30 Jun 2011

Ken Rogers trike on eBay.

 *

 TRICYCLE 22” KEN ROGERS Reynolds ‘531’ Racing/Touring on eBay (end time 04-Jul-11 21:12:52 BST)


A good size for most riders, tidy and well equipped. It even has a sensible starting price to get things moving.

Seller's blurb:

TRICYCLE  22” KEN ROGERS  Reynolds ‘531’ circa 1984
A superb machine to ride.  Single nearside wheel drive.  
Absolutely true centre of axles to front hub centre.  
Frame: Reynolds ‘531’  Nervex lugs
Dimensions:  Seat tube centre B/B to top of top tube 22”(560mm)
      Top tube centre to centre 555mm 
Headset: Campagnolo 
Rear wheels: 700c Mavic open Pro (New rims) with good tyres
Front wheel: Ambrioso (I think) with Vittoria Intrepid Kevla tyre.
Bottom Bracket:  Campagnolo in an eccentric housing for 
fixed wheel  if required.  That makes it really unique!!
Chainset: Stronglight170mm cranks with Stronglight Zephyr rings 24/34/44 ..... Used for only 1200kms
Freewheel: 6 speed 16-28 screw on
Bars and stem: Cinelli.  Stem length 90mm, bars 420mm wide
Seat Pillar: Campagnolo
Saddle: WTB with titanium rails
Front Changer: Shimano Deore
Rear Changer: Shimano 600
Gear LeversShimano 600
Brake levers: Tektro
Brakes: Shimano Dualight stirrup and Diacompe c/pull. 
Both to front wheel and more than adequate, even when loaded.
Pedals: Conventional almost new with drillings for toe-clips and slots for straps.
Maximum width over rear wheel nuts is 26".

Note: I have enlarged the original auction images and increased gamma and contrast slightly to crisp them up for the blog: Click for enlargements.


*

*

*

*

*


The very neat rack is home made.


The bag is not included but shows a trike's mazing capacity for carrying lots of stuff.

This auction finished on £410.

*
Click on any image for an enlargement. Back click to return to the text.

*

15 Jun 2011

June II

*
15th June 2011 64F, 18C, breezy, turning windy, rather cloudy, cool. Another day of headwinds. Knees fine. Legs a bit tired.

The patched tube went down during my ride this morning. Fortunately I had bought a new inner tube.

The original punctures had produced white bubbles under the translucent patches. One bubble had leaked to the edge of the patch along one of the inner tube's ribs. I had sanded the tube lightly as suggested in the instructions. It seems that this is not enough for the adhesion limitations of these particular patches. Park Tools Super Patches.

Getting the old patch off was hard work and left a residue of glue on the tube. I am not sure it is worth trying another patch because the raised rib is still there under the sticky glue. The irony is that it is difficult to find any other patches suitable for repairing the 19-23mm inner tubes. So far I have been replacing tubes after every puncture. They soon add up!

Now I have a whole cardboard box full of punctured tubes! The vast majority are pinch punctures or snake bites due to hitting loose pieces of slightly oversized gravel on the cycle lanes. If there was no traffic one could swerve around the problem out into the road. Sadly it is rarely possible to do so safely. Every puncture is another £5! It could be cheaper to drive the car to the shops! 29miles.


 An old thatched house in a busy shopping village.
It was heavily overcast so contrast was rather low.

16th 64-67F, 18-19C, overcast, windy, spots of rain. Torrential rain forecast for later. I hurt my knee up on the ladders yesterday so took it easy today.

I bought a better spare inner tube, repair outfit and a few extra small patches to match skinny 23mm tyres and tubes. I can't believe that one can't easily buy patches suitable for narrow HP wheels. 

My chest is bunged up, eyes watering, have a croaky voice and my nose is running from next door's stinking chimney. Until the wind turns there's not much I can do about it. At least nothing that doesn't involve an international incident. An air strike, or Cruise missile, would be nice but might cause collateral damage to our greenhouse. The annual crop of superb, cherry tomatoes still looks like flowers and a promise of wonderful things to come. Only 14 miles today.

17th 65F, 18C, blowing a gale, sunny periods, heavy showers. I waited until the rain went off and then did a quick shopping trip. Fierce gusts were blowing me all over the place. Even my new TA cap blew off as I struggled into a head wind! Knees fine on the trike but hurting off it. 15 miles.

