New GT20 folding recumbent trike with 20" wheels by Greenspeed

Greenspeed is developing a new trike platform to replace its GT1, GT3, and GT5 series of folding recumbent trikes for 2016. The new platform (currently known only as "GT20") was shown publicly complete with test rides of a prototype at the Recumbent Cycle Con convention in Cincinnati.

Greenspeed's GT20 borrows its design from GT1, Anura, and Magnum trikes which have all been in production for several years now. In common with the Magnum are:

• 20" front wheels and possibly an interchangeable 20" / 26" rear drivewheel
• 90mm Sturmey-Archer drum brakes
• detachable seat with clamping seat-stays
• variable seatheight adjustment
• cambered wheels for maximum width at the point of the contact patch

The new trike borrows the Anura's rectangular square tubing for the main structural backbone, and uses the Anura-style moveable clamp meaning that the length of the frame can be cut down to size for shorter-legged riders.

Further, borrowing from the GT3 (and more lately the Magnum, as well) it features:

• over-the top folding with central hinge
• bar-end shifting and locking parking brake levers as standard equipment
• crossover indirect steering tying to forward-aiming steering arms

The GT20's design improves rider ingress and egress with the swept back cruciform design pioneered by HP Velotechnik as a backward V and then improved upon by Azub with a graceful backward arch. The swept-back cruciform puts the standing position of the rider closer to the seat minimizing fall-back when sitting down.

The new trike will use Greenspeed-signature seat mesh with bungee strapping. Also, the wheels will use a specially modified Sturmey-Archer hub which is much narrower than the standard hub width and an innovative Greenspeed outer spoke-hole / flange system. Greenspeed first used this design more than 10-years ago, but has standardized it on this model to minimize the material in the hub while having very strong flange at the spoke interface. The narrow hub-width and standard drum-brake specification allow the GT20 to have a solid axle with minimal penalty for packability and no penalty for wheel removal.

The lowest seat height seems to be in the range of the Magnum, so it is relatively high as trikes go. However, this relatively high center of gravity is offset or stabilized by the afore-mentioned wheel camber and wide effective contact width. The GT20 has a lower weight-limit (estimated at 300#) than the highly-spec'ed Magnum's 400# limit, and the seat width is correspondingly slightly smaller, so it will fit average-sized riders better than the Magnum and should be lighter.

There is a possibility that Greenspeed will depart from its long-standing aversion to larger wheel-sizes and offer a large drive wheel for the GT20.

Greenspeed has been a leader in the recumbent trike industry with founder Ian Sims receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award due to his influence in designing the ground-breaking GTO touring trike which lent its design lessons to all of the later Greenspeed models and the recumbent industry as a whole.

Some dealers such as AlphaBENT owe their start in the recumbent trike industry to working with Greenspeed in bringing GTO trikes into the American market many years ago just after the turn of the millenium.