People cannot truly appreciate the great expanses of Earth unless they move themselves over it with their own bodily power! Live Long – Finish Strong!
2013 Recumbent Cycle Convention
From the Recumbent Cycle-Con weblog comes the following information:
Public inspecting exhibitor booths
The biennial Recumbent Cycle-Con Trade Show & Convention, November 1 – 3, 2013, will again be a three-day celebration showcasing the newest in recumbent bikes, trikes, gear, and accessories.
The event starts with a trade show for members of the industry, and is open to the public on the second and third days.
Manufacturers and supplies from around the world will meet with bicycle dealers and distributors to introduce all their new products, services and accessories. Dealers and shop employees also get first-hand experience riding all the new recumbent bike and trikes in the Outdoor Demo Ride Arena. Plus, an all-new Adaptive Bike Demo Rider Arena has been added for the 2013 show, along with exhibit spaces specifically for special needs exhibitors.
All three days will be filled with informative educational seminars, product demonstrations, contests and other events. Technicians, engineers and designers from the all the major recumbent manufacturers will provide helpful, hands-on seminars, demonstrations and training sessions that will be beneficial to bike shop mechanics and DIY enthusiasts alike.
Saturday morning, enthusiasts can bring their own bikes and start the day with a group ride early, selecting from routes that begin and end at the Fairplex for handy access to the show after the ride.
You won’t want to miss the 2013 Recumbent Cycle-Con Trade Show & Convention — add it to your “Must Do” calendar now!
Catrike Dash on Draft Master trike carrier
The bi-annual Recumbent Cycle-Con Trade Show & Convention will again be held at the Pomona Fairplex, about thirty minutes east of downtown Los Angeles, California.
The operating hours for the 2013 Recumbent Cycle-Con have been coordinated to maximize the opportunities for recumbent bike dealers to meet with manufacturers and other exhibitors, and to allow plenty of time for the public to participate in this exciting event.
Bicycle dealers and other members of the industry will have access to the convention hall exhibits and Demo Test Ride Arena all three days of the show – Friday, Saturday and Sunday, November 1, 2, 3, 2013. The entire show will be open to the public Saturday from 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm, and again Sunday from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
Friday, November 1 – Industry Only Hours – 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
Saturday, November 2 – Industry Hours – 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
Saturday, November 2 – Public Hours 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Sunday, November 3 – Public & Industry Hours – 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
Charles Coyne, Recumbent Cycle-Con producer
Spokes Fighting Strokes
Reader Dan Zimmerman has an interesting story to tell, one of using a tricycle to put the body on a path of health and fitness after some physical challenges conspired to detour life on an unacceptable route. Dan’s journey is related below, in his brief autobiography.
Dan Zimmerman on his Catrike 700, which he rides 700-800 miles per month!
Submitted by Dan:
Dan Zimmerman was born in 1964 in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, the second of three boys in his family. His parents divorced, and Dan lived with his father in Minnesota for eight years before returning at age 10 to live with his mother in Wisconsin.
Dan’s industrial arts teacher in high school sparked his interest in woodworking. By the time he was 16, Dan had saved enough money from odd jobs to buy a table saw, band saw and joiner and set up his own wood shop in the family basement. He soon had a booming business making miniature furniture for customers of a dollhouse shop his mother had started.
Tragedy struck the family when Dan’s older brother, Kevin, died at age 19. Tests later revealed that both Kevin and Dan had HHT (Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia ), a disease in which the lungs fail to filter clots efficiently.
Dan had the first of periodic surgeries to treat his HHT and graduated from Sussex Hamilton High School in 1982. He got a job in a cabinet shop and continued his woodworking business on the side, paying his own way through Milwaukee Area Technical College. He graduated in 1983.
During a vacation to Arizona, Dan’s stepfather accepted a job at a Pontiac dealership, and the family moved to metro Phoenix in 1984. Dan worked briefly for a furniture maker, then used his woodworking equipment to start his own cabinet and furniture-making business in 1985. Woodworks by Dan eventually grew to more than a dozen employees and more than $540,000 in annual sales.