18th 60F, 16C, breezy, overcast with almost continuous rain. I'm not having a good day. First the local shop was closed early so there was no bread. Then it rained hard and my feet were quickly soaked. Then, despite wearing a dayglo jacket I was completely nvisible in another shop and they served several fat women who came in after me. Two items were out of stock at the supermarket. Finally it rained all the way home and the psychopaths were spraying me from head to foot just to reach the back of the queue ahead. 12 irritating miles. At least my knees didn't hurt. I may put my front mudguard back on if the forecast rain doesn't change. I also need to fit a mud flap to reduce the spray onto my feet.



A beautiful old farmhouse and outbuildings. Not a straight line or a true vertical anywhere. Shame about the lopped off trees but they really were huge. The remaining trees are probably 100ft high and very broad and dense.


19th 63F, 17C, windy, sunny periods, rain forecast. It threatened a couple of times but didn't rain. It was so col in the wind that I had to put my jacket back on.

Several bunches of cyclists were out training. Despite a 10lb load of shopping I tagged along behind one group who were heading for a favourite hill. I easily overtook one of them on the steepest part of the hill but the others were much fitter and dropped me. They had to wait for the last man to reach the top before they could go on. So I had quite a bit of a lead on the descent but they eventually caught me on the flat. I was unable to match their speed after that. 

31 miles going round in circles because of a lack of stock in some of the supermarkets. Knees okay but my chest is still a bit bunged up. Making me rather breathless at times.

20th  64F, 18C, blowing a gale, mostly overcast. 20 miles of headwinds. My legs were rather tired and achy today.


  A different view across the meandering stream.

 21st 64F, 18C, windy, mostly overcast. I was overtaken by a couple of older generation blokes on racing bikes but could do nothing to match their speed. My lungs felt as if I was drowning in fluid and my legs were on fire. Ten more pounds of shopping and 21 miles later the sun came out.

22nd 69F, 20C, windy, sunny periods. Warmer today in the sunshine but very windy. 26 miles.

23rd 64F, 16C, blowing a gale, sunny periods between overcast with heavy showers. I managed to avoid the showers completely but not the wind. 14 miles so far.


Softly draped thatch and neat, dry stone walling on a quiet lane.

The strong wind produced some interesting effects on the birds. A beautiful pair of goldfinches were flying just ahead of me and unable to fly any faster. It took them half a mile before they grew tired of the game and veered off.  A pair of swallows came to a standstill right in front of me in a violent gust. It was like one of those film scenes where everything goes into slow motion. As soon as the gust stopped they shot away but it was an amazing moment. Later I saw a Moorhen on an open lawn with a baby. Probably foraging. One website suggested the Moorhen was a rat on stilts. 19 more miles.


An ancient, hilltop church resplendent against a glowering sky. 

24th 64-59F, 18-15C, windy, overcast. The forecast was sunny periods but a huge slab of dark cloud came over and the temperature dropped five degrees. The entire sky went black leaving only the bright edges on the horizon. It tried to rain but it quickly got bored and stopped.

The Ventus GPS logger had a nervous breakdown and added five miles of squiggles to Mr Higgins' route. The lanes seemed to be full of giant articulated lorries. Four passed me going in different directions within the first five miles. Why? 20 miles.





A view out over a busy shopping village from a local highpoint. There are at least a couple of dozen windmills in this view!

25th  60-62F, 16-17C, windy, sunny periods, rather cool. Headwinds whichever direction I travelled today. A good load of shopping. Legs tired today.

I have been considering changing from Bontrager Racelite 23/25mm tyres to 28mm Conti Gatorskins. I'd like a larger envelope without added weight. Not so much for more comfort but to avoid pinch punctures on oversized gravel.

If I had the patience to keep the Bontragers really rock hard, all the time, I'd probably avoid some snake bite punctures. This would involve pumping them up every single day. They seem to lose air overnight regardless of which inner tubes I am using. The Bontragers are excellent for wear and the amount of grip doesn't really matter on a trike. So I don't need heavy sidewalls or a a deeply patterned tread.

