ICE Full Fat Trike

Hi All, New to the forum. I have ridden a two-wheeled recumbent for years but now I would like to get a trike for off-roading. I am planning on moving to Alaska next year and I am looking for an awesome trike for off-roading. Alaska has thousands of miles of incredible trails for riding. I really like the look of the ICE Full Fat. I want the non-electric version. I have an X-seam of 50.5" and a torso height of 26.5." I am 6'8", 245 LBS and I really want to make this work for my size. I looked at the specifications on-line and I think my size could work with a few modifications. I would love to hear from anyone who has the Full Fat and get their input. Also, if there are other off-road trikes that you think I should consider, please send my way! I live in California and I have checked with all of the bike shops which are listed on the ICE website as carrying their brand and none have the Full Fat in stock for me to see in person. I live in the Los Angeles area. If there is anyone in the LA area who has a Full Fat for me to see in person I would really appreciate it!! Cheers, Dan

 

Oh, when did I happen to be specialist on triking, written in english?

Seriously:
First I have to say, that I am not friend of FAT. Not as an idea that suits certain conditions, but as it is usually seen to be used. I have no idea how are conditions in US or Alaska specifically, but to me, FAT is unnecessary concept, at least for trikes. Other things will stop you sooner than FAT tires can become handy. Here, check this vid, how guy from Azub tried to cross Baikal on FAT trike (spoiler: he didn't)

FAT tires also limits handling on hard surface, needs bigger mudguards and everything. As I've heard, FAT tires are not exactly puncture resistant, which I consider as a huge disadvantage.
I really do not see why it is such a big thing in US (so if anybody can explain, I am curious). Perhaps it is just desire to turn everything into a monstertruck

So, be honest with yourself, what you actually consider as "offroad". I suggest to visit local video section, you can find vids from my rides there. I suggest to check "seek of a bunker" or even better "bad idea" - I was really pushing question of offroading there.
You mentioned some trails. IDK what you call trails there, but bear in mind, that main limit for trikes is width. You can push it on singletrail, but you will get exhausted soon, as your front wheels are going through all those brushes around the trail, or you'll get stopped by some stomp or something, just next to trail. Trike needs at least SOME road.
As you may notice, I ride a full-sus trike, 2x20"+24". Front wheels usually have something between 1,35"-1,50" tires, rear one 2,00"-2,25" and I can already feel how rear wheel twists at corners on that high profile. Don't want to go lower on front, despite it could bring better handling, because I am afraid of possible snakebites, but definitely not going higher. I had 2,35" on rear for a while (maximum possible for this frame) and despite it brought some advantages, it wasn't that great. Wet grass traction got better, but overall it became less stable. As I ride all around the year, my winter tire is "just" 2,15", but with serious tread - way better for traction than width itself.
Some say, that FAT tires are cheap(er) solution to get some cussion, than actual suspension. I can't comment on that from my own XP, but I have serious doubts, as it brings SOME cussion, but also drawbacks elsewhere.
From YT I got an idea that you can rent trikes in the US, so if that is possible, I highly reccomend that, as personal XP is always WAY better than thousand articles on the internet.

Well, I ran out of material from top of my head. If you have any questions, ask away, I'll do my best to answer...

 

Thanks Tri-Seeker and A.D.! I really appreciate your comments on this. After watching your videos Tri-Seeker and the one from Baikal I am definitely rethinking my plans on the best set up for an off-roading trike. Your input really makes a lot of sense to me, especially after seeing how your bike handled the terrain. The Full Fat might be good for specific applications but not for what I need. My plan is to do a lot of research over the next year and see if I can test out a few rentals, if available. Appreciate any and all input from others also! Here are a few photos from our recent trip to Alaska. One shows myself with my daughter and wife along with a picture of the mountains with a glacier. I have also included a picture of my recumbent that I have had for years, custom for my size. It has been a great bike for the roads. Cheers to all.

 

Hi Tri-Seeker, In further research I just ran across the Ti-Fly X by Azub. This appears to be a better choice than the Full Fat. I see that you are located in the Czech Republic and Azub is also in the Czech Republic which is pretty cool!

 

Good eye A.D.! Yes, it's a Reynold's T-bone. I love it. I have done quite a few centuries on it and it is a great riding bike. I find it plenty comfortable. It is a real attention getter when I go riding. It just flies on the flat roads and I always collect quite a few riders drafting off of me due to its speed. I ruptured my quadricep tendon on my right leg last year from a hiking injury so I have been a bit hesitant to take it out. I have been using it on the trainer. I need to get up the courage to take it out on the road again.

 

Yeah, AZUB is local production... Not many ride them here tho, they are oriented to foreign markets and their pricing is not very "local friendly". On the other hand, they organize recumbent meeting every year (vids are on YT).
Speaking of YT, you can find there a channel of Utah Trikes, that seems to be importer of AZUB trikes...

Ti-Fly uses a leaf spring system for front suspension, made of titanium it is pretty decent feat. On the other hand, I consider their solution suboptimal. All AZUB designs are built to be adjustable in all sorts of ways to accomodate basicaly anybody. Which is nice, when you have a renting business. If trike is yours, you are more likely to set it once to fit it your needs and then never touch it again. In such case, all those adjustors are just space occupying potentional sources of breakage.
Also, I prefer double wish bone solution that is provided by SteinTrikes, as it is more pleasing to my engineering mind. Bonus is, that it has like 100mm of travel, AZUB declares just fraction of that...

Pay attention to wheelsize, trike puts a lot of lateral forces on front wheels and for those smaller diameter is better. AZUB coping strategy are wider hubs, which essentially works, but puts extra stress on axis... AFAIK, Ti-Fly is available in both sizes, 20" or 26" on front, rear I think is always 26".
Biggr wheel rolls easier over rocks or such, but is a bit problematic when you need to steer - needs more space around. Also from what I saw so far, on 26" wheels it seems to be less stable. That is probably a combination of big wheels and all those AZUB adjustors under the seat, result is a bit like bar stool.
When I was deciding my trike, I got the impression, that with AZUB, you're sitting ON a trike, with Steintrike you're sitting IN a trike, if that makes any sense to you...
Also, there was the thing of handlebar, that is hanging down from the frame on AZUB, which seems very vulnerable to me.

 

"Then I'd just need to mount my metal detector, so it would function while I pedaled along. "


Yeah, that could be a good use for FAT trike :-D

But more seriously, if you have a reason to ride on a beach, then fine, FAT is a reasonable choice. If you are riding on snow for significant part of the year, fine, deep heavy (semimelted) snow (10cm (4in)) can be very exhaustive to ride on, when you have just 20" wheels with relatively narrow 1,50" tires. But as you can see on that Baikal vid, still too many other things to care about, so no definitive win there either.
I simply do not think that they make much sense for regular Joe...

 

Thanks Tri-Seeker on the additional information. Yes, Utah Trikes states that they are the biggest dealer in recumbent trikes in the U.S. I have seen quite a few of their videos on YT. When I get serious about comparing trikes and narrowing it down, it probably makes sense for me to book a flight to Utah to see them first hand before making a decision.

 

The first time I saw an ICE Full Fat I immediately thought, I want one!!!! I've never been an MTB-er, but that looked like the perfect solution... a kind of human powered rock crawler. But they are a touch out of my pay grade.