Blog Archives
LOSING INTEREST
I will be 79 very soon … getting up there. I started riding tadpole trikes back in 2007 when I was 61. I have put a lot of miles on over those years … over 170,000 miles. But I have noticed that I have slowed down. I was able to ride about 23 mph in the early days but with each passing years over the last 7 or so years my top speed and my usual cruising speed (about 18-20 mph) have dropped considerably. My top speed is about 15 mph … which I can’t maintain for very long and my usual cruising speed is now down to 10 mph. I used to have a strong desire to get out there each day and ride. That is gone. I can go several days with no desire or interest in riding. I still enjoy riding when I force myself to go but my motivation has certainly changed.
My wife is 10 years younger than me and still works. She doesn’t want to quit working yet even though she is past normal retirement age. She does plan on cutting back on her hours starting next year.
At one time we planned on riding tadpole trikes together. I don’t know if that will ever happen or not as she really doesn’t have much interest in it. We have talked about making some day trips and riding on some other trails even though we have about 140 miles of local trails where we live.
I have thought about selling the trikes now but I hesitate to. After all, riding them is the only form of exercise I get.
Winter is upon us … cold, windy and snowy. That certainly curtails any riding for me. And it definitely would prevent my wife from riding. The weather just suddenly changed. One day is was still fairly comfortable and the next day winter was upon us. It was like somebody flipped a switch. Hmmm, I wonder what Christmas Day and New Years Day will be like. I used to take annual rides on those days weather permitting.
Why am I telling you all of this? Just maybe there may be others going thru the same thing. Please feel free to comment. I don’t know if this is normal or not. I have to tell myself to …
KEEP ON TRIKIN’
BICYCLE AIR PUMPS & TIRE PRESSURE
Published by Steve Newbauer on August 25, 2017
Most recumbent tires are high pressure tires … up around 100 psi. If you don’t have an air compressor at home or in your motor vehicle I strongly recommend purchasing a floor type bicycle air pump … one designed to pump high pressure … preferably 140 or 160 psi. That way when you pump up a 100 psi tire you aren’t maxxing out the pump to accomplish it … or maxxing yourself out using it. 🙂
In fact, I suggest getting one of these pumps even if you do have an air compressor available to use as they are quite handy and practical.
Most good quality pumps nowadays have a built in gauge making it very handy. I suggest checking the accuracy of the gauge initially and from time to time to be sure you are getting the right pressure in the tires.
Here are a couple of examples of pumps available.
Blackburn air tower 3 bike floor pump
Park Tools PFP-4 Professional Mechanic Floor Pump
They can be purchased at your local bike shop. I want to emphasize that it is best to buy a good quality pump and not settle for some inferior pump at a lower cost. I don’t think you would regret paying more for a quality pump. I would also suggest that you talk to a local bike shop mechanic to get their recommendation as to what pump to buy. You could also research them online to get customer feedback.
I am not making any recommendations as to what pump to buy. I am only showing these two as examples of what is available. There are lots of different ones out there. The first pump I have pictured above is a Blackburn Air Tower 3 Bike Floor Pump rated at 160 psi. To the best of my knowledge it is a good quality pump.
The second pump I have pictured above is a ParkTool brand which normally they make pretty good quality stuff. However, the customer reviews of this pump are not all that impressive. That is surprising.
Most pumps nowadays have a dual head on them so that either Presta or Schrader valves are accommodated.
The pump I have is a Pedros Domestique air pump. It is a good pump, but I know that there are better ones available.
In case you didn’t know it an innertube loses air on a continual basis so it is necessary to inflate them from time to time. That’s right … air leaks right thru the rubber so they are constantly losing pressure. The higher the pressure the more they leak down. It is important to keep your tires inflated to the correct pressure. You will get better wear, mileage, handling, and performance out of your tires as well as make it easier to pedal along since low air pressure equates to more rolling resistance.
It is also important that you never over inflate your tires beyond what they are designed for. Doing so can result in destroying the tire and causing a major tire failure which could be disaterous at worst and leave you stranded at best.
