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Taga - exclusive first look!We take a test ride on the Taga, a consumer-friendly trike which converts into a stroller-type pushchair... Thanks to Simon Pearson of Taga, Velo Vision has once again stolen a lead on the rest of the world's press with a hands-on review! The Taga is a child-carrying trike which converts into a pushchair, due to be launched officially in the UK on the 6th May. As well as selling through cycle dealers, it will also be distributed via non-cycling channels including Mothercare. They'll sell the boxed machine with full instructions, which will apparently urge customers unsure about any aspect of assembly or maintenance to go to their local cycle shop. Simon brought along two machines, which we rode for a few miles around York, including a visit to my friend Arthur who tried it out with his young son James, as you'll see later. First, here are the two Tagas ready to go:  The two machines fitted easily into the back of Simon's estate car. Sorry for the confused picture below, but you can probably see here how the rear section detaches from the front, with a spring pin for location and a QR to lock it in place. The two handlebar uprights also detach in the same way, leaving manageable parts to be stowed away:  As you can see above, the seats detach at the push of a button, and stand securely (even with a child on board) while you assemble the machine or convert it between modes. Here's the bare frames in the two configurations:  Note that in both modes there's a luggage tray underneath the child seat. On these demo bikes a 5 kg weight had been placed here, to help with stability for novice riders, especially with no child on board. It is easily removed. To swap over from trike to pushchair, you remove the seat (press buttons each side), drop the saddle (two QRs) then unlock this big latch:  Then grip the handle over the mudguard, and swivel the whole rear end over. The mudguard flips over as you do so so it's still on top, and it's retained in either position by a magnet. Here we go in pushchair mode:  As a pushchair, the trike steering is locked straight ahead, so you steer just by lifting the front wheel and moving it sideways. In both modes the seat can be tilted back for sleeping babies, and it has an adjustable harness system. The red and green fabrics shown here are the only two colour options.  Let's take a quick look at a few details before we get to the ride report. The transmission is fully enclosed in a nice plastic chaincase:  and in the rear hub is a Shimano three-speed hub gear, controlled by this shifter:  The front wheels have mechanical disk brakes, balanced to work off a single lever. The other lever works the roller brake on the back wheel. All wheels are 16" (the 305 size, a bit smaller than Brompton wheels). Note also the very smoothly welded, oversized aluminium frame. Rather like the Gocycle, the Taga is a very 'finished' design, with a high production values look to it:  Right! On to the action:  As an upright trike, the Taga is easy for non-cyclists to jump on and go. Practiced cyclists may find it a bit more of a learning curve, as you have to shift mental gears from 'lean to turn' to 'steer to turn'. But after just a few minutes it's very manageable. Yes, you can easily lift a wheel if you want to: apparently this is the first thing bike shop staff - mostly young men - tend to do, and the last thing most mums and dads try... But it's easy to ride within the trike's limits if you want, and the stability is easily sufficient in everyday riding to cause no concerns. It coped fine - even with the small wheels - to some fairly heavy potholes and speed bumps. I did unintentionally lift a wheel occasionally on off-camber surfaces, but easily recovered. The gearing is fairly low anyway - you won't want to go massively fast with a child on board, and high speeds shouldn't be necessary anyway for the relatively short-distance urban transport tasks it's designed for. The hub shifts smoothly under load or not: a good choice for ease of use and reliability. Brakes were also very good, even on these new 'just out of the box' trikes which hadn't had a chance for the disks to wear in. The front brakes did seem well balanced, with even hard braking not producing any discernable drift to one side. Our two test trikes did have a sort of 'index' to the steering, at the straight-ahead position - possibly intentional, to make it easier to load up in trike mode (there's also a parking brake) and also perhaps for riding at speed. You can sort of just 'nudge' the steering against the slight centre resistance to make small changes in direction. But Simon will be checking with the manufacturers as to whether this is correct. There were also a few teething problems on one trike, with bolts needing tightening etc - not a problem for any current cyclist to fix, and to be expected with any new bike 'out of the box'. UPDATE: Simon adds: "I have just had word back from head office about the centre index feeling on the steering - it was an unintentional 'feature' caused in the production of the initial 50 units (EU spec) caused by slight overtightening of the head bearings. All is smooth after that point in production." Thanks for the update!. It's hard to tell how the Taga worked out from the passenger's point of view - at just over 12 months, James couldn't really give a detailed verdict. But he seemed to enjoy the ride and the view. A sunshade is built into the seat, and a raincover will also be available. Also coming up will be a two-seat version (for one smaller, one larger child), a quick-release luggage basket to fit in place of the childseat, and other options. The Taga will retail in the UK at £1695 including VAT. A list of stockists is on the Taga website, and you can contact Taga UK for details of your closest, or with any other queries: Tel 01422 844 414 or email simon (at) taga.nl Overall, the Taga is an impressive bit of kit. It did attract masses of positive attention even during our brief ride, and the versatility on offer, and smart appearance, do seem to be very attractive even for non-cyclists. It is of course not cheap (but good child equipment or specialised bikes rarely are), and has its possible drawbacks compared to other solutions, too. As a pushchair it works well, but compared to most 'normal' pushchairs it's heavier, more complex and won't fold down as small. As a trike it's limited in speed and stability, and arguably in luggage capacity (a rear rack would be nice to carry extra shopping). But by combining both modes, it lets you move seamlessly between walking round on foot (for shopping, perhaps) but then flipping back into cycle mode for longer cross-town journeys, all with your child comfortably and safely seated. The separating frame also makes it easy to transport in a car, a very useful feature for many. All in all, the Taga is a welcome addition to the range of machines making human-powered urban transport ever more practical and useful - especially with children. It could be just the thing on which to ride past the school rush-hour traffic jams... Peter Eland Look out for our report on the Taga coming up in Velo Vision 34, out in June... 
Posted on 22 April 2009
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