Month: February 2021

DAVID HITS THE NAIL ON THE HEAD

 

 

I find that I really like this fellow tadpole rider’s videos. They are well done and informative. And I fully agree with almost everything he says.

KEEP ON TRIKIN’

A FREE GIFT awaits you!

DREADED WHITE STUFF

That dreaded white stuff is falling from the sky and there is nothing I can do about it. Yep, I am stuck inside. No doubt if I were to venture outside and attempt to ride my trike I would be stuck outside as I learned early on how limited a trike is trying to ride thru that dreaded white stuff. (I am trying to avoid using certain four letter words.) The weather forecast is for 4 to 9 inches of that dreaded white stuff by tomorrow morning. And more is forecasted to follow in a couple of days. In the 15 day extended forecast some form of precipitation is shown on nearly every day. Of course, that is subject to change and I hope it does.

The good news is warmer weather is forecasted starting Sunday the 21st. So one more week to get thru before there is some hope things will improve. I am hopeful that most of this dreaded white stuff will be pretty much gone by then or at least it will start to disappear at that time.  It has been awhile since I graduated from “Hack It” school but I think I can survive. I sure am missing my trike riding however. Spring is coming and I will truly enjoy it then.

I have a friend who used to ride his bicycle on the trails every day just like I normally do. Last year he didn’t ride a single day. When he finally does get back to riding he is going to be so far out of condition it is going to be very difficult for him. I am glad I don’t go thru that. If he misses only a few days it has a big effect on him. He will be complaining how much he hurts when he does get back out there.

Speaking of dreaded stuff since I am cooped up inside I will be forcing myself in a few minutes to undertake a dreaded task I never look forward to … doing our taxes. I am surely thankful for Turbo Tax. Well, maybe I should be thankful for that dreaded white stuff as it is forcing me to stay inside and truly be enabled and without excuse concerning getting the taxes done.

If you are able where you are …

KEEP ON TRIKIN’

A FREE GIFT awaits you!

WINTER BLAHS

Now I ask ya … does winter get you down like this fella? I am asking for a reason. That is where I am at right now … just trying to hold on until better weather arrives. The problem is the extended forecast (15 days) is for more of the same … cold and some form of precipitation almost everyday. I haven’t ridden my trike for a couple of weeks now and it is looking like it will be even longer until I will be able to again. In short, I am somewhat bummed out. I didn’t have anything prepared to post on this blog today and quite frankly haven’t felt like writing anything. Forcing myself to do so this is what came up … the Winter Blahs. I should not complain however as up until a couple of weeks ago we have had a pretty decent winter here in northeastern Indiana. I have been able to ride nearly everyday up until a couple of weeks ago. I am hoping come March the weather will improve and I can get back out there. That being said, March is traditionally a very unpredictable month. All too often it turns out to be the worst winter weather of the season. It can really get a guy or gal down …

 

Meanwhile I am not getting hardly any exercise which, of course, is not good. And it is hard to find something to keep myself busy at. I have found myself taking more naps than I have before. I am doing my best to …

HANG IN THERE.

How about you? Or are you either a snowbird or one of those who live somewhere where you don’t have to deal with winter and can …

KEEP ON TRIKN’?

Yes, I could bring my trike inside the house and set it up on a trainer to pedal it, but quite frankly, I hate indoor exercise. I used to try walking at the mall early in the mornings during winter time but I ended up walking around outside as I needed fresh air. I could not stand breathing the air inside of the mall.

Well, I know Spring is coming and I just have to deal with things until then. I have done it before and I can do it again. It just seems to get harder as I get older. And there is just nothing I can do about that. I wonder if Dairy Queen is open? Ah, but I would have to wear a stupid face mask just to go there … and that’s if they are even open inside. “They” have made it so I don’t even want to go out … just stay home. At least time does seem to be passing by fairly quickly. I mean it is mid February already. It seems like January just ended.

We had very little snow this winter so I can’t complain about that. The problem is it is staying so cold that what snow we have is not melting and more keeps coming adding to it. I am told that most of the trails have been plowed off but I can’t ride to them from home like I usually do. Besides it is just too cold to venture out. It is still too soon for Spring but I sure hope this does not end up being the case …

I have seen snow in June once several years ago. It was a freak thing and it was only some snow flakes falling … no accumulation. It was too warm for that.

Then there are always those who like winter and want snow. What’s their problem anyway I wonder? Bless their hearts!

Hey, now here is an idea to help pass the time til this winter ends. But by then I probably would not be able to get up much less pass thru the door. It sure sounded good though.

There is picture proof! I think I am going to make it after all! A couple of more weeks and hopefully I will be able to once again …

ENJOY THE RIDE!

A FREE GIFT awaits you!

FROM THE ARCHIVES …

Over the years that I have had this blog I have posted a whole lot of various articles. It took a whole lot of years passing by before readers of this blog finally started looking back thru old postings. Now it is a common everyday occurrence. Yes, there is lots to be found for those willing to dig for it. I have tried to make it easy by providing various features such as a search feature, a categories feature, an archives feature,  and the recent posts feature. I have decided to start one more feature … a “FROM the ARCHIVES” feature where I link to a posting from yesteryear. It will be a featured archive if you will. I have been offering this on some Facebook Trike Groups  forums for awhile now.  Keep in mind that these are not recent postings so some times the information is not up to date. For instance, in this article about tire wear I state that I got over 7000 miles out of the Marathon Plus tires. That is true but since I wrote that I have more than doubled that out of other M+ tires I have had on. Also I mention the price I paid. Since then I have found them for even less money … down around $25 apiece including shipping. I have shared all of this in more recent postings than this one from the archives. All one needs to do to discover what is available for it is to simply do a search for “Marathon Plus tires” and all the postings about them should appear in the search results.

