💾 Archived View for perso.pw › blog › gears › bike.gmi captured on 2023-05-24 at 18:32:22. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2023-01-29)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
This is my "bike" (which is a trike), it's a recumbent bike with 3 wheels. This kind of trike have 2 front weels and one rear wheels. Some exists with 2 rear wheels and one front wheels, they are faster but less manoeuvrable.
Picture of my recumbent bike with 3 heels
My trike is an Azub Tricon 20" with those features: foldable, rear suspension, big rear rack. The whole trike weights around 26 kg when fending are put.
The foldable part: I can transport my huge trike in my small car, it will certainly fill all the space but it fits in and it's invaluable.
Trike folded into a Toyota Aygo
The rear suspension: when I bought it, I had the opportunity to try a lot of models from various brands and various features. The rear suspension is really a must your back comfort compared to no suspension at all. In my small experiments, I didn't find that full suspension (so seat and front wheels) added much comfort.
Finally, the big rack which can hold 4 Ortlieb© bags at the rear. I discovered bike bags with this bike and I fell in love with them! You can put a lot of thing, wrap the openeing and close it, everything in it will remain safe. Perfect to carry groceries, repair kit or a computer with its HAM radio devices.
When I ordered it, the trike is built from my specifications so it takes time to deliver. I chose Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires with should be mostly indestructible and puncture proof, but weights 900g each and doesn't have a perfect rolling resistance. I also chose drums brakes, they work very well and requires near to no maintenance.
I added crank shorteners. I am a small person (1m67) and recumbent bikes are usually more suited for tall people. Due to that, the default usual 175mm cranks are too long for many people and this may give knee pain because the momentum of the legs is very hige.
Getting shorter cranks is very hard, new holes can be created in it but requires machines and skills. A simple hardware like in the following picture can easily solve the issue by putting it in places of the pedals, it will then offer a gradient of holes along the cranks so you can put the pedals at the distance you want.
When it comes to maintenance, cleaning the veryyyy long chain is a bit of a pain.
Here is a picture of it with 2 Ortlieb bags, a dipole antenna and the flag (for safety), while I was listening to short waves.
"Short wave listening on the trike"
I published a few videos about it.
