3X3 Recumbent Trike for Scary Bearded Children

Trikes are for kids and recumbents are for, well, Gore-Tex-clad hippies with too much facial hair. So the nightmarish rider of this machine, called the Trimtab, would be a bearded child with a taste for real-ale. Shiver.

Worse than its terrifying young pilot, this tricycle has no handlebars. That’s right, the single most important part of the vehicle has been removed from this concept student project, and steering is instead done by leaning (if you have ever ridden a tricycle, you’ll know that leaning isn’t a good idea). What if you really need to make a turn? There are a pair of hydraulic “steering assist levers” to help you out in sticky situations.

From there, it goes downhill. The rear wheels are electrically-assisted, the pedals drive the front wheel, a huge acrylic canopy adds weight and reduces vision and an accessory bar provides a mounting point for the rear-view mirrors and flag-antennae so beloved of the recumbent-riding beardo.

The saving feature? A flatbed storage area at the back, presumably for carrying various whole-foods and the aforementioned dark beer back to the camp-site. As urban transport this unwieldy, impossible to store machine is clearly not up to the job. But you know what? Put this thing on a steep, curving hillside and throw it around with your body-weight and it starts to look hella-fun.

Trimtab 3X3 [Coroflot via Bicycle Design]

Full story at http://feeds.wired.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/nO1GYsof41g/