There's even a rear steering cargo trike company in Denmark. It's weird but I had an explanation that it was meant for low speed and maneuverability with cargo rather than as an exercise machine or high speed transportation.

I've ridden a few trikes like you'd use for a small food stand and they aren't so bad to drive around. Would I take one mountain biking or on a hill climb? No, but that's beside the point. I also don't use my phone for all my CAD work.

Man, I forgot to include a link. https://blackironhorse.com/en/product/polly-2-cargo-bike/

I rode something like this as part of a tour in switzerland, when turning left I was told to lean to the right (which is obviously different to a two wheeler where you lean in the direction of the turn), otherwise you'd pop-up on two wheels easily enough!

And you really have to push the handle bars, for steering. Again, very different to a two-wheeler.

I ride a christiania bike daily, and leaning right while turning left is a surefire way to have your left front wheel lift off the ground.

>when turning left I was told to lean to the right (which is obviously different to a two wheeler where you lean in the direction of the turn), otherwise you'd pop-up on two wheels easily enough!

Can you explain the mechanics behind that? When turning left, wouldn't the bike be at risk of tipping to the right? Wouldn't leaning to the right make that worse?

It's the same when you drive a motorcycle with a sidecar. The way you drive it is just completely the opposite of driving a normal motorcycle.

FYI: I have both and the first time I drove my sidecar I ended up in a hedge :D

A good overview of the physics and how to ride these is the yellow book from Ural: http://welcome-ural.ru/documents/HowToRideUral.pdf

That document says you need to lean into a turn. That's what I would expect. Turn left, lean your body left. The picture on the cover shows the rider turning left and leaning left.

>Since sidecar outfits are not symmetrical, the technique for left turns is somewhat different from right turns. The outfit won't lean into the turn like a "solo" bike, but instead rolls slightly towards the outside of the turn like an automobile. The sidecar driver compensates by leaning body weight towards the turn and by applying extra force to the handlebars.

But you turn the steering wheel the other way. Normal motorcyle left goes right. Sidecar right goes right ^^

Leaning in on a two wheeler is rolling the frame to the left further.

That same frame roll/tip on a trike causes the right wheel to leave the ground. In order to counter act that, and essentially prevent the frame from rolling/tipping at all in the turn, is to move your weight to the right so that wheel stays grounded.

If you really push and try you can get the left wheel up on a left turn but it’s more effort than popping a wheelie on a two wheel bike. It’s hard to do on accident.

I would guess it has to do with the direction of force changing, the left and rear tires getting closer and the right and rear tire distance getting farther and what that implies regarding the distance each wheel needs to travel in the turn.

Edit: maybe tilt is a better word than roll and tip, basically putting the frame less upright is what I mean by that

The document shared by epiecs says you need to lean into turns (turn left, lean left).

I imagine the two wheels being in the back and the driver positioned relatively high from the ground makes for very different turning mechanics in OP's linked bike though?

The only "trike-like" bicycles I see are used by elderly people, everything for cargo/kids is either two wheels or three with two wheels in front.

With these probably taking up even more space, where do people keep them? (Living in a German apartment complex without a garage I can stow away some normal bikes, but if just 10 families in this 40-unit house had one of those... oof)

I would say mostly in the courtyards.

And yes - it can be quite the challenge. And people sees it as a god given right. The same rights as people who have their essential 4 bicycles.

Some of the same people who find it too cumbersome to use the bicycle storagespace/garage commonly found in basements. It can be a challenge indeed.

The basement parking is very common but rarely cater for the cargo bikes so they need to reside in the courtyards.

In some neighborhoods they have converted some of the street parkering spaces from cars to bicycle racks.

At Ikea and shopping malls they usually have dedicated parking for the cargo bikes.

The common aspect is that both the Netherlands and Denmark are flat. The danish/Dutch trikes are really just unsafe when you pick up significant speed like down a hill. I am a long time cyclist, who raced for years. I've never felt as unsafe on a bike as when I tried riding and a fast bike speed on a Christiania.

Luckily cargo bikes aren't for speeding and racing but for carrying cargo. It would be like using a truck to race instead of a mid-engine super light sports car.

Durch cargo trikes are generally assumed safer than their two-wheeled alternatives here.

It's not racing, but if there's a steep hill you will pick up some speed (it doesn't help that Christiania uses drum brakes not disk brakes). Also the whole point of a bike is that it's faster to go around than walk. Don't get me wrong I'm all in on cargo bikes and I used a cargo bikes for my kids in a hilly area for years (it was a leaning trike see my other post for what kind it was), but the trikes with the joint in the middle are just unsafe (yes I've also seen people tip over with them, and it really only requires a sharp turn where you have to accelerate a bit).

Before rolling over and killing and maiming the people on board, which is actually a good example of what would happen if one tried to race a racing bike with a Christiana-like cargo bike.