Now, let's go northeast a bit.

I decided to go to the discount mall on the northeast side of town. The main mission is to pick up some toggle switches for the signal bar I'll eventually mount to the trike. However, while I'm there, I've also decided to pick up some calories for all these excursions. The dollar store is a perfect place for that kind of thing. The strip-mall destination at first glance is rather challenging since the traffic is usually quite heavy towards this end of town. However, taking back roads allows entrance to the parking lot from the rear.

On flat ground, I can usually sustain around 10mph with no problem but hills and traffic decrease this average speed. At 15 degrees, my face shield does fine shielding me from the wind. However, it fogs up quickly. Plus, there is a surprising bit of salt thrown up by passing cars and also the front wheels since I currently have no fenders. This isn't obvious during the journey but becomes apparent when I bring my face shield home to dry off then see the salt streaks left behind. Also, the bike has quite a few salt streaks on it as well.

I'm eventually building up enough stamina to be able to zig-zag through cross streets to reach "the strip". Here will be various car dealerships, a McDonald's, Taco Bell and the consumer holy-of-holy places, Walmart. Ironically, one popular destination for me doesn't seem to be easily reachable by trike. The bike shop at the edge of town!

Adding some blig for night riding

LED tail lights have really come down in price so there is really no excuse to not have one on a bike or trike for night riding. The photo on the right is a photo looking down on the cargo rack so the mounting arrangement can be seen.

As for the headlight, since there are no front handlebars, there is no really good way of mounting a traditional handlebar mounted light to the front. So, I decided to take a headlamp and modify it to be a bike light. The headlamp is a model that can be tilted. That way, the lamp can be secured by a bunch of rubber bands then tilted forward. The lamp has a "flash mode" which is quite bright. It's so bright that when I pulled up to a store, the clerk at first thought I was riding a snowmobile!

Mounting the speedometer was rather problematic. The cord between the speedometer and the pickup sensor did not allow for enough length to have the sensor in the rear and also have the readout in front. The solution came was to pick up a u-bolt at the local hardware store. This would allow the readout box to be mounted to the front crank tube. Since the wire was too short to reach the back wheel area, the sensor needed to be mounted somewhere around the front-wheel area.

Just as with the other items, there was no ready-made way to mount the pickup sensor. However, I had an idea. To accomplish mounting the sensor to the front wheel, an "L" bracket from the local hardware store was purchased along with a couple of 8-32 machine screws with washers and Nylock nuts (so the screws don't vibrate lose). The nice looking plastic clamp around the right control stick was the unused clamp left over from the rear tail light installed earlier.

Riding downtown

My last journey was west. Now, let's try south. Same mission as before - fetch a backpack of groceries and see what the issues are. The route for this normally has more traffic since it's the heart of downtown. Although there is more traffic, the road is also wider, well lit and is a shorter journey. As before, automobile drivers were respectful.

Having a bike allows me to ride downtown and park for free. Right in front of the store is a perfect place to lock up the bike. It's out of the weather, well lit and even features a robust bar to lock up at. If more people start using trikes, I suspect this premium parking spot will become unavailable. However, for now, it's rare to see bikes tied up in front of the store. I do wonder when this will change.

I only had one slightly annoying incident. I threw the chain off the front sprocket at an intersection since the shifter limit was set improperly. Fortunately, I worked the shifter so the chain worked back onto the sprocket while gliding through the intersection. A slight adjustment on the derailer should take care of that problem.

First road test

The first ride was rather short. Only around the block. I attached a flashing headlamp to the front with a bunch of rubber bands and a red lamp to the back with a bolt. Then, I put on an orange rain suit and I was off! I had a couple of things to get used to. First, the turning radius is more like a car than a bike (very large). Second, since I adjusted the front crank tube to be shorter, I found my chain was now a tad bit too long. That resulted in some mild gear skipping. Also, after my short ride, I found it tempting to go full speed which made me quite winded! Gotta pace myself!

Fortunately, when it comes to adjustments, the front tube holding the crank can be put in or out and is held in place with a pair of hex bolts. The bike also came with a chain tool that enables easy removal of chain links. It works well. Unfortunately, it does not come with a quick-link to put the two ends of the chain back together! So, I went off to my local bike store with a sample of chain. After $3 for the quick link and an upgraded bike light (impulse purchase), I was back in business!

