A few days ago on one of the days when it was raining all day long I brought my tadpole trike into the garage to work on it. I was sitting on a mechanics chair on castors when I started to move the chair back away from my trike. One of the wheels went down into a depression in the concrete floor of the garage and the chair caught and quickly tipped over all so easily dumping me off of it and down onto the floor. I lit right on my tailbone and I am here to tell you it hurt. And days later it still hurts. I am glad to say that it doesn’t hurt nearly as bad as it did. And at 76 years old this old body does not deal with such things as well as it did many years ago. Nope, it didn’t exactly tickle.
I asked a few different people to pray for me that the pain would subside and I would heal quickly. I am happy to say God is answering those prayers. I can still feel it but there is very little pain and discomfort now. It still is not tickling. That’s okay, I can do without tickling. It was bothering me a little bit sitting on my trike seat, but now it feels fairly normal.
The mechanics chair is a combination mechanics creeper and chair … a handy gadget. However, I would have to say that it tipped over too easily. I don’t know if that means there is a flaw in its design or what. I sure do like to be able to sit down while working on my trike. This old body appreciates it. It just doesn’t appreciate getting dumped over and falling onto that hard concrete floor. Well, I learned how easily and quickly it can happen so hopefully I will be more careful when moving it around in the future. I don’t think I will soon forget the matter. Nope, it wasn’t a ticklish matter.
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It does not do any good to complain about it … the weather, that is. But come on … stop with the teasing. I mean yesterday was 84 degrees and lots of blue sky and sunshine. Today was only 44 with a totally overcast sky. That is hard on a guy (or gal). The ten day forecast shows nearly everyday below normal temperature-wise. Of course, this is typical Indiana weather at this time of year. Truthfully we never know what we will get as I have seen it in the 90s & 100s early on and come August when it normally is in the 90s it only was in the 60s. Strange things are happening I tell ya.
It is hard to go from wearing shorts and a short sleeve shirt back to clothing I wear thru the winter, but it is necessary if I want to stay warm enough.
And failing to dress warm enough makes for a miserable ride. It feels so good to stop and go inside of a restaurant or restroom where it is much warmer. I find myself staying longer than I normally would as my body warms back up. But all good things must come to an end as I have miles to go before I am finished. Hot cocoa time as it really helps when chilled. No need of sunburn protection for awhile.
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I have been an avid bicyclist most of my life. The only exception to that was my 8 years in the Navy and even 1.5 years of that while on shore duty I had a bicycle and rode it everyday weather permitting. I loved cycling but I will readily admit that it was hard on my body. I went thru the usual list of complaints suffering a sore neck, aching hands, wrists, forearms, shoulders, back and butt. As I aged to went from road bike with racing style handlebars to mountain bike with upright handlebars. I also tried different seats ending up with a super soft gel type seat. It all helped but truthfully I still hurt and suffered riding a bicycle.
I never kept track of my total mileage over the years but it surely was over 500,000 as I practically lived on bicycles.
I learned of recumbent bicycles so I decided to try one. I built my own recumbent bike and rode it until winter was coming on. I wanted to keep riding but riding a bicycle on snow and ice was not something I wanted to do … especially as I aged. I had learned of recumbent tadpole trikes so I made one and rode it thru the winter. Ah yes, great comfort, much more safe and lots of fun to ride. I quickly got hooked. I tried going back to my recumbent bike when Winter had passed and Spring had sprung, but I found that I much preferred riding my tadpole trike. Firteen years later I am still riding my trike. I sold my recumbent bike over 14 years ago and don’t miss it all. The recumbent bike had eliminated all my physical pain I had experienced from riding a diamond frame bike so I appreciated having them for a season in my life. But if I have one regret it is that I didn’t discover tadpole trikes much sooner than I did. Like Tony the tiger says …
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I am very much a fan of nice weather. Finally the 10 day forecast looks great with much warmer temperatures and lots of sunshine and very little rain. I can handle that. I just hope it allows the mud on the trails to dry up so they can remove it from the trailS and get the trails open which have been closed for several weeks. We keep getting rain so the mud has not dried up.
