#4 - Of the beaten path
Riding around the country side, I find myself traveling of the beaten path in more then one way. The ride may be the most obvious. Having chosen a recumbent trike already feels natural to me. It sits like the proverbial glove, and it lets me do things that weren’t a real option any more. Riding a bike is of limits to me, because of the position it puts my neck in. But on the recumbent, I’m in a position that may actually be a lot better for my neck. In any case, I don’t feel any stress in the joints while riding. It even makes me understand more, under how much stress I put the neck on a diamond frame bike.
However natural the trike feels to me, I can’t deny it’s something special to many others. Not only humans by the way. I’ve noticed on every ride, that dogs seem to have a special kind of interest for my recumbent ride. It feels to me that they just aren’t used to seeing such a weird thing. For bigger dogs, I’m more at eye-level with them, and it feels like that changes their stance to me. Often, a dog pulls the leash when I pas by, testing the owners reflexes when jumping towards that weird moving three-wheeled object. Up till now, the dogs didn’t really scare me. But they had me being cautious on many occasions. Especially when the owner didn’t notice the dogs reaction.
Yesterday, riding along a farm, a dog came out of nowhere. It ran towards the - rather low - fence between him and me, and kept chasing me along it. The closer I came to the corner of the field, The lower the fence seemed to me. The thought that a Rottweiler wouldn’t have that big of an issue, jumping a wired fence that wasn’t even high enough to tough a horses belly, crossed my mind. Fortunately for me, the dog chose to stay in its confines. Looking over my shoulders, I was happy to see him standing there, the fence still between us.
Just like dogs, even horses seem to check me out with a little more attention than what I’m used to. I even saw one of them, walking up to the fence, leaving its offspring in the middle of the pasture. Her head followed me all the way, until I disappeared in the distance. Never stopping to follow my every movement.
And then there’s humans of course. The most common reaction, seems to be staring directly at me. The second one, trying to steal a look, from behind sunglasses, hoping I won’t notice. But at least that means they’ve seen me. From day one, I ride along sporting quite the collection of lights and reflecting objects. And that collection will grow with the extra’s I plan to put on the trike. Being seen is even more important riding a recumbent, then it is riding a bike. I’m sitting much lower, and even for an attentive driver, I’m not where they expect me. I’m easily overlooked. That’s why I find myself riding along with my hands on my brakes, any time I encounter other road users. Just as a precaution. To be ready to screech to a halt, in a matter of mere meters, even If they can’t.
Now of course this may sound as a reason not to ride a trike. It may sound dangerous. And maybe it is. But I don’t think it’s more dangerous than riding a regular bike. It’s something I expected before buying the trike. I expected to be more cautious on the trike. And to make it as visible as possible. And being more attentive then usual to other road users starts to come as a second nature already. Maybe, that’s a good thing in the end.
