The Touchwood Project

Meet the quadricycle

Our quest to have fun, be playful and enjoy living green has started to move in another direction lately: getting rid of the car. Given that it’s 11 miles from our house to Kirkwall and the nearest bus stop is 2 miles away, walking or conventional cycling leaves me feeling apprehensive (the wind! the cold! I’m so not that fit!).

So if I’m going to give up something as freedom-giving and effort-saving as a car, it had better be for something good. Now one possibility we wrote about the other day is hitchhiking. I think this has enormous potential for our island in particular, but what if you don’t want to hitch?

Enter the wildly impractical quadricycle — a bike for 2 on 4 wheels.

I’ll tell you why I’m drawn to this kooky idea: I can’t stop laughing about it. The image of the two of us pedaling our way round the island, with some ridiculous flag on the back or triangle sign like the Amish put on their horse and buggy carriages, makes me smile.

I like to imagine the idea catching on, a whole island full of families do their weekly shopping in the four-passenger:

Quadricycle for 4 people, 2 children

Or couples out for a romantic drive to the Standing Stones, or friends carpooling to see a film in town. Imagine pulling up to your friend’s house to pick her up in one of these. Hilarious.

Perhaps you’d prefer the striped version?

Surrey with the fringe on top

Enter the practical challenges

Alas, there are a few problems with the concept. For one, there are no UK-distributors or manufacturers of quadracycles that I can find. Malcolm and I spent hours last night Googling to no avail. The models above are American, as are the other versions we found like Mobilette and Rhoades Car.

Mobilette's "Tornado", which also appeals

Hm, not very comfortable

More worryingly, these models are all meant to be used at leisure resorts, going maybe a few miles at a slow pace. My favourite design, Quadricycle International’s one at the beginning that looks like the a VW Beetle, has a speed limit of five miles an hour. I might as well walk.

And none of them are adjustable seating, so Malcolm’s 6′ 2″ and my 5′ 8″ would be using the same frame. That’s not going to work if we’re going to cycle 22 miles in one day.

OK, comfortable but so…boring

So if we want a quad that’s going to be remotely practical, we’d have to spring for this:

ZEM's quadricycle seems a bit industrial

Zero Emission Machine is the only European quadricycle manufacturer we could find. They’re Swiss, and their quads are comfortable, adjustable, reasonably fast — and horribly pricey at €3450 (£3000 or $5150). They also look too much like bicycles to me.

The red is kinda cool, but where’s the canopy? Where’s the playfulness?

The other practical alternative is Montana-based Lightfoot Cycles, whose helpful comparison of their quad with all the other major manufacturers first brought the practical problems to my attention:

Lightfoot's Microcar

Again, it just looks like 2 mountain bikes strung together. Where’s the laugh factor?

So, I’m not sure where this leads. Malcolm thinks perhaps we could get someone over here in the UK to make one or modify it. The Lightfoot has the added advantage of being able to carry an electric motor, something that appeals as it’d help me get up our admittedly pretty tiny hills.

A new way to tour Orkney?

The other application I love for the idea of quadricycles is touring Orkney. Malcolm’s been taking people around Orkney in our 7-seater Doblo, and most people drive cars to see Skara Brae and the other big tourist sites.

While there’s some bus services, they don’t go everywhere and so many people prefer the control you have with your own vehicle. Wouldn’t it be great to see some of the more adventurous ones tooling around in a quad instead? They could stop and visit with each other when they pass on the road.

Surrey Company's "Limousine" just right for families

An island full of quadricycles would certainly be a talking point and perhaps even a tourist attraction in its own right. Add electric-powered batteries assisted by wind or wave power, and you’ve got something truly exciting.

Tags: going carless, Orkney

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