I can’t really complain. We were blessed with a mild winter and I was able to ride most of it. Of course, I had to bundle up in several layers of clothing. I am definitely looking forward to going riding in a short sleeve shirt and shorts. Spring has arrived and the 70s and even low 80s are in the forecast.
Yes, flowers are in bloom welcoming nice weather.
Changing the subject just a little …
And we have a new puppy not yet introduced to triking. The nicer weather will make the introduction more enjoyable and pleasant for him as well. He is so small I dare not try to walk him alongside of me. I will have him in a pouch slung over the front of me.
Of course, he will add a lot of weight to my trike … all 2.2 pounds of him. We don’t expect him to get any more than 4 pounds. I think the pouch weighs more than he does. Now I have two dogs to take along with me. What did I get myself into?
Yep. sprung has spring … er … spring has sprung a leak … oh you know what I mean. We can rejoice together as winter is pretty much over with. I sure hope I am not made a liar. I have seen snow in June here in northern Indiana. Of course, it was only scattered snow flakes and melted as it touched the ground. Well, let’s ride!
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Forty Six degrees in mid February and it has been as high as the low 60s. I can handle that. All in all the last few winters have been pretty decent allowing for riding much of the winter months. Yep, I can handle that.
I just got back home from a nice ride. I came upon another tadpole trike rider out there taking advantage of the nice winter weather. I met him a few weeks ago and we talked together for awhile. He asked me about my e-motor. Today as I talked to him again he had one on his trike. He said he was so thankful as he is really enjoying it.
Are we experiencing “global warming” and climate change as we are being told? I can’t deny I don’t remember winters like this when I was younger. “They” say it is man made inferring it is we the people causing it. I don’t buy into that. We hear about and can see the “chemical trails” up in the sky. They are different than “condensation trails” we see from commercial jet aircraft.
I have learned that there is not much that would surprise me when it comes to the evil man is up to and capable of. Man seems to be determined to destroy this earth and God has said in His Word that He will shorten the days to prevent man from destroying himself (Matthew 24:22, Mark 13:20).
There is not much I can do to change what is going on but as long as I can and thanks to better winter weather I will do my best to …
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Certainly I can’t make the claim that everybody is doing it, but there is no denying a whole lot of people are switching over to recumbent trikes. And most have pretty much the same testimony. Here is a video about the subject.
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Recumbent trikes have become quite popular and for good reason. They are super comfortable. They are far safer than bicycles. And they are a lot of fun to ride. Like most of us I rode bicycles all my life until I got into recumbents. And initially I rode a 2 wheel recumbent bike … not a trike. I loved riding the recumbent bike until I tried riding a recumbent trike. That is all it took. I was hooked on trikes. I totally lost interest in my recumbent bike so I sold it. I found the recumbent bike comfortable but the recumbent trike was even more comfortable … noticebly more comfortable. Don’t get me wrong. In my earlier years I found riding a bicycle lots of fun. And there are definitely things you can do on a diamond frame bike that you can’t do on a recumbent bike or trike. Some of those things I miss. But as the years rolled along I found that riding a diamond frame bicycle was taking its toll on me. My body was letting me know that a bicycle is not friendly toward me. I had aches and pains and discomfort that really started to get my attention and no matter what I tried to do … changing the seat, the handlebars, my position … it didn’t help much. I knew of recumbent bikes so being a weldor and metal fabricator I decided to build myself a recumbent bike. WOW, what a difference! I no longer had any discomfort. I rode my recumbent bike thru the year until November when knowing that winter would soon be upon me I made the decision to build my first tadpole trike. I wanted to keep riding thru the winter and I knew 2 wheels on slippery surfaces was unsafe. And I had learned already that a recumbent bike goes down easier than a diamond frame bike. They just are not as stable. Once I got my first tadpole trike built there was no turning back. I was hooked. It was more comfortable than a recumbent bike. It was safer and it was a lot more fun to ride than a bicycle. I rode it thru the winter and come Spring I attempted to go back to my recumbent bike. I rode it for a couple of weeks but discovered that I much preferred riding the trike so I went back to the trike and never looked back. I sold my recumbent bike since I no longer rode it nor cared to ride it. I bought a new 2009 Catrike Trail and sold my homemade trike. I have been riding a tadpole trike now for 16 years and absolutely love it. Well, that is my personal testimony concerning how I got into tadpole trikes.
