Where to buy a Triplet

rodius
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Where to buy a Triplet

Postby rodius » Fri Dec 14, 2012 12:58 am

Hello,

I would like to buy a triplet bike for me, my wife and 5 year old to get into training for a world bike ride beginning early 2014.
My problem is I am having trouble locating a triplet bike that is for sale.

Does anyone have some ideas on where to look for these bikes?

human909
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Re: Where to buy a Triplet

Postby human909 » Fri Dec 14, 2012 9:00 am

rodius wrote:Hello,

I would like to buy a triplet bike for me, my wife and 5 year old to get into training for a world bike ride beginning early 2014.
My problem is I am having trouble locating a triplet bike that is for sale.

Does anyone have some ideas on where to look for these bikes?
Why not a tandem bicycle with a kids bicycle extension? A triple would be VERY hard to find and likely not the fight size for a 5 year old.

You should be able to fit one of these to a tandem.
Image

lump_a_charcoal
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Re: Where to buy a Triplet

Postby lump_a_charcoal » Fri Dec 14, 2012 9:55 am

Lucky bikes don't require rego, as you would need a B-double registration for that!

Wouldn't a tandem with a kid trailer thingy be massively long and ungainly?
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rodius
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Re: Where to buy a Triplet

Postby rodius » Fri Dec 14, 2012 10:26 am

He will be 6 or 7 by the time we leave for the trip, and he is a big boy as well so my concern is not his size.

I reconsidered a tandem with a kid trailer (I have that set up on my current bicycle) but to travel around the world we need a trailer for the luggage.
I really need a triplet.

I dont mind the length of the bike plus trailer, we are not going for any speed records, the idea is to work the family as a team and keep us together.

Image

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il padrone
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Re: Where to buy a Triplet

Postby il padrone » Fri Dec 14, 2012 11:32 am

lump_a_charcoal wrote:Wouldn't a tandem with a kid trailer thingy be massively long and ungainly?
Not at all. The tagalong will just trail along very nicely. It's only when parking, maneuvering and loading onto trains etc. that the size becomes an issue

You are probably going to be best advised to get a tandem specifically made up, or else order overseas from someone like Co-Motion. It will not be cheap :o

You could try asking Peter at Pegasus Tandems about the chance of getting a triplet built. He orders the bikes specifically from suppliers in Taiwan I believe.
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Re: Where to buy a Triplet

Postby find_bruce » Fri Dec 14, 2012 11:50 am

How much do you want to spend ? A couple of options from Thorn, but they are not cheap and shipping & GST will bump that up further

Thorn Me 'n' U2 £1,999.99 at SYS cycles
Thorn Trident on sale for £1,999.99 at SJS cycle

Plenty of US brands, but the prices only go up from there.

rodius
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Re: Where to buy a Triplet

Postby rodius » Fri Dec 14, 2012 11:58 am

I will contact Pegasus and look into the link options.

The US bikes a very expensive, not unusual to see $6000 to $10,000.
I will pay that amount if I have to, but prefer not to :roll:

Thanks for the pointers to date

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Howzat
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Re: Where to buy a Triplet

Postby Howzat » Fri Dec 14, 2012 12:03 pm

SJS Cycles in the UK seems to have a lot of choice http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/bikes-dept395_pg1/

redned
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Re: Where to buy a Triplet

Postby redned » Fri Dec 14, 2012 12:08 pm

Going by the picture of the triplet, how do you make sure the other two are pulling their weight?

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Re: Where to buy a Triplet

Postby human909 » Fri Dec 14, 2012 12:25 pm

redned wrote:Going by the picture of the triplet, how do you make sure the other two are pulling their weight?
The same way as a tandem. When your sweating your ass off and you partner is cheerfully singing along! :lol:

It is no different for a single bike. At a given cadence you can choose to put down anywhere between 0 force on the cranks or full body weight of ~750N force (more if you pull on the handlebars). On a tandem you all pedal at the same cadence. Each cyclist puts down as much or little force as they choose.

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Re: Where to buy a Triplet

Postby Mike Ayling » Fri Dec 14, 2012 4:12 pm

find_bruce wrote:How much do you want to spend ? A couple of options from Thorn, but they are not cheap and shipping & GST will bump that up further

Thorn Me 'n' U2 £1,999.99 at SYS cycles
Thorn Trident on sale for £1,999.99 at SJS cycle

Plenty of US brands, but the prices only go up from there.
Freight on the Thorn Trident will cost nearly half of what they are quoting for the bike but the good news is that the quoted price includes VAT (similar to GST) at 20% so it will only cost you GBP 1666.67 but the bad news is that you will then have to pay GST here when it arrives on the GBP1666.67 but not on the freight.
I have just bought a Thorn Raven tandem so I am familiar with the routine.

Mike
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Re: Where to buy a Triplet

Postby TDC » Fri Dec 14, 2012 4:23 pm

I think there is one for sale here

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze7yes3/illu ... guide.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

rodius
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Re: Where to buy a Triplet

Postby rodius » Fri Dec 14, 2012 4:27 pm

Thanks Mike.

I now have some options that are not insanely expensive.

Thanks everyone for the input

Rodney

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il padrone
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Re: Where to buy a Triplet

Postby il padrone » Fri Dec 14, 2012 6:15 pm

I thought GST was paid on the landed cost ie. including shipping ??

