Sociable Pilot Training-Let's see what this baby can do!

 G.T. Bishop met A.T. Lane at the venerable Shaika to get a run through of the MBC's new trishaw.

Points were already being taken off before the trishaw was even rolling as the pilot forgot to put on his helmet.

A.T. gave a thorough run through of the main components of the trishaw with particular attention to the brakes and how to put the parking brake on. Helmet in place, G.T. aided the test passenger, A.T. on to the seat and made sure he was buckled in. 

And we were off!

G.T. was just getting the feel of the craft along de Maisonneuve bike path heading west when A.T. decided we needed to stretch our wings a bit and directed the pilot to head onto the Grand Boulevard rail overpass.

With a few stops and starts, G.T. managed to manoeuvre the trishaw around the bends. He found it could handle the 90 degree turns but there was not enough room to do the 180 degree turns without stopping, putting the rear parking brake on, dismounting and pivoting the trishaw using the front wheels.

On the other side, we continued down to St. Jacques and then mounted the sidewalk until we turned into a laneway to practice turning to see how tight a turn could be made without dismounting. Not very tight! G.T. found that he had to basically stop, turn the front wheels to the maximum and then make the turn in order to get around in the shortest circle.

One thing to be cautious of when on a sidewalk is the sloping of the sidewalk at driveways. The pilot and the trishaw feel precarious on a sideways angle so at the next laneway, G.T. steered off the sidewalk onto the flat portion of the laneway to avoid the slope and then back onto the sidewalk.

We retraced our steps back to the overpass and then headed east on the bike path to Decarie. A.T. wanted to try the route down to St. Jacques, which was fine except for the underpass by the hospital when the bike lane is elevated from the road and squeezed between the road and the higher sidewalk.

There is just enough room for the trishaw but not much more so this would be a risky route when carrying passengers because of the need to steer carefully to avoid having the left front wheel drop off the bike lane into the road. If necessary, the safer option would be to walk the trishaw on the sidewalk until through the underpass.

We then took the new bike path down to St. Jacques. The trishaw handled well on the descent with the hydraulic brakes and we averaged about 13kph. A.T. said he felt comfortable in the passenger seat at that pace on the ride down the hill.

A.T. was able to reach the button for the traffic signal and we continued on to de Courcelle to mount the hill back up to the de Maisonneuve bike path.

We then made our way back to the Shaika for a total ride of 8 kilometers. The battery usage for the ride was about 20%, which was not bad given the amount of climbing was done.

G.T. felt much more comfortable and confident after an hour riding the trishaw. The main takeaways from the first training ride were:

• Do not hesitate to slow down to maintain control, to manage road bumps/potholes and for the comfort of the passenger.
• Do not be a hero; use the power assist. The ECO setting is fine on the flat but G.T. found that the SPORT mode was required to comfortably climb the hills with a passenger.
• Make sure you are in a low gear before starting to climb. The trishaw has an 8 speed internal hub. They work fine but do not like having their gears changed under load.
• With a passenger onboard, keep your speed under 12 kph. At 15 kph, the passenger can sense that the trishaw is moving too fast.
• It was very easy to communicate with the passenger throughout the ride, which should make the social aspect of the rides easy to achieve.

Back at the Shaika, A.T. took the reins and headed to the barn. G.T. followed until their paths parted.

G. T. Bishop