My Recumbent Days

This morning I went out at about 10:00 AM EST for a ride which I hoped would be long. But after doing 12 miles it started to rain and I ended my ride for today. The temperature was 55 degrees at the start of ride and 60 degrees at the end. The winds were out of the WNW at 7 mph gusting to 12 mph. When I got home I found a package at the front door, it was the Smartube Hydration System sent from Israel. It was the standard system for standard super market water bottles and the top for a bike bottle. It also included the insulating hose cover. After assembling the unit I decided not to use the insulating cover they provided, but the one from my Camelbak. It also came with a straight bite valve and an angle one, I used the angle. Adapting my Polar insulated bottle will mean a modification of the top, not a hard job. Below is a photo of the unit mounted on my recumbent trike. This unit I feel will fill the gap between a large Camelbak and a water bottle. It will give the convenience of a w

T his morning was my first ride in 7 days, do to weather and work on trike. I rode seven miles on my local route with a total climb of 67 feet within the first and second mile. The temperature was 59 degrees at the start and was 66 degrees at finish. the winds were out of the SE at 2 mph gusting to 7 mph. I am still waiting for my package from R-Sports with more wheel discs to try and a delivery from Blue Desert LTD. I am hoping at least one comes today. I am very antsy and need a project. I rode today with the new brake levers and find them to be very solid and the parking brake works as expected. It is real nice to be able to park the trike on a hill and not have to chase after it when it rolls away. I will update this blog if anything changes.

A s of yesterday my local bike shop was unable to install the rear wheel discs. It seems as I had predicted that the disc hits the cassette, so it rubs when coasting. At this time I am waiting arrival of more wheel discs from R-Sports. Hopefully I will find a set of discs that will work. Also the LBS was installing the new break levers with parking breaks. I will update this blog when i have more news or when I get out to ride. U pdate: The new break levers are installed and work real well, and the adjustment I needed was done. All that is left now is to wait for the shipment of disc covers to arrive, and see if there are ones that fit. I will post photos of installed break levers when available. I will be tied up all day tomorrow.

E arly this morning I removed the two front wheels from the trike and brought them to the LBS to tighten some spokes. At 3:30 the UPS truck dropped off the covers. I added 1/8" worth of washers and installed the disc cover, after reassembly of the wheels and breaks I still had the same problem I had with the others, the break caliper rubs against the cover. I am out a huge amount of money on this failed project. I am not sure if I was sent a different set of discs than Marc had, but who knows. I think the dish on these are too deep. It will not be a total loss since I will paint the rear covers black and have them installed. I will report on this next week. I am hoping this works out.

T his morning I left for my ride and the temperature was 64 degrees and very windy. There was a wind out of the WNW at 8 mph gusting to 14 mph making it very hard to pedal up hill. The time I returned from my ride the temperature was 67 degrees. I am expecting better weather later in the week. At least I hope it won't be as windy. I rode 12 miles today, and would have liked to do more but the wind was blowing up the dust and leaves making it very dangerous to ride these back roads. This time of year it becomes very hazardous to ride do to all the leaves falling and piling up along the roads. As these leaves start to decay and get wet and slimy it makes it almost impossible to prevent the trike or bike from sliding around when breaking. So I have to ride farther to the left, or sometimes in the traffic lane.

T his morning I awoke to very cloudy skies. The temperature at the start of my ride was 65 degrees and when I returned it was 73 degrees. I prefer sunny skies and moderate temperatures, but you can't have everything. The wind today was a nice 3 mph gusting to 7 coming out of the WSW. Today's ride was on local roads with long moderate climbs and no down hill runs to speak of. I was averaging 12 to 13 mph with sprints of 22+ mph. I am getting very excited about getting this wheel cover addition done, but I can't start until Thursday morning. O nce the wheel covers are installed I will have the new break levers with parking buttons installed. I also plan to dress the covers with IHPVA decals one on each cover. I think 3" letters will do, but I will ask my sign maker which looks better. Tektro Break Levers

T his morning I left at 10:00 AM for my daily ride, and I felt it from the start. not being able to ride for a few days made my ride today just a little hard at the start. I guess my muscles became a bit lazy from not riding for a bunch of days. Today I rode under beautiful clouds, and a starting temperature of 67 degrees and an ending temperature of 76 degrees. There was an ever so slight breeze of 1 mph gusting to 5 mph coming from the SE. I rode a total of 18 miles and it felt great to be out in the sun. Yesterday was another perfect day to ride, but alas I had things to do. Tomorrow should be another nice day to ride, but there is a threat of thunder-storms for the PM.

