ICE Blog

When you arrive at the coolest cycle show in the world, you don’t want to hang around at the entrance foyer filling out forms. That’s what Jurgen reckoned, but his girlfriend Sonya thought otherwise. “That first prize is a really cool trike, stop moaning and fill out the form” she urged him, grabbing two forms and quickly completing them. Hours later Jurgen couldn’t believe his luck when he got a message from SPEZI organiser Hardy Siebecke, saying he was the lucky winner of the first prize; an ICE Sprint.

Last week Hardy Siebecke invited the SPEZI prize winners to a dinner and award ceremony in Germersheim’s city garden restaurant. Kirk and Manuela Seifert, our esteemed German distributors, went along to present the ICE Sprint and give Jurgen a full tutorial.

While to food was excellent, all the winners wanted to do was receive their prizes! Kirk and Manuela ensured that Jurgen’s new trike was set up perfectly for him and set him off on a few test rides. Jurgen was so impressed with the quality of the ride that he decided to ride the 10km home. Unfortunately in his enthusiasm he set off with the car keys, leaving Sonja standing in front of a locked car. Thankfully he was back as quick as a flash on his speedy ICE Sprint!

We are delighted that the ICE Sprint has found an enthusiastic new owner who is looking forward to setting off on a series of trike tours. “Now all we need is a trike for Sonja so we can ride together” said Jurgen.

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It was a new millennium and ICE was on the up. Chris and Neil recruited two multi-talented friends, Ben Dickinson and John Olson, to help meet the growing demand. With two extra hands in production and assembly more time could be dedicated to developing the range, resulting in some momentous years in the evolution of trike design.

Both Ben and John were enthusiastic hobby recumbent designers and builders, so it wasn’t long before they were getting stuck in with improvements and innovations. Armed with a newly developed rear suspension system and a prototype of a new speed machine called the Micro, the team set off for their first big bike show which was a great reminder of the strength and breadth of the UK cycling industry.

Then the big breakthrough came. The most stubborn problem with trike design is how to successfully balance the front brakes for high speeds. While much of the industry tried their hardest to ignore the problem, it was something ICE felt compelled to resolve. The solution came to Chris while reading about some research conducted by Mercedes to cure the worst effects of a front wheel blow out on their cars. Chris realized that the steering geometry concept used by Mercedes could be adapted to enable the front brakes of a trike to be used independently at any speed. After months of further research and development by the team, Chris’ theory was turned into a working system. And as 2001 approached handling nirvana was found and quickly introduced across the ICE range. If you ride a trike with no brake steer today, chances are the design comes from an ICE trike.

Long term testing of the tandem fell to Chris’ Mum and Dad. In 1999 Chris’ 60 something Mum had smashed her knee Mountain biking in Sherwood Forest. After extensive surgery and a long time in plaster she decided she would like to ride the ‘End to End’ from the northern to southern most points of the UK. They rode the around 50 miles per day, for 28 days, stopping to see the sights and enjoy the odd cup of tea! The tandem passed the test with flying colours. Fully laden the tandem was not fast on the up-hills but down the other side was a very different story!

The World HPV Championships coming to the UK in 2001 ICE needed a no compromises speed machine. Development of the Micro was progressing at a pace and with John focused on the finer points if the handling of the Micro and Ben developing a new light and supportive hard shell seat it was set to be a machine to be reckoned with. Long-time friend of ICE, Jaap Stolk, brought the Micro in second in the World Championships. The Micro laid down a new standard for production trikes.

Pictures: The ‘End to End’ route; Val and Frank Parker on their UK tandem test-ride; Chris shows off the ICE trikes at the 2000 York bike show; Ben Dickinson on his own-made recumbent bike; suspension on the Explorer; John Olson racing a Crystal Engineering Festina; a prototype Micro; Chris and Sharon Brown celebrating their wedding on an ICE tandem; Jaap, Chris and Ben on a test ride; Jaap riding the Micro at the 2001 World HPV Championships

Dispel the obvious cycle-app clichés of mapping, performance analysis and gear-ratio calculators. This selection of apps goes beyond turning the pedals and lets you get more out of the landscapes you move through.

For nature lovers there are a wide range of field guide applications to help get the most from your natural surroundings. Try Chirp to learn and recognise birdsong, or LeafSnap to identify trees and plants from their leaves.

If you ever need a new motivation for your ride, what better than the prospect of treasure? Plan your ride around a series of waypoints with ‘treasure’ caches at each location, using your phone to help you navigate. Find the cache, sign the logbook and exchange a trinket for one someone else has left behind. Geocaching is the largest of these systems, with Garmin Open Caching, a free resource, growing in popularity.

Collate all the wonders of your ride and share with friends and family. Apps like Trip Journal will help you document photos and videos, your route and progress. Postale will create digital postcards of your trip and share them by email, Facebook and Twitter.

And if, while glued to your new phone app, you find yourself lost in unfamiliar surroundings, you’ll need a little help with orientation. Around Me allows you to search your local area for the nearest café, cycle shop, or bank to get you fuelled up for your journey home.