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– 38 degrees … Hey, that will wake you up … or if exposed to it too long might put you to sleep … permanently. It is Dec. 24th as I sit here in comfort typing this. It is warmer today than it was yesterday but the wind is still blowing hard resulting in blizzard conditions (white out). It is nasty out there! And it is not just here in the northern states. Atlanta, GA has nearly identical weather. It is below freezing in Floral City, Florida. I need to explain — the – 38 was the “feels like” temperature yeasterday morning … not the actual temperature. The actual temperature was about -8 degrees.
The wind was blowing hard all night Thursday, all day Friday, all night again Friday … and still blowing hard this morning (Saturday). It is my understanding that much of the United States is experiencing this same weather. It is amazing to me how this can happen. We went from temperatures in the 40s and 50s to this frigid weather.
Next Thursday the temperature is forecasted to be back up into the low 50s for 3 days. Crazy man, crazy! I will take it though. Of course, it is also suppose to rain or snow nearly everyday for more than a week. So it doesn’t look like I will be going out riding when it warms back up. It seems it almost always happens this way in northern Indiana.
This has long been one of my favorite trike videos …
I can remember as a kid growing up I would be sitting in the classroom at school looking out the window at the great weather we were having and really looking forward to the weekend so I could enjoy the nice weather. And almost every weekend it would rain. Such is life! But I still want to …
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This is a subject I have written about several times in the past. Keeping my hands warm is probably the most difficult thing I deal with when it comes to cold weather riding. I have tried numerous things over the years and it seems that what has worked previously no longer works now. That means I have to come up with something else which will work for me. In the past (last year) I was using “HotHands” mittens made of Thinsalate. I have not been a big fan of Thinsalate over the years as I have tried various products made of it and none of them kept me warm. It has been about 9 days since I last went out for a ride as it has been colder than I care to venture out. Finally it has warmed up a little … into the low 40s (F) so I went for a ride today. I just got back home. I started off wearing the HotHands mittens but only got a couple of blocks from home before my hands started getting cold so I put my “Hotfingers” mittens on over the HotHands mittens. I rode about 60 % of my 17 mile ride wearing that combination. My hands got cold and they were somewhat uncomfortable as the mittens were too snug on my hands. I stopped for lunch and before leaving the restaurant I changed my glove (mitten) attire. I separated the two pair of mittens and put the HotHands mittens away in my pockets. I replaced them with a pair of 100 % wool hand knit mittens made in Siberia with the Hotfingers mittens over them. I am pleased to report my hands stayed warm with that combination. And now my hands were not cramped inside of tight fitting mittens which made for much more comfort. And with all the room I have inside there is plenty of room to put the packets of chemical hand warmers if and when I need them.
HotHands Thinsalate mittens…
Hotfingers mittens …
Hand knit wool mittens…
Hopefully this combination will work for me thruout the coming winter months as I want to …
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Every once in awhile I find myself looking online at bicycle campers. I don’t know, maybe I have some nomad in me. I ponder over pulling a “small home” behind my trike and living out of it as I travel along in my final days of life on planet earth. In time past I have written about bicycle campers. In fact, I have featured Paul Elkins before including this very camper featured in the video below, but unfortunately the post no longer exists. I only have two posts from the past which are about a bicycle camper. Click HERE to view the first one and HERE to view the second one.
