Another Day, Another Flat

APRS - GPS Trike Tracking
What with Jacque being on call for jury duty, we decided to ride early today just in case she was notified she had to show up for an afternoon court session.
We put the trike up on the rack for transport down to the paved road.  We double checked all 3 tires and they seemed just fine.  We rode up to the post office and then up to our almost-every-day break-stop, the Shell Station at the intersection of North 14 and Frost Road.  We had a nice break for 20 minutes or so and then rode on toward the video rental store to return a video we've had for 3 days now. 
We hadn't gotten more than a couple hundred yards when Jacque noticed my left front tire was sagging, so we pulled over.  We must have just run over a thorn on the weed-infested bike trail next to the road, since it was now visibly going flat in a hurry.  Another local cyclist stopped to help, although he had no tools with him.... and I was needing a wrench large enough to removed the 1-inch nut on the front axle.
I found a nearby rock to use as a jack-stand to hold the wheel up off the ground.   I tried using my largest Gerber-tool pliers tool but it did not have sufficient grip or leverage to do the job.

I had the CO2 inflator tool to air up the tire, but it would be a waste of the 2 bucks these cartridges cost - since the tire was losing air so fast.  Jacque offered to hike back to the Shell station and see if they had any "Green Slime" to sell us.  After she walked off, I realized I could actually remove the flat tube and repair it without removing the wheel.  I was surprised to find this tire had a Kevlar liner in it that was supposed to prevent such problems as this.  No thorn or sharp object could be found in the tire, but when I blew up the tube with a burst of CO2, the hole was found quickly... it was in the corner of what appeared to be a kink in the tube.  It may have been the Kevlar liner, where the ends overlapped, that caused the kink.   About the time I got the tube patched, Jacque arrived with a nice bottle of slime that the owner of the nearby motorcycle garage had GIVEN her.  Yes, it was partially used, but it was most welcome.  With our penchant for flats aplenty with this machine we are losing my distaste for tire slime.  However, the tube in question here had a Presta valve stem that could NOT be removed.  So I could not get any slime injected into it.  Remounted the tube and tire, and it seemed to be holding, so we continued our ride toward Marco Polo Hill and the video place.  The rest of the trip was uneventful.  But be forwarned:  All 3 trike tires will henceforth be filled with slime, by hook or by crook.
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  10.00
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
3.2 MPH                                  6.5 MPH                    25.3 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
 3 hours 31 mins                    1 hour 32 mins          1 hour 33 minutes

Tiny Tuesday Trek

APRS Tracking of the Trike Today
I worked on the trike this morning while Jacque was gone to her sewing club.  I removed the wheel with the horribly flat tire:

The fine fellow we purchased the trike from had thrown in 3 or 4 extra tires with the trike along with 3 new inner tubes.  We have used up all the tubes, so I patched this one, and it seemed to hold OK.  The existing tire was very thin and light duty so I replaced it with one of the spares that had thicker sidewalls and tread in hopes it would ward off thorns in the future. 
Later this afternoon I suggested we should take the trike out again so as to make sure it still worked OK, so we did.
We have decided never to ride off road again with this trike:  It is too valuable, and not a good off road or rough road vehicle.  We haven't had much trouble with its low clearance undercarriage, but the strain on the chain, gears, and tires, just seems too much to deal with, not to mention the lack of traction the single rear wheel exhibits when climbing grades on sand, rocks, and gravel.
SO.  This trip down our rocky goat path is the last we plan to make with the trike.  It will have to ride on the roof rack of Jacque's exploder over unpaved territory henceforth.  We made it back home from the Post Office, just barely, and nothing broke or went flat, so we're happy campers.
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  5.57
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
3.7 MPH                                  5.8 MPH                    27.6 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
 1 hour 31 mins                     58 mins  0 secs         33 minutes 0 seconds

Minimally Mundane Monday Madness

Today's Very Short APRS - GPS Tracking
About 4:30 this afternoon Jacque and I decided we needed to at least make a mail run on the trike.
I noticed the left front tire was a tad bit soft when we left, but we had only gone a mile or so when Jacque noticed it was almost FLAT.  I dug out our CO2 inflator and a cartridge and FOOSHED the tire back up good and hard, but we decided to forget the ride and turn around and make a run for home in hopes of getting there before the tire went flat again.  It's a good thing we did.
This makes for flats on all 3 tires on the trike within a month's time.  Very frustrating.  The tires are very thin as are the tubes.  We now have a couple thorn resistant and a couple more "green slime" tubes on their way to rescue our situation via Amazon .
By the time we got to the base of our gravel & dirt & rocky mile of  goal path leading to our house, the tire was flat again.  I used the rest of the CO2 cartridge to reinflate it but it went flat, again, within a hundred yards or so.
Dragging it back up the hill was tedious and tiresome... riding this rig is SO much easier than pushing or dragging it.  With the left front tire flat, it was very difficult to drag, steer, etc.  Finally made it home;  will patch the tube tomorrow.  Since tubes are so cheap ($7 or so including mail order shipping) we seldom patch them any more, but we are out of tubes until the UPS guy shows up at our delivery point in Tijeras.
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  3.37
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
2.8 MPH                                  4.6 MPH                    24.7 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
 1 hour 12 mins                     44 mins  42 secs         27 minutes 20 seconds