Some fast, thin, 28mm, slick, "balloon" tyres would be nice. I haven't found a bike shop where I can have a look at the Gatorskins yet. I bet they won't stock the 28mm even if I do find a shop with them. Online probing suggests good puncture resistance for most users The dimensions of the Bontrager 700 x 25 mm are identical to the 23mm except for the writing on the sidewall.



A closer view. There are lots of wind turbines off to the right out of the picture. I find the windmills attractive and can vouch for their near silence. Only in gales can one actually hear the sound of the blades passing the tower. It sounds rather like a big stick being waved in the air. It is only audible if one passes very close to the turbine. Despite my lifelong interest in very low frequencies and infrasound I have never detected low frequency noise coming from a turbine. I pass different turbines all the time in all sorts of weather conditions on my daily rides so should have heard anything unusual by now.


A rural thatched cottage with pretty front garden. Shame about the bin. The image is a bit washed out despite my best efforts with PhotoFiltre.

Rant:
I discovered that I can get an email confirmation from Google-Blogspot whenever a comment appears on my blogs. You'll never guess what? The email is only sent to me after I publish the comment!! Arrrggg!!! How excruciatingly numbingly and utterly stupid is that?

I need to know I have a comment waiting before I can respond. If I publish the comment of course I know the comment is there! I have read it and published it and probably responded!! I have missed loads of comments because of this incredible idiocy!

The only way to see if a comment is sitting there unnoticed is to list all blog posts for editing. Who does that on a daily basis when they have half a dozen blogs? I don't allow automatic comments because I get spam comments from brain dead, immoral turds. Nuts!!
 /Rant.

20 hilly miles. Perhaps I need a rest day?


Cycle path debris. I bet it sits there for weeks before it gradually disappears!

26th 63F, 18C, light breeze, overcast. It was supposed to be sunny periods.


A sunken drain in the centre of a village bike lane. The road speed limit is 30mph (50kph) but nobody sticks to it. So avoiding such completely unnecessary obstacles is both dangerous and difficult!

I am sick of supermarkets not having stock of their advertised special offers! Netto is by far the worst culprit. Though none are innocent of the practice. They are drawing people to their shops under completely false pretences! Ask the manager, or one of the staff about the item and they don't give a shit! They can't even claim that it is only one store because I visit several of their outlets each week. They have no stock at any of them during the whole week that the special offer runs. This goes on week after week without fail. I ride miles to find no stock on the shelves. If a few mistakes is sloppy management how many regular, multiple instances amounts to fraud? 16 miles.


Gravel spilling over from private drives is a constant hazard and extremely commonplace. 

Such selfish and lazy behaviour can easily cause a "snake bite" puncture at any reasonable speed on a bike with narrow tyres. Not to mention the danger and discomfort of having to cross the loose gravel when using the pavement on foot.

In Britain people sue the local council for falls associated with uneven paving slabs on pavements. I wonder how they'd cope with all this loose gravel? I imagine a law forbidding gravel avalanches would soon be passed. Or the council would be made responsible for regular clearing of cycle lanes and pavements of such unwanted debris.


A Danish birthday card with a difference.

When we first moved to Denmark a tractor with a big roller brush and vacuum cleaner used to run up and down every road at regular intervals. Smaller brushing vehicles were used for cycle lanes and pavements. Now they are a very rare sight indeed.


 Chocolate box thatch guarding the entrance to a rural church.

Ten years ago litter was almost unknown. Now it is everywhere. It didn't help that the international drinks companies forced Denmark to allow non-returnable cans to be sold. Previously beer and soft drinks were mostly sold in recyclable bottles. With recycling machines in every supermarket. Now discarded cans can be seen every few yards on some road verges. Along with the cardboard and polythene packaging so essential to the sale of fizzy shit in a can.

Graffiti is also heavily on the increase. Any brain dead, knuckle dragging moron thinks he can scribble his illegible scrawl everywhere he goes. (and does) I'd put them in leg irons and make them clear litter from the road verges for no pay and very long hours. Putting a large and clear message on their backs would be a handy deterrent against like-minded, scribbling retards.


 The old rural church has lost its top onion. It used to be a bold landmark on the nearby motorway but tree growth and the missing spire ornament have hidden it from view. There is a strange mix of bricks, stones and render suggesting repeated rebuilding.



Not your average front lawn ornament. A Goggomobil 250 Coupé.

