Most of us will never be able to ride our tadpole trikes around the world even if we truly would like to. There are a few however who are doing this and documenting it on video and pictures so that we can be a part of it. I personally only know of a few people which I will list here. If you know of any others feel free to tell us in comments.
From the “land down under” (Australia) comes this video I share here. This triker, Darren Broadhurst, is among the few who is on an ongoing trike journey around the world. He rides an Azub Ti-Fly 20 inch … which is a fully suspended model.
His video channel description … “After retiring from a full military career I’ve been cycling and travelling around the world for the past 4 years. These are the videos along the way.”
Good eyesight is precious. Just try losing it to be convinced. I can speak from personal experience. I am blind in my left eye and struggling to maintain what eyesight I have left in my right eye,. I won’t bother explaining what all is going on. I will simply say it is something I inherited from my mother’s side of the family. As part of my eye care I have to get an injection of a very expensive medicine in my right eye once a month. Each time I go to the eye doctor my eye gets dilated which, of course, makes for blurry vision and the need for sun glasses when out in bright sunshine. Two days ago I had another eye doctor appointment. For the very first time I rode my tadpole trike to the appointment rather than go by car and having a designated driver. It worked out great although certainly my vision was considerably impaired on my return trip home. Yep, I was thoroughly enjoying myself riding along when I hit a curb I didn’t … indeed COULD NOT see and flew up into the air. It was not only embarrassing but I was quite concerned about my trike. A bad bump like that by all 3 wheels could cause serious damage. As far as I know everything is okay. Just a few blocks later I hit another curb. It reminded me of the period of time I rode around with very poor vision due to cataracts. I could identify with Mark 8:24 where it is recorded “… I see men as trees, walking.” In fact, I still deal with this quite a lot. It is not as bad as this picture but in the distance I often times can not distinguish a person from a tree as I look down the trail ahead of me. Yep, good eyesight is so precious.
Watch out for that tree!
Trees are on my list of concerns as well as curbs, etc. My name isn’t George and I am pretty sure that most of you are not named George either. My thinking right now is … this might very well be a time when it would be good to let ol’ George do it. As they say … better him then me. So if your name is George … WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREE! Hey, even if your name is not George I would say the same thing to ya. I am pretty sure we all want to …
Most all of us grew up with Schrader valves as Presta valves were unheard of. But as time passed along came “skinny Minnie” and the controversy began. I had never heard of Presta valves until I bought my 2009 Catrike Trail which came with them. It didn’t take more than a couple of days before I learned to hate Presta valves. I say that the French can have them. I think they are ridiculous. So soon after purchasing my trike I took action and did something about this. I drilled out my rims to accommodate Schrader valves and never looked back. I have not had to deal with Presta valves since. HEREis a good article on this subject.
I vote for getting rid of Presta valves. I sure would not miss them. There is only one thing about Presta valves that I like and that is the threaded metal stem with the nut which tightens down keeping the stem from pushing into the rim. At least 3 inner tube manufacturers offer this feature on their Schrader valves and I use them whenever I can.
I am totally amazed when I hear/read of cyclists who actually like and prefer Presta valves over Schrader. It is one of those “I don’t get it” things … like … what’s wrong with them? Oh well, to each his own as they say. Hey, if Schrader valves were good enough for Benjamin Franklin’s dad they are good enough for me. What did I just say? Oh never mind. Just know that I am for Schrader valves and against ol’ skinny Minnie. France can keep them. Schrader valves work just fine. They help me to …
73 is the current number for me. One thing I have noticed is that the older I get the harder it seems to be getting to get up out of my trike seat. I mean, where is a proverbial “sky hook” when needed? That would make it so much easier, don’t ya know? I think I would benefit from assist bars but I don’t know where I could mount them as I already have other bars mounted that I have my computers mounted on. I may have to look into the matter as the situation is getting worse. I have written about assist bars previously.
Another answer may be a different trike with a higher seat but that is out for me as I can’t afford it nor do I want a higher seat. I like the handling a lower seat offers and would not want to give it up. Maybe I will just have to be the person who actually invents a sky hook. I am quite certain that there is a definite market for them in this world. Hey, maybe I could go out a multi-millionaire.