As he worked 80- to 100-hour weeks, Dan also married and had two sons of his own — Josh, born in 1997, and Zach, born in 2001. But his marriage soured, and he moved into his shop while divorce and custody proceedings dragged on.
In 2005, at age 41, Dan suffered a stroke that paralyzed his right arm and leg and damaged the left side of his brain. A hospital doctor told him that he would never walk or talk again.
Angry, Dan knew he had to give up or fight. His early life with his father, a railroad conductor who worked all hours and drank more than he parented, had left Dan determined to work hard and do better. Dan knew his sons needed a father, and he decided to shut down his woodworking business and concentrate on recovery.
It took eight weeks before he could hobble with a walker. For six months he visited job sites in a wheelchair, pointing to communicate as the company wrapped up projects. It took a year before he could talk, and three years before he could read and remember. He married — once for love, once for health insurance — and divorced two more times. He now lives in Scottsdale, and his main source of income is rent from his woodworking building.
By 2008, Dan wanted more mobility than his wheelchair afforded. His first tricycles were too heavy but offered him the “freedom, plain and simple,” that he craves. He bought a lightweight recumbent trike in 2009 and began riding with the ‘Bent Riders of Arizona on weekly rides and weekend tours. He logs 500 to 700 miles a month and in 2012 rode more than 350 miles from Phoenix to San Diego in eight days.
Cycling, Dan says, has improved his health and more importantly, given him a purpose in life. He wants to raise awareness of HHT, the disease that killed his brother and mother and is present in Dan and his younger son. He also wants to raise awareness of stroke prevention and inspire other stroke survivors to fight back against the disease.
His next goals are to ride the RAGBRAI (Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa) in July 2013 and in 2014 to ride more than 5,000 miles across the United States from the San Juan Islands in Washington state to Key West in Florida.
Stay tune, we building web-site.
Dantrikeman@gmail.com
Velo with Chainless Cable Drive
Suitcase Trikes
Taking a trip? Need to take your trike along? Think it’s too large for public transport? Well, think again. Steven Telck has shared how he approaches this common dilemma. Below the photo is what he wrote to me.
Steve,
This is a photo to show that if someone is dedicating to flying without paying oversize or overweight charges that a Sprint or Adventure (ICE) can be stripped down and fitted into two airline regulation size cases for travel.
Nothing special about my Adventure other than I have removed the seat riser and thereby lowered the seat more like a Sprint. I have become the “go to guy” for such information. I have a word document with pictures of the most important tasks required to get a trike to this stage for packing.
My friend and I are hoping to visit Thailand this upcoming Jan. 2014 and do about 600 miles of riding around the country and on some islands. We will be doing this disassembly of our trikes to get them to Thailand. Time to tear down is about 1 ¾ hours and reassembly is usually 3 hours. If you know anyone that would like suggestions or recommendations on how to do this you can send them my way.
Steven
bpetnoi1 (at) gmail (dot) com.
Losing a Wheel
Triking the Continental Divide
For a fascinating read, visit Scott Wayland’s Crazy Guy on a Bike journal for his trek through the Canadian Rockies on south into the United States Rockies. It involved 2,654 miles (4,271 km) and over 103 days from August 1, 2012 to November 11, 2012. What a journey! Check it out now – You definitely won’t want to miss Scott and Jodi’s mega adventure, along with many great photographs. I believe I may be pedaling through their home town on my upcoming Pacific Coast Tricycle Adventure – maybe I’ll see them on the road – cool!
Do I see a couple of dogs here? Is that a pooch in the trailer? Four mouths to feed en route?
Yep, sure enough! Pulling a dog for 103 days will make an overland triker one strong pedal pusher! The trailer weighs 24 pounds and the dog weighs 58 pounds. These trike gypsies are tough cookies!
Jodi eats a sandwich at the Athabasca Glacier of the Columbia ice fields. I love this area – very cold.
