Taylor trikes for US market, was: Re: [CR]Re: Jack Taylor - Taylor Brothers - Bike Brothers - George

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Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2003 17:22:50 -0400
From: "HM & SS Sachs" <sachs@erols.com>
To: roydrink@ptd.net, Philcycles@aol.com, Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: Taylor trikes for US market, was: Re: [CR]Re: Jack Taylor - Taylor Brothers - Bike Brothers - George


In a message dated 10/19/03 9:20:48 AM, roydrink@ptd.net writes:
>Didn't he refuse orders from the U.S. for tricycles? (...rumor I heard)

Phil Brown responded: That was true. He didn't want to get involved with US product liability problems.

This may have come to be the case, but was not always. Around 1970 (as I recall it), I helped a handicapped friend order a 25" Jack Taylor trike. It arrived, was beautiful, but not well suited to his needs (which surprised both of us). We eventually found a buyer (in New Mexico, as I recall it). This was the beginning of my disdain for "classic" one-wheel-drive upright trikes with bicycle steering. The steering is just wrong for crowned roads, and the lazy implementation (drive to the left wheel) was a clever way of putting torque on the most lightly loaded wheel (for driving on the right side of the road). And then there were the braking issues -- 2 front wheel brakes, and nothing else. I had a blast riding it, in the sense of mastering a set of skills that didn't have any justification for being (like riding balanced on two wheels).

During the mid-1970s, another friend had a Bob Jackson trike in Cleveland. After his father's second stroke, they cut off the top tube since he could no longer lift his leg. I had the pleasure (really) of fitting it with twin laterals, like a tandem, and that made it rideable again. The Jackson had wonderful workmanship, and the same thoughtless carryover of bicycle steering and left wheel drive for the US.

I veer off-topic, but I rode and rode with a friend on a GreenSpeed "tadpole" recumbent trike today. Sort of like a 3-wheel Morgan (car), driving the single wheel and auto-type steering with the two front wheels. This is engineered as a trike. End off-topic, please don't respond on-list!

harvey sachs
mcLean va