You can buy the complete set of plans of this camper from Paul for $20. Paul has invented and constructed many different things and has videos covering many of them. Click HERE to check out his other mobile shelters.
There are factory manufactured campers available to buy. Of course, they cost a lot more than these DIY campers. Unfortunately all of them I have seen are made in Europe. It would cost quite a bit to have one shipped here to the U.S. One of them I really like is the Wide Path which reduces to half it’s expanded size when pulling it. Here it is fully expanded …
And here it is at half size being towed along …
It is almost hard to believe that this is the same trailer unit. One thing that all of these campers lack is a toilet and shower although Paul Elkins did make an outdoor shower on one of his campers.
There have been a few different campers people tried to bring to market but failed in doing so.
Here is one which is a little different … tow, float, sleep …
I would not want to get the wheel hubs submerged when weight is added to the boat.
Foldavan makes a rather simple offering good for sleeping only I would say. Of course, I guess one could simply take shelter inside of it.
Dealing with wind could be interesting. A strong wind or wind gust could cause the trailer and trike to tip over. That could really mess up one’s day. And it could cause considerable damage and possible injury.
Hey, I just found a manufacturer here in the U.S. In fact, they are located in nearby South Bend, Indiana. BikeStream-RV sells their camper for $2395. They have a Facebook page as well.
As you can see it is only big enough to sleep in. The video below does a pretty good job of illustrating it.
There is not much extra room inside most of these but at least they would get you out of foul weather if you had no where else to go.
One last option which may be appealing to some as it is small, light and inexpensive. A bicycle tent camper can be had for under $400 on Amazon and Ebay. It is made in China so I don’t know the quality of it. It has 16 inch wheels which I would not care much for. Maybe 20 inch wheels could be installed in their place, but that would mess up the frame work support legs which sit on the ground with the 16 inch wheels. It sets up and tears down quickly so that is a plus. One can also carry up to 50 pounds of extra gear on it when it is all folded up. I would think having a tarp along to place over it might be a good idea … in case of rain or snow. It shows that it comes with a rain cover. I would still want the extra tarp anyway.
I just ordered one of these tent campers so I will let you know what I think of it.
Update: I received the main frame and tent part of it. I have not received the wheels and tongue yet. It is shipped in two different boxes. Anyway I set up the tent in the living room and crawled inside of it. There is lots of room and lots of ventilation available. I don’t think I would have any trouble sleeping in it. I did have trouble setting it up however. The roof poles were difficult to bow and get into place. I got three of them, but could not get the 4th one into place. I hope that changes with use. It comes with tent stakes and rope which I don’t have a clue what they are for since this sits on it’s own frame up off of the ground. It sure took a lot longer to set up than the video made it look. I wore myself out trying to get the roof poles in place. If I had to go thru that at the end of a day’s ride I would be ready to climb in and go to sleep. Anyway, so far I am fairly impressed. Everything seems to be made pretty well and I am hopeful it holds up. Now if I can just get the second box with the wheels and tongue.
UPDATE: I received the second box with the trailer’s running gear and assembled it. The running gear is cheaply made and poor quality compared to the tent and its frame. I fully expect it to fail me as I am riding along. Definitely this trailer with the wheels on it is way too wide to fit thru most bollards. That is going to be a problem. Oh, BTW, this does not come with assembly instructions. Howerver, there is a video available to watch. However, if one is mechanically inclined they probably can figure it out on their own as it is fairly simple. I recommend putting the tongue on before putting the wheel on that side as it will allow you to get a straight run at the screw head. With the wheel on you don’t have a straight run.
Here is a homemade tent camper. It is far more elaborate but has some good features. Definitely it is not one which you set up and take down as quickly as the other one.
Well, that’s about it for this topic. Who knows what the future may hold? I may someday own one such camper and be seen pulling it along … at least until I am done for the day and can find someplace to park it to crawl in it. I readily admit that I would be concerned about two things … 1) finding a place where I could park it and use it … and 2) my personal safety. I may want to get a German Shepher or Rottweiller dog for both companionship and helping with my safety.
