I am bicycling this year to Florida on a recumbent trike that I built from plans downloaded from the Internet, with help from a friend who did the welding. It is quite a bit slower than my old Novara Safaria touring bicycle that I road to Portland Maine 18 months ago, especially going uphill. I can’t come close to keeping up with John and Richard on this trip. It is also much more of a problem with small or non existing road shoulders with traffic because it is 3 ft wide. So you might ask why not stay with the old bike? The first reason is because of my Parkinson’s disease which is causing me to have an increasing problem with balance so at slow speeds I wobble all over the place and can’t get started at all on any kind of uphill incline. With 3 wheels that is no longer an issue so I should be able to continue riding even after the disease progresses. The second reason is the comfort factor. My new ride is incredibly comfortable even after being on it for 10 hours of hard riding. On my old bike, my rear end hurt bad, my hands ached, my shoulders hurt, and my neck killed me. Even though my new bike has problems it is so much more fun to ride. I think I will get faster as I get used to the recumbent position and get in better shape and the traffic deal is only a problem occasionally and there is usually a solution, such as calling my wife to come pick me up! Oh, and one more plus is because of the really comfortable seat that my son in law made for it I can take a nap any time I want.