I haven’t been riding much. Lots of reasons for that, which I don’t wanna get into, and which aren’t terribly likely to change before the winter weather returns, much to my chagrin. I won’t make the Recumbent Retreat this year, barring a miracle. Nor Ride the Rim, which I will do. Someday. Oh. There’s another one I just learned about from my LBS down in Port Orford at the end of September. Won’t make that this year either.
I have been busy with the trike anyway, doing some upgrades and maintenance with an eye to the future. New tires, Schwalbe Marathon Plus and Plus Tour, wider, softer, and grippier than the Spicer/Tryker combo that came with the trike. I hate road tires, always have, and would’ve done this before except I set a goal of at least a thousand miles on the original tires. I’m well past that, according to my stats on Strava, so, even though they likely have many more miles in them, they’re gone.
I’ve also finished a pretty extensive hydration system upgrade, fixing a T-Cycle FastBack Double Century Hydration Pack onto the seat and rigging two two-liter bladders through clamps and quick disconnects to one hose for drinking. And by “fixing”, I mean “total overkill weaving the pack into the seat back”. With the three water bottle cages, I have almost six liters of capacity, with the ability to carry lots of water and a smaller amount of electrolyte and/or sports hydration. Bonus, the FastBack bags, when empty of their bladders, serve as extra cargo capacity for erranding.
And removed the chain tubes, completely, and installed the T-Cycle ICE Dual Idler Kit, elite edition thankaveramuch. It does affect folding a bit, but I wrap the chain in cloth at the fold and use the old chain tube retaining straps to hold that in place. The trike is so much faster and quieter, though, without the chain tubes. Quiet enough that a flat repair kit rattling in the trunk threw me for a bit before I figured out what it was.
What else. New helmet, long overdue (my last was well over six years old), with a DaBrim so I’m not using a cycling cap under the helmet for sun shade. New tools for the road repair kit, including a rather excellent little torque driver kit from Silca. And a master link chain pliers from Wolf Tooth Components that carries two extra master links and also serves as an extra tire lever. Both a bit pricey, but extremely compact, well made, and totally worth it.
But what got me really excited, and what will be the meat of the next post, is finding out that a) ICE now has an indexed locking system for handlebar adjustments, and b) it is retrofittable onto older models of trike like mine. It means that unfolding the trike after transport now has one less niggling adjustment that has to be done before riding. It also means that I’ll have to do the toe-in alignment on the front wheels after the upgrade.
So, I’m making a tool for that from bits and bobs from the garage and hardware store.
See you next time!
Tastes Like Tofu 