For international touring it gets to be rather difficult to carry much gear on a triple. How do you plan to cope with that? I would have thought the tandem and a single would give you more versatility - one parent rides with a full touring load on the single, other parent with the child and load (panniers, maybe trailer) on the tandem. This also gives you a single bike to run errands about town which may be of value.
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rodius
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Re: Where to buy a Triplet

Postby rodius » Fri Dec 14, 2012 7:24 pm

The amount of stuff we carry is something I am looking at.
Panniers and trailer on one bike for three people may not be possible.

My issue is my wife is not the strongest of riders.
Using a tandem with me riding and with a trailer and son would most likely slow me down enough for her to stay with me if she is not loaded with too much.
I suppose the bike strength will come.

I really want to explore the triplet in full as I would like us all on one bike but if it cant be done effectively it comes to tandem and single bike, which is a common set up. That probably answers my question right therelol

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Re: Where to buy a Triplet

Postby jacks1071 » Sat Dec 15, 2012 12:40 am

I'm really keen on a Co-Motion PeriScope Trident Convertible. If I go-ahead it'll be in a Quad though and this will be convertable to a triplet or tandem.

They arn't cheap but look to be the best for running children on the back.

http://co-motion.com/index.php/tandems/ ... onvertible" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Where to buy a Triplet

Postby Mike Ayling » Sat Dec 15, 2012 7:30 am

il padrone wrote:I thought GST was paid on the landed cost ie. including shipping ??

For international touring it gets to be rather difficult to carry much gear on a triple. How do you plan to cope with that? I would have thought the tandem and a single would give you more versatility - one parent rides with a full touring load on the single, other parent with the child and load (panniers, maybe trailer) on the tandem. This also gives you a single bike to run errands about town which may be of value.
Pete

The Commercial Invoice which is what Customs had to go on did not include freight so GST was only assessed on the cost of the bike much to my relief because the bike came fully assembled in a HUGE box which incurred a large freight charge obviously based on volume and not weight.

+1 on the advice re tandem and single. A tandem or a triplet has the same pannier capacity as a single.

Mike
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Mike Ayling
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Re: Where to buy a Triplet

Postby Mike Ayling » Sat Dec 15, 2012 7:39 am

Mike Ayling wrote:
il padrone wrote:I thought GST was paid on the landed cost ie. including shipping ??
Pete

I did not get the VAT exemption on the freight component so a double tax whammy would really have been unfortunate.

Mike
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Mike Ayling
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Re: Where to buy a Triplet

Postby Mike Ayling » Sat Dec 15, 2012 8:59 am

On further reflection now wearing my Chartered Accountant's hat I recall that there are protocols called double taxation agreements which provide that if a transaction is taxed in the jurisdiction of one party it will be exempt in the jurisdiction of the corresponding party so this may be why I was charged VAT on the freight in the UK and not charged GST in Oz.

Mike
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Re: Where to buy a Triplet

Postby RonK » Sat Dec 15, 2012 11:01 am

Flying Furniture in Canberra have a Comotion triplet on their website.

It's at the premium end of the price scale but with Comotion you certainly get what you pay for.
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Re: Where to buy a Triplet

Postby DentedHead » Sun Dec 16, 2012 12:25 pm

Re: Where to buy a Triplet:

I sooo wanted to post something about eBay and probably having to buy all three kids as a set, but I like the idea of a fambly touring together on a triplet too much...

Dent.

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Re: Where to buy a Triplet

Postby find_bruce » Sun Dec 16, 2012 12:39 pm

How about a home built one. Sure it doesn't have the style of a comotion, but the price is much better :D

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il padrone
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Re: Where to buy a Triplet

Postby il padrone » Sun Dec 16, 2012 1:27 pm

For a family world expedition? Yeah..... nup!

I have seen a similar home-built tandem break in two after just a couple of days loaded touring in the Grampians. I suppose it was 4 years old then, but it had not done a lot of loaded touring.
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Re: Where to buy a Triplet

Postby ironhanglider » Sun Dec 16, 2012 9:30 pm

Another resource,

http://www.rtrmag.com/classifieds.htm

Tandem and tagalong is doable, here's mine: If you are going this route it is likely that you'll need to fabricate a better tagalong connection than what comes from the factory, for some reason they all seem to be bad, I haven't seen a good one yet even on ones that cost three times as much as mine. I've improved mine over the original but I wouldn't be happy with it for touring. Typically the connection allows the extension to rock, in relation to the tow bike. It is a battle to make the connection properly solid.

Image

I've previously pulled a trailer with two kids behind a tandem. A tandem is a great towing vehicle.

A related thread:
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.ph ... let-stoker

Co-motion triplet
Image
They do have their issues though:
Image

This was the photo I was looking for:
Image

I'm actually with Deon on this one and reckon that the Co-Motion Periscope Trident Convertible is the way to go (with a trailer). A properly designed bike that can really do it all. Definitely not cheap, but the bike will outlast the memory of the expense.

Cheers,

Cameron

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Re: Where to buy a Triplet

Postby find_bruce » Sat Dec 29, 2012 9:32 pm

Lovely one in titanium on fleabay http://www.ebay.com/itm/290597426134" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - maybe a bit out of your price range :)

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