The GTT Tandem Touring Trike
In fact we were so impressed with the performance of the second tandem, we decided to build one for ourselves. We made it long enough to take 6' plus riders and fitted the Sachs 3x7 rear hub (with 13/30 cluster), a 72t chain ring, and Sachs hydraulic disc brakes. It soon became apparent that it was even faster than our Sports Tourers. The day after we finished it, my son and I rode the Around the Bay in a Day Ride, doing 220kms in 8hrs 5min.. After the ride, at an exhibition a week later, a visitor came up to me and said "I thought recumbents were only novelty value, until I saw this tandem recumbent on the Around the Bay Ride. It was passing ordinary cyclists like they were standing still!"
Then I entered it in the 1994 Energy Challenge in Sydney, where participants are rated on the amount of CO2 produced, per 100kms, per kg carried. I chose a 110kg(242lb) captain
and he found a 95kg stoker. They averaged 29.1 kph over 100kms through Sydney and Canberra city traffic and recorded a maximum speed of 83kph. They were faster than all the solar and petrol assisted bikes (including a recumbent), and complained the 145 inch gearing I gave them was not high enough!
In December I did the 1994 Great Victorian Bike Ride from Swan Hill to Melbourne with my daughter, and in January my wife and I flew over to Tasmania with the tandem (no problem getting it on the aircraft) and spent a delightful week's holiday touring around Tasmania. We had found it hopeless cycling on separate machines, because I could not bring myself to slow down to her pace. Whereas on the tandem I found that we going as fast, if not faster, as I would have on my Sports Tourer alone, and she found it was easier than she expected. Read more...
