Reflections on Recumbents in Vietnam

Trisled recumbent manufacturer Ben Goodall and partner, Yolande Strengers, spent 18 days in Vietnam during February 2007, riding Trisled Gizmo trikes from Hanoi to Saigon. The pair rode with a group of ten upright cyclists, riding about 60-70kms each day. This is Yolande's account of the experience.

I'll be honest. It wasn’t easy dragging my bicycle manufacturing partner away from the order list and factory workbenches for a cycling trip in Vietnam. Then again, it wasn't easy convincing myself that taking recumbents was a good idea. Don’t get me wrong - I was converted on the riding experience (recumbents are an absolute joy to ride and touring on them is a world more comfortable and scenic than an upright) but persuading myself that transporting them across the world and riding them in Asia was anything short of a suicide attempt took some serious positive thinking.



I was feeling particularly fragile as we waited the 30-odd minutes in the check-in line with our Trisled Gizmo bags, even though we’d checked the baggage allowance rules several times and were supposedly well within our limits. After successfully avoiding excess baggage fees and surviving the juggernaut of customs, bag and body detectors, drug tests, baggage pick-up and transport to the hotel, I moved onto my second major apprehension: riding. Anyone familiar with the chaos of Asian roads will surely share my reservations.

As this was my first major touring trip on trikes, we’d come prepared, perhaps too prepared, for Vietnam’s roads. Ben, who is always eager to placate my nerves, provided flags, lights, mirrors, reflective tape, fluoro pannier-bag covers and ultra-bright clothing. My theory was that if I was going to get runover by a truck, I wanted to be certain the driver had seen me. As it turned out, nearly every vehicle gave us a wide berth so that the occupants could hang their heads out the windows for a good hard look. We were the most visible vehicles on Vietnamese roads.

Although I’m by no means a converted extrovert, being the centre of attention can be a lot of fun. As soon as we hit the road we were getting some priceless reactions from onlookers, including the famous ’Oi Choi Oi!’, which translates as ’Oh My God!’, or perhaps more fittingly in our case, ’What the f***?!’ We had high-speed chases with school kids, many attempted conversations with motorbike drivers who would ride beside us to smile and stare, and there was an abundance of roadside goodwill towards our strange new machines.



After a few days of ultra-brightness we started to tone down the fluoro. It really didn’t make much difference. If you’re riding a recumbent on a road in
Vietnam, there’s no doubt about it, you’re going to be seen.

I was pleasantly surprised at how safe I felt with all the extra attention. Mind you, it took a bit of time to get used to the (seemingly non-existent) road rules. The give way rule seems to apply in reverse in Vietnam - if a vehicle is coming out of a side road, you give way to it. Chances are the driver won’t even look at what’s coming, even if he or she is turning onto a major highway. In fact, I think the general rule is to give way to everything. Once you’ve stopped expecting other vehicles to wait for you to go past, riding becomes a whole lot easier.

Riding recumbents seemed to make this process a little less stressful for a number of reasons. Firstly because a lot of traffic broke the rule and waited for us while they stopped to stare as we went past, secondly because recumbent trikes can brake about a third faster than an upright bicycle, and thirdly because the three-wheeled format of a trike allows for superior evasive manoeuvring ability - a feature which we tended to use quite regularly! Having said all that, it’s still nice to know what’s coming up behind you.

The Asian indicator consists of the horn, occasional flashing headlights, and even more occasionally, the actual indicator itself. Unlike Australia and many other Western cultures, the horn isn't used primarily as an act of hostility or aggression. Its main purpose is to let other vehicles know you are passing, encourage vehicles to get out of your way, or more often in our case, to say ’Oi Choi Oi!’ Luckily the traffic, which may at first appear to be total pandemonium, is surprisingly predictable.



Nonetheless, when all manner of vehicles are flowing thick and fast around the road and an industrial strength, turbo-charged, illegally-boosted horn goes off behind you, it’s nice to know that it’s only a motorbike and it has plenty of room to get past you. That’s why the mirror quickly became my new essential component - second only to the brake. The mirror was also fabulous for overtaking, which you tend to do a lot of, particularly in the more rural areas where every man and his dog, chickens, cows, goats and buffalo herd are in various stages of crossing the road.

The best way to explain the animal situation in Vietnam is to think of the country as a very big farm. Fences are almost non-existent, and the grazing land comes right up to the road. This means that many animals include the road in their territory, and while they are generally tolerant of strange vehicles passing through, it pays to approach with caution.

Although dogs are everywhere in Vietnam, they were mostly terrified of our recumbents; a reaction I hadn’t been expecting. We were chased by one or two dogs, but this wasn’t recumbent specific - upright cyclists were chased too. Most dogs were too perplexed or scared to chase us, choosing to run away instead. I have a theory that the bright colours on our trikes were scaring them, but given that dog is on the menu in some parts of Vietnam, perhaps they have simply learnt to be wary of anything vaguely threatening from a young age.



Cattle and buffalos were mildly spooked by our Gizmos, but when we rolled past slowly they happily continued munching on their patch of greenery. Male goats were the most aggressive animals we encountered, as they tended to include entire sections of a mountain in their territory, including the road. Out general policy was to give ourselves a downhill escape route when we passed a protective animal with horns, teeth or both - luckily we never had to put this strategy to the test!

