
yes Dennis, suspension would be great. my Giant MTB has a suspension fork and it works well. the trick is to design a suspension system that doesn’t “pogo” every time you pedal. ideally the suspension would react to the road surface only, but in practice this is quite difficult to achieve. most bikes, recumbent or not, tend to bounce when the rear end is suspended. there is no front fork on a trike so unless the suspension is designed for the individual front wheels, about all you can do is put a shock in the rear. when TW-Bents finishes their design i’m going to test it out. i’ll report on the findings. thanks Dennis.
Nice shots. Have you changed a setting on the camera – your pics look a bit warmer with almost an old Kodachrome type feel to them?
cfimagess last blog post..After The Sun – A How To Guide To Night Photography
hi Craig. no settings changes (intentional, anyway). the daylight was nice and warm on that day, and the Taiwan Straight looked especially nice. thanks.
Hi Bush, thanks for your adventure on trike. I am college student and fan of recumbent trike. i have saved some money to try on one of the trike. i like artifice. since u had first hand experience of the trike, how was the trike over all, comfortaility, speed, and most importantly durability. In one of your other article u mentioned about the trike getting broke in the middle of journey and u have to bring it back to factory to repair, how was that. i am really want to know thoroughly about the trike before i invest my hard earned money on it.
Pema, the Artifice is a good, solid and reliable trike. the issue that i had with my roadside problem was the brakes not anything to do with the trike design itself. the brakes got bound up and i didn’t have the tools to make the necessary adjustments at the side of the road. its’ fast and comfortable and is good for longer rides. thanks Pema.
Hi bush, I ahve just ordered artifice from Boomerbent from florida and expecting next week. I am bringing the trike to bike dealer to have thme assembled, So hoping to have blast ride
hi Pema,
you are going to love the Artifice!
Hi bush, You said that the brake on ur trike was replaced with BB7. It was before BB5 installed, Is the reason ur bike broke down is because of BB5 being wrongly istalled in istead of BB7. Is the stock brake is BB7 or BB5
hi Pema.
my trike was originally specified with BB7 brakes, but it was built with BB5 brakes, and that’s why they were changed. what your trike will have depends upon the specification for the model you ordered. there are different configurations for different costs.
Thank u Busgh, i have ridding my Artifice trike and it has been so wonderful ride, the trike is so good. I adjusted the steering bar little bit by making it wider and it improves the turning circle. Thanks for your recomendation. i would have never bought this wonderful trike had i not seen your article about the trike. Thanks
Pema, we’re glad that our articles about the Artifice have helped you to enjoy owning one yourself. we hope you get many years of enjoyment out of your trike! thanks.