One of the many things I want to do is extend my ride distance, and if done I would need a better hydration system. For real long rides I have the CamelBack system, but I hate maintaining it. For moderate rides I find I need two 24 oz water bottles, but if I use the main bottle on the front boom it is a pain to remove the one under the seat. Actually it is easier to remove than to replace, so something had to be done. Then a new product came along called the Smartube system, which consists of different bottle caps to fit everything from a water bottle you buy in the grocery to a bike bottle. This system even has a insulated tube cover available as an option. I tried to purchase one in the USA, but the distributor has not signed a deal with the company. They are easy to obtain in Europe and the UK. Jeff from Rebel-Cycles in Canada is getting some so I guess I will buy mine from him, unless I find it in the USA. What makes this system so unique is the one-way valve in the top that allow

Y esterday I received notice that UPS has received the wheel discs and they will be delivered on September 21. I also received the 8 disc break rotor spacers, and purchased the additional washers and star washers for the installation of the wheel discs. I am hopeful that the upgrade will be done by the end of next week. As soon as it is finished I will post the photographs of the trike with wheel discs on. I am not sure if I am receiving the discs for the front or the discs for the rear 559 wheel also. The only way I will know is when it gets here. Since Jamie from R-Sports said there were three bags of screws in the package, I now believe it is covers for all three wheels. O n another subject! Trike wheel alignment is a popular subject on all the trike forums, and many owners have come up with different methods of performing this task. I have tried using a tape measure, laser levels and even a cardboard template. But I have now come up with a perfect solution. I tried it and it works

Y esterday my ride started at 9:30 AM after i changed into long riding pants as it was very chilly for this time of year. The temperature was 56 degrees at the start with a wind of 8 mph out of the NE. I ended my ride the temperature was 64 degrees. I rode 12.2 miles on my local loop, and my back was bothering me do to the impending rain. T oday's ride started at 9:40 it was 59 degrees at the start and 63 degrees at the end. The wind was 2 mph coming from the SSE. I also only rode 12.3 miles and also cut it short do to back pain. M y wheel discs were not shipped as I thought they would be on Saturday, but Jamie said he would try for today. I am hoping that he does have a chance to get them out in today's mail.

A t 9:00 AM I was out on the trike, the temperature was a cool 59 degrees and by the time I returned home it was 68 degrees. The wind was a brisk 10 mph with gusts to 15 mph. The problem was that on the final leg of my loop which runs NE the wind was directly in my face and made the last part of the ride very tiresome. There was no coasting at all on the final leg, so the time I made it home my legs were mush. T his morning I received a package from TW-Bents that contained a pair of Tektro break levers that have a push-button parking break option. These will go on the trike in the next few weeks, it will be nice to be able to lock the breaks and not worry if my make-ship Velcro lock working.

A fter helping Alayne do some cleaning I headed out for a short ride and I mean short. We have a few things that have to be done today so a long ride was out of the question. But since Sunday is never a ride day for me I am glad I was able to get 11 miles in. The weather during this ride was 62 degrees at the start and 69 at the end. It was partially cloudy with a wind of 6 mph out of the ENE. T his morning when I went to get the trike the rear tire was out of air. I had filled the tires up yesterday afternoon, so I think that since the rear tire had Slime in it, and I filled it Slime leaked out and clogged the valve allowing the air to leak form the partially open valve. I will keep my eye open for this since I now know what to look for. W hen I purchased my ActionBent trike it came standard with Comet Kevlar tires on all wheels. I found that at the tires top rated pressure the trike handled extremly well and at almost any speed I could let go of both handles and the trike stayed smoo

T his morning I was up bright and early to head out for my daily ride. The temperature was 62 degrees under partly cloudy skies. After riding s few of the country roads I headed down toward Kingston which means most of my ride was on a busy road with lots of hills on the return route. Going there were some nice downhill runs with a few moderate climbs. On the way back it is all up hill with some very steep climbs, but I was able to get up most of the hills at a slow 5 to 8 mph which I was very proud of myself. A few DF bikers I saw along the way had to walk a few of these hills. The temperature at the end of the ride was a beautiful 72 degrees with a wind out of the NW at 3 mph. My total ride distance for today was 17.2 miles. Y esterday I received the reflective stickers I had ordered to place on the trike in certain strategic locations to give the most visibility to drivers. Today I added two more to the rear of each chain stay. I only have the photograph of the first three sti

