Rain again.... sigh

Ah well, time available to ride but the weather has gotten in the way, again. I know, you can ride in the rain but where we live all the roads are 55mph 2 lane country roads with little or no shoulder. Reduced visibility from rain makes it a scary proposition. Some day soon we'll be back at it.

Thinking of reduced visibility reminds me of a ride I was on soon after getting my trike. On a straight country road with very gently rolling hills I had a pickup truck pull up next to me and slow. The passenger rolled down her window and yelled at me that I was virtually impossible to see. She said that all they could see was my yellow helmet. I was surprised. The picture at the top of this page shows the 2 brightly colored flags and streamers. Even with no wind my movement provides enough air current to keep them flapping to some degree.

I thought, and still do, that it's pretty sad if a driver is so blind that they can't see two 24" flags flapping. Still, sad or blind, I'm the one that's going to pay the price. If you watch that little video in a recent post you can see the solution. I attached a triangular reflector to the rear of my trike. The one in the video went on my Janet's trike before her first ride.

Yeah, it's low on the cool factor but so are crutches. It was easy to attach. I just cut a curve out of the bottom to allow for the rear wheel to clear it when the rear suspension is fully compressed. Then I drilled a few holes for zip ties to go through. It attaches to the uprights of the trikes headrest and to the cross member of the seat frame.

Bright, shiny and hard to miss.

So, say it with me... "rain, rain go away" etc. etc. etc.

It is SOOOO time to start blogging again.

Well time has flown by without a peep from me. Last year we bought another QNT for my wife, Janet, pictured below.

Here's a short video of her on a recent ride. Take some sea sick meds first as this is my first time shooting video whilst peddling.

Anyhow, the payoff is that great smile at the end. This should tell you how thrilled she is with the Q.

Once again the people at Ice were great to deal with. Their customer service is enough reason to buy a trike from them. Couple that with the quality of the product and you can't go wrong.

Janet's Q actually has a couple upgrades from mine. First off, the rims and some of the components are black now, quite snazzy. Secondly, where the cross piece of the cruciform is welded to the main shaft they added a bracket that not only looks great but is probably a good deal stronger. Not that there was anything wrong with the previous weld joint but this one is even nicer. I'll post a picture of the difference in a day or two.

Janet, being a smaller person (5'3.5"), opted for the recommended shorter crank set and is very happy with the choice. In addition to the cranks being a bit shorter, the gearing is different as well. This is to allow the right amount of effort for the shorter cranks and the legs driving them. With this gearing she has no trouble keeping up with me. I don't really understand all the math but suffice to say that the engineers at Ice do and have made a great match.

Anyhow, I'll be updating this a lot more often. Spring is coming in and we're back to riding... and posting!