On with the subject at hand … Here goes …

FROM THE ARCHIVES … https://tadpolerider2.wordpress.com/2014/08/29/tire-wear/

BTW, HERE is a similar posting about tire wear.

KEEP ON TRIKIN’

A FREE GIFT awaits you!

WANNA BE A WRITER ON THIS BLOG?

 

LOOKING FOR A FEW GOOD MEN (OR WOMEN)

Are there any out there who would like to try their hand at being a contributing editor on this blog? Here is your chance. I am looking for those who would be interested in writing up something related to tadpole trikes to be posted on this blog. It doesn’t have to be a long article. It can be with or without pictures or videos. Just write it up in an email and send it to me. If I approve it (I most likely would) I will post it. Who knows? It could be the start of a great career for you. This blog is viewed in over 190 countries of the world. Just send your composition to me at:  tadpolerider2 at gmail dot com (@gmail.com)

 

In all the years I have had this blog I am the only one who has ever had an article posted on it. I think it is time to change that. So while you are stuck inside like me thru the cold winter get busy and write up something. And may we all be able to soon do what we like best …

KEEPING ON TRIKIN’

A FREE GIFT awaits you!

For those who don’t know, I got into writing this blog as a result of being asked by Steve Greene to write articles for his Trike Asylum blog. I only wrote a few articles for that blog  before I started this blog. I am most thankful for his help in getting started in this. HERE are some of the articles I wrote on Trike Asylum. Unfortunately the pictures and videos are missing as all that was saved was the text.

FRONT END SHIMMY

It is definitely a scary thing to be going along and suddenly experience a bad case of front end wobble, shimmying or shaking whether you are in a car, motorcycle, bicycle or trike. It can be quite unnerving … downright scary. And it is even scarier when it happens at a high speed which seems to be when it happens the most. You can be going along and everything is fine … then suddenly you are like Elvis … all shook up.. My experience is that hitting a bump just right (maybe just WRONG) sets off the front end shimmy. About all one can do to end it is slow down. Of course, we would much prefer this doesn’t happen. So what is the cause of it? That is not something that can always be answered quickly and accurately as it can be the result of one of a few different things or a combination of them. It can be worn front end components such as tie rod ends. It can be poor inferior design. Some trikes are simply not made well and are well known for this problem. It can be toe in adjustment is off. I personally find that the most common cause is the headsets need to be reset as they loosen up. The type of headsets that Catrike uses is notorious for this. Catrike in their excellent engineering even redesigned the headset as the stock headset had a bad problem of shimmying as the manufacturer designed it. Catrike removed the upper bearing and replaced it with a Teflon bushing to help with this. BTW, Catrike owners may need to replace these at some point in time. You can get them from a Catrike dealer, from Catrike or other sources such as Utah Trikes. They can be bought individually or you can buy both for $25.

This Utah Trikes video covers resetting the headsets … starting at about six minutes into the video … and again at about 7 minutes 50 seconds into the video.

There is one thing that was not mentioned and seldom is. For the best results the rider should be sitting in the seat in the riding position so that the rider’s weight is loaded onto the headsets. This works best to have someone else do the mechanical work unless someone else can take the rider’s place who weighs the same. With proper headset adjustment it should help to eliminate front end shimmy. I wish you well in resolving this issue. It has worked for me. Do your best to be safe so that you can …

KEEP ON TRIKIN’

A FREE GIFT awaits you!

BOLT TOGETHER TRIKE BUILD (NO WELD)

I want to state upfront that I advise against building a trike that is bolted together rather than welded. I speak from many years of hands on experience as a metal fabricator and weldor. Although I have lots of experience in many facets of welding I took to “repair welding” more than anything else and I have done a lot of it. I share that because many many times I found myself having to repair weld many items that someone had simply bolted together and discovered it did not hold up. Bolts and nuts come loose, bolts break, holes wear and get sloppy. And it has been my observation that most metal projects people bolt together are made too light of duty and are likely to fail because of it. I understand that not everyone can weld. And some that do should never attempt it as they do very poorly at it. I highly recommend that you have a qualified weldor weld your trike together. Don’t go the route of using bolts to hold it together. And as a highly experienced metal fabricator I need to say that in my opinion this trike shown in these videos  is way “underbuilt” and likely to fail.

KEEP ON TRIKIN’

A FREE GIFT awaits you!

ACKERMAN STEERING

For anyone building a tadpole trike the subject of Ackerman Steering comes into play. It is all important and must be incorporated into the design build if the trike is going to handle properly. The front end steering of a tadpole trike is rather complex. There is  camber, castor and Ackerman steering involved. It all has to be correct if the trike is going to be safe to ride. In short, YA GOTTA DO YOUR HOMEWORK!

There are many videos available explaining Ackerman Steering. Here are a few of them:

KEEP ON TRIKIN’

A FREE GIFT awaits you!