Chain Wear with E-Assist

Are e-assists chain eaters? Hard for me to say but it seems like my current 11 speed YBN chain suffered wear and stretch faster than usual. I can be a bit manic when it comes to maintaining my trike but this one got away from me. 

I checked the chain at 7,700 miles thinking that I might be getting close to 50% wear. Wow... it's easily at .75% wear. The chain wear tool slipped right in at 75%. I should have checked my chain wear when shifting started to get sloppy. Maybe the e-assist and all the climbing I do put more stress on the chain then I realized.

The point is, check for chain wear/stretch a little sooner if using e-assist.

I tried to order 14 feet (168 links or 336 links depending on what you consider a link) of chain. It seems like 11 speed chain sold by the foot is out of stock everywhere. However as of the date of this post Dana at Bent Up Cycles has 11 speed FSA sold by the foot in stock.

With no 11 speed recumbent length to be found at the time I bought three standard chain lengths of KMC 11 speed and linked them together with KMC Missing Links. Not my preferred chain replacement method but it works all the same.

Because the chain was easily at .75% wear I also replaced the 11/46 cassette and the 44t chainring. 

I've been wanting to change over to a 11/42 cassette from the 11/46. So all is good. With the e-assist the large 46t cog is not needed for riding roads. With a 11/42 cassette the gearing will be a little more closely spaced which I prefer. 

I bought my ICE Sprint FS E8000 in May of 2019. So it's just over three years old.

Total miles 7,700.

Total gain 547,000 feet (all that climbing tests by gimpy legs but I sure do love going downhill).

Me a Road Hog? Lets Get Real

Occasionally, but rarely, an upright cyclist somehow will show their discontent with having to share the road with what they see as an outrageously oversized obstacle (me) in the road that impedes their Strava record attempt. The overwhelming majority of cyclists are totally cool although curious at times. But non the less let's get real about size.

Some facts

The handle bar width on a traditional road bike is 15" to 18" (380mm to 460mm). 

On a mountain bike or a bike with straight bars the width is 27" to 31" (680mm to 800mm). 

Note: the average adult male is 16.1" (409 mm) from shoulder to shoulder. For a female it's 14.4" (366mm).

The width of my trike and most trikes for that matter at the front wheels is 32" (812mm).

Now my not so serious opinionated thoughts 

So why do handful of people in the cycling community complain about trikes taking up too much room? Maybe some are just prejudiced against anything that is not two wheels and upright (thanks UCI). Others probably mean well but still think we take up more space than we actually do. 

Yes a trike is heavier, bulkier and a few inches or millimeters wider but how much of the road do we actually require?

Now let's get real, the casual traditional cyclist is not going to be able to maintain a straight line for any significant amount of time, especially on a rough road. They "wobble". So when figuring out how much space they actually need consider how the rider is going to wobble around (the "wobble factor" for lack of a better term). 

With my e-assist I can easily pass the average cyclist going up a hill and also going down because I'm pushing less air. So I'm doing a of lot passing. By the time I'm up to passing an upright cyclist I've already made a judgment about how much room I need to allow for a rider and their wobble. It's pretty easy to make out an experienced rider who is not going to wobble into you. If they're fit and wearing the proper "I want to be in the Tour de France" couture and maintaining reasonable control of their ride then I can pretty much be confident in their anti-wobble skills. For the less than experienced wobbly rider I'll give up to three feet of extra space when passing. 

Now for my anti-wobble skills (other trikes as well) I know I present a straight and smooth track to riders, traditional or whatever, coming up from behind. If you're wobbling on three wheels you're probably drunk and should get off the road but otherwise three wheels on the ground is a no brainer for not wobbling. It's common for experienced riders (the ones with the well developed tanned calves) to pass close, very close, to me. They obviously see that I can maintain a straight line and it doesn't hurt that I acknowledge their intention to pass with a wave.

Again...the overwhelming majority of cyclists on the road are totally cool and we wave to each other while riding and usually start up a conversation while taking a break. There are a lot cyclists on my regular routes so I have the opportunity to know them in passing. But it's that 1/100 traditional cyclist who gives me a "get out of my way glare or gesture" that makes you want to scratch your head and say "what the hey". But I don't let it cloud my positive attitude to cyclists in general no matter what they ride or wear.

................................

Now I know there are other factors that determine how much room is needed on a recumbent trike vs a traditional bike. I've heard "a real bike can ride closer to the curb". No experienced two wheeler is going to ride the curb but a trike can dip an inside wheel towards the curb with no harm to self when the situation calls for it and so on and so forth. 

Riding on Multi Use Paths (MUPs) is a whole topic onto itself. And sense I do very little trail riding I'll leave that topic alone.

That's all for my little light hearted treatise on the subject. Just stay save, wave and be aware.

ACA Pacific Route Ventura to SF

Updating this post as of July 27th.

