FedEx has a 80 lb package and pallet to be delivered some time thursday. My bare bones x8 Rover. Spent the last 2 months buying upgrade and old school components. Trike customization will be my winter project. If I can figure out how to post pictures I will document the transformation.
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[ img ] https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4330/35917861601_dbb03f643f_z.jpg [ /img ]
Rub it in.....
44F this morning in Pa, probably frost Friday morning. Riding season is over. Time to clean out the flower beds, garden etc. We are having an extended season here. Still have patio pots blooming which almost never last till Halloween.
Good news, I like thumb shifters better than barcons. Since there are no Shimano 8speed thumbshifters this works out for the best. Good news, the now open left handlebar can accept a Mirrycycle mirror.
Power on Cycling. They do not have it in their on line catalog. About $45.
Next will be adding the seat pad and lumbar pad.
And in the tire arena when I replaced the base tires with Big Apples I noticed right away the rubber rim tapes. That do not lay right in the rims. Covers the nipples yes, but barely. So those items get replaced with Velox rim tape.
Seat pad was installed, lumbar pad installed. Good, good.
So waiting on some brake and shifter parts. Have other projects calling like cleaning up the garden, flower beds, Xmas presents that need finishing etc etc.
More to come.
Short version of changes, Suntour double crank, 52-40 chainrings. Suntour Cyclone front derailleur. Reused some overhauled Shimano Look pedals. Rear derailleur now Shimano Deore. Rollamajig cable router on derailleur. All cable housings now Jagwire. All cables routed thru brake noodles off of hand controls. Brakes TRP Spykes with Kool stop pads. Chain degreased and treated with Prolix gun treatment. Return chain bare, goes over TerraCycle return idler. Drive side now runs thru shorter chain tube which is clamped to the seat frame. The chain tube can now very easily flex and cover the rear sprockets. All wheels have Velox rim tape, replaced rubber rim strips. All metal valve stem Schwalbe innertubes, tires are Big Apples. Seat bag was a handlebar bag which now hangs via webbing wrapped around the seat frame. Avid Speed Dial brake levers. Gear shifters are the guts of some Shimano 8 speed barcons attached to some Paul Components Thumbies. Plus the handmade lumbar pad and the inflatable Thermarest seat pad. Etc. Etc. That should do it for the trike. I pretty much changed out everything except for the frame, seat and wheelset.
Still have to rebuild the rear wheel on my wife''s recumbent. Going from 451mm wheel to 406mm fat tire wheel and Big Apple tires. Have the parts, just need the time to plow thru it.
Negatives: very twitchy steering. Not a fan of direct steering but will get used to it and adapt to it. The trike I built had indirect steering and was slower and forgiving. Too bad TT does not offer the indirect steering that the old models used to have. Seat cushion needs a layer of foam along with the air pad. And I had to loosen some seat back straps to allow sitting in the seat rather than on the seat. Felt more connected after the seat adjustment.
So the trike is a winner. Trike is back in the cellar, back on the windtrainer. Have to make my minor tweeks and wait for springtime.
Half way down the article is my trike steering using aircraft cables. Been almost 10 years ago.
twitch wont happen with proper wheel alignment if all else is good. use a trammel to check alignment and spare the good tires a short life.
I checked the alignment 2 days ago. It appears to have no toe in. Maybe 1 or 2 mm toe in would be a good thing?
yup! a tad of toe should have you steady on a 20 mph downhill.
if you havent aligned with a trammel page 22 is a good resource:
http://knowledge.catrike.com/servlet/fileField?id=0BEf1000000TPUn
I am going to try on the intruding brake cables. I installed brake noodles on the brakes but it did not significantly increase the space between the cables and ones thighs. This interaction between the operator and brake cables appears to be a concern for plenty of riders. I am going to try replacing the brake noodles with Travel Agent devices. I will use it as a pulley only, not using the increased cable pull option. Bought one on ebay to play with. Here is a description.
https://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/travel-agent-installation-and-adjustment