Saturday Slumming

APRS and GPS Tracking Route Today
As is normal lately, today's title has nothing to do with what we did, I just like the alliteration thing.  So Shoot Me.
In spite of being a bit tired from our 27-miler yesterday, Jacque decided she wanted to ride down to Cedar Crest to run a few errands.  In spite of knowing I would not be able to get anything else done, around the house or otherwise, I decided to go with her on the tandem.  Glad I did.  As usual, it was exhausting but fun.  All kinds of nice comments and instant friends everywhere we stopped, and a few others withOUT stopping.
A mild scare when we attempted to cross North-14 to enter the Triangle Grocery parking lot:  We couldn't move.  When  Jacque looked it over the second time, she was horrified to see our rear (driver) wheel had come loos and flopped slaunch-wise in the bike frame.  Luckily nothing was bent or broken, and I only had to release the already-loose quick-release lever and realign and retighten the wheel.  Working fine again.  Thank You, Heavenly Father.

Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  10.78
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
3.0 MPH                                  6.3 MPH                    23.1 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
 3 hours 35 mins                   1 hour  43 mins         1 hour 51 minutes

Another Fabulous Friday Fling

Friday's Roundabout APRS Tracking
Fridays are turning into some of our favorite days so far.  It's a lost day for doing anything to or at the house, since we have to arrive at the UNM LDS Institute by 9:30 or 10 AM to have time to heat up or cook the Friday Forum Food for the students.  But, watching these young folk eat and interact with each other is a real pleasure - and also saddens us a tiny bit since all OUR kiddos are now middle aged and no longer eligible to mix with this age group.  We DO have at least one granddaughter in this age group.... sigh.
To counteract any guilt for reaching such advanced age, (at least in my case, Jacque is refusing to age), we take the trike on the roof rack in hopes the weather will allow us to take a ride after the lunch activities are over.

Sure enough, yesterday was again beautiful so we changed into our silly looking biking duds and took off down Martin Luther King Blvd, through downtown, to Old Town, but didn't stop in Old Town this time.  We had already eaten too much of Jacque's Posole, ice cream, and chocolate chip cookies hand mixed and baked by Yours Truly.  So we felt no need for our usual ice cream break in Old Town and headed toward Mountain Road which is now pleasantly signed as "Bicycle Boulevard" and used that route to intersect the Bosque Trail and rode south from there.  Even though it was Friday, there were few other cyclists on the roads and trails at this time of day.  We rode as far south as Bridge, where we stopped for a drink-break at our favorite attraction along the Bosque Trail:  Sonic Drive-in
Since there are narrow hairpin obstacles blocking the bike trail just south of Bridge, which are not easy to navigate on a normal 2-wheel  bike and excessively difficult (requiring lifting, grunting, and struggling to avoid vulgar language) for even  a 2-wheel recumbent, we decided to not even TRY getting our ten-foot trike through such difficulty.  Normally, street entrances to bike paths are blocked to vehicles using simple vertical posts spaced about 3-4 feet apart, which just BARELY allows trikes such as ours to squeeze between and continue riding.  Why the South Valley end of the Bosque Trail requires such more difficult entries is a question.  It occurs to me it must be to prevent motorcycles and scooters from accessing the trail, which of  course is an occasional problem everywhere in the area, not  just in the South Valley.
ANYWAY. Be forwarned.  Although we love Sonic, the dirt path leading to the Sonic entry has mats of ICK! GOATHEADS! that cannot be avoided, especially with the wide stance of our trike.  Sonic could improve sales markedly by paving and maintaining that short pathway, but it's part of the Rio Grande Irrigation District, so it's highly doubtful they care about Sonic's business prospects nor our personal revulsion for goathead puncture vine problems.
When we got back to the trail, we took 20 minutes or so and elevated and rotated each wheel carefully, pulling all thorns and stickers found in the tires.
There were several of course, but none seemed deep enough yet to penetrate the too-thin inner tubes inside.  We have "thorn-proof" tubes ordered online and coming from Amazon, but when on the trike it's doubtful we'll make that transition to Sonic again.  Too much trouble.  BAH
We turned north and rode up towards the Paseo bike pathway, intending to ride up to Balloon Fiesta Park just to look around and enjoy the RV cities that spring up each year for Fiesta.
The Paseo Path is where David Anderson was crushed by a lunatic sppeding driver 2 years ago, and a memorial bike and lots of flowers mark the spot.  Jacque was a juror just last week in the court proceeding that convicted the killer of careless driving, so we stopped and she described some of the grisly testimony and photos she had experienced during the trial.
One might think that a sentence of careless driving and a sentence of 90 days in jail is a frivolous price to pay for killing another human being with a car as a result of speeding and ignoring traffic laws, but if you follow bike vs. auto incidents at all you realize it's seldom any charges against drivers who kill or injure cyclists are filed AT ALL, much less a trial, and even more rare for a driver to suffer any punishment.
Afterwards, to make sure we could call our Friday afternoon and evening a "Date",  we went to see the movie "Won't Back Down", about the  Parent Trigger Law supposedly allowing parents to take over failing schools and implement changes.  Apparently this law has never been successfully implemented in spite of several attempts around the USA.
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  27.07
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
6.3 MPH                                  9.0 MPH                    25.7 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
 4 hours 17 mins                     3 hours  1 min         1 hour 16 minutes

