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| The T3. Tricked-out tricycles with heavy-duty suspension systems |
The T3 is a
tricycle built for grown-ups, and it is not for play.
Weighing 68
kg, it has an aluminum frame and sits on three small but durable bicycle tires
with a heavy-duty suspension system in front. It can carry up to three times
its weight.
The T3 —
the “T” stands for “trike,” — is the latest prototype of an urban delivery
vehicle from Upcycles, a Brooklyn
start-up founded in 2017. Seeking to create a greener alternative to trucks for
delivering everything from groceries to office supplies, the company built two
earlier prototypes. The third, T3, is considered a bicycle under city law and can travel on the city’s growing network of bike lanes and park on the
sidewalk rather than park in the street.
Upcycles
most recently attracted the attention and support of Urban-X , a
Brooklyn-based incubator program for city-focused start-ups, created by the
Mini car company, which gave them $60,000. However, Upcycles initial funding
of $600,000 came from one of its founders, the philanthropist Joshua P.
Rechnitz, 53.
The two
earlier versions were both made from steel and were far heavier — requiring
more effort to pedal, especially uphill, while T3 was designed from the start
to be lighter and more easily and cheaply reproduced. Components of the trike
include an electric hub motor for the rear wheel, a chain-drive system,
suspension system and on-board computer.
“In the next year we are going from a
prototype toward production vehicles, building and producing small batches for
our test users,” said Nick Wong, another Upcycles founder.
Because it
is not a fully electric vehicle, T3 is still legally classified as a bicycle
and can be parked in and go places trucks cannot. And because of its dimensions
T3 can fit through standard commercial
doorframes for deliveries and between anti-terrorism bollards that have been
placed on bike paths.
Several
European cities have introduced restrictions on truck freight deliveries in
downtown areas. That has helped foster interest in all sorts of human-powered
“cargo cycles,” and many more companies are designing and manufacturing them in
Europe than in the United States. The spectrum ranges from more personal types
of heavy-duty two-wheel bicycles to different models of trikes and even
four-wheeled quads.
From The New York Times (edited)