Jodi and Scott are on the road, very far north in the majestic Canadian Rockies.That Arkel TailRider trunk looks just like mine – great way to pack some gear on your top rack – expands to 11 liters.
How would you like to be triking in country like this? Sure beats the city by a wide margin!
Okay, that’s enough photos. Go visit their 37 page site and read the story. You’ll love it!
…..
The Winky-Eyed Jesus:
By the way, Scott wrote an interesting book about touring on a bicycle: “Fully versed in the arcane secrets of elite Ninja recumbent bicycle touring, at the advanced age of forty five, Scott Wayland set out to meet his country face to face, rubber to the road, with nothing but his lactic acid-addled wits and a burning desire to know what the country had to say for itself. Strange creatures, cantankerous weather, odd characters, and a huge, big, bad, beautiful land give him the experience of a lifetime. The Winky-Eyed Jesus and Other Undescribables is an intimate journey into the heart of America, its people and landscape, and one man’s struggle to take it all in.”
GET IT HERE
You may also visit Scott’s blog HERE.
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One more quick note: This post also appears on its own page now, so you can visit it anytime. Click HERE to go there.
Wild Steve Photos
Some new photographs just went up on the Wild Steve website for those of you who enjoy seeing a few of the wild places I visit from time to time. These beach rocks have to be seen and crawled in, on, and around to be appreciated.
There are 21 more photos on the Wild Steve site. Click the pic to see …
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On another note, the ACA has shown an interest in my suggested Coos Bay bridge bypass route. Read their inquiry here, on a new Trike Asylum page:
http://trikeasylum.wordpress.com/steves-stuff/the-coos-bay-bridge-bypass/
Flevelo Trike on Tour
Coos Bay Bridge Work-Around Route
I have been posting some information on the “Crazy Guy on a Bike” journal website recently, as a result of reading so many journals of cyclists who are terrified of the huge bridge that spans Coos Bay, Oregon. This bridge was very poorly designed from a safety standpoint regarding human powered humans, and thus a significant number of cyclists vent their frustrations on the CGOAB website (read a few to get a taste of what I am talking about).
If you know of ANY cyclists who pedal the Oregon Coast, please pass this link onto them and spread the word. Nearly all the anxiety is coming from bicyclists, but at least they have the option of walking their bike on the extremely narrow sidewalk. Trike riders may not be so lucky! By clicking HERE, you can read my posts on CGOAB for text, detailed map, and photographs.
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/12467
A new Trike Asylum page also features a shortened version of the CGOAB article, as well as a letter of interest from the Adventure Cycling Association (ACA) regarding this bypass. Click HERE to visit.
A view of the dreaded bridge from the serene East Bank Drive, which entirely bypasses the bridge, along with the congested towns of North Bend and Coos Bay, Oregon. This bypass is on a peaceful two lane rural road through the woods on the east bank of the bay. It adds a couple of miles for cyclists who remain on Highway 101 towards Bandon. Anyone seeking a stress-free option will enjoy this easy paved alternate route!
Even the Oregon State Police can end up on the Coos Bay bridge sidewalk!
Are you fit to tour on a trike?
Thinking of taking an overland journey on your human powered recumbent tadpole tricycle? Well, think again … that is, unless you exist within a fit body already, or are willing to dedicate the effort to make it so. Some thoughts on this subject now appear on a new Trike Asylum page. Might be worth a read if you are soon to depart on your first long-haul trek! Click HERE to see.
Steve Newbauer’s new frame
His original Catrike frame developed a crack, and Catrike, being a premier trike manufacturer of the highest caliber, sent him a new frame gratis as part of their solid warranty to owners. Steve’s new frame is bright green – old one was silver.
May flowers in Indiana provide a gorgeous backdrop.
