Catrike with Suspension!

I pretty much never blog about anything on here other than personal experiences, but what blew me away a moment ago was seeing what I knew would eventually happen, but didn't think would happen so soon. 

Yup, that's the new Catrike Road! I used to hate it b/c it was so high up off the ground that it looked goofy. Low is cool and sleek. It comes at ground clearance that's practically nill, but I think it's worth it. 

 The remake of the road has rear suspension! Weight penalty? 6lbs. It's heavier than the last non-suspension one, but Catrike was able to execute suspension in a really elegant way. Looks awesome. If the rear wheel was bigger than the front and it was $1,300 I'd have it in my garage by now. No such luck. This thing's over $3k by the time it gets to you door. But man, is that thing a beauty. 

I'm envious of anyone who orders one. I hope to see it live one day but that's fairly rare here in the Bay Area. I think I've only seen 4 other Catrikes besides my own and two of them I hadn't seen until just this past weekend! 

Another beautiful thing to aim for. Wonder if they're introduce a Speed-based version with suspension. That'd be awesome. What would be more awesome? If someone bought it, 2 years passed and they sold it to me for a discount. What's better than that? If it was white!

TARTAR

 A fellow KMX! This is Dan's ride and yes, that's a monster of a rear wheel - a 26"er. First I've seen live on a KMX. Looks like it can take on any terrain. I didn't get to see much of him on the ride. Wonder where he went.

The owner of this one let me take it for a spin. My test ride helped me determine one question I had on my mind during this hot afternoon, "Is it hotter or colder in there compared to on a naked trike?" Cooler. It's much cooler. The shade is great and the back of your head is covered. I learned that up to 10-12mph, naked trikes are faster. Once these velos reach the teens, the aerodynamic advantage offsets the weight drawback.

 At first I thought it was the Tandem KMX because of the square frame, but in fact it's a Rover - much higher up off the ground than a KMX would be. Doesn't look particularly styling, but it "does what it's suppose to do," according to Zack, the dealer who took this for his 2nd test run of this demo trike.

Lunch time at Subway sandwich. It was one of the few places that had outdoor parking and seating where we could watch our stuff.  This is less than half the group in this quick overhead shot.

 Not everyone wanted to be in the photo, but this is the first shot of 3.

 Second shot of 3.

 Final shot. Not everyone wanted to be in the photo and some people showed up late. This gives you an idea of how many people showed up. Some came from as far as Canada! We had some Oregon riders too!

 This is another thing I've never seen in person before. Apparently they never swap places. The wife always faces the rear and the husband takes the front. Guess they like it but I'd hate to be rear facing ride. Guess the advantage is you both get a decent view and the configuration offers tons of storage space you see in red btw them.

 Not quite a velo. It's home-built fully faired trike. The guy raced me (and beat me) last year at the Velodrome in his Expedition. Nice fella. He's the one that led us to lunch today.

What on Earth is Tartar? Not sure what it stands for or where it came from. All I know is that it's an annual bent ride vent where people come from all over. Yes, that means it wasn't just Bay Area folks. Lads from Oregon and even Canada came for a weekend of riding. Yup, they stayed in hotels and met up in Sacramento. 

I made the trek that morning excited to ride, only to find that my tire had a fat hole in it! A bit disappointed b/c it was 9:55am and I didn't think I could fix it in  the 5 minutes I had before the group would come by. Part of me was a bit excited though b/c I'd never used a tire boot before. (Tire boot = big fat sticker used to cover holes in tires). 

Just as I noticed the hole, I looked up and saw about 30 trikes come up. Ugh, I was going to hold everyone up! The public apology came next, but not before a fellow named Wayne came by to lend a hand. 10 minutes later, we were up and running. 

I was expecting a 35 mile ride, but that's the distance we rode one-way! Yup, we pretty much doubled that coming back. Luckily there weren't many hills. A bit of rolling, but nothing major. No flats from any riders as far as I saw.

The good news is that I started and ended the ride with both of my water bottles intact. Didn't lose any this time. Also wasn't going very fast either. I probably only topped out at 14-17 mph.








 I cannot say the same for this guy. This is one of 4 velomobiles that showed up and these things were cruising quick! In my opinion, this is the second nicest of the group. I wish I got shot of my favorite, but he ended up leaving early. I'll never forget this screen name though - Bendover.


UPDATE: 5/16/12

 I was looking back at BROL and a couple of the guys loaded some shots of guess who?

 Can you see that guy in the way back?

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1.5 Month Break

Wow, it's been a long time since I've ridden. I almost felt like the trike was starting to get rusty.

Not really, but I'm sure the Speed felt a bit neglected. Glad I took her out for a spin this past weekend. Isn't it still called a fleet when there's only two trikes? The wind was ridiculous, but I kept the flag on there anyway.

There hasn't been this much sun in quite awhile. After a month long hiatus, I was getting a bit nervous getting back on the trike knowing that the trek would be over 30 miles. My body wasn't ready. I hadn't run on a treadmill or done any physical activity in a long time and here I was about to embark on a long ride.

I always here about Skyline College, but I've never been - until today! We rode quite a bit. To get there, we took none other than Skyline Blvd and for those who know it, it's more of a freeway than anything else.

Lots of it was uphill and from the looks of it, it's not exactly the safest area to be riding. Cars traveling at 50 + mph easy. Apparently not everyone made it. This was the second area of flowers we saw on the shoulder. There were times were merging was a bit worrisome and even moreso when my mirror became loose.

I lost complete use of the left (the most important one) mirror. I literally had it hold it with my hand to position it in order to see vehicles coming up. I've been too cheap to buy a replacement, but I think tonight might be the time. A mirror is so valuable especially at times like this.

Although I made it back in one piece and probably 1,800 calories lighter (actually shows when I look in the mirror). I really have no way of counting, but my buddy here in the green trike lost about that much. Good stuff! I was working hard this ride. I felt like 70% of it was uphill. In terms of time, it was definitely at least that. Distance-wise, I'm sure it was 50/50.

Unfortunately, both my water bottles never made it back home. I haven't read of any other reports of it, but both Paul and I experienced our water bottles flying out of its cage when mounted on the rear frame. It happened to me three times as I was riding through high speed turns. The last time, I didn't even notice it was gone until I reached back an attempt to hold it in place. To my surprise, I had already lost it! Ugh, those things aren't cheap.

Looks like I'm buying three things tonight:

1. Mirror.
2. Emergency brake lever.
3. Replacement water bottle.

Paul's Expedition has the emergency brake levers I want. That rubberband thing I've been using isn't cutting it. I hate having to reach over with the other hand to engage it.

This is my first time posting using my Macbook Air! Loving it. It's nice to be able to use a full size keyboard. All the keys are spaced out perfectly like they should be. The 9 year old Dell 700m had to retire (although I still use it on occasion - not all the files have been transferred over).

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