Goggomobil - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
.
27th 74F, 23C, breezy, warm, sunny. A pleasant day for a ride to the shops. 22 miles. Quite a few buzzards circling this morning.

The Leach/Higgins/Reynolds tandem trike is back on eBay with a starting price of £700.

LEACH/HIGGINS/REYNOLDS Touring Tandem Trike/Tricycle on eBay (end time 03-Jul-11 19:04:23 BST)

http://pedal-trikes.blogspot.com/2010/09/tandem-trike-on-ebay.html

28th June 75F, 24C, windy, full sun, hot! A strong, but pleasant, smell of pine in the woods where they were thinning out the conifers. Lots of comfrey on the verges and butterflies everywhere. I followed a big dragonfly for a while before it turned off. Then it overtook me and flew ahead of me again! The landscape is lush with unripened crops and the trees are still at their best. I can hear lots of Greenfinches in the woods and hedges. A Red Kite flew across the road in front of me struggling for height in a strong headwind. They have an amazing wingspan, very high aspect ratio wings and very clear markings. So are easily recognised.


Got any poppies, Mister?

  I seem to be climbing quite well at the moment. As I climbed a very steep ramp off a tiny lane onto the main road I had the front wheel pawing the air. The trike was trying to pull gently to the left. Which is an absolute first and probably due to the way I was steering before I slowed to a crawl. I was in bottom gear which is also very unusual too. I didn't want to struggle pulling away into the traffic. 28T/28T x 28D.=28". (No calculator required) There is quite a bit of road resurfacing going on which bodes well for future rides. Some of the lanes have been getting very broken up after the last two, long winters. 28 very hilly miles with a heavy load of shopping on board.


Unusual road kill on a busy main road. Probably 3' long when straitened out. The bloody bruise suggests a small motorcycle or scooter ran over it. Snakes occasionally sunbathe on the roads in hot weather. Sometimes with tragic results. Perhaps it was simply crossing the road where it passes through deciduous woods with lots of ponds. The common grass snake is not venomous and lives on amphibians and fish.

29th 78F, 26C, windy, full sun, hot and sweaty. 26 miles. 9 more miles later.


A close-up of pretty Vetch in flower.

30th  56-60F, 13-16C, breezy become very windy, rain, overcast. It might brighten up later. It did brighten a bit and stopped raining despite the continuing overcast. So a shopping trip was inevitable in the late afternoon. A lot of traffic about compared with my usual morning rides. Particularly on the main roads. I tried to put the wind at right angles to my route but it wasn't always possible. There were some truly vicious sideways gusts at times. Requiring me to lean well over the upwind wheel to stay on track.

Now is the season for pretty Vetch to be flowering on the verges. I had a flock of Swallows flying all around me in a hedge-lined lane. 20 miles today. 

Click on any image for an enlargement. Back click to return to the text.


*

7 Jun 2011

June 1

*



A secluded, old farmhouse on a quiet lane to nowhere in particular.
A winding hill starts to rise just around the corner.

Ist June 2011 55-60F, 13-16C, breezy, full sun. Shopping in multiple supermarkets in several villages. There is a strange noise when I pedal. Like a scythe being sharpened. No sign of chain contact with the front changer. The sound stops immediately I stop pedalling. Can only be heard when it is quiet. Will put the trike up on the work stand and have a look. Perhaps the chain is dry? 24miles.

2nd  55-66F, 13-19C, breezy, sunny. Right knee complaining. It may be because I have been working on ladders again. Thankfully I've finished re-planking the gable end. I have been trying to increase my speed and distance at the same time. The I was lifting the trike on and off the workstand. So something had to give.  The chain was just very dry as I had already guessed.

Two time triallists passed me on a long hill. They were still crouched down low despite the hill. Pushing high gears with low RPM. Probably just out training. 26 miles.

3rd 68F, 20C, breezy, sunny, warm. I kept the revs up and my knees were okay. Even while climbing the biggest hills around. A beautiful day. The sweet smell of new mown grass wafted over from some of the fields. Most of the oilseed rape is gone over now so the smell has gone too.

A young woodpecker was down on one narrow road. It kept flying a few yards and chirruping every time it landed. This  went on for about half a mile before it finally flew up into a tree so I could ride on. Hare are just the same. They never think to veer off the road and will sometimes run for miles.

