As everyone knows, Americans and Europeans have widely divergent tastes.

France

Them: Speedos.

Us: Baggy Nauticas.

Bavaria

Them: Lemonade & beer

Us: Whiskey & beer

Sweden

Them: Scorpions

Us: Black Flag

England

Them: Bangers & Mash

Us: Hot Dogs & Fries

So, I’m curious about this: With the growing popularity of “utility bikes,” rides like the Big Dummy and the Xtracycle are sure to get super popular in the US. But over in Northern Europe, they much prefer larger three-wheeled vehicles like the Christiana Trike. I have to admit that the latter looks like a much more serious long-haul utility bike, the equivalent of an F-150; whereas the Xtracycle is more like an El Camino.

So here’s the question. Are Americans genetically predisposed to prefer two wheels to three?

My own best guess is that we, being a selfish people, are very reluctant to give up the pure joy of mobility on two wheels. Those trikes look heavy and miserable to actually ride, and imagine trying to push 50 or 60 pounds of grocerys up a hill with one.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 29th, 2008 at 10:43 am and is filed under Just Riding Along. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.