Cane

I keep a carbon fiber cane in my pannier. 

Watching the Tokyo Paralympics gave me a WTF reality check. So I need a cane to stabilize my wonky legs. So what? Is that all I have to complain about? Up until now I was embarrassed to pull the cane out of my pannier and have to use it. I don't give a shit anymore. I'm just being my best and enjoying life.  

So what gives?

I have nerve damage to my lower legs and feet caused by either years of back problems and back surgeries but more likely from bi-lateral hip replacements. The timeline suggests the butcher job the surgeon did on my hips not only caused nerve damage but also left me with a scared and chronically inflamed Piriformis muscles and sciatic nerve entanglement in the scar tissue. Also Heterotopic Ossification in my right hip (more here) and an uneven pelvis. 

Slowly over the years, after my hip replacements, my calves muscles (particularly the Gastrocnemius) have weaken to the point where I can't stand on my toes, My right leg is worse. The medial head of the  Gastrocnemius has totally atrophied. Try getting around with weak calve muscles. I feel like a drunken cow if I'm not using a cane. I would not pass a sobriety test walking a straight line. So I use a cane to stabilize my walking because my calves aren't helping much. 

When riding my trike clipping into my pedals helps to stabilize my calves but then I have to deal with lower leg numbness which starts in my feet. When I ride the more I climb and the longer I ride pressure builds on the small compromised Piriformis muscles that are adjacent to the sciatic nerve. And the lower leg numbness sets in and I have to take a short break and stretch. 

And I have some other minor nerve damage issues to my legs that are not worth complaining about. 

And to top it all off the weakness in my legs makes me prone to uncomfortable muscle tightening and occasional full blown cramps. A couple of small muscles in my right leg, the Gracilis (inner thigh) and the Tibialis (shin), are forced in some way to compensate for my wonky calves and they'll cramp if I get off the trike to fast or make sudden cycling movements after I've been riding for awhile. I just have to be aware of this and be careful. I can go for months without a cramp and then I eventually do something stupid like hurry off the trike after a long ride. 

I've kept my upper body strong so maybe time to add a handcycle to my cycling routine.

I'm done...time to look forward.

 

Why E-Assist?

This is why I have e-assist, averaging 70 feet of gain per mile last month with my dysfunctional legs. So far this year I’ve pushed pedals up 132,000 feet of hills while averaging 72 feet of gain per mile. Nothing but hills where I live in So Cal. No way I could do it without e-assist. I have my 250 watt Shimano E8000 on my ICE Sprint and it makes all the difference in the world in keeping me moving.

Screwing Around with Tires Updated

I added Schwalbe Marathon 40/406 front tires to my original "Screwing Around with Tires" post from January 2021.

Tire Speed and Weight

Max speed measured on Lynn Rd downhill east of Felton on ICE Sprint FS E8000 with max pressure in tires and no breeze. Fastest and slowest speed have been eliminated. 

Front tires and Back Tire

Schwalbe Marathon Racer and Schwalbe Supreme

40/406 - 340g   0.75 lbs

40/406 - 340g   0.75 lbs

42/599 - 440g   0.93 lbs

Total    1,120g  2.43lbs

Speed Average: 38.6 mph

Speeds: 40.8, 38.1, 38.5, 38.5, 38.1, 39.4

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Schwalbe Marathon and Schwalbe Supreme

40/406 - 530g   1.16 lbs

40/406 - 530g   1.16 lbs

42/599 - 440g   0.93 lbs

Total    1,500g  3.25lbs

Speed Average: 38.8

Speeds: 38.9, 38.5, 40.8, 38.1, 39.9, 38.1

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Continental Contact (E25) and Schwalbe Supreme

37/406 - 420g   0.93 lbs

37/406 - 420g   0.93 lbs

42/559 - 440g   0.97 lbs

Total     1,280g  2.83 lbs

Speed Average: 38.2 mph

Speeds: 36.5, 38.2, 39.4, 38.7, 37.8, 38.0

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Schwalbe Plus and Schwalbe Plus

35/406 - 560g   1.23 lbs

35/406 - 560g   1.23 lbs

40/599 - 870g   1.90 lbs 

Total    1,990g  4.36 lbs

Speed Average: 36.6 mph

Speeds: 37.1, 35.8, 36.8, 36.5, 37.8

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Latest Pics on My Instagram

I post on Instagram a few times a month. I feel that it may help to normalize recumbent triking. It also makes me feel more connected in a world where a traditional bike is the "accepted" form of cycling. Although Instagram is favored by a younger crowd trying to look happy and pretty, some with thousands of followers I can still make my way through the maze of Instagram users and find a fair number of like minded cyclists. I get trike and velomobile riders following me but for the most part I'm followed by other cyclists and assorted characters. The cyclists I follow, average partypace cyclists and adventure cyclists, help motivate me to get out and ride when I'm dragging. 

I'm also on Facebook and on my personal Facebook page I pretty much just automatically re-post the stuff I put on Instagram. Even though Instagram is owned by Facebook it's a lot less cluttered.  On Instagram I've learned to simply stay on topic (trikes of course) if you want people to stay interested in what you do and hopefully get cyclists and others to look at trikes as a normal cycling option.

