Today's Tricycle Tracking
Jacque didn't have any projects going today, so she agreed to do a tandem trike ride today.
First thing out of the box: When I dragged the trike out from under the deck, the left front tire was totally, absolutely, flat. It hasn't been quite a month since we last rode it, and the other 2 tires were fairly close to decent pressure, so this tire certainly has a distinctive slow leak. I aired it up to 52 PSI this time and we took off with it. Still seems to be holding air after the ride is all over.
We towed the trike down to the paved road in the trailer with the new Curt bumper hitch I installed on Jacque's little Subaru Outback a couple days ago.
It's really nice to now be able to use either of our street vehicles to pull the trailer and haul trash, trikes, bikes, etc.
I really MUST comment about AMAZON online and its fabulous customer service. I ordered a Curt hitch via Amazon's web page and, unfortunately, when it arrived here, the weather was awful outside and I had to wait a couple weeks to begin installing it. Also unfortunately, when I DID jack up the car and drop the mufflers for installing the hitch, it did NOT fit. Upon calling the Curtis customer service number, I found I had ordered the wrong hitch, and was provided with another number that would actually fit. I contacted Amazon about a possible return and they gave me no trouble at all, instantly issuing me a mailing label with a return authorization. When THIS hitch came in, the weather was again stinko, and it took another 2 or 3 weeks for another weather window to open up so I could install the correct hitch. I had not yet returned the "wrong " hitch "just in case". A couple days ago, I boxed up the "wrong" hitch, followed the emailed Amazon instructions, and loaded it up for a trip to the local UPS shipper. When I read the fine print on the instructions, I was dismayed to notice the statement "Must be shipped by 15 January 2015". Since it was a bit more than 2 weeks past that deadline I feared the worst, but took it to the UPS people anyway. They scanned the label, no red-alert notices appeared, and I headed home hoping the vendor would accept the late return. I expected it would take a week or two for the hitch to arrive back at the seller and all the paperwork to be finalized. The VERY NEXT day I received notice from Amazon, that upon scanning the return shipment into the UPS system, they had ALREADY credited my account with the refund price, minus the return shipping costs. Suffice it to say I am a VERY happy Amazon customer. We lately order almost anything from them, from used car parts to new items both mechanical and electronic.
Back to our Saturday ride. The slimy slippery mud in the area has almost dried up, especially in the dirt parking area where we locals park vehicles prior to riding bikes, walking doggies, and such like. Thus we were able to uneventfully unload the trike, set up the antennas, radios, panniers, dog restraints, and Jacque's homemade shade system for her end of the trike.
We took off on my favorite 9-something mile ride and almost immediately we remembered why we have been trailering the trike all the way across Albuquerque to ride the Bosque: It is a KILLER effort to get this tandem up our hills around here in the East Mountains. We don't ride the trike often enough to keep our so-called muscles pepped sufficiently to pull these hills without feeling like we're killing ourselves.
Riding along the Bosque trail is a much more pleasant trip since it is relatively flat. Today we had to stop multiple times for rest and water breaks, sometimes more than once climbing the longer hills. I can ride these same hills on my 2-wheel recumbent with only moderate huffing and puffing but on our wonderful tandem trike.... another story. We have mutually agreed that in future it will be pretty much the Bosque Trail or nothing for riding the tandem.
Being Saturday, and sunny, for the5th or 6th day in a row, we met several other cyclists enjoying the outdoors.
No danger of boring video today..... we forgot the GoPro at home. I fell on my butt stepping down a slightly muddy embankment next to the road today, which would have been a very entertaining sequence had our camera been along for the ride.
We finally made it home, with stiff cold wind in several places, and hours later we feel great after our exhausting effort. Still, we are committed to riding the tandem on flat pavement henceforth....
Ride Started: 11:19 AM Ride Ended: 2:15 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.8 Ending Voltage: 13.1 Lowest: 12.7
Lowest Temp 60 F Highest Temp: 71 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 9:38
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
3.4 MPH 5.4 MPH 33.9 MPH
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
2 hours 47 mins 1 hour 45 mins 1 hour 2 minutes
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