So, as you may know, I picked up a Sun Seeker T3 CX recumbent tadpole trike after I cashed in my Magic: The Gathering collection. I’d like to get a bag with reflective tape on it to improve my visibility at dawn, dusk, and night. I have my eyes set on one but I’m also looking at saddlebags for my rack.
The first ride was rough because the rear derailleur cable got overstretched, the brakes were too loose (oh, man the stock brakes on this bike), and the seat wasn’t set to what I needed. I recorded this ride, but the footage is very jittery and the sound is entirely too horrible to listen to since it sounds like I’m rolling marbles over asphalt. I’ll be uploading this soon, but will do a voice over to spare you from hearing that junk and I’m going to try to stabilize the video. With this recording, I used a clamp and an adaptor to mount my Cube+ to my seat back. Not the best idea.
This second ride, however, went MUCH better! The brakes needed to be broken in a little, but they are much tighter, I rode to my mom’s house and after dinner, rode back in the dark. My wife and son followed behind me to make sure I was OK. 😉 The rear derailleur was fine this go around (there and back again) so the ride was much smoother.
I’ve since put a strap mount on my helmet and tested it out a little. I didn’t record the ride back because it was too dark and I didn’t record the ride there because I didn’t have the helmet mount attached at the time :\ I’ll be getting more footage soon, however, since it’s my goal to bike every day I can!
I will be uploading my videos to a new playlist, but I could set up a new channel later. The playlist is “Sunseeker Trike“, though I might change the name of this playlist. I’ll play it by ear for now.
My full trike kit is as follows:
- Sun Seeker T3 CX recumbent tadpole trike
- Sun Seeker Recumbent Fenders
- Sun Seeker Recumbent Rear Carrier
- Terra Trike Versa Bars
- Delta Air Zound Horn
- Mirrycle lncredibell BIG
- Power Grips
- Safety flags, 2 mirrors, headlight, tail light, reflectors, tire pump, multi-tool, seat bag, first aid kit, helmet, 2 water bottle cages, 2 water bottles, and a tire repair kit.
That doesn’t seem like much, but a lot of time went into choosing the components (except the bag, I just needed something quick) and building the trike. What should have taken a few hours took 6+ hours due to odd mounting points and bent mounts. Everything is good to go now, though!
Things I have to do: Learn when to shift. I need to get a better bag, either a pannier, a set of panniers, and/or a track-mounted bag. PRACTICE! It was only a few miles today, but I’m so out of shape it was rather tiring. I’m going to need to ride a lot more to get myself to the point where I can take on the full length of the Capital Trail and back! That’s roughly 110 miles! And I want to do it in one day! There are others I want to do as well. Such as taking USBR 1 from Richmond to Washington DC and back or USBR 76 from Richmond to Blacksburg and back. Sadly, at this point in my life, I can’t do a cross-country bike trip. BUT! That doesn’t mean I can’t tackle that at a later date 🙂
Maybe I’ll live stream some of the trips using Periscope? But I’m definitely going to record every trip I take from here on out.