The end of an era

After riding the trike for a few weeks, I had to admit to myself that I couldn't see it as my every day bike. Yeah, there are times its heaps of fun, but mostly it wasn't working for me. Carrying it up and down stairs. Lifting it up and down paths without ramps, or the ramp is just too narrow. Lifting it between bollards and other obstructions too narrow to pass. I missed being up higher and seeing further a head on the road. Looking up at truck and lifted 4x4s. I missed being able to walking and pushing my bike. The trike is made for riding, not pushing.  

Lots of angst about if to sell it or not. A coupled problem was how to move the caravan without the trike. Eventually I decided to rip the bandaid off and listed the trike for sale. Decision made. 

Sold it to a lovely couple that only ride trikes. It'll have many happy adventures with them.

The caravan as it is currently is at an end. I've been sleeping in it since December, and love it. I really don't want to part with it, but I can't keep it as it is. It was started when 500 watt ebikes were legal. Build decisions were based on the need to have solar on the roof for charging and a 48V charging system inside. With no ebike and now no trike, the caravan is just too heavy for me to shift with a pedal bike. 

I'm exploring options on what to do with it. 

I'll sell it as is, or just the cabin and keep the trailer to build a new cabin on top of, or worst case it all gets scrapped. I'm hoping to avoid that.  

Trike Riding!

Been feeling unsure about my caravan setup. I know people are using unpowered trikes with heavier caravans than mine. But reading about it and having your own working are two different things.

Despite having the trike for weeks now, I've hardly ridden it. With the hub gear it was insanely high geared. I couldn't pedal it up slight rises. As I was living at the bottom of a large hill, I only did a few circles on the road in front of the house.

I fitted a new rear wheel, with a 11-50 cassette. The bottom bracket needs to change to get 22,32,42 chainrings. Currently it's using 30,42,52. I also want to get a 12T on there for a quad chainring setup. Was waiting for that to get done before using it.

Today, decided that I needed to ride it to help settle some of my worries about using it with the caravan. I'll need to ride it next week to finish an adaptor for the caravan hitch. So after a bit of tuning it up, I took it for a ride to the shops. Chain isn't adjusted right yet, but I can access most gears. More than enough for day to day use.

Riding a trike is heaps of fun!

A new doubt: how long the derailleur is going to last. After the first few scraps, I take more care. But lots of uneven surfaces around here and it keeps getting hit.