Triking Across Tasmania
Have you ever had a burning desire to know what it’s like to ride your human powered recumbent tricycle across Tasmania? If so, today’s your lucky day because you can begin the journey right now, vicariously of course, but exciting nonetheless. You see, a trike nomad named Randall Treloyn is pedaling his Greenspeed GTO in many fascinating locales, and, like me, he loves to share his travels with our cozy group of three wheelers. Randall has been triking since 2009, same year I began by the way, and is filling his blog up with text and photographs that will whisk you away into another world. He is running the Arkel RT-60 pannier system, which matches his yellow trike – best for visibility! Now all he needs is a pair of Radical Design side seat pods with yellow inserts to fill the triangular space behind his seat. You can click on any photo on his blog to view an enlarged version.
Visit his website by clicking HERE
Here are some excerpts from Randall’s journey:
For those not familiar with the Lakes Highway in Tasmania is that it is a highway in name only, it is definitely not the preferred route for most traffic between major centres. The majority of traffic here is trout fishermen that have shacks scattered amongst the many lakes in the central highlands.
Overnight it was damn cold, I had gone to bed fairly early as most of the other campers had already gone to bed to keep warm. Being in a valley the sun wouldn’t be up for quite some time. My tent was wet from the frost, but I packed it up anyway and I was on the road by 7:30. By the time I had climbed the steep grade from the caravan park to the highway I was already hot.
The next stage of the journey was a hard uphill slog. Adding to this was the large amount of roadkill on the side of the road at one stage there was a dead animal every 3m for a 100m. Mostly wallabies and possums but quite a few young tassie devils and couple of quolls. Being on a trike close to the ground, pedalling uphill at 2km/h, you just can’t get away from the stench.
At the bottom of the hill the road is still dirt, but the surface is much smoother. They seem to have recently laid a new strip in the middle of the road and I found that the trike fitted in the channel between this and the mound of soft fine dust on the outside. The gentle grades made the dirt road almost pleasant to ride on.
I took up the offer when a couple of locals offered me a beer at Brandum Bay on the edge of the Great lake. After this rest and refreshment I continued along the edge of the lake. As I passed through Liaweenee, a place that often records the lowest temperatures in Tasmania, the sun was beginning to set.
Distance travelled today 52km – (Trip distance 131km)
Randall Treloyn, Tasmanian Triker, on his Greenspeed GTO
Ahh, no automobile traffic!
Visit Randall’s trike journey website by clicking HERE
Trike Phantoms updated
New material is slowly being added to the Trike Phantoms website, which will document the Pacific Coast Tricycle Adventure scheduled for this coming September 2013. A new look for the new website has also been achieved, replacing the temporary initial design.
Moon Trike
From TA reader Steve Newbauer comes this bit of futuristic trike information:
Recumbent Moon Buggy Trike can tackle commute on the moon!
Winner of the Best Design Award at the 2011 edition of NASA’s annual Great Moon buggy Race, the RISD Moon Buggy 2011 is one of the most sophisticated recumbent trikes that have surfaced in a few years now. The team, which secured third place in their debut appearance, last year, is the first design school with no engineers to enter the competition. This year the team entered not only the race portion of the competition but also put their entry down for the design competition and much to their delight, won.
Starting with the aim of challenging the established notions of the role that design plays in the making of sophisticated engineering ventures, the team proved that application of the design process can offer solutions for engineering problems. The recumbent trike features an integrated freewheel differential that was brought into the drive assembly for simplicity and two repositioned disk brakes were positioned outside the differential to allow proper braking. Self-aligning bearing holders were press-fit into the same tube allowing perfect alignment while shielded drive sprocket was protected from excess dirt and grime inside the alignment tube. The fully suspended all-Wheel-drive trike could seat two-passengers with ease.
The competition, which is held at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL annually, calls for teams to conceptualize and create lightweight HPVs that can effectively travel across a rugged landscape that simulates the surface of the moon. The track comes complete with gravel pits and unexpected curves across the half mile long surface that is created in accordance to the difficulties that Apollo astronauts had to overcome using their lunar rovers during the space program.
RISD student Bryan Cloyd led the suspension and steering systems design in both the editions also donning the co-team lead cap in 2011, when RISD was awarded the best design trophy amongst entries from over 40 universities for designing a HPV capable of tackling engineering challenges faced during lunar travel in the competition held jointly by NASA and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).
