Reviewed by AdultTricyclereview.com
People asked and Catrike delivered. With the aging population many
people have had difficulty getting into and out of Catrike other models
because of their low seat height. Once you sit down on the Villager,
you’ll immediately realize that this trike’s seat height is noticeably
higher than either the Catrike Road or the Trail. The Road has your
posterior at 8 inches, the Trail is 9.25 inches, and the Villager
elevates you to 12.5 inches. You might not think that’s much, but it
really makes getting into and out of the trike much easier.
Frame: The frame on the Catrike Villager is
aluminum, TIG welded together in Florida, I would have to say the welds
are beautiful and of the highest quality in the industry. The frame is
constructed out of oversize shaped and manipulated aluminum tubing.
Paint: Catrike pain jobs are a work of art, there is
no one in the bike industry that is better maybe just equal to there
paint jobs. There standard paint jobs is everything you want in a paint
job, clean, consistent and durable along with seven colors to choose
from. There double coat colors are OMG awesome, and have five more
colors to choose from.
Drive Train: The shifting is superb on the
Villager, Catrike choose a premium SRAM drive train combination with ten
gears to choose from in the rear and three in the front for a total of
thirty. The SRAM X-7 rear derailleur performed flawless, mating the X-7
with the SRAM 500 TT Bar End Shifter and Microshift front derailleur is a
combination that Catrike uses quite often.
Brakes: Catrike chose Avid BB7 mechanical disc
brakes with Avid Speed Dial brake levers. This combination stopped the
trike consistently and had no brake rub. I have no issue with the
mechanical brakes that Avid offers; they are simple, reliable and easy
to adjust. A super convenient feature of the Avid mechanical brakes are
that each brake pad can be adjusted independently so you can really dial
in your brake adjustment. Catrike chose a simple Velcro strap that you
wrap around one of the brake levers for your parking brake. I really
like this because it is simple and adds no weight to the trike. This
also allowed Catrike to be able to use a premium brake lever. ICE trike
chose a different route by adding a brake to the rear wheel and a remote
shifter to control the brake. This works well but added almost a pound
to the ICE trikes.
Seat: Not only is the seat higher on the Villager,
but the recline is not as laid-back as I have become used to. Again
using those other two trikes as a comparison, the Road has a recline
angle of 37 degrees, the Trail is 45. The Villager seat back angle can
be adjusted from 41 degrees to 51 degrees of tilt so you can have the
best of both worlds. Perhaps this isn’t as upright as the chair in your
dining room, but it sure felt like it! If you have issues with a
strained neck, this trike won’t aggravate the condition.
Ride: One thing I do with every trike is to make
every effort to find out where that gone-too-far point is, that
combination of speed and turning radius that has me holding my breath
and wishing I had taken up knitting instead. Just about any trike can be
prodded into lifting a wheel if pushed far enough. The wider you make
it, the more reclined you sit, the harder you have to push it in turn to
get that wheel to come up. With this seat height of just over a foot, I
was concerned about the handling of the Villager. I didn’t need to be.
Sure, I was able to get the inside wheel to lift – but I had to
really crank it hard in a turn, harder than I normally ever would, just
to get it to come up even a little. Oh yes, toss in some bumpy downhill
turns, have the rider lean to the outside, then we might see more air
beneath the wheel – but it’s not something that will happen with normal
riding.
In conclusion: I found this trike to be a typical
Catrike: lovely paint scheme, flawless welds, no-surprises in handling,
and all at a price that must have its competition grumbling. Is it the
perfect trike for everyone? Of course not. As much as I liked the trike,
it’s not one I would want as my only ride. I like to get more of my
body weight on my back and not my butt, for example, so the recline is
not what I would like for long periods. The seat height is nice – at
some point, you begin to not like the squat-and-drop approach to sitting
down on most trikes. The performance was better than adequate, though
there are times when I do want to ride faster than was easily done on
the Villager.
If you feel that you are a “casual” rider – whatever that means – if
you like the simplicity of no front derailleur, if you are not
interested in climbing the steepest hills, nor racing other riders, then
this trike may be the “just right” that Goldilocks found.
Pros: Very light, OMG paint, high seat and adjustable recline, great fit and finish.
Cons: Really none. I like the Villager, Catrike has
lots of different models so it should be about choosing the best model
for your riding style. So, my only con would be the increased wind
resistance from less-reclined seating position.