• Light accurate steering with tight turning circle
• Seat adjustable for height + angle with quick release levers
• Most comfortable seat on the market
• Stiff light frame reduces frame flex for improved performance
• Easy entry/exit due to curved cross member
• Narrow a fit through doors + gates
• Folds easily to put in boot/trunk

The GT20 is a new Greenspeed trike which is exceptionally easy to ride. Introduced at the 2015 Recumbent Cycle-Con show in Cincinnati, four different riders claimed it was the best trike at the show, and the guy who bought the 1st prototype, claimed he could climb hills in two gears higher than he could on his other 4 trikes.

A carefully engineered, light weight frame, low rolling resistance tires, and an efficient drive train, give exceptional performance, which make this trike a real joy to ride, for commuting, touring or just exercising and having fun.

The major reason for most people buying a recumbent is for more comfort that you get on the small saddle of an ordinary bike. A number of trikes are now offering mechanical suspension, but this inevitably adds weight, which you feel at the first stroke of the pedals, and labour with up the hills. Whereas the GT20 has what is known as virtual suspension. 1st the Scorcher tires are made to our own design, which is suppler than any other tire on the market, ensuring a lot of the road shock is calmed before it reaches the trike. Then the frame is designed to flex, and finally the seat is laced with shock cord, so that it gives a measure of suspension. Plus the seat frames have been anodized instead of power coated, to allow the seat fabric to move more easily on the frame. The seat was designed by a chiropractor, so that it provides both lumbar and shoulder support. Another feature which enhances your comfort is the adjustability of the seat. The seat adjusts for height, so that if you have difficulty getting in and out of a low seat, you can start with the seat high, and then as you get fitter, and/or lose weight, you can lower the seat, and take advantage of the better stability you get with a lower center of gravity. Plus to further enhance your comfort, the seat is adjustable for angle. Some people who suffer back pain may find the more reclined angles better, while other may prefer a more upright angle. Also the seat height adjustment in conjunction with the angle adjustment allows you to vary the angle between the pedals and your body, to best suit your physical form, and get your most comfortable pedalling position. Plus the handle bars are adjustable for width, angle, and fore and aft.

It is not much use having a really comfortable trike if it performs like a slug. A trike should be a joy to ride, and reward you for every pedal stroke. In fact not only should a recumbent trike be more comfortable than an upright bike, it should be more efficient and faster, due to better aerodynamics. This is where the GT20 shines. Unlike upright bikes, recumbent trikes are a mono tube design, and with every stroke of the pedals, the boom will flex down and the frame will flex up under the seat, wasting some of your effort. To overcome this the GT20 uses a rectangular main tube and crank extension. Thus the main tube is BOTH stiffer and lighter than the oversize round main tube used on the Magnum! To further reduce the weight further, the GT20 uses the special lightweight Aero hubs, and new kingpins which are ½ the weight of the kingpins used on the Magnum.

Many trikes with 20” wheels use the standard gearing designed for ordinary bikes with 26” wheels, and then believe trikes are slower than bikes. Some use 26 inch rear wheels on trikes which are designed for bikes which have very little side loading, and then wonder why they are unstable. The GT20 uses 20” wheels, with gearing designed for 20” wheels, so that it is BOTH fast and stable. Finally, there is the Scorcher tires. The Greenspeed Scorcher tires were introduced in 2005, and for ten years have been the choice of Pedal Prix teams, as they are faster than any other tire on the market. Last year, 2015, we had another look at the design, and have managed to improve the rolling resistance by another 15%! So the GT20 has the new “Scorcher 120” tires as standard equipment.

In the interests of saving money some trikes have twist grip shifters. While this might be OK on an upright bike with horizontal handle bars where one can get one’s thumb and fore fingers around them, they are awkward to use on vertical handle bars, where one can only get the two smaller fingers around them. Thus the GT20 uses the Shimano Ultegra bar end shifters which make changing gear easier. However, we do not blindly use Shimano for everything. We test every component, and use only what is best suited to the job. For instance, we found that the Shimano front derailleurs were hard to shift, and a number of customers had problems with them. So the GT20 has a special MicroShift front derailleur which only needs ½ the force required by the Shimano Sora F/D. We also found that the 10 speed chains now in common use were only lasting a fraction of the mileage obtained from 8 speed chains, plus the 10 speed gears needed more frequent adjustment. Plus, witnessed by the fact that a number of people are choosing to ride single speed machines, it was obvious that 10 rear speeds were not needed. Thus the GT20 has “only” 24 speeds. Yet, the gear range has been INCREASED over say the Magnum, by fitting a 56/42/28 crankset, with an 11/32 cassette, giving a gear range from 17 to 98 inches.