I don’t think they make a small drone powerful enough to lift me. Heck, even a big drone would be challenged.
Losing weight … lots of weight … would help immensely. I may not even need anything to help me then. Unfortunately that is not likely to happen. Life isn’t fair. I have found that it is a whole lot easier to put weight on than it is to take it off. Nope, life isn’t fair!
One thing is for sure … I need to do something if I want to continue riding as this problem keeps getting worse. A sky hook is needed as I do want to …
KEEP ON TRIKIN’
I reckon I can safely say that Getting Up While Getting Old is Getting Old.
BTW, I just ordered some assist bars from Power On Cycling. Hopefully they will help me. I am sure I will have to make some changes in order to mount them and use them.
Wow … was I ever lost … as in … I sure was lost … as in clueless. Yesterday I rode most of the way with a friend to where he lives. I stopped just a very short distance from his house to head back to the trail we left. I knew how to get to my house from his house but I wasn’t going to my house directly so I tried navigating my was thru subdivisions I was not familiar with. To make matters worse there was lots of street closures for construction projects going on so I had to find a different route. I had no idea what streets we had just taken to get thru the various subdivisions. I would need to study a map to figure it out. Many of the streets were dead end so I had to keep turning around and going back. I had told my friend when he surprised me and turned into a subdivision rather than stay on the trail along the main street (which I thought he would do) that I will probably need him to ride back with me a ways as I would never remember the route he was taking thru the subdivision. I was just kidding but it sure would have helped. I got so lost and turned around. I had no idea where I was at and where I was headed … where I needed to go. Basically I just wanted to come out somewhere where I was familiar with the area and would then know what to do. I finally did and I sure was surprised as I was miles from anywhere I expected to be. Fortunately I was very familiar with the area and it was simple enough from then on even though I had a very long way to ride to get back to the trail. And where I came back onto the trail was many miles from where I got off of it It all worked out and I had a very good ride even though it was a bit embarrassing. I mean … it is not the sort of thing I would want to tell anyone. Hey, what am I telling you for? This is embarrassing. Here is a map of sorts. I can’t fill it in any better than this as I don’t have a clue what streets we rode on (blue line) after leaving the trail (red line). The black circle is the approximate area I was riding around in totally lost. I came out onto Trier Rd. and then I knew where I was and what I needed to do to get back onto the trail. As you can see I was far from where I got off of the trail.
Quite frankly I have ran out of stuff to post. Nothing new has come along which has inspired me to post about. So I have decided to do something different. What I have in mind has nothing to do with tadpole trikes. I really enjoy good humor as I am sure many of you do as well. Thus what I am doing here in this posting is sharing some of my favorite comedy videos.
HERE is the full length version of this comedy skit.
From the opening scenes of the comedy movie, The Shakiest Gun in the West …
A friend of Matt Galat compiled this video for him and did an excellent job of it. BTW, the YouTube video description is in itself an interesting read.
I have written about safety flags previously but I want to revisit the subject today. Did you ever notice the word SAFETY in safety flags? They are called safety flags for a very good reason. The purpose of a safety flag is to help keep you safe by attracting attention … by being highly visible. If a flag fails to do that it is worthless as a safety flag. Sadly the vast majority of flags people have on their trikes fail the test when it comes to fulfilling the task of helping keep the rider safe. I really don’t understand it. Why do people insist on using flags that are ineffective? They use flags that they like the looks of paying no attention to whether or not they are highly visible and attention getting.
Part of being attention getting is to flap around freely in the slightest of breezes. Some flags don’t hardly flap in a very strong wind. Flags should readily be seen from 360 degrees and from far away.
I have had people tell me that they saw my flags from a very long distance off from every which direction from me. I have had people tell me that they say my safety flags before they saw my bright flashing lights.
Both the size and the shape of a flag is important. One of the most popular shaped flags is a triangle. In my opinion they are absolutely the worst flag out there as far as being seen and attention getting. That is because they flap very poorly and oftentimes appear from the back as a thin line. They are not even as wide as the flag pole which they are attached to. That is ridiculous, but people seem to love these flags. They are extremely popular. I think they would be better off with just the flag pole if it were a safety orange color. I have followed behind people who use these flags and observed them. Rarely do they move any to attract attention. Definitely a streamer attached to it helps immensely. It is the only thing that can be seen as it flaps about.
