Did It Come?

Rushing home, I was expecting to possibly see a package in my living room. Did my wife sign for it?

Uh oh. She's not home! The last thing I wanted to see stood before my eyes. Before I could even get into my living room, I saw on the door the UPS tag.

"Will return Monday for 2nd attempt for delivery." Something along those lines. Ugh. Monday? That's two days from now. At least Monday's a Holiday for me and I'd be home to receive the package w/o a problem, but I would've missed my weekend of riding.

Trying to relax and get the absence of my trike off my mind, I took the ebike out for a spin. Guess what I saw! A UPS truck! I followed it 'til it stopped which unfortunate for me was at least 8 blocks from where I live. Ugh, how would I carry the box and my bike back to the house??? I didn't really care; I would've leapfrogged it if I had to. I'm destined to get to that UPS truck!

Approaching the driver, I say, "Sorry, I know you are busy with a delivery schedule 'n all but do you think you might have my package?" I gave him my street and told him how big the box was. I figured it'd be the only one that size and he would've had to remember.

No, we don't go there. Then he told me where my truck might be. I rushed home to drop off the bike and pick up the car. But before I reached my driveway, guess what I saw?

Another UPS truck! Could that be it? I ran through the same routine only to learn that it was again the wrong truck. Ugh! How unlucky can I be? I stored my bike, hopped into the car ready for a joy ride through the 42 block radius looking for my truck.

20 minutes pass. Nothing.

It's getting dark. This should make it easier to spot big trucks double parked in the residentials. Oooo, I see something! I bust a U-turn and approach the truck only to find that it's a PG&E truck! Ugh! This is my third wrong truck!

Just as I'm about to give up after my 25 minute trek, I see a brown truck. Yup, maybe that's it. I bust another U-turn and disappointingly noticed that the driver looked like the one I saw 15 minutes ago. Ugh, the same truck?

Looking closer, I realized it wasn't! It's a new guy! Same height and same colored hair, but the truck driver was different! Yes, here's my other chance. Could the 4th truck be it?

"Oh yeah, we have it."

In my head, I'm saying, "Yes! Yes! Yes! I found it!!!!" The search was so worth it. The driver warns me of the same concern I had before pulling out of my driveway looking for the truck. "Will this fit in your car?" I had pulled up in my sister's Mini Cooper. The seats were folded back and while doing it I had promised myself that if I found the package I'd make it fit one way or another. I don't care of it's hanging out the back.

That's when I became really convinced that hatchbacks are totally awesome! Man, these things fit anything - even a 2010 Catrike Speed! It fit perfectly. Good thing I didn't have any passengers b/c the front passenger seat was pushed way up forward. No biggy b/c my only companion for the next 5 minutes would be my long awaited Catrike Speed! Home sweet home.

Yup, here it is in my garage! Not much of a looker. I was too excited at its contents to really care about all the holes on the backside and the weakening cardboard.


The box is bent out of shape but I'm hoping the stuff inside is in good shape and not damaged. Insurance ran through my mind.


I began unboxing. I had been curious how this thing would be packaged. I can't imagine how I'd box up a recumbent for shipment. Sounds like a complete hassle. I noticed there was foam in it as Patrick had said he would include to protect any protrusions. That would've helped if he had taped it or somehow secured it to the box. But instead, it lay in the box pretty much useless. All parts shift during shipment.

If everything's in good shape, then I suppose it doesn't really matter. I'll have no way of knowing until I put this thing together and start riding.

Patrick included a separate box of goodies:
- 3 sets of pedals
- Bike tool
- Even latex gloves!
- Paperwork from the sale
- Some pedal strap thingies
- Skewers


How's a Catrike look without legs? Here she is disabled. Fresh out of the box. One thing that was nice was that Patrick took apart only what he had to in order to make it fit in the box. This meant everything's easily put together. Apart from the wheels and boom, the only thing to install was the derailleur.

The chain ended up getting pretty mangled during either packaging or en route to my house, so I had to remove the whole thing and reinstall it. I had been worried that I'd have to tune the derailleur and all the gearing. I hate doing that.

The pedals for some reason look reversed so I had a hard time installing them, but I finally got it on. Tested it with my shoes and it works!

Uh oh! Missing piece! The boom typically comes with 2 skewers that secure the boom. I looked in the box and found the other skewer, however the other end where it screws into was missing. With all the holes in the box, I'm not surprised that it fell out somewhere. I'm pretty sure the seller packaged it in there b/c all other loose items were in a separate taped box. I really wish that foam was taped to the inside of the box and that there was more foam or newspaper.

I moved the complete working skewer to the rear hole and that prevents the boom from sliding. So at least I can at least ride this. No downtime while I get a hold of the missing piece from probably Utah Trike.

Part of the house rules is that we can't buy anything w/o first finding a place for it. This is where the Speed will sit when I'm not enjoying it on the road. I decided to use the bike stand for this trike to hold it in place since it doesn't have a rear brake. The KMX does, so it stand just fine w/o one. Perfect! I don't need two!

I can't wait to take this thing out tomorrow. Should I take those ugly reflector's off? I have no plans to ride this thing at night. It might be a good idea to remove these.

1.5 years of research to finally get a hold of this Speed. She's here where she belongs. Yummy! At $1,300 (+ shipping covered by my aunt/uncle), the cost was very reasonable for a used Catrike. Still pricey for a non-motored vehicle, but I think it's a good catch for a bent trike of this caliber. Let's hope it's as fast as the name of it suggests. Off to sleep before my test ride tomorrow.