I mended the broken cadence wire on my bike computer. It was twin core inside the insulation. A carefully adjusted screw on a pair of old, wire-stripping pliers left 1/4" (6mm) of bare, copper wires to twist the broken ends together. Then a dab of solder to each twisted pair, a wrap of insulating tape and all was well again. My watch repairers, magnifying spectacles were handy for such fine work.


The woods by the lake.

Lack of visual accommodation is a curse as one grows older.  I can see perfectly at any distance over a meter or so in  broad daylight. But even my reading glasses are running out of steam at close quarters. At night I need distance/normal glasses or everything goes fuzzy. I know the optical theory. Just don't like the effect.

I had a joke with a pensioner who was admiring my trike outside a shop. I told him that the trike was almost as old as he was. He grinned and went off laughing. He was 67 to Mr Higgins' 57. It must have made his day! I wonder if I can still do a fairly effortless, 24 hilly miles in three more years? :-)


The water lilies are in flower. Not quite a Monet.

4th 70-72F, 21-22C, variable breeze, sunny. The first warm day this year. 22 easy miles despite a mass of shopping on the way back. Knees fine but still spinning to avoid overloading them. I saw a nice UFO on the way home. A brilliantly lit object in the far distance. It kept disappearing then coming back again. Probably a glider. Talking of flying things: I mentioned the lack of cuckoos a week or so ago Now there are lots of them about. I saw my first Blackcap in several years. It was perched on the end end of a cottage roof. Another seven miles later. Going well in almost still, warm air.


Roadside poppies with plenty of buds to follow.

5th 70-72F, 21-22C, breezy, building to windy, sunny and warm. Another delightful day for a ride. 37 miles.


A large, roadside pond glimpsed through the hedge.

6th 72F, 22C, breezy but becoming windy, sunny periods turning to black and thundery showers. My luck is is still holding because I made it home just before a really heavy shower. The cycle lanes in the villages are getting worse. They are littered with debris and shattered glass. 26 miles. 

7th 68F, 20C, overcast, humid, warm with very light winds, threat of rain. One of those very rare days when the wind turbines weren't turning. I was cruising fairly effortlessly at 17-18mph to the shops.

A kid on a scooter came to grief in the shopping high street I visited. He passed me going the other way with the throttle wide open. I could tell from the sound of the engine. He then rode straight into the back of a van which had stopped in the heavy traffic. A huge bang followed and I turned just in time to see him falling sideways.

His helmet must have smashed the van's rear window and the scooter had made a huge dent in the back door. He picked himself up after a lengthy pause as people emerged from their cars to help.  As I hadn't actually seen the crash happen I pressed on home with my shopping. There were plenty of witnesses without my confusing the issue.

You can't put a wise head on young shoulders but these kids on scooters are a menace. Often modifying their engines illegally and fitting noisy exhausts. They race about everywhere making a hell of a racket. We were much the same as kids, on motorbikes, so nothing much has changed in the last 50 years.

Still broken glass all over the village cycle lanes but at least they can still find the money to have people titivating the public flower beds all day long. If I die and go to heaven I want to be a council gardener for all eternity. :-)


I passed a yard where they make windmill towers so stopped to take some photos. Here's a tractor and trailer for the thinner sections of tower.

If you think this one is long you should see the set-up for taking the windmill blades along the roads. They are incredibly long and use the turbine blades as the trailer itself with wheels at the far end!

The TA cap I ordered arrived very quickly. It's all rather confusing because it says "Cotton" on the Impsport bag but "Polyester" on the laundry label.  Although the polyester is very light and handy to stuff in a pocket I think I would have preferred cotton on my sweaty brow. Though I do wear polyester hats in the winter and polyester clothing all year on the trike. It's probably just me being old fashioned.


The towers bolt together in sections so must be slightly conical.

I wasn't allowed to wear the new cap out without it being washed first. So will report on its functionality tomorrow. It seems to fit fine with a gently elasticated rim and a typical, deep, gored, flat-topped, cap section and small peak. In the classical racing cyclist style before they invented sweaty, insulated helmets. Only 15 miles today.