I get a lot of interest in my trike but people have a hard time getting out of their comfort zone. The two biggest issues are 1. safety and 2. being different. Issue one is easy to talk about but issue two is a tough one. It takes a lot of convincing for people to accept not being "normal". My hope is that in time a recumbent trike will become more common. Maybe a decade or two? 

 

ICE Elastomers After 5000 Miles

 Two years and 5,000 miles later I installed new rear elastomers on my ICE Sprint 26 FS E8000. I love the minimalist suspension of the ICE Sprint. Eases the ruts without any noticeable impact on performance. And the cost of maintenance couldn't be less expensive, just a couple of new elastomers. 

The old ones are a bit compressed after 5,000 miles

Two Years with ICE E-Assist

It has now been two years sense I started riding with e-assist. I picked up my ICE Sprint FS 26 E8000 from Dana at Bent Up Cycles May of 2019. Averaging 71 feet of gain per mile on local routes was a limiting factor in how far I would ride. Even though I wanted to ride longer my fucked up leg muscles, courtesy of my hip replacements in 2013, said otherwise. My riding logs made it clear I was slowing down. Then came ICE's e-assist trikes. I test rode an ICE Adventure E8000 that Dana had in his showroom and the rest is history. 

Avoiding hills is a thing of the past. I now look for hills because it is usually followed by a sweet downhill. I love a good downhill run, which is the reason I did not consider a hub motor which will act as a brake when not in use. The ICE Sprint is a solid trike and it can handle just about any speed. Even when the speedo touches on 50mph I feel the Sprint can handle more but I will need to find longer and steeper hills to get my fix. Age and a broken down body doesn't mean I have to forego a shot of adrenaline now and then. 

Now I plan my rides based on battery range. My Blog posts for the last two years with my ICE SPRINT 26 FS E8000 are HERE.

Pic from my Instagram Post 5/6

12 Years of Trikes

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My current ride ICE Sprint FS E8000 as of 2019. When we moved back to Thousand Oaks after screwing around with living on the Central Coast for three years and I was quickly reminded of all the hills to climb. For the last year I've averaged 71 feet of gain per mile. E-assist had come a long way so I bought a new ICE Sprint FS E8000 but the mesh seat is from an ICE Adventure (click here for info).
Love it!

Staying strong…kinda. I love riding bent trikes. I’ve been riding recumbent trikes since 2009. They’ve kept me moving with little pause through three back repairs, two new hips, carpel tunnel release to both wrists, heart attack 10 years ago while pushing my old bones too hard riding my Catrike 700, nerve damage to my right leg from a shitty hip replacement and now a pandemic that is screwing with all of us. I’ve lived a physical life and doing nothing is not option I can live with. So when the hills started to feel longer and steeper I added an e-assist trike from ICE trikes to my stable and I just kept on going.

The biggest problem people seem to have with a recumbent trike, is that it’s not “normal”. But normal is boring. Most people have a problem with “different”. I get it, you have to be comfortable with people staring at you when you ride a recumbent trike. People staring at you while they’re driving is actually a good thing. 

2013 to 2019 Catrike 700 with 20" front wheels.
Fun fun trike. But after about 20 to 30 miles it
 starts to feel a little too laid back. 

In time maybe more people will consider a recumbent trike. Whether a fast road trike, touring trike, off road trike or an adaptive trike, it’s all good. Plus it’s really hard to fall off a trike. Every now and then I’ll see somebody on a new standard bike and they look so uncomfortable and I can just bet that their bike will probably be on Craigslist soon and they’ll give up cycling. Doesn’t have to be.

2016 to 2018 Catrike Expedition. Sense the Sprint
wasn't working out for me at the time I went back
to a Catrike Expedition for awhile. Always a 
reliable ride. I still feel that the Expedition is one
of the best all around trikes at a reasonable
price for a solid well built trike.
 

The UCI won’t allow recumbents in UCI sanctioned races, yet world speed and distant records are on recumbents bikes and trikes (the 24 hour distance record is on a velomobile trike). Knowing what I know now, if I were young again and all my parts were still working I would still only ride a recumbent trike. I would never go 50mph down a hill on two wheels at any age. I’d probably break my face. At 67 it’s always partypace, except when coming down a steep hill. Old guys need an adrenaline fix every now and then.

2015 to 2018 ICE Sprint FS with Carbon Seat

Same ICE Sprint FS as above but with a mesh seat.
The carbon seat was a killer on my Piriformis.
But eventually I parted with this trike because of the
seat. The mesh seat felt too short for my 6'1" frame. 
I felt like I was constantly on the edge of the
seat and it was a uncomfortable feeling. I tried making
adjustments that helped but in the end it just didn't
work for me.

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2014 to 2015 my "Red" Catrike 700. This was a
bit of an experiment to see if I could set up a 700
for longer rides and maybe even short tours I had
planned at the time. It didn't meet my expectations

2011 to 2012 Catrike 700 with 16" front wheels.
An old classic long ago discontinued in favor
of 20" front wheels. The lower profile of this
700 gave it a low center of gravity and was 
awesome for taking tight turns at speed. The
new 700s are good too but the old 700 beats
it on the turns.

2009 to 2014 Catrike Expedition, my first trike. A really
fun ride and a great first trike for breaking into the world 
of trikes and for touring. With proper tire selection the lack
of suspension is not missed.