Tandem Recumbent Tricycle

After college I built a tandem recumbent tadpole tricycle completely from scratch, based on a purchased set of plans. This was my first serious welding project, and my first foray into functional building as well. Complete with a rear rack, fenders, and a self-designed dual-action braking system, the trike carried my partner and I over 1200 miles that summer, from Bard College up the coast of Maine and back down to Massachusetts. I later rode another 400 miles solo, parking the trike under my shop in Maine. That first long downhill run was nerve-wracking in hindsight: the trike achieved stunning speed and the braking system had only been lightly tested at that point, but it all worked out. We shattered a sprocket cranking the machine uphill, but besides that and a few other incidents the going was relatively smooth. The front wheel axles did prove a touch too wide for some bike path gates, so I have the honor of being one of the few to perform a tandem tricycle bike path portage. Fun times.