Should this range not be enough for some people, a wide range of additional gears maybe fitted, as the GT20 has special dropouts and extra cable guides for the German Rohloff 14 speed internally geared hub. The Schlumpf two speed bottom bracket and Nu Vinci infinitely variable hub, as fitted as standard equipment on the Anura IGH, are also popular Greenspeed fitments, as is the SRAM DualDrive hub which is fitted as standard equipment on the Magnum Hand trike.

Many trikes use disc brakes. However, most disc brakes are fiddly to adjust, the rotor can easily get bent, and the pads can have a short life, plus it can be difficult to remove the wheel. Thus the GT20 has special 90 mm drum brakes. These may take some time to bed in and give their best performance, but the shoe size is larger than the pads used in disc brakes, making them practically everlasting, and performance is 30% better than the standard 70 mm drums, and better than say the Gator hydraulic disc brakes used on the GT5. Axle size has been increased to 15 mm to reduce axle flex, and any possibility of drag with heavier riders. The drums also give a cleaner appearance, and wind tunnel test have proved they are faster, due to reduced wind drag.

Some trikes use what they call direct steering, in which the handle bars are merely extensions of the kingpins. This is often done as it is cheap, with no extra linkage except for the track rod. However, this usually results having the arms out stretched in uncomfortable and awkward manner, or at the best having the use the weaker muscles of the arms to move the handle bars sideways, rather than using the biceps in a fore and aft motion. The GT 20 uses the Greenspeed “Cross Over” steering system, for easy and superior control, and unlike conventional “indirect” steering systems, which have a larger turning circle, the GT20 has a tiny turning circle, making it extremely manoeuvrable. Using the special, narrow hubs made for the Aero, in 20” wheels, has enabled us to reduce the kingpin inclination on the GT20, so that it retains the NSR steering geometry, 1st introduced on the GT3, Series II, yet is not as heavy as the Magnum. Thus the steering is as light and accurate as the legendry GTO trikes, yet has complete freedom from brake steer. The 5 degrees of camber increase the stability of the trike for no increase in overall width, and ensure that the tire rather than the axle end will touch the bollard, gatepost or doorpost if you happen to get too close.

The GT20 is a completely new frame design from Greenspeed. We are using the rectangular cross section main tube as used on the Anura, which both stronger and lighter than the round tube used on the Magnum. And to make further gains is strength and weight we have eliminated the welds in the main tube and the cross member, by making the front main tube in one piece, and cross member also in one piece, and curved so that it comes closer to the seat to enable the rider to mount and dismount easier. The frame material is 7005 aluminium alloy, which is stronger than the more commonly used 6061 aluminium alloy and stronger than mild steel, yet only 1/3 the weight. The seat is the same material, but standard size, instead of the large seat used on the Magnum, thus it is lighter, and has lighter and simple struts for angle adjustment, yet the same Q/R adjustment at the front for height adjustment. The frame is hinged like the earlier GT3, and the Magnum, so that rear half can be folded over the front half to reduce the size enough to fit in the trunk of a car. The rectangular main tube also makes it easier to adjust the trike for leg length, as the cranks are now self-aligning, plus the cranks will no twist in the frame, if the pinch bolts or Q/R for leg length adjustment have not been done up really tight. We have also welded a boss to the frame to take the fixed idler for the optional Chain Gobbler, which automatically adjusts the chain length, as the cranks are moved in and out, to suit riders with different leg lengths.

Yet another feature of the GT20 frame, is the ability to change frame sizes. The standard frame will take riders with an X-seam from 41 to 51 inches, or from about 5’ 3” to about 6’ 5” in height. However, as the boom clamp is an external clamp, rather than part of the frame, the main tube can be shortened as much as 6” to allow riders with an X-seam as small as 35 inches or about 4’ 6” in height.

Specifications