On Saturday I had a great ride on the trike, 92 miles round the Borders, including the Talla Wall – here’s my video of the approach, climb and descent.
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Recumbent Cyclist Scotland 
Good shots looking back to Talla. Can forgive camera angles when you are pushing up a 1 in 5 for that long.
Downhill was fast – (on Strava – will check). Catching up a car head.
Makes me want to have another shot at it. Traffic very quiet too.
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Amazing scenery at Talla. It’s a lot easier on the trike than the M5, when you don’t have to worry about stalling and hitting your foot on the front wheel! I pulled in to let the car past at the top, which I regretted – had to keep braking to stay behind him. It’s probably better to take it a bit easier anyway, very thin road, lots of bumps, sheep everywhere….. First time down it on a trike for me. Great fun.
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Great video-thanks
Never managed to get up it on anything except Shank’s pony – even then with a lot of puffing
Does the secret lie in using purple leggings?
But so much more relaxing on a trike -no wobbles no fear of loss of balance and If you need to stop half way up for oxygen intake ,no need to leave your seat
Did you notice much boom flex on the ascent?
It is some of the most amazing scenery to be found within a 40 mile radius of Edinburgh
One could almost be going along a Norwegian fiord
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Yes, Castelli tights give you at least 30W extra!
The Sprint has quite a lot of flex in the frame but I don’t really worry about that too much, as I always use that platform for fun rather than speed. In my panniers I had spare clothes, jacket, winter gloves to avert Raynauds if the weather turned, comprehensive tool set, pump, loads of food, spare tubes, 3.5L water etc. Probably about 8KG on top of the trike weight of around 19KG, so not too concerned about how fast it goes! Comfort is superb, and yes it makes Talla almost ‘easy’ to climb rather than the stress inducing nightmare that it is on the M5.
If somebody produced an affordable trike within spitting distance of the weight and stiffness of the M5, I would probably never ride on 2 wheels again. I much prefer 3 for everything other than the pure speed element.
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I suppose the main candidates would be the Vortex,the Bacchetta carbon trike and a very light German trike with some suspension called the Velomo
I am not sure a hard seat shell trike with no suspension will cut it on fast descents on our wonderful roads with 20 inch front wheels and narrow tyres
Shame the agonies of the M5 seem to be dulling the ecstasies it is capable of
Can’t help feeling you will all end up with a velomobile !
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