Trike Phantoms
The Pacific Coast Tricycle Expedition (PCTA) will be documented on a new website. The site has just been created, and currently consists only of a few preparatory items. It will not be until later this fall that the story is revealed in full, simply because the adventure has yet to occur. So, if you are an early bird and wish to see what is developing ahead of time, here is the link:
Triker Heaven
Cycling paths allow for serene journeys. Does it get any better than this one in England?
Oregon State Police call
A new update appears on the PCTA page. Click HERE for the news.
Three Wheeler Zach West
Regular Trike Asylum reader Zach West has made the news in Bellingham, Washington, and is deserving of mention here in his attempt to raise money to help others with physical challenges. The Bellingham Herald has featured a story about Zach’s worthy goals, which of course involve human powered recumbent tadpole tricycles. The story begins below Zach’s photo.
enthusiastic Trike Asylum reader Zach West
BELLINGHAM MAN RAISING MONEY FOR RECUMBENT THREE-WHEELERS FOR FELLOW HEMOPHILIACS
By MICHELLE NOLAN — FOR THE BELLINGHAM HERALD
Zach West is so excited about the possibility of getting back on a recumbent bicycle that he wants other hemophiliacs to feel the same joy.
The affable 37-year-old Bellingham resident, a member of the Hemophilia Foundation in Washington, is looking for ways to raise money to donate six special three-wheelers known as tadpole recumbent tricycles, or “trikes.”
West was born with hemophilia, a disease that prevents efficient blood-clotting. He also has had to contend with epilepsy.
Question: Zach, what’s your cycling history?
Answer: I loved bicycles as a child. I rode recumbents as a young adult until I got into a serious accident. I’m just getting back to the point where I am trying to save enough to buy a recumbent.
Q: What’s your charity goal?
A: I’m so enthusiastic about the idea of other hemophiliacs enjoying recumbents that my goal is to raise $60,000 for six of these tadpole recumbent trikes. The problem is finding sponsors, and so on. This is my private goal; it is not related to the Hemophilia Foundation. A lot of hemophiliacs are low-income and most could not afford a recumbent like this.
Q: Why are these bikes so expensive?
A: I really want to put high-end safety equipment on these trikes, equipment that lasts a long time. I want these donated bikes to be the best and safest they can be. It takes about $10,000 to properly outfit one of these. Hemophiliacs face a lot of health challenges and these trikes are great exercise. I call it “therapy made fun.”
Read the rest of this article by clicking HERE. Best of luck to you Zach!
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Helmet Color
Does a triker’s helmet color make a difference in visibility? Yes, because the head sticks up above the rear rack and trunk. Colors like yellow, white, pink and the high visibility day-glow colors are good choices if you prefer that motorists have no choice but to see you in plenty of time.
Click HERE to learn details about this helmet.
The “you” that you and everyone who knows you consider “you” is contained in your head, thus protecting that asset might be considered wise. This helmet pictured above is high visibility yellow.
Another great choice is white! This VICE model from Specialized is a solid mountain bike helmet that will protect your neurons if you pull some stunt like riding off the side of an embankment into a tree. I have worn Specialized since 2009, and highly recommend their helmets. One benefit of white over those day-glow colors is that white will not fade with sun exposure over time. This helmet is termed a mountain bike (MTB) helmet – notice the added coverage compared to the road helmet from HardnutZ.
Click HERE to learn the details of the VICE.
Sweet Creek Map
A map of the Sweet Creek loop just was posted with the article, and there are six photos not originally uploaded but are now with the others.
Oregon Hideaway: Sweet Creek Loop
A new page just went live on Trike Asylum. It appears under the Steve’s Stuff main menu item, and reveals in words and photographs a wonderful 50 mile day ride in the Coast Range of west central Oregon. Only three trike pilots have ever piloted trikes over this loop in the entire history of recorded human time. Matt Jensen and Norm Nieberlein rode over it several years ago when it still had a gravel portion. Matt rode a Catrike 700 and Norm rode an ICE Qnt (which is now my trike since he sold it to me in 2009). This past Thursday, I was triker number three on a ride that is both very easy and fast, and ultra challenging and slow. Live the journey by clicking HERE.
