I had never seen a delta style recumbent trike near this price tag until today! Yup, $9,500. Ouch. That's the "original" price. The seller's asking $5,250 shipped (that's about $5,000 base) I'm definitely not buying that. I wonder who would actually fork the money over for this thing? It's cool, but $5k cool? I'll follow the listing and see where it ends up. Until then, let's take a closer look at the trike and see why it's so uber expensive.
These things seem to win races over tadpole trikes (the ones with two front wheels). As far as high end delta trikes go, this is it.
A couple reasons for the high price tag is the special components on it: The Rohloff internal gear hub driving the rear wheels and the Schlumpf High Speed Drive (also internal) up front.
What does all this mean? It means there's no derailleur. The chain doesn't need to move from cog to cog at neither the front or rear ends! That's pretty neat. That means shifting this thing should be super quiet and there isn't any need to tune the drivetrain once it's set up. There may be some annual maintenance needs for the internal gears but that should only require a couple minutes to grease it.
Where does the price tag come from? Just the two aforementioned components add up to $1,500 + $750 = $2,250. The frame is titanium and the trike is discontinued. You couldn't even build this yourself if you wanted to. I believe the price of the base model is at least $3,500 plus tax and shipping. So if it were available and you put it together with the custom components, it'd be at least $5,750. Not sure why the seller claimed $9,500. It's from a dealer whom I've met in person before during my visit to Bent Up Cycles earlier this year so I trust the numbers.
The cool and convenience factor isn't that price tag though. Brand new, the price tag on this puppy is higher than the current used value of my car! My car's got an engine and full leather interior. As rare as this trike is, I think I'll keep the car.
These things seem to win races over tadpole trikes (the ones with two front wheels). As far as high end delta trikes go, this is it.
A couple reasons for the high price tag is the special components on it: The Rohloff internal gear hub driving the rear wheels and the Schlumpf High Speed Drive (also internal) up front.What does all this mean? It means there's no derailleur. The chain doesn't need to move from cog to cog at neither the front or rear ends! That's pretty neat. That means shifting this thing should be super quiet and there isn't any need to tune the drivetrain once it's set up. There may be some annual maintenance needs for the internal gears but that should only require a couple minutes to grease it.
Where does the price tag come from? Just the two aforementioned components add up to $1,500 + $750 = $2,250. The frame is titanium and the trike is discontinued. You couldn't even build this yourself if you wanted to. I believe the price of the base model is at least $3,500 plus tax and shipping. So if it were available and you put it together with the custom components, it'd be at least $5,750. Not sure why the seller claimed $9,500. It's from a dealer whom I've met in person before during my visit to Bent Up Cycles earlier this year so I trust the numbers.
The cool and convenience factor isn't that price tag though. Brand new, the price tag on this puppy is higher than the current used value of my car! My car's got an engine and full leather interior. As rare as this trike is, I think I'll keep the car.
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