An exercise in wheel counting. The biggest sections use the tower as the trailer without any other connection to the rear wheels. (other than the hydraulics and lighting cables)

8th  71F, 21C, hazy, warm, humid, bright overcast, winds light. I wore my new TA cycling cap today when it was so warm I wouldn't normally have bothered with a hat. It felt a little bit sweaty early on but I turned up the peak. It stayed firmly in place even at 25mph going downhill into a breeze. I could hear a hum from the wind blowing over the peak as I turned my head sideways. Far better than my white baseball cap. Which would has been road kill half a dozen times by now. 27miles.



There were several lorries with towers already loaded. They were being readied before taking to the nearby motorway in convoy. They have to be low slung to clear the motorway bridges.


9th  64F, 18C, breezy, sunny, 16miles



 If they can do it with windmills then I can do it with a 2" x 8" x 20' board.

That's 6m x 45mm x 195mm in new money. Well lashed on with cord the pneumatic wheels and axle are from a sack truck which rusted away. The wheels roll nicely and follow the track of the trike perfectly. Only at sharp junctions does it need a wide sweep. The tyres roar a bit above 15mph. Fortunately the journey is mostly by quiet rural lanes. I wouldn't try this in a city!



Even when your back is to the wall and you are in corner you can still put on a brave face. The Head Gardener informs me that they are probably Hawkweed.



10th 60F, 15C, breezy, sunny periods. My knee caps have been aching for three days now. I just keep spinning as much as possible. 21miles.

I thought I had problems enough with branches, vehicle debris, litter, glass, stones, gravel, beer cans, raised and dropped manhole and drain covers in Denmark. This guy is a saint: Martyring himself in the name of cyclist's rights to free passage in the NY bike lanes:



Watch and enjoy! :-)

I may not manage a video but I can take some images of the "tank training grounds" in the local villages which are the designated cycle lanes.

They have just rebuilt a large new supermarket in one village I shop at.  Guess what? No pavement ramp and a tiny little bike rack! They also cut down two beautiful rows of mature trees in the existing car park. Then had the nerve to show trees on the Architect's sketch on a hoarding outside the building site!

I fought my way through the endless queues of impecunious, penny-pinching pensioners. All taking advantage of the opening special offers. Only to find no organic produce on the shelves! They won't see me in there again! Grrr! :-)

 11th 62-68F, 17-19C, breezy, mostly cloudy. Knees were fine today. Cruising for several miles at 20mph. Then home again. Now heavily loaded and into a headwind. Still no problem with the knees. Why does the knee pain come and go? Even on the same ride? Weird. 21 miles.


Mr Higgins admires a drift of poppies in the oilseed rape crop.


12th  62F, 17C, breezy, sunny periods. An odd wind. It tried to be a head wind even when I had it behind me. 18 miles.  I am aching a bit from getting the 20' plank 8' up on the house. Just the price of working alone. The Ventus GPS logger has fallen asleep for the the last three days despite being full charged and memory cleared.  Netto has a Ventus GPS watch for ~£40(equiv). Not sure whether I'm tempted at that price. 18 miles so far. 20 more miles after coffee.


Another chocolate box picture for Gunnar. There are many flowering shrubs in the hedges and rural gardens at this time of year.

13th 64-68f, 180C, breezy becoming windy, mostly overcast. I punctured on a rock embedded in a farmer's trail of mud on the main road. The heavily patched tube I fitted stayed up. Which was a bit of a surprise. It felt like a headwind all the way round despite my route being a circle. I was trying so hard my legs were aching towards the end. (the end of the ride not my frayed ankles) The traffic was light but I saw lots of cyclists out training. Probably because of the holiday. A surprising number of hedgehogs have suddenly joined all the dead birds as road kill.

An interesting story appeared on UK TV. A composting company has been warned it may lose its license. Allegedly due to the odour of rotting material emanating from its premises. Perhaps they should move to Denmark? We already have the industrialised pig units spreading their foul waste product right next door to countless homes.

Now the drivers of the privatised dustbin lorries take their vehicles home and park them in their drives. Can you imagine living next door to one of these? I can smell them as I pass on my trike and as they overtake me on the roads. Living next door to one must be intolerable!

It was bad enough that any lorries are taken home every night. Then started and left running for half an hour in the early hours of the morning! Or the driver uses its on-board pressure washer regularly to remove road grime outside their own homes.

Then there are the neighbours who prepare their wood-burner fuel using a chainsaw. For hour after hour after hour. They fire up their stove 365 days a year. (even in 30+ degree heatwaves) So they need a lot of fuel! Then they burn this forest-fresh wood to produce clouds of choking smoke and an acrid stench of creosote all day long. I won't mention that they burn their household rubbish on there too.