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Above is a picture showing my bell (yellow arrow pointing to it). BTW, did you notice the snow on my wheel?
One thing that I notice every year when the temperature plays games cooling down somedays and warming back up other days I am not the only one complaining. Both my bell and my squeeze bulb horn are greatly effected by it too. Below is a picture of my horn mounted on my right side handlebar below the wrist rest. The red arrow is pointing at the wrist rest.
Yep, they don’t like the cold weather any more than I do. If fact, they refuse to work like they normally do in warmer weather. Neither are very loud. It is amazing how they change when cold weather comes along. I bet if I were in Florida I would not experience this. But I would probably find something else to complain about. Fortunately I don’t have that much use of my bell or horn in nice weather so cooler weather is not any big concern as there is even less need of either as there are fewer trail users out once the weather changes. In fact, many times when I go out I am the only person out there on the trails.
Hey, speaking of the effect of cold weather I haven’t mentioned e-batteries. They don’t like cold weather either and will let us know it. They do so by not performing the same as they do in warmer weather. The distance we can go on a full charge will be less than normal. And that’s normal! Fortunately it is not all that much of a concern as most of us don’t care to stay out there as long when the weather is cold. I am starting to shiver just sitting here thinking about it. Who likes bundling up in cold weather anyway. I know I don’t.
Well, it is time to put and end to this before my body temperature starts dropping. It is 35 degrees F. outdoors as I type this. It has not warmed up any at all in the 3.5 hours since I got up. That is discouraging. At this rate if I do go out riding I will need to bundle up like I was in the picture above. When you live in the north this is what we deal with if we want to …
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I looked out the window into our back yard early this morning and what did I see? It was not anything I wanted to see. It was that nasty four letter word … SNOW! And it is only mid October as I type this. I tell ya … I AM NOT READY FOR THIS! Yesterday was cold, windy and light rain off and on. It was not a pleasant day for riding … and it is still early Autumn. Oh woe is me … whatever will I do? I’d give a lot of dough, if only I could know … the answer to my question … is it yes or is it no? Does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost overnight? When your mother says don’t chew it, do you swallow it in spite? Can you catch it on your tonsils and heave it left and right? Now I ask ya … does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost over night? Old timers will know where that came from, but younger folks won’t have a clue. It doe not have anything to do with anything. It just sort of fit and flowed off of my pen … and I am not even using a pen. (See the video at the bottom of this article.)
By now you have probably figured out that I don’t have anything in mind to write about and am just rambling on here. But the weather outside is frightful and so I think I will remain inside today. I had enough of nasty riding weather yesteday. And we have only just begun. At least 6 more months can be expected. It is probably more like 8 more months before decent weather returns. Why do people choose to live in the north and deal with nasty weather? Well, at least I have something to look forward to today. I will be going to an eye doctor to get my monthly injection in my eyeball. Doesn’t that sound like fun? It is not really as bad as it sounds. When I first heard about it it made me shudder, but after experiencing it I discovered it was no big deal … a piece of cake … at least when the doctor is skilled. I have a great eye doctor I deal with. Sure I would much rather not have to get the monthly injection but it is helping to preserve what eyesight I have left in my one eye. The other eye is already totally blind. Thank God for two eyes as I still have vision in one and it enables me to …
KEEP ON TRIKIN’
and most every other thing … even compose a nonsensical article for this blog. Hopefully we will both live thru it.
BTW, the snow had all melted away by afternoon. I understand that we here in northern Indiana were fortunate as some states got 12 to 18 inches of snow and more is forecasted for them.
