The Highline, Icy roads. or, My summer convience is my winter conundrum. (Conrad: house, buying)

[Rickers]

I live one and a half blocks from the store with no hill to go up or down. I walk or ride my bike for small shopping but for stocking up I need to drive. I can't justify warming up a car when it's 25 below for a three block drive but if I walk I'll slip and fall on the ice and my ol bod can't take that much longer. I don't dare riding my bike even with ice tires and I can only put so many groceries in my backpack. Walking with cleats would keep me from slipping but I still can't carry much. I want an adult sized tricycle with a basket with ice tires for the winter. I found a site on how to put studs on mountain bike tires cheaply, but a full suspension would be nice too, and gears. It goes on and on until I'm spending a lot of money I don't have. so while I'm dreaming of a better trike and snooping on the web I found this. I can't afford it (now) but it sure looks good to me. It's like a three wheeled electric moped.

Electric Pedi-Cab Rickshaw Bicycle Tricycle 2 Passenger

[ElkHunter]

I have an electric bike. Put a trailer on the back. I like to ride bike but my legs give out. So with the electric bike, I kick it on and can now make it home. Well worth the money.

[Mt-7]

You know I never saw alot of these until I came over here but lots of folks use them.
I say be safe and use the Toy....breaks are hard to recover from.

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by rickers

I live one and a half blocks from the store with no hill to go up or down.

There's your problem, you should have picked a location where it was uphill both ways!

I'd like to have a motor-assisted bicycle myself. The old bod just doesn't want to pedal uphill or against the wind anymore. I've seen some that have what amounts to a lawn mower or chainsaw engine on 'em, small and noisy but seem to get around good. That rickshaw thing looks nice, tho probably pricey!

[mica]

That thing is pretty nifty.

[Rickers]

I like it too but I'm not even going to check on the price just now. I can get a new Chinese made Schwinn adult trike for $250 and fit it with ice tires. I'm hoping to find an old timer in town who may have a used three speed leg powered tricycle he can't ride anymore and will sell it to me for a lot less than that nice expensive looking electric motorized trike moped. I may get a motorized contraption like that one but I need the exercise and my rich uncle isn't out of the poor house yet and most likely never will !
I may try making my own ice tires and try using my made in USA Nishiki Mountain bike. Good ice tires are pricey and I'm sure I can convert good Mountain bike tires shown on the second one of these links.

Studded Bicycle Tires

How to Convert Bicycle Tires Into Studded Snow Tires - wikiHow

[Reziac]

Good mountain bike tires cost about the same as the cheapest studded snow tires -- I notice the link has some down around $40. By the time you buy the screws and do the drilling and so on it's probably worth buying the lower-end studded tire.

Occurs to me that some very lightweight chain, wrapped around the tire criss-cross-wise (not just spiral-wrapped), ie. thru the spokes, would do the same job and would be a lot easier, plus removable in the spring. The extremely cheap flat chain would probably work pretty well, as it naturally has a lot of edges. (The stuff that's made from horseshoeing little flaps of metal together. I can't find a picture of it but it's about the cheapest stuff available, and comes in a real small size.) Plain old wire wrap might work too.

The nice thing about the trike is the load capacity -- you can carry two good bags of groceries a lot easier than on a bike. (Trust me. I've carried 50 lb. bags of dog food on a bike.)

[rangerider]

I use Kahtoola Microspikes (similar to YakTrax, but beefier, probably not suited for store floors) for hiking and taking the dog for walks when it's icy/snowy. If it's a block and a half, boot cleats of some sort and a small toboggan might work. I see a lot of the ice fishers use a rubber slip-on boot front with little titanium studs - looks to be store friendly, would save taking them off and re-installing for the trip home.

Guess when the snow isn't there a guy would have to come up with another conveyance of some kind...guess as kids we had the right idea with our wagons!

Actually - http://www.gemplers.com/img/nursery-...tal-167750.jpg

[Reedsmit]

Rickers,
This may be something to consider

Dog sledding - The Big Picture - Boston.com

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by Reedsmit

Rickers,
This may be something to consider

Dog sledding - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Picture #7 is identified as a guy from Lincoln, MT! That's only a few days mushing from Conrad, maybe he'd come taxi our Rickers around