It's not all bad news: They also deliver trailer loads of firewood to their extended family. All of which has to be sawed from wet logs only a few yards from people's homes. For over 20 years now and counting!

29 miles avoiding chainsaws and dustbin lorries and industrialised pig effluent manufacturers and road kill. Oh, and glass and mud and stones in the cycle lanes. Just don't mention Marmite or vitamins in polite conversation with a Dane.



Another swathe of poppies and wild flowers but without a trike. I never tire of the wavy nature of Denmark's landscape. It is like a never ending, lush green run of sand dunes. In fact there is quite a lot of sand under some of it. All formed by the ice age. 


 A rural village lane.

14th  64F, 18C, breezy but becoming very windy, mostly overcast. The trees were thrashing about by the time I headed home. 21 miles.





Location, location, location! 
The sun peeked out for a second so I took another shot.



Click on any image for an enlargement. Back click to return to the text. 


*

3 Jun 2011

Rogers Trike and Trike Conversion on eBay.

*

KEN ROGERS TRICYCLE CONVERSION SET ON CARLTON 531 FRAME on eBay (end time 11-Jun-11 22:32:49 BST)

 
The photographs of this Rogers conversion were so good that I have included it here as an example to other sellers. Also to show what a Rogers conversion looks like, of course. The images are so good that they can be used by a new owner of a trike conversion set to see how  they should be fitted to the donor bike frame.

Note that more modern conversion sets are completely different. Much later sets increase the wheelbase rather than shortening it. (Trykit conversion axles for example fit behind the rear drop-outs) Earlier conversion sets fit through the rear stay triangle of the donor bike. As seen here.


General view clearly showing the duplication of the seat stays typical of a trike conversion. Near side, one wheel drive typical of manufacture in Great Britain.

As always, the donor frame is not vitally important to the buyer. A conversion can easily be mounted onto almost any steel road frame in under an hour. There are some limitations depending on the rider. The bike frame should fit the owner or the exercise is rather pointless.

I have (instinctive) reservations about using carbon fibre or alloy bike frames with a trike axle conversion. They have no long history to be certain of their safety when subjected to the heavy side and twisting loads of a trike. It is true that the seat stays carry wheel loads into the seat clamp. Close to where the rider sits. But a few minutes of riding will convince the trike rider that there are all sorts of things going on at the back end. A saddle bag on a bike has no reason to sway about. On a trike it needs fixing down to cope with side loads and sudden changes of attitude. 

Those with large feet should avoid a very short wheelbase bike frame. As I discovered myself when swapping my Longstaff conversion to yet another recycled road frame. I had an overlap of the rear axle casing of about an inch by my heels! Probably because I have never seemed in danger of toppling in a high wind. Note how the trike axle passes inside the bike frame stay triangles. This not only shortens the wheelbase but puts a large crossbar across just behind the rider's heels. Trykit has put their conversion axles behind the rear drop-outs of the donor bike.

--------------------------------------------------------

I have borrowed only the images from the auction which nicely illustrate the trike conversion itself. This appears to be plated as the seller describes. Almost a "Chromate" or anodised finish.


Presumably cup and cone bearings. The Rogers conversion uses an adjustable clamp system for the bottom end of the widely splayed, trike seat stays. It is slightly odd how the Ken Rogers transfer is inverted. It also faces forwards where it is much more difficult to see. I cannot imagine how the axle could be rotated to make the signature face backwards and appear upright. Trike conversion sets only fit a bike frame in one particular way. Ergo, the transfer is wrongly applied?


 View from the drive side. There appears to be plenty of room for large, rear sprockets.

.

All clean, neat and tidy here. The seat stays and clamps are well seen in this shot. These components appear to  galvanised. The Rogers trike conversion set is very similar to the Higgins.

The way the conversion axle is fitted to the bike frame drop-outs is very clear. Spacers are usually necessary to ensure chain alignment of the trike conversion and donor frame. The duplicated "extras" of a conversion necessarily make it heavier than a trike frameset. A trike cannot really compete with a bike, on weight,  because it has an extra wheel, bearings, axle housings and axles.

This Rogers trike conversion auction