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I am sure most of us have heard the terms concerning what the current weather actually feels like to our bodies. “Feels Like” is probably to most common. Accuweather has patented their “RealFeel”. Of course, before we started hearing and using these terms we had the good ol’ “Wind Chill Factor” commonly used. Along with it came the explanation that the wind chill is what the weather actually feels like to us humans and animals. Colder weather is coming on. Much of the northern United States went from warm summer weather to much cooler Fall weather literally overnight.
Hey, it’s that time of year and there is nothing we can do about it. We can’t all move south to warmer weather. Yesterday and today are much colder days than what we have been having. I am not rushing out the door in the early morning as it is just too cold out there to enjoy being out. Even the warmest part of the day which is late afternoon still FEELS rather chilly. I was out riding yesterday and found I was not dressed warm enough. Mostly it was my hands that got cold as I did not have the right gloves with me to cope with the weather. I also did not have the right headwear. I dug all that out this morning and will be taking it with me today. I am even taking some chemical hand warmers along just in case I need them. Hopefully I will get by without them.
One thing I have noticed which I am not too thrilled about is the fact that as I age my internal furnace doesn’t seem to be working as well as it did when I was younger. What I am saying is I get cold easier than I used to. That equates to not going out riding in temperatures I used to years ago. I used to go out riding with temperatures in the 20s. Last year I found I didn’t venture out unless it was at least in the mid 30s. I don’t know what will be the case this year but I can tell you I am already struggling with the mid 50s. Of course, I could dress warmer and probably not have a problem. It is just that we went from 80 degrees one day to mid 50s the next. I wasn’t ready for that.
If only I had a space suit with heating and cooling available to me. I don’t think I could sit on a trike with it on however. Besides that I know myself … I would have it ripped open the first day.
Again, if I were a rich man and single I would be snowbirding in the Floral City, Florida area and riding on the Withlacoochee Nature Trail during the cold months in the north. I would have started doing that several years ago. But alas, I am married and I am not rich. My wife and I have talked about snowbirding but we don’t know if it will ever happen. She is not yet retired so that has to happen first and then see how our finances go. Who knows? We might “git ur dun”. Maybe I will meet up with some of you down there. Unless and until then I am stuck here dealing with colder temperatures.
Hey, it is now 11:10 AM and we are having a real heat wave … 50 degrees F with a feels like temp of 46 and 9 mph winds. I think I will eat lunch and then bundle up to head out. The forecasted high today is about 54 degrees.
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How is it possible that I can already be experiencing winter blahs when Autumn is not even here yet? Well, at least according to the calendar it isn’t here yet. I tell ya …. the temperature has already fallen off. Oh, it will warm back up some as summer has its last hooray, but the overnight lows are already announcing change of seasons are upon us. I was out riding yesterday wearing shorts and a short sleeve shirt. I did put a sweatshirt on and was thankful for that along with the brown cotton gloves in had in the pockets. I assumed as the day went on I would be removing all of it, but the temperature never climbed much so I wore it the entire time I was out. I laid in bed last night covered with only a sheet and was cold all night long. Tonite will be different as I already put a comforter on the bed. I will be warm tonite and hopefully will get better sleep.
Oh, I am looking forward to Autumn and all the beauty of the foliage. I can’t say I am looking forward to the leaves falling onto the trails, especially if the city fails to remove them like they often times do. I used to remove them myself, but I stopped doing it.
I had a friend who also use to remove leaves off of the trail. I liked my leaf removal rig a lot better than his. Mine was made like a plow which off loaded the leaves to the outside as I went along but his didn’t and they kept piling up making it harder and harder to pull. Also it would just dump a whole bunch of leaves on the trail that then had to be removed by hand. Here is a video of him with his rig …
HERE is a previous posting about our rigs. All I have to show mine is still pictures … no video. Watching it in action it is easy to see how much better it worked than the one my friend designed and made. Yes, a powerful leaf blower would be great to have and use but I can’t afford nor justify spending my own money on one.
And when winter finally does come and we get snow I may not be able to ride to the trails even if the snow has been removed. And there is a good chance the snow won’t be removed from the trails as the city doesn’t do a very good job of any kind of trail maintenance. It makes no sense to me to build trails if you are not going to maintain them.