T his morning I started my ride at 9:00 AM and the temperature was a cool 61 degrees, by the time I was back home the temperature was 71 degrees. The weather was partly cloudy, with a 1 mph wind out of the NNW. I rode some of the local development streets and local country lanes. It seemed like I was the only one on the road, and I had a good chance to relax and let my mind wander. It is not often that I get to clear my head, and do one of my favorite things. I look forward to these lazy days, and it is a shame that there aren't many of these. Sometimes when I ride I think of all the things wrong with this world, but the riding seems to wash these thoughts away. On the way home a car pulled up along side and the driver blew his horn and the passenger gave me a thumbs up. I didn't mind the salute, but it scared me half to death, it was a good thing I didn't swerve or lose my cool, it would have been disastrous! I received conformation that the spacers for the disc breaks ha

T his morning I woke up to a sunny sky but a little cool at 59 degrees. I waited a little longer until the temperature reached 61 degrees and headed out to ride. I used mostly back roads and development streets which had a few moderate and long climbs but no fast descents. There was a slight breeze which seemed to be in my face most of the way. The wind was out of the North North West at 5 mph with gusts up to 10 mph. It was a very nice leisure ride at a nice pace, there were sections of the route where I was cruising at 21 mph and the average speed was about 11 mph. I completed 18.2 miles, and felt very satisfied.

T his afternoon I headed out with all intention to do about 10 miles, but I ended up doing 17. The weather was so nice I couldn't see my self going home. I in other words put off what I had to do today for another day. Well everyone has those type of days, and I am included. The weather was 75 degrees with a wind of 5 mph coming from the west. A perfect riding day if I ever saw one! T his afternoon I ordered a pair of valve extensions so that I will be able to fill the tires when low. The wheel discs have a very small opening at the valve stem, so these 45 degree stems will make the job easy.

I spent a good part of the day on the phone looking for shims to place behind the disc break rotor to move it out about 4 to 6 mm to allow the caliper to pass the wheel covers without hitting. I called a bunch of places when I found a shop that carries them, or so they said. After riding to the shop which is a good half hour away he starts looking for them and finally says to me "I thought I had them but I guess not". He then calls another shop about 20 minutes away, and they say they have some. Well to make a long story short they had the washers but to use them I would have to stack them 4 or 5 high which would be a pain. But the day was not lost, I found what I needed on the Internet and ordered them. Here is what I ordered, and they will do a great job. I am also going to hunt for some 45 degree valve stem extensions to make it easier to fill the tires with the covers on.

Y esterday the 4th of September I took an early and short ride that was a total of 12.5 miles. I was spending the day with Alayne and we had places to go and things to see. The weather for yesterday's ride was 72 degrees with a wind of 7 mph out of the NW. Today I will not ride do to more rain. This weather is more like spring than late summer. I am back on the idea of installing wheel covers on the two front wheels, and with help from Jamie and Marc Goodman I might get it done after-all. As soon as I gather all the necessary parts I will give it a go. Jamie said he will mail the covers out and I will purchase the disc break rotor shims and axle shims here. I will keep you up to date on my progress.

I won't be riding today or tomorrow do to Tropical Storm Ernesto. I did have a surprise today, the postman delivered my replacement front fender from Taiwan. Last week while I was in a restaurant eating lunch a car hit my trike and cracked the front fender and bent some spokes. My bike shop replaced the spokes and checked the wheel, which was fine, but the fender had cracked badly. The worst part was the driver leaving the scene without telling me. The fender is now installed and the trike is back in shape. Just wish I could head out for a ride. My doctor gave me a different prescription for pain today, and I hope it works better than the last stuff. I only plan to take it at night and only when needed. I hate taking stupefying medications. B ack to the wheel cover project. Jamie from Baccura said he has some covers that he thinks will fit. He knows a local rider that has a AB Tadpole and he will try it on his trike. I hope this pans out. I guess I will find out in a few days or