I base my opinions of safety flags on real life experience. One of the most impressive experiences I have had is when I was riding on the Maumee Pathway which is one of our local trails. It follows along the Maumee River so it meanders around quite a bit and much of it is well shaded by trees. There are very few places along the trail that offer line of sight vision for very far ahead. Between curves, hills and trees and bushes you just can’t see very far ahead. I was riding along when I got a very brief glimpse of a bright flash of orange light. It must have been 3/4 of a mile ahead of me. I thought it must be the amber flashing light of a utility vehicle or mower. As I continued to ride along I saw this brief flash of orange a couple of more times. I kept going and caught up with the source of what I was seeing. It was not a flashing light at all but a couple of people I know who have identical safety flags to mine. They liked my flags so well that the wife copied them making a set for their trikes. The sun occasionally shined down thru the trees lighting up the flags which made the orange flag look like a light flashing. I knew that my flags are highly visible and attention getting but this was positive proof for sure. For more information on how to make these flags click HERE.
I rarely see safety flags that impress me. Today I saw this one on Facebook and it inspired me to write this article to post at this time. It is yellow and orange together with a black line separating the two colors. It flaps extremely well. I think it is too large but otherwise I really like it. I think the size is going to be an issue on very windy days especially as high as it is mounted. That flag pole is going to bend over considerably.
I encourage you to use safety flags that are effective … not just something you find appealing for other reasons. Your very life and well being may depend upon it so that you can …
Cats are known to have excellent hearing. They are also known to be hunters of prey. When the Lord Jesus Christ created them He equipped them with ears designed to deal with wind. A cat’s ears have hair which helps break up and greatly diminish wind noise. Have you ever noticed how much wind noise there is as you ride your trike? Have you ever placed your hand up by your ear as you ride along and noticed that when you block the wind from going past your ear you can hear much better? If you have not done so give it a try.
BTW, they make devices to use on a helmet to block the wind from passing by your ears.
I made some which attach to my eye glass frame stems. They work pretty good but I don’t use them as they look goofy.
I have watched a lot of videos and one thing that absolutely ruins an otherwise good video is wind noise in the audio. Sometimes it is so bad that it blocks out whatever else was recorded. Just like with our ears wind passing by the microphone of a video camera is quite noticeable. Video cameras with built in microphones as well as external microphones need to have what I call a “cat ear filter” on them to act as a wind filter. You can buy these. Some work better than others. Here is one for a GoPro camera …
BTW, these filters are commonly called “dead cat filters” but I don’t like that name so I call them cat ear filters.
Years ago I decided to experiment with my video camera to see if I could come up with a good effective wind noise filter. I tried several different things. Some worked better than others.
After trying several different things I finally settled on something that has worked great. Even in strong winds it prevents most wind noise from occurring.
To start with I used a plastic eye drop medicine bottle cut to make sort of a funnel with the smaller diameter neck down over the microphone area on the camera. The bottom of the bottle is cut off to make it open. In the picture below I have drawn red lines to show where I cut the bottle. I used the section in between the red lines.
I used clear silicone to glue the bottle in place. Silicone works quite well and is fairly easy to remove if ever I want to. The bottle is filled with a man-made fiber material (pictured below) which is the stuffing from inside of a stuffed toy.
Over it at the cut off bottom of the bottle is a piece of black felt like material. Then the last piece is a tossle off of a hat. It and the black felt like piece are also siliconed onto the bottle to hold it all together.
As I stated earlier I experimented with various things including stopping with just using the black felt like piece. I was after near perfection and after adding the tossle I achieved it. Here is a video I made on a windy day. I am riding with a friend talking to him. You can hear a clicking sound coming from one of the chain tubes on my trike. I am telling my friend about it in the beginning of the video. Without the wind noise filter I doubt if you would even be able to hear what I am saying but as you can hear my voice comes thru quite well.
Here are some more homemade wind noise filter videos …
HERE are the Google search results for wind noise filters. And HERE is Amazon’s search results.
Tadpole Rider 