The GTX was designed as a compact high performance Sports Trike, suitable for air travel, and stowing in tight places, without the need for folding or dismantalling.

High Performance

We found that riders liked the light weight and high performance of our GLR Race Trike so such, that a number were using this machine for touring, and then complaining about the lack of ground clearance. So for the GTX we took the basic design of the GLR, and managed to fit the handle bars on top of the main tube, between the main tube and the seat, thereby increasing the ground clearance, without having to raise the seat, and reduce the cornering ability. This also reduces the aerodynamic drag of the trike, which allows us to raise the seat angle a little to give slightly better comfort for some riders, and better visibility, yet allowing the trike to be just as fast as the GLR race trike.

Compact Size

Rising the angle of  the seat a little, and using a 16" rear wheel has enabled the trike to be shortened a whopping 11" or 29 cm over the GLR race trike, to 72" or 1.82 metres.  To make the trike even more compact, so that it is easier to thread through gaps in the traffic, between bollards, and through narrow doors and gates, we have designed a special new type of drum brake, which is less than half the width of standard drum brakes. This enables the overall width of the trike to reduced 2" (4 cm) without any reduction in track width or stability, thus the GTX has an overall width of only 70 cm or 27.5". These drum brakes are CNC machined from a high strength aluminium alloy, thus they are both stronger and lighter than the stock drum brakes. Plus they are coated with a special hard nickel coating, giving a more durable finish, and saving the weight of a steel liner. So this trike will easily fit into an airline bike bag for air travel, without any folding or dismantling. In fact I found when we visited Brighton, UK, for the World HPV Championships in 2001, it was compact and light enough to take up and down the narrow, winding steps down to, and up from, the coal cellar at the small hotel we stayed at, each day, without any bother.

Gearing

The 16" rear wheel is also stronger than a 20" wheel, as well as being more compact and lighter. However it does make the fitting of a long cage rear derailleur unadvisable due to the lack of ground clearance at the bottom of the derailleur. Thus the GTX is fitted as standard with a SRAM DualDrive rear hub and a 52t, 42t double front crank-set, enabling a short cage rear derailleur to be used, and giving a better gear change. Unlike the previous Sachs/SRAM 3x7 hub, the 3 x 8/9 DualDrive hub can be shifted under full load, as well as when stationary, unlike full derailleur systems. Furthermore it is more efficient than a double derailleur gear system with a mid-drive, because the gears inside the hub are only need to be used for the two top and two bottom gears. The 2nd or direct drive in the hub can be used for all other gears. By adding the Schlumpf drive is that the whole gear range can be moved up or down by just changing the single front chain ring. This system also gives an extremely wide gear range, going all the way from a stump pulling 10" in bottom gear, to flying-downhill-with-a-tailwind top gear of 137 inches. Ian Sims 19/5/2002