Ordered The Terracycle idler kit




Yesterday afternoon I saw a post from Cliff a member of the ActionBent forum regarding the mounting of his new Terraycle idler assembly. He mounted his behind the stock ActionBent idler, he felt it would give him a better chain line. He also had to drill a hole in the new idler mount so the shifter cable could pass through the mount. Cliff has a completely different setup than I have, he has one chain ring on the cranks and a SRAM double drive in the rear, while I have three chain rings up front and a nine speed rear. So mounting new idler would be different on his ActionBent trike. Since I ordered mine on Friday and it will ship on Monday I will attempt to mount it a few inches forward of the existing idler as Terracycle recommends. I am hoping that removing the original idler will not be to much of a job, and the installation of the new dual idler will be very easy. I am also going to try and remove as much of the chain tubes as possible. I took a huge leap of faith when I ordered this kit for $166 US since this will be the third one that Terracycle has produced and sold. As I see from photos of Cliff's setup that there are three mounting holes on the idler bracket which will allow some up and down movement of the idlers, also the bracket can slide anywhere on the 2" frame tubing giving front to rear adjustment. The idler kit consists of a power-side sprocket idler and a smooth return idler with a mounting bracket and a chain keeper. Both sides of the chain pass under each idler, the pictures are not of the exact idler but very similar. Terracycle has taken the Catrike kit and added a mounting bracket to adapt to the AB trike. The power-side idler has a titanium cog, and the return is just standard. The kit has a five year warranty, and can be re-built if necessary. The first picture is of the chain keeper, the second is the dual idler and the third is showing the idler mounted on a Catrike and how the chains pass under the idler.

UPDATE As usual I couldn't wait to see if the existing idler would be a hard to remove, so I proceeded to attempt the removal. The idler gave up with a bit of a fight, but in the end it came off and without any damage. I tried to install and remove the idler a few more times to make sure I had the method down pat, and it all went well. Now as soon as the Terracycle idler shows in the mail I will install the kit. I will then have a bunch of work on the chain tubes to cut them to the correct length. The object is to remove as much tube as possible and protect the frame at the same time. I am very excited about the prospect of a smoother drive with less friction and noise.

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