Skid Lid Salvation
During my triking years thus far, talk has reached my ears, and written words have filtered through my eyes, pondering the need for a helmet. Different logic arrives simultaneously with the message, such as: 1) If a car hits you, you’ll be toast anyway, helmet or not; and 2) If it’s your time to go, it’s your time to go, and there is nothing you can do about it; and 3) There’s a much better life awaiting you anyway, so don’t even give helmets a second thought.
Okay, those messages were indeed pondered, yet due to my sports background, there was a message of my own that overrode the others offered by folks who have not actually experienced potential death or disablement scenarios. There is a wide gulf between abstract intellectualizing and experiencing actual accidents. So, I shall offer personal accounting to illustrate what works for me, and why I am still here.
Two sports in which I have participated extensively prior to my triking days were motorcycle racing and windsurfing. I always wore a helmet, humorously referred to by some as a skid lid or brain bucket, when engaged in these two activities. Had I chosen not to wear a helmet, I would have either been dead many years ago, or in the best light, seriously disabled for life. Interestingly, no contact with automobiles was part of my experiences, and it would have been “my time to go” had I not been wearing a helmet, and, even if there is a better life awaiting me, I like this one just fine for now! I have no complaints.
Motorcycles were a major portion of my life growing up, due to my dad’s career. When I began riding on them, I was so young that my dad had me sit in front of him so he could make sure I did not fall off. I have crashed twice on a motorcycle, both times while riding in remote areas of the Mojave Desert of southern California, once on a rocky dirt trail, and once on a paved backroad. In both situations, my head would have violently contacted the reality of ground had I not been wearing a skid lid, and the helmets bore graphic and disturbing proof of what would have been my skull had I chosen to ride helmetless. There was absolutely no doubt regarding their value.
I have also crashed while windsurfing, yet water is somewhat more forgiving than desert rocks or pavement, so why a helmet while windsurfing? Few sailors were wearing them – it just wasn’t a cool item to wear. Well, once the wind unexpectedly lifted me over the “high side” of my boom, a lightning fast slam, and my sail’s mast powerfully came down with crushing force right on top of my skull. The good news was that my windsurfing helmet saved my life, or at least kept me in my fully sentient state. The blow was severe. My skull was not cracked. I was stunned, crawled back up onto my board, and was safe. My thoughts were still in there.
Three times so far, helmets have proven their worth to yours truly. That is my experience, and that is why I wear a helmet as a triker. I am writing this to you right now because I wore helmets. On my trike, very high speeds are occasionally reached, and if I were to drop a tire over the edge of the road, something on the trike broke, or any other unexpected situation occurred while speeding along on pavement like this, it is clear to me that my trike helmet could easily be my salvation once more.
My head is where steve lives. All the data are stored there. I do not wish to lose it. So to the messengers offering alternate tidings, thank you for sharing, but my thoughts are based in the natural world, where stuff happens. I still have those thoughts because I still have my head.
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New page on Helmets HERE, under Steve’s Stuff menu item.
On the Helmet Thoughts page, discussion regarding using the Vice helmet with trike neckrests is available for your contemplation (scroll down to view).
Why I like recumbent trikes!
Oregon Hideaway: Ada
A new page just went up on TA, accessible under the Steve’s Stuff menu option. It’s about a great central Oregon coast ride into the Coast Range. Click HERE to visit.
Welcome Trikers Michelle & Scott
Michelle and Scott, trike pilots from Austintown, Ohio, have started a new website about their trike treks. They will be posting information about what they learn there. It is always fun to read about the adventures of fellow trikers. They recently acquired two Tridents, and have photos and narrative about the trikes on the website. There is also a trails page.
The website is brand new, so patience may be in order, but you can check back and see what develops. Michelle is also a fine art photographer, and has another website devoted to her visual images. Here are the links:
