Andy in Sig
Vice President in Exile
- Location
- Sigmaringen, Germany
Having put up a picture of said trike on the "How many recumbent riders sticky thread" and having done just short of 100 miles on it, I thought it a good idea to give my impressions of said trike for anybody who might be considering buying a trike in general or this one in particular.
HPV is the firm: a German manufacturer who is one of the market leaders in recumbent bikes and trikes. Scorpion is the basic model. fs refers to the fact that it is foldable and 20 refers to the rear wheel size (there is also a 26 version which is longer).
First the folding thing which is quick and easy. You undo the three quick releases which attach the seat to the frame, then the central frame lever and it folds in half. After doing nothing else I managed to get it in the back of my Ford Fiesta to get it home when I bought it. It was a tight fit but OK. If you want to get it even smaller you can take an Allen key to the two front wheels and get them off quickly and easily.
So far I've managed to get the unfolded trike in and out of German local trains without too much difficulty. This is worth mentioning because the entrances are steep and too narrow for the trike when it is horizontal. To do this is surprisingly easy: I grab the front part of the frame and the far side (which becomes the upper side on lifting) of the very stout luggage rack. In the height of summer when there are zillions of tourists in this region and the bike bits of the trains are full, I would probably fold the bike.
As to the actual riding qualities ... well, it's hard to fault it. The oddest thing is that you become very aware of any camber on the surface on which you are riding (you never notice this on a bike as your balance instinctively keeps you vertical) and I have gained the impression that there is a tiny saving of the energy which is used on maintaining verticality or balance while on a bike. The other good thing is the complete absence of a drop in stability at very low speeds, which does of course mean that you are less likely to get off on very steep slopes where you are at your limit. All this would of course apply to all trikes.
What is probably more model-specific is the handling: it is very responsive and wholly instinctive. The bearings in the axles must be wonderful stuff because the smoothness with which it rolls is remarkable. Maybe one just gets to appreciate this more on a trike. My trike is equipped with disc brakes which are good and they need to be because zooming down steep hills becomes a fearless matter because you can't fall off, so if you get one of these, expect to go faster than on a bike.
There are two seat variants, a sort of hard shell sporty version which you can get with raised sides to counter g forces (if you go extremely fast around corners) and a flat mesh seat. I went for the latter having had the former on my Street Machine (until it broke) because the mesh offers better ventilation and I feel it is the better option for touring. Talking of which, the luggage rack is excellent.
This isn't much of a review because there is nothing I can fault on the trike. It's easy to write about things that don't work but this is a classic example of something which does what it says on the tin. They're not cheap but you won't regret it if you have to save for a year to get one. If I had to give it a star rating it would be five out of five. I'm sure that there are loads of points which people might be interested in and which I haven't adressed. I will obviously gladly answer any questions.
HPV is the firm: a German manufacturer who is one of the market leaders in recumbent bikes and trikes. Scorpion is the basic model. fs refers to the fact that it is foldable and 20 refers to the rear wheel size (there is also a 26 version which is longer).
First the folding thing which is quick and easy. You undo the three quick releases which attach the seat to the frame, then the central frame lever and it folds in half. After doing nothing else I managed to get it in the back of my Ford Fiesta to get it home when I bought it. It was a tight fit but OK. If you want to get it even smaller you can take an Allen key to the two front wheels and get them off quickly and easily.
So far I've managed to get the unfolded trike in and out of German local trains without too much difficulty. This is worth mentioning because the entrances are steep and too narrow for the trike when it is horizontal. To do this is surprisingly easy: I grab the front part of the frame and the far side (which becomes the upper side on lifting) of the very stout luggage rack. In the height of summer when there are zillions of tourists in this region and the bike bits of the trains are full, I would probably fold the bike.
As to the actual riding qualities ... well, it's hard to fault it. The oddest thing is that you become very aware of any camber on the surface on which you are riding (you never notice this on a bike as your balance instinctively keeps you vertical) and I have gained the impression that there is a tiny saving of the energy which is used on maintaining verticality or balance while on a bike. The other good thing is the complete absence of a drop in stability at very low speeds, which does of course mean that you are less likely to get off on very steep slopes where you are at your limit. All this would of course apply to all trikes.
What is probably more model-specific is the handling: it is very responsive and wholly instinctive. The bearings in the axles must be wonderful stuff because the smoothness with which it rolls is remarkable. Maybe one just gets to appreciate this more on a trike. My trike is equipped with disc brakes which are good and they need to be because zooming down steep hills becomes a fearless matter because you can't fall off, so if you get one of these, expect to go faster than on a bike.
There are two seat variants, a sort of hard shell sporty version which you can get with raised sides to counter g forces (if you go extremely fast around corners) and a flat mesh seat. I went for the latter having had the former on my Street Machine (until it broke) because the mesh offers better ventilation and I feel it is the better option for touring. Talking of which, the luggage rack is excellent.
This isn't much of a review because there is nothing I can fault on the trike. It's easy to write about things that don't work but this is a classic example of something which does what it says on the tin. They're not cheap but you won't regret it if you have to save for a year to get one. If I had to give it a star rating it would be five out of five. I'm sure that there are loads of points which people might be interested in and which I haven't adressed. I will obviously gladly answer any questions.