Change in plan. After looking more closely at the ACA Pacific Route between Ventura and San Fransisco it is not all beautiful scenery. There are a lot of segments of this route which give me no reason to ride them. Some roads are less than safe but I know how to navigate unsafe roads. It's the scenery that is for shit. I can be goal oriented but it doesn't make sense for me to ride routes I don't enjoy just for the sake of riding them. I want to make good use of the riding years I have left. Hopefully a lot of years are left but us boomers are not getting younger. So I'll ride all the worth while segments of the Pacific Route and focus on other cool rides. In September I'll be taking a road trip to Oregon to Ride the Rim at Crater Lake. It will be followed by a ride on the Sacramento River Trail in Redding Ca. starting at the Sundial Bridge. And maybe I'll add in the Covered Bridges in Oregon before heading South to Redding and then home.

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After 13 years and thousands of miles of riding trikes on the same routes and climbing a few hundred thousand feet on those routes I've been itching for a change of scenery. Besides taking some road trips with my beautiful wife Carrie to checkout some new roads and trails (which we've been doing) I also want to ride the Adventure Cycling Association Pacific Route between Ventura and San Fransisco. I'm not planning some epic tour. The days when I would consider a long multi day tour are behind me. I'm just going to ride at my own pace and mostly do day rides and meet Carrie at the end of a ride. Maybe I'll continue riding another segment of the Pacific Route the next day or not. Eventually I want to take in the entire coast between Ventura and San Fransisco by the end of next year or sooner. My entire purpose is to experience Highway1 and the ACA Pacific Route from the seat of my trike. 

Why do it this way? Simple, it makes it possible to travel with Carrie who prefers not to be riding a trike or any kind of bicycle. We like to travel together and she can do her thing for a good part of day and I can do mine. At the end of day we're back together for dinner and drink. We end the day together in the comfort of a hotel room and I can rest my gimpy legs in the comfort of a real bed, no more camping and sleeping on the ground for me.

Having e-assist makes the rides a no brainer. Before e-assist the thought of handling the climbs held me back from rides that would involve significant climbing or distance. I have plenty of battery range with three batteries. Info on my battery range here.

I can't do a traditional tour but I can adapt and tour my way.

Highway 1 at San Simeon CA.

The route from Ventura to San Fransisco. It's my intention to make the entire route turn blue by riding it in segments. The red is currently the section I have not been on. The blue part of the route I've been on many many times and I decided to check out the rest of the route one segment at time. Most of the rides will be from North to South for a better Ocean view,

The numbers

My support team.

Roadside Tire Removal

After denting my helmet while supporting the rear end of my trike to repair a flat rear tire I realized I needed  something better to raise the rear end off the ground. DIY time.

For the rear tire I made a lift from an old trekking pole that I cut and topped it off with a with a couple of retrofitted clamps. I lock the front wheels and support the rear fork with the DIY lift. It's light and small and tucks away easily in my pannier.

San Luis Obispo Bicycle Club

Another Bicycle Club as chosen to ignore recumbent cyclists. For whatever reason we ride recumbents, in particular recumbent trikes, we are still cyclists. It seems that able bodied cyclists on traditional bicycles is still the unwritten rule at bicycle clubs. 

email to SLOBC

Dear Board,

I joined back in 2016 when it seemed like the ranks of the SLOBC included recumbent cyclists. Lately I haven't seen anything on social media or in your news letters that even suggests that recumbent cyclists exist at the SLOBC. Has the SLOBC gone the way of other bicycle clubs and are only interested in traditional bicycles and able-bodied cyclists?

As a recumbent cyclist I see no reason to renew my membership when it expires.

Mark

Golden Gate Bridge

I've lived in California all of my 68 years and I've been to San Fransisco countless times and I decided it was about time to take a ride over the Golden Gate Bridge and up into the Marin Headlands. 

Perfect day for a ride. I started at the coast and rode through Golden Gate Park and then to the bridge kinda following the Adventure Cycling route. 

View from South side of the Golden Gate. Fort Point sits below the bridge.

Easy going on weekdays. Very little bike and pedestrian traffic.
On weekends the pathway would be jammed with all sorts of characters taking pictures.
Riding the east side of the bridge. The west side was closed due to construction. 

View from Marin Headlands, north side of the bridge.

Vibration Sensor Alarm

Locking up a trike is usually more involved than locking up a traditional bike. And sometimes there is nothing to lock it to. I'm almost always in earshot of my trike so I added a vibration sensor alarm to my trike.

I'm not endorsing any particular product. I like the peace of mind a vibration sensor alarm gives me. When going into a store, taking a short walk on a trail and going to a restroom I set the alarm. 

Mounted behind my seat

WSDCAM vibration alarm $25.00
I haven't had it long enough to make
any comment about quality.