Say Cheese!

Yup, it's the camera mount. I finally got it. 

During the ALC ride, I wanted to take some shots of me going down the Quadbuster hill. Moving the handlebars even a couple degrees in one direction or the other at high speeds would've landed me in a bad situation. Needless to say, I didn't get much good footage on that decent. Ever since then, I wanted to rig something up for the trike to hold the camera. The Shark adapter on the KMX boom that hold the front derailleur wasn't exactly the easiest thing to mount a camera to. 

The boom on the Catrike Speed is much more standard and easier to mount something to. So finally, logged onto ebay and ordered myself a handlebar mounting bracket. Of course I had to do a bit of research to find one that would secure well and fit the size of the reflector holder bar that sticks out of the front of the boom. 

15 minutes later, I had it in my Paypal basket. 

A few days later, it arrived in the mail and it looks like this! I had to move the light down in order for the new camera mount to clear the movement of the derailleur. I still haven't tested it out yet, but I'm crossing my fingers hoping it'll work out. Let's see how it looks. 

 

From the cockpit, we got this view. After I take my test drive, I'll know how much of my view it blocks out - hopefully not much.

If I didn't have the computer mounted here on this horizontal bar, I was thinking of mounting the camera bracket there. But after looking at it, i'm glad I didn't mount it so high b/c it would definitely block my view and probably look awkward being so high up.

It only just occurred to me as I'm writing this that the camera matches the color of the trike!

And the front side matches the color scheme of how I wanted my Catrike Speed. I actually posted this whole set of photos a few days ago, but didn't want to post it live until after I gave the second bracket to Paul for his ALC ride. Surprise!

Bike Thief

I'm being completely prejudice and have no proof that this guy was transporting a stolen bike, but it damn sure looked like he was in possession of a road bike that didn't belong to him. 

As I'm driving on Balboa, I see a heavy built Mexican guy in his late 30's or early 40's riding a bicycling while holding the stem of a road bike alongside him. I pulled out my cell phone camera and took a video and a still photo, but the quality sucks way too much to be worth anything. I got the guy's face, but barely. I didn't really give a hoot that he saw me videotaping him. 

I got home and reviewed the footage and it's all pretty useless. My phone's video quality of horrible. No purpose in posting anything and I didn't even get a good look at the bike's brand name. 

It wasn't until today that I realized how hard it is to follow someone on a bicycle when you're driving a car. It's not that I minded being completely obvious to him that I was watching and following him. It's that the other cars on the road would give me crap for driving 7mph on a one lane public road in a big City. 

This was the one time I wish I had a bike with me rather than my car - all so I could follow the guy to see where he goes. He turned from Balboa to Fulton at about 10th Avenue or so, but that's the last I saw of him.

Head Up

The Catrike's headrest does suck. After getting a better look at how Mike rigged up the Catrike headrest on his KMX, I just came back from the hardware store an hour or so ago to pick up the screws and bolts to hopefully secure it like he did. Thanks Mike. I'm totally copying how you rigged yours. I just hope I got the correct parts and things work out.

Lately (actually, ever since I got the trike), the headrest has been loose and sorta useless. I'm hoping after I rig this thing on, it'll be much better. Pics and review to come.

3rd Place

The only question that really matters is, "How many trikes were there?"

Well, boys and girls. There were this many. Can you count 9 trikes. No? HINT: Two of them are in the background and they're velomobile versions. The one with the clear tinted cover in the way back facing us and the white one on the far right.

Could it be that the color scheme just doesn't look as good? And that's why the Catrike Speed doesn't pop off the screen like the KMX does? The Speed's got some smoothness to it that the KMX'll never have, but it's definitely not as photogenic. There's something about the KMX that I adore that can never be achieved by the Catrike. 

Mike, I hope it's okay that I use your pic and name here. If you're bothered by it, then this photo here is a picture of Bartholomew on a KMX Tornado fully modded! This is the first time I've seen it in real life since the upgrade. Those are 18" fronts and I believe a 24" rear. The proportion on this bad boy looks perfect! Reminds me of a Catrike 700! The proportions look much better than my Catrike and I still miss the white base color of the frame. The white lettering on the sidewalls definitely give it that sports look. Loving it Mike, I mean Bartholomew. 

Paul's warming up on the inside track. He kicked but with the both rides he brought to the race that day. Actually, that's an understatement. He hauled ass and kicked all our butts. You can almost see his calves of steel here in the pick. Very impressive.

Pick your jaw up off the ground as you continue gawking at this masterpiece. Yup, that's a carbon fiber cockpit cover. So awesome. My favorite color scheme of course - white with some red accents and enough carbon to make anyone drool. 

Don't laugh. The guys who brought these bikes take their races seriously. No joke. They ride like they're in the Olympics. I would've taken a video if it wasn't for me having to recover from one of my races. I got up for a second to take this and stumbled back to the concrete for a nap.

For the remaining photos, check them all out here.

Race Prep

They call it HPV (Human Powered Vehicle) Funday, but it's actually a race. How seriously do people take it? Well, not that seriously. Competing though can always be fun. They have ribbons for the winners and this year I'm hoping to get one, but I'm not expecting anything. I haven't ridden for quite some time since the TARTAR event last month - or was it the month before?

What do I need to do to prep for the ride this afternoon?

CLEANING:

Like everyone else, I get lazy about cleaning the trike. When I come home from a ride, the last thing I want to do is clean the thing. I can't wait to hit the showers! Took some degreaser and a rag to wipe down all the dirt. 5 minutes later, it looks good as new.

REPLACED THE TIRES

The new ones have been sitting in the garage delivered from Amazon for months. Since discovering the hole from last time, I finally replaced both tires. I always wondered how I could tell when a slick tire with no tread would need to be replaced.

Turns out the curvature of the profile becomes flat over time! Notice the old wheel on the left. you can tell the tire was cambered a bit b/c the flat part isn't perpendicular to the height of the wheel. The new one's on the right. The curvature is much more pronounced.

LUBED: 

The Speed's never been lubed since I got it. I cleaned it with some degreaser and took a tool to the chain rings to clear out the crud and put some of that lube stuff on it. I put a drop on every single part of the chain! How nuts am I?

TIGHTENED CHAIN GUARD:

I only just noticed today when I accidentally knocked on the chain guard with the back of my hand that it was loose. Way loose! The thing was probably what contributed to all the rattling I've been hearing on the trike. It was ridiculously dangerously loose. I swear it would've fallen off by the end of the year if I didn't tighten it up - or maybe even sooner.

GOT RID OF SOME SOUNDS:

Speaking of sounds, there were some annoying sounds coming out the back of the drivetrain. I wasn't sure what it was and never bothered to really look carefully b/c I hadn't noticed any contact from the chain on any part of the trike when I first looked. Turns out I didn't look carefully enough b/c I found that the idler guard was loose and moved to a different angle which interfered with the movement of the chain. Turns out there was contact!

I loosened the screw, turned the guard back to the angle it's supposed to be (perpendicular to the ground) and retightened the screw. Everything should be good to go.