Time for a "milk run" test. Literally, to get a gallon of milk and see what other items I can return with. It's about 4 miles as a total trip. Just like the night before, it's a calm moonless night, about 20 degrees with some snow still on the roadways. Not much traffic. For clothing, I decided on sneakers, two pairs of socks, one pair of Jeans, covered with a pair of rain-suit pants. For upper body, two t-shirts, a polyester sports shirt, wool sweater, cotton coat and the orange rain-suit top. For hands, some good leather gloves. For my head, a cotton ski-mask and a safety face-shield I normally use when I'm doing metal work. On the back, a backpack, bike cable lock and some bungee cords to secure it to the rear rack.

Temperature wise, the outfit was just right. The face shield and rain suit made windchill a non-issue. When I was too warm, face shield goes up. When too cold, face shield goes down. As a technique to regulate my temperature and deflect windchill, it worked great! The shield did ice up due to my breath. Fortunately, the grocery store was warm enough to rid the lens of ice. On the way back, I developed the technique of pulling my face mask up to deflect my breath when the shield was down. This helped quite a bit. Temperature wise, the whole outfit was almost perfect! As for being winded, the first part of the journey was the worst since I was rather enthusiastic on how fast I could go so I tended to pedal too fast. Eventually, I found using the gears to maintain a steady crank force and rate rather than a steady speed was the best way to pedal. The ride became almost relaxing!

Along the way, I found drivers were very respectful, waiting to go around and I even got a few waves along the way from people walking. I was an instant low-key celebrity! When I arrived at the store, I cabled the trike to a shopping-cart rack, left the orange rain gear with the bike and returned to being dressed just like everyone else. The only unusual incident on the way back was the upper chain tube ziptie not being able to hold the chain tube in place. It kept working it's way to the front sprocket where it would get caught in the front crank gearing. Ah, if only I had some duct tape with me! Instead, I had some bungee cord that I used to keep the chain-guide tube against the central tube so the tube wouldn't work it's way up quite as fast. The field-fix wasn't great but it worked. I found I could go slow without the tube working forward but only in the lowest front gear. But hey, slow-go beats no-go! So, I made it back under my own power. After a glass of milk and a cookie, I considered my nightly bike adventure complete!

I now am questioning the need for a velo shell at all for winter triking. I found I don't need front fenders for the tires. In fact, I found with the face shield, rain suit and clothing layers I don't really need to be shielded from the wind either! (the face shield makes a HUGE difference) For rain, I think there may still be an advantage to an overhead cover. However, for a winter excursion I think a shell might be more bother than benefit.

My ActionBent Trident Review

I had been tracking the box across the country for about a week (kinda slow due to holiday packages). The trike and it's parts finally arrived packed in a huge box. Inside is a large amount of bubble wrap. I immediately checked out the parts looking for bad welds, scratches, dents or other obviously broken items and found none. I was especially on the lookout for bad welds. However, the welds and paint look very good. So, let's inflate those tires! Hmm. The adapter is, well, wrong for my air pump. Fortunately, Dick's sporting goods store is nearby. Sure enough, they had some adapter fittings that fit the tires. I got 2 two-packs which came to a total of about $7. After returning home, I could then inflate the tires to 100PSI and also lock the valves so air doesn't leak out through the valves.

Now, time to unfold the bike frame and put the rest together. The center clamp which allows the frame to fold is the same style as is found on other high-end folding bikes. Once the frame was in it's unfolded state, I could then put on the rear tire. It too has a quick release fitting on it which makes the bike better to fold. Then, put on the front tires and secure the bolts with a provided hex tool. Then, stretch the seat fabric on the seat frame. Attach to frame using quick-releases. Initial assembly took about an hour to figure out, most of it with the rear pannier rack (the instructions were, well, interesting). However, once assembled and adjusted to taste, the folding and unfolding can be done very quickly. As for size, with the rear wheel off, it fits nicely in the back of a Subaru station wagon. However, fitting two of these at once in the back might be challenging.

