The following impressions of a test ride on an Optima Rider were posted to the trikes mailing list by Mark Henley

I visited Valley Cycles in the UK this weekend and rode their demo model - this is the City version of the Rider.

Specs - Stainless steel powder coated frame, rear suspension, 406 front, 26in rear. Front drums, rear v-brake. Front drums attached to a single lever, which also has a parking brake. Hard seat with adjustable angle. Seat foam is the new stuff - sort of extruded carbon fibre wire now used a lot by Flevo. Drivetrain is Sachs 3*7 with grip shift. Steering is the ususal ackermann centre point. High pressure tires all round, including special double density trike tires at the front. Sorry, can't remember the make.

Build quality seemed very good - solid and well engineered. The suspension bushes are copper, and replaceable, but I guess will need lubing at regular intervals.

Riding and Handling - seat height is about 8 inches, although I did not measure it exactly. The track is 76cm - narrower than a Greenspeed or Trice, but wider than a Windcheetah. Very hard cornering requires a fair amount of leaning out of the seat, which is fine when you know you need to do it, but I lifted a wheel almost immediately, and had to out a hand down. I was glad to be wearing gloves. It does lift wheels pretty easily, but if you are expecting it, it is easily controlled.

On a 6 mile test run the seat proved reasonably comfortable. It did dig a little on my shoulders, but a wiggle around sorted it out. I used the full range of 21 gears on moderate/to medium ups and downs, so I guess that hard climbs/descents or laden touring might require more gears (another version with triple front chainset is available). It was comfortable though, handled predicatbly, and the suspension seems to work well. The one disadvantage is the position of the underseat bars - they are far to far back. Even loosening the stem bolt and twisting them forward did not really help that much. The bars really need to be longer. A windcheetah style joystick is apparently available though.

Overall, I think you get what you pay for. I think the downsides are the handlebars, relative lack of gears and some lack of stiffness (at least compared to a Trice) probably due to the suspension and lack of rear triangle. In the final analysis, I was sorry to get off it, and even the prescence of a Satur-day (or whatever it is called)could not stop me getting back on. Two wheels good, three wheels better.

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