One thing I have not touched on is dealing with cold weather. As for me as I have got older I don’t care to deal with colder weather. When I was younger I would venture out in temperatures in the teens but not anymore. Now I usually won’t venture out if it isn’t at least in the mid 30s. Bundling up is not something I enjoy having to do.
It is really bad when snow falls on top of leaves. I am hopeful that doesn’t happen this year. It greatly adds to the winter blahs. I know I need to fight the winter blahs remembering “this too shall pass” and I have survived many winters thus far and I assume I will survive this one. I just want to …
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I was under the impression that I had covered this subject before but upon conducting a search I did not find anything other than an article on new handlebars I bought that came with the mount for the wrist wrests. Since I had the mounts for them I went ahead and bought them. WOW, what a difference they make! That being said, now that I have been using them for a few years I find them a bit uncomfortable and wast to make a change in them. Catrike uses a pretty firm rubber compound. I want to find something softer to use to replace them. BTW, I am open to ideas/suggestions.
There are a lot of different brands of tadpole trikes on the market but only a very few that I am aware of offer wrist rests. There is good news however. Trike owners and trike dealers have been using the wrist rests that are available and installed them on trike brands that don’t offer them. Utah Trikes installed Catrike handlebars with wrist rests on a Sunseeker FAT Tad trike.
That is one solution. Below is another solution.
As you can see in the picture above of the HP Velotechnik wrist rest they have a removable mount which would be used on other brands of trikes. Yep, both HP and ICE wrist rests can be installed on most trike brands. And, of course, there is always the option of a person making their own and saving the money involved in buying them. Of course, rarely do they turn out looking as good as the ones that can be purchased.
Yes, wrist rests make a big difference in comfort. I would have to say that adding them to my trike was some of the best money I ever spent to improve my ride and personal comfort.
I would have to say that this is one time ICE and HP outdid Catrike in the design of their wrist rests. That is so hard for me to admit as it is so rare in my opinion. The man said it in the beginning of the video … recumbents are all about comfort and wrist rests add greatly to any tadpole trike.
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I have been riding the Fort Wayne (Indiana) Trails for quite a few years now and have racked up over 120,000 miles on them. During that time I have experienced poor trail maintenance and it keeps getting worse. The problem as I see it is that there is no designated maintenance dept. The city of Fort Wayne assigns sections of the trails to the various city departments … Street Dept., Parks Dept., Right of Way Dept. and Allen County Road Dept. They all have their own responsibilities to tend to so the trails are down the list in priority. The city used to hire two men who worked only on trail maintenance and it made a huge difference. But that ended years ago and nothing has been done since to replace them. Most recently we lost our trail maintenance manager who did a lot of trail maintenance all by herself. She was awesome. She quit to take a job in another city up on Michigan. She is really missed. The guy they hired to replace her is next to worthless in comparison. Trying to get the city to do something about this falls on deaf ears. I pretty much believe in … “if you are not going to maintain the trails, don’t build them”. I think it is shameful.
All I have talked about so far is trail maintenance but what I really want to address is trail conditions … the condition of the surface of the trails. I mentioned wearing a kidney belt. I was joking but it might not be a bad idea. One could lose tooth fillings riding on our trails. They definitely are rough. Even the newest pavement, Becketts Run Trail, is rough. I tried to film a ride on it holding the camera in my hand. I got tossed around so much the video didn’t turn out very good.
I don’t have any suspension on my trike but I do have balloon tires on all 3 wheels and it definitely helps. I don’t have a kidney belt but if the trails get in any worse shape I may have to consider getting one. And I thought they were only for Harley riders. COME RIDE THE FORT WAYNE TRAILS … if you dare.