Now, comes the fine tuning. Being a folding bike, the major components such as the derailleur, gearing and disc brakes are already installed with cables run to them. The front and rear shifters are twist types. The front brakes, being disc type, work very well! The crank pole can also be put in or out and is secured by a hex bolt fitting which works well. The steering controls also have other adjustments so handle orientations can be easily adjusted in several ways. The pedals allow the feet to be secured to the crank and the clips seem to work well.

I also got two panniers with the bike. The nicer one was apparently thrown in as an "extra". It was nicer since it stands on it's own rather than attaching by bolts to the seat. As for folding the bike, I found I only did it when transporting it by car. First, the seat is removed then the frame can fold in on itself to reduce it's length. Pedals can stay on. Folding can be done either with the rear wheel on or off. That solves a mystery for me since I could not figure out from the photos how the bike could be folded as shown in the pictures. Turns out the photo was with the bike taken apart - not folded.

POST REVIEW
Now that I've had the bike for a while, I can definitely say it was a good purchase. There are some little picky things. I did need to use two bolts of my own for the accessory pannier (but I'm not complaining too loudly because it was the better one thrown in for free) and the lack of valve adapters was annoying. The chain idler wheel also concerns me a little since it seems a little flimsy but so far, no problems and it also looks like it can be replaced if it fails. Also I had a small cushion and a plastic "S" shaped thing left over. After looking at the two pieces, I found it was the headrest for the top of the seat.

As for the drive system, the rear derailer sometimes shift on the lows when cranking on moderate hills unless I hold the shifter to prevent that. The front shifter doesn't have that problem. I suspect there is a spring tension setting somewhere to fix that. The twist grip shifters make this sort of a non-issue since I frequently change gears as terrain changes anyway. Although I can't put a mirror on top of the shifter, I can put a mirror on the steering bracket which is just as effective. It also looks like I could put pushbuttons on top of the shifters for turn signals if I wanted. That would have more styling than the present toggle switch arrangement I now use. The gears also have quite a span. They range from very fast to a high torque hill-crawler. I find I can cruise comfortably at 17mph on flat ground without being winded. With the addition of reflectors and turn signals, I find the bike visibility due to being low doesn't seem to be an issue with automobile drivers.

The cargo capacity is where this bike really shines. I've attached a milk crate which is strong enough to hold most anything that can be found in a grocery store. I frequently also have a backpack on top of that which contains a coat & basic tools in case of a breakdown. It might just be me, but even with all this stuff, it's easier traveling with this bike than my two wheeler.

Tadpole vs Delta

Tadpole vs Delta. It's truly a phrase that has been a hobgoblin of the mind. Which layout should I choose?

The "tadpole" configuration
Simply means a trike with two wheels in the front. From what I have read, the tadpole bikes tend to be very maneuverable. Being low to the ground makes them fast, but harder to see than a regular bicycle. Going up hills in a tadpole usually causes a slight side-to-side movement with cranking which I suspect is where the name came from.

A hard-shell tadpole example would be the Go One velomobile. These HPVs look really sharp, go fast, and with electric assist approach the convenience of a small automobile. However, at almost 14K, the Go-One is a bit pricey. A less expensive soft-shell example is the "velo Kit". Not quite as "cool" looking, but it probably does do the job of keeping the driver out of the rain and may provide some wind reduction all for significantly less money.

The "Delta" configuration - A trike with two wheels in the rear.
Delta trikes can have some significant advantages. They tend to put the rider high in traffic and can have high ground clearance (although this depends on the model of trike). However, there is an unpleasant choice with two wheels in the back. Having a solid axle would be a performance problem going around turns since one wheel would want to spin faster than the other. Having one wheel powered while the other isn't would make the bike inexpensive but it would cause a pull to one side going up hills. Having a differential would solve both problems but differential gearing adds to the cost. Delta bikes tend to be seen more easily in traffic but they can be more susceptible to wind issues, drag issues and turn instability at higher speeds. A good winter trike example would be the RainShadow kit that was developed by Lightfoot Cycles. This project was apparently an experiment and is not available for purchase. I suspect this is due to feature escalation making for a high cost bike that doesn't look very stylish. With electric assist, this model can also blur the line between unregulated HPVs and larger motor vehicles that are regulated.