Wednesday Wild Wide, er, Ride

The Usual Boring APRS Mail Run Tracking
Since Jacque was still on jury duty yesterday (Believe it or not, it was a Cyclist Killer  Trial, they found the druggie perp guilty only of careless driving), Tink and I went for a 2-wheel ride on my recumbent.
I just zip-tied a spare bike basket on my front luggage rack and put Tin's padded seat inside and strapped her in, and away we went.

I needed some transmission fluid for the RV, so we went first to the Post Office and then on up to the Triangle Shell Station for the fluid.  Then a quick return home on the largely-downhill run going east on Frost Road.

Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.2   Ending Voltage: 12.8
Lowest Temp  77 F      Highest Temp:  84 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  6.27
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
4.2 MPH                                 6.7 MPH                    30.6 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
1 hour 29 mins                     56 mins 14 seconds    32 minutes 46 seconds

Solo Spin Sans Sweet Spouse

Mail Run Map Tracking via APRS
I dug out my spare Handlebar Microphone Harness today and found it would fit on the new TerraTrike.  Jacque is on Jury Duty this week so was not able to accompany me, so Tinkerbell and I took off without her for a test ride.
Everything seemed to work fine..... except for the empty stoker seat.  The resulting lack of weight in the rear does not allow climbing hills off the pavement:  The least amount of dirt or gravel allows the single rear drive wheel to spin out.  Since the route away from the house down to the paved road is mostly downhill, it didn't present much of a problem.... at first.
We had a relatively uneventful ride to the Post Office and Tink got her usual share of OOOhhh's and AAaaahhh's and passing vehicular slowdowns to have a look at her, etc, etc.
On the way home from the P.O., which is largely downhill, I found the trike was much more stable at speed without Jacque in the stoker seat.  No twisting or steering sensitivity or fishtailing on this trip, and I let it all out just to see if it really was more stable.  It was...... but not as much fun as having Jacque in the stoker seat screaming and squealing with delight as we roar downhill enjoying gravity.  Then, of course, upon arrival at the base of our uphill goat-path unpaved road, I could not climb the mildest grade without spinning out and grinding to a halt.  I had to dismount, repeatedly, trying to muscle the trike uphill, first backwards, then forward.  Going forward is not too bad since I can just push it uphill holding on to the rear cargo bracket, but the untended front wheels eventually (usually shortly) start turning themselves toward the ditch or the undesired side of the road.  I finally tried pulling it forward, by holding one of the front crank pedals.  This worked much better, as the front wheels tended to follow better without interference, but it hurt my back bending down so low.  I finally removed the belt from my britches and used it as a towing strap, attached to the front crank pedal, and VOILA.... much easier and painless pulling.  I did have to stop and suck oxygen every few hundred steps but at least it didn't feel like I was inviting heat stroke or heart attack.

Tinkerbell doesn't mind being pulled  while supervising carefully:

The Captain would MUCH rather be pedaling than pulling:

Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  5.59
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
2.2 MPH                                  5.8 MPH                    27.4 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
2 hours 30 mins                      57 mins 56 secs         1 hour 32 minutes