I have shared postings about various things in the archives. Here is one that isn’t even part of this website. It is from another one of my blogs I shared various topics on including tadpole trikes. The blog is entitled “Steve’s Mixed Bag”. Here is an article on Catrikes … which happens to be my favorite trike manufacturer. This was first posted April 15, 2015.
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Flooded over trails is something that happens all too often. All it takes is one day of rain and some of our local trails close for weeks sometimes. This is something I have written about several times before so I won’t repeat myself here. I will simply provide a link to a past article I wrote about it.
I am amazed that one of our local rivers rarely ever rises up under a major highway flooding over the trail which goes under the highway. Looking at the river here one would think it would readily flood over. Yet I have only seen it flooded over a couple of times. And this river has flooded over elsewhere at other locations and doesn’t even rise any here oftentimes.
It is a mystery to me, but I am glad about it as I can still ride this trail when others are closed due to flooding. I may have to take alternate detours elsewhere but most of the trail is rideable when others are not.
Dealing with all too frequent flooding and trail closures gets old quick. Never the less, I am thankful I still have other trails to ride that usually don’t flood. And if worse comes to worse there are always streets and roads to ride … as hellacious as they are. I am talking about pot holes. I don’t know how many thousands of dollars I have spent repairing my trike from damage Fort Wayne streets have caused. The heavier duty BMX wheels I have now are holding up much better than the stock Catrike wheels did. Still I hate hitting pot holes and there are lots of them and I can’t usually avoid them. With the Catrike wheels I was constantly breaking spokes … I mean dozens of them. I think I have had only one broken spoke since I got the BMX wheels. I have put a lot of money into my trike over the years, but it is serving me well and holding up well with the components I now have on it. I just wish I had made the changes sooner rather than keeping it stock for so long.
In addition to the trail closures due to flooding there are also several utility, construction, tree removal, and bridge closures all going on at the same time in many different locations. As they say “when it rains it pours”. And as they say … “you’ll have that!” And I can vouch for it … we got it.
You are invited to come join the Tadpole Rider Facebook Group. Please note that in order to join you must first answer the two membership vetting questions and agree to comply with the group rules.
You are invited to come join the Tadpole Rider Facebook Group. Please note that in order to join you must first answer the two membership vetting questions and agree to comply with the group rules.
Utah Trikes produces lots of good videos. Here is one about various available options one can pursue to avoid getting flat tires. I noticed that the very first option mentioned is my choice … Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires. It is still the best tire money can buy and most sensible approach to the matter of avoiding flats. You not only get excellent flat protection but you get incredible wear. … 2 to 3 times as much as the Tannus. It is a lot of tire for the money. I personally am very unimpressed with the Tannus tire.
You are invited to come join the Tadpole Rider Facebook Group. Please note that in order to join you must first answer the two membership vetting questions and agree to comply with the group rules.
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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This posting from back in 2014 is probably one of if not the most viewed posting on this blog. I don’t know why it is so popular. It would not be anywhere near my top pick.
BTW, It is my understanding that David Bruce no longer makes these trikes.
Tadpole Rider 