KEEP ON TRIKIN’

For those who want to build a tadpole trike it is imperative that they understand the science of the steering and ensure that they “get it right”. The “center point steering”, camber and caster settings, “Ackerman steering principle” and “toe in setting” all must be correct. Otherwise there will be “trouble in River City” and it could even lead to serious endangerment for the rider. At the very least handling will be greatly effected and tire wear will be a serious problem. When I first bought my Catrike Trail the dealer had the toe in off considerably and my brand new front tires wore out in only 30 miles of riding.

In the first video below this man says toe in should be 1/8 inch. That is too much for most trikes. 1/16 inch is preferable and is what is recommended by most trike manufacturers. Actually zero toe in maybe the ticket for some trikes including mine as with my weight on it I end up with about 1/16 inch toe in. There in lies another matter … it is best to set the toe in with the rider seated. This usually means a second person is needed as the mechanic to do the adjusting. It is not imperative that it is done this way, but it does work best. The more the rider weighs the more the toe in will change as the rider is seated on the trike. The closer you can get to zero toe in the better as long as the handling is ok. Never have toe out however as the handling will greatly suffer as a result.

Here are a couple of video illustrating and explaining about these things.

A bicycle chain is a wondrous innovation. On a conventional bicycle one can expect the chain to last only about 2000-3000 miles. On a tadpole trike that figure increases by about 2.5 to 3 times as much. That is because the length of the chain is that much longer than the chain on a bicycle meaning that it gets less use per full revolution.

Now these figures are for non motorized trikes. When a motor is added into the picture things change. The mileage figure can go up, down or stay the same. A motor can add additional stress on a chain and sprockets or it can remove some of it … depending upon what the setup is. By that I mean the type of motor installed and the electrics it has.

There are basically two types of motors … hub and crank drive. Their system can be set up so that the rider must pedal to engage the motor or it may have a manual throttle which does not require pedalling in order to engage the motor. Crank drive systems are known to wear out chains and sprockets quicker.

I have a rear hub motor with a manual throttle. I pedal my trike but in order to use the motor I must use the throttle. When I use the throttle I am usually going faster than I am capable of pedalling. That means that my pedalling is “fake” … I can’t pedal that fast so any pedalling I am doing has no pressure being applied to the pedals. The result of that is less exercise and less chain wear.

Before I motorized my trike I usually got 9000 to 15000 miles out of a chain. I check my chain for wear periodically. I have noticed that I have not needed to replace it for an unusually long time. Yesterday I checked my records and found that I have about 74000 miles on this chain. That’s a bunch! I have no idea how many more miles I can get out of it before it needs to be changed.

HERE is an article I wrote on how to change a chain.

Be careful when measuring the new chain off of the old one. The old one has “stretched” so it’s total length is effected. It is much safer to count lengths than it is to measure. You can see in the image above how the chain has worn … pin and bushing wear results in the chain growing longer. It does not actually stretch but we call it that. Remember a typical chain on a trike is 2.5 to 3 times as long as a standard bicycle chain. The taller the rider is the longer the chain will be.

Would you believe you are looking at bicycle chain?

I am 79 now. I can tell I am no spring chick. A lot has changed over the last couple of years, especially this year. I am riding very little nowadays. It is difficult for me to load and unload my trike from my truck where I store it. Consequently that makes a big difference in how often I ride it. Honestly, I find myself making (looking for) excuses not to ride. My motivation is way down. I have thought about selling my trike and go from there in downsizing my possessions … something I need to do … should have already done several years ago.

I have noticed that it is getting harder for me to work on my trike and again, I find myself less motivated … not only concerning my trike, but most anything. I just want to relax and do next to nothing. I have been putting off getting a ladder out to work on a couple of lights. I finally got that done after a few months of procrastination.

Truthfully I never thought it would come to this. I expected to keep riding daily until I couldn’t anymore. Of course, the less I ride the worse things get as far as my physical abilities.

The fact that my former website tadpolerider.com was taken down when I gave it away doesn’t help any. That really bummed me out, especially after the man I gave it to assured me he would keep it up and not change the name. He did both upon getting full control of it. I found out his word didn’t mean a thing. It is a shame. I find his articles pretty good and I was hoping everything would have worked out differently than it did. He hasn’t written anything new for some time. I don’t know if he is experiencing medical problems or what. I hope not but it may very well be the reason his website is stagnant.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch … don’t mind me … that was just a line from a radio program I listened to when I was a teenager. I have written so much about tadpole trikes in past years that there doesn’t seem like anything else to write about. I am sure that isn’t true, but that is the reality for me. It is probably just lack of motivation. I am done with it all and wish to remain so. This may be the last time I write anything. I am hoping some new blood shows up on the scene and takes over. I think we are all ready for that.