I once put about 10 psi more in a knobby tire I used for winter riding. About 10 miles from home I noticed something which wasn’t right in the ride … a pronounced thump of sorts. I stopped and got off to look. My rear tire was literally coming apart … separating from too much pressure in it. Fortunately I was only about a half of a mile or so from a local bike shop so I made it over there and got a new tire. The tire that had just gone bad would have lasted me for several years more if I had not over inflated it.
Yes, proper tire inflation is quite important … especially if we all want to …
KEEP ON TRIKIN’
A FREE GIFT awaits you!
E-MOTOR BATTERY MOUNTS FROM TERRACYCLE
TerraCycle makes some great products for our trikes. With the ever increasing popularity of electric motorized trikes having a way to mount the battery is crucial. It is not desirable to mount a heavy battery up high on a trike as it raises the trike’s center of gravity considerably and effects the handling and therefore safety of the trike. Keeping the battery mounted down low and out of the way is important. TerraCycle offers some solutions … some specifically made for certain trike and battery brands and others which aremore less generic. Actually as far as I can tell from their webpage they only have kits for Catrike and ICE (rigid rear) and (suspended models) at this time.
They do offer a highly configurable mount so chances are pretty good they can help a guy (or gal) out with their battery mounting problem. When ordering one needs to specify what trike (brand and model) as well as e-motor system and battery they have so TerraCycle can send the correct spacers needed for the specific kits or to help them in getting you a mounting bracket which will work on your trike. This mount is rated at a maximum of 15 pounds. I had one of them break and my expensive battery went tumbling down the middle of the road. My battery weighed about 14 pounds. Terracycle replaced it for me. I always use extra support holding up the mount so that it doesn’t bounce around with the battery’s weight on it. I use a leather belt suspended from the trike’s frame up above. I also use a rubber tarp strap.
I said that keeping the battery mounted down low is important as far as the trike’s center of gravity. This is quite true, however, the downside of mounting the battery down low is that it is then very vulnerable to getting water, mud, slush and whatever else flung up on it. I presently have my battery down low, but I am seriously considering mounting it up on the rear luggage rack somehow as my battery is getting so messed up for all kinds of stuff being flung up on it. I don’t like that. When I first got my electric motor pedal assist kit I had the battery located in the rear rack and I didn’t have any issues with handling. The battery certainly stayed a whole lot cleaner up there and it was a lot handier to get to it. Some manufacturers of e-motors offer a special rear luggage rack designed to hold their battery. Unfortunately most of these rack mounted batteries are not very powerful so the cruising range they offer is limited.
A larger battery can be mounted on top of a rear luggage rack, but then the luggage rack can’t be used for a trunk bag. Panniers can still be used. I sure will miss my trunk bag if I end up mounting my battery on top of the rear rack. Keep in mind adding the weight of the battery that high on the trike will raise the trike’s center of gravity making it tip over easier. It is best to mount the battery down as low as you can on the frame so that the handling is not effected. I have has two of these batteries mounted above the rear wheel and my trike would tip over easily when I was not seated on it.
The battery can also be mounted on the boom. However, that is a lot of weight sitting on the boom and the boom was never intended to carry weight like this so I don’t know how wise it is to do this. I am not saying that it won’t hold it okay. I just don’t know. It will have an effect on the handling and therefore I would have to advise against it. A well designed and engineered trike is designed for maximum handling and safety. We can easily mess things up when we modify it.
The Beatles said it all in one of their songs … “we can work it out” … and when we do it will most certainly help us to …
ENJOY THE RIDE & KEEP ON TRIKIN’
HOW TO CHANGE AN INNERTUBE
Sooner or later if we ride any kind of a cycle with pneumatic tires we are likely to get a flat tire. Many of us have been fixing flats since childhood so we can handle flats when they happen. However, some riders have never done so and don’t know how and are intimidated by such a challenge. In today’s world there is help as close as our computers/smartphones/tablets. There are quite a lot of tutorials available in the way of videos where things are not only explained, but they are shown making it even easier to understand. Here is one such video which is pretty comprehensive:
