About the Nordic Trike
For more than 15 years, we have been riding self-made bicycle trikes and quads in analogy to the recumbent bike. While we got along well in flat areas, they had often reached their limit in the more mountainous Thuringia.
The help were to use more gear ratio with more reduction ratio, and an additional hand drive in which the hands are used for driving both for steering and, if necessary, the drive. A number of self-made bikes were created in this way, and have accompanied us on holiday rides. Because the manual drive motion is similar to Nordic Walking, we have called it “Nordic Trike” or “Nordic Quad”.
Nordic Trike with hand drive 2009
The idea of additional hand drive was born at a time when there were no additional electric drives in bicycles, and we wanted to use the only way for more power on the bike. In the meantime, electric bikes are conquering the market in a pleasingly large number of units, enabling senior citizens to drive on routes that are otherwise unattainable for them. Perhaps this means that the Nordic Trike is losing importance both as an everyday vehicle, for example for shopping and for coping with strongly mountainous routes. On the other hand, it will certainly remain a domain of more sporty interested riders, mainly suitable for longer bike tours (e.g. with camping things in their luggage).
The industrial production of bicycle trikes and quads (often also referred to as velomobiles) has developed well over the last 10 years. The special bike fair (“Spezi”), which formerly takes place in Germersheim (since 2023 in Lauchringen), bears an eloquent testimony to this. Various solutions for trikes or quads with hand drive are now also presented there. A commercially manufactured trike or quad with our spezial hand drive is not yet available.
In the following, we want to report (perhaps as an suggestion for our own considerations) both on technology and on tours with Nordic trikes.