There were many advantages of riding a recumbent on this trip, the most exciting for me being that I could hang my camera around my neck and take photos as I rode. Although I haven’t even mentioned the many beauties of Vietnam (you can read a travel guide for that), having a relaxed and comfortable body with your head pointed up and out is the perfect way to see this country’s spectacular scenery. We also noticed that we were generally less tired and sore than our fellow upright companions after a hard day’s ride, and we really felt the aerodynamic advantage when nasty headwinds started rolling in during the second week. It is also worth noting the moral satisfaction we felt to be on both the giving and receiving end of the stares and questions, given that most tourists gape, gawk and take pictures of the Vietnamese like they’re animals in a zoo, often causing unintended offense.

If you’re thinking about taking a recumbent to Vietnam or other parts of Asia, don’t get scared off by the terrain. This trip taught me that recumbents really can go virtually everywhere an upright bicycle can, and sometimes even to places where they can’t. The stability of the trike format allowed me to climb steep hills that I normally would have been walking my bike up. Gizmo, with its 70mm bottom clearance and narrow track-width (620mm) went over a variety of small and rocky dirt roads and bike bridges without a single complaint - not even a flat tyre! But by far the biggest advantage was having a seat that distributes the pressure across your body - half the time I didn’t even bother getting out of it at the rest stops.

After two-and-a-half weeks of hard ’work’ on Vietnam’s roads, our trikes and us returned safe and satisfied to our little patch of coastal calm on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula convinced that touring on recumbents is the best way to travel.

Top tips for taking recumbents to Vietnam

Baggage allowance - Check the baggage allowance rules! Every airline is different and some are more tolerant than others. For example, Thai Airways has an ’official’ check-in baggage limit of 20kg (standard throughout most of Asia) and an ’unofficial’ limit of 30kg.

Packing - We managed to get our Gizmo trikes (around 14kg), which disassemble using a bolt joining system, and all our riding-related gear - pannier bags, racks, packing materials, spares, helmets, cycling shoes, coats, first-aid kit, toolkit and accessories - into a Gizmo bike bag for under 30kgs. This meant that all remaining luggage had to fit into our hand luggage, which had a surprisingly lenient total limit of around 9kg per person (7kg for backpack and 1-2kg for camera and handbag). Using this strategy we had no excess baggage fees either way.







From left to right: Ben with two Tri-Sled Gizmo bags on a check-in trolley; Gizmo’s narrow track-width makes it though a Vietnamese bike bridge; at the top of hard climb.

Bike boxes/ bags - If you value your investment, buy a good quality air-travel bag for your recumbent. Although the Gizmo and some other recumbent models fit in a standard cardboard bike box supplied by airlines, these can break apart easily. We used bike bags manufactured by Tri-Sled for our Gizmos, which survived damage-free both ways. These bags cube out to slightly less than a standard bike box.

Tyres - We used pre-loved Schwalbe Marathon Slicks on the front and new Schwalbe Big Apples on the back (avaible through Tri-Sled). We had no flats the whole trip and probably could have run slicks the whole way around.

Spares - Spares for recumbents are more readily available than we’d initially thought, but it’s still a good idea to come prepared - especially if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Roadside bike stalls are in most towns and stock many essentials. Make sure you pack spare gear cables and chain link joiners (geared bikes are almost nonexistent in Vietnam). Motorbike tyres in 20- inch size are available if you hunt them down and would be an acceptable replacement if you blow a recumbent tyre. Upright cyclist would be advised to take a mountain bike over a hybrid as 26-inch tyres are readily available. If you’re really lazy the street stalls will repair punctures while you wait. The going rate is around $1-2!



Accessories - A left-hand fitted mirror will provide enormous piece of mind (you’ll be riding on the right hand side of the road). BYO helmet (with sun protection), flags, lights and fluoro gear if you think it’ll make you feel safer - you’ll be hard pressed to find any safety gear once you’re in the country. Bear in mind that you’re probably going to be the most visible vehicle on the road with or without flashing lights and bright flags. Make sure you’ve got a good adjustable neck strap for your camera if you want to take shots while you’re riding.

Food and water - Vietnam has great, cheap food available virtually everywhere and it’s easy to time rest stops around roadside stalls selling fruits, water and Asian snacks. Stick to fruits you can peel if you want to reduce your chances of gastro. The cheap and readily available noodle soup (pho) is a great electrolyte booster for breakfast or lunch. Spring rolls might not be particularly good for riding, but they taste fantastic!

Massage - Cheap massage (between $5-15 for one hour) is one of the best things about Asia, and what better way to enjoy it than after a bike ride! If you’re staying at guest houses, just ask the receptionist and within 30 minutes someone will be knocking on your door. Most tourist towns also have massage outlets, but you generally get what you pay for. Males beware - some massage ladies have ’extra services’ on offer.

Accommodation - Vietnam has a range of very cheap to moderately expensive hotels and guest houses available. Camping is not really accepted.

When to go - This varies on what part of the country you plan to visit, but conditions are generally best from December to March.

More information - Lonely Planet has a book dedicated to cycling in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. For more information about taking Gizmos to Vietnam contact Trisled.



Ben ponders the next Tri-Sled machine.