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Seventy Five degrees, blue skies, gentle breeze … great cycling weather … and it is mid August which is usually the hottest time of the summer. I am taking advantage of it each day that I can. Tomorrow (as I write this) rain is forecasted as well as the following day. Oh well, I can’t complain … it wouldn’t do any good if I did.
I met up with a fellow tadpole trike rider today. He is from out of town but said that he comes to Fort Wayne a couple of times a week during decent weather to ride the trails.The first words out of his mouth when I pulled up alongside of him were about the great cycling weather we are having. He rides a Catrike Expedition. I rode a few miles with him and his friend who was riding an e-bike.
Yes, rain is in the immediate forecast for a couple of days but then it is more of the same for most of next week. I can handle that. I check the weather forecast in a few other locations daily. Most of the locations are in the Southern U.S. I don’t like dealing with winter up here in Indiana but I sure don’t like dealing with summer down in the south. I lived in the NE Atlanta suburbs for ten years. They don’t call it Hotlanta for nothing. And Florida, is just plain miserable almost year around. The only good thing I can think of to say is they have nice pavement … not potholes and nasty bumps like we have here in Indiana. Those potholes and bumps have cost me a few thousand dollars in trike repairs and wheel replacements. The one thing I did like about Georgia weather besides a much shorter and milder winter is the long Spring and Autumn seasons. But Summer was always brutal.
It is time to go out for another ride taking advantage of this great weather. Adios! I expect to be back.
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I am only going to say that the only regret I have is that I didn’t know about recumbent tadpole trikes as a kid growing up as I sure would have been riding them all my life.
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It is summertime and the heat is on. I remember well from my motorcycle days riding when it was quite hot outside. When it gets to a certain temperature it makes no difference how fast one rides … IT’S HOT! It is no different when riding a bicycle or a trike in my case. Even with an electric motor by which I am able to gain considerably more speed than I can via my own human power it is just plain hot. What I have noticed is this — I have a choice of riding in an oven at slow speeds or a blast furnace at higher speeds. That’s the way it was on a motorcycle too … oven or blast furnace … the only choices. Either way … either one … IT’S HOT! I do ride with a canopy in hot weather which certainly does help. And when I ride with a canopy I ride without my visor hat as I am cooler without it and don’t need it when I am seated under my canopy. But I guess I would rather feel the heat on me at 20 plus mph than at 2 or 3 mph. We have all heard it said that we lose up to 80 % of our body heat thru our heads. Science has proven that this is not true … not even anywhere close. Cooling off one’s head, however, is effective in relief from being hot. I need to incorporate some means of cooling off such as a wet towel over my head. Maybe I need to install a mister overhead or out in front of me. There is nothing I can do about hot weather so I will just have to deal with it. I am thankful for those things I have already mentioned … my canopy and e-motor do help a lot. I will manage to …
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In case you haven’t noticed it a whole lot of the nation (U.S.) is hot and humid lately. Are you still out there riding in it? If so, what are you doing to help fight the heat? Do you purposely ride in shady areas?
Do you have your own source of shade … a canopy?
Do you wear wicking clothing?
Do you use a cooling headband or neckwear?
BTW, some of it is capable of having ice cubes inserted in them or has built in liquid which can be frozen in a freezer prior to use.
How about a hand held mister fan?
Do you ride anyplace that has a mister installed for trail users?
Do you keep hydrated while out riding?
(I hope you don’t get this desperate.)
Maybe you know a fireman who can help you out …
Hey, speaking of misters … maybe you have a trail which goes thru a park where they use a misting system to water the vegetation …
Several years ago in Headwaters Park in downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana they had misters in use like this except there were a lot of them and just riding along the trail thru the park was quite refreshing. I wrote an article on misters several years ago. We have one on one trail installed next to a restroom. I have never seen anybody use it. I have just to try it out.
Of course, you can always just pour water on top of your head and cool off. I have done that many times. It is very effective.
Anyway, if you are riding out there in heat and humidity keep cool, man (or woman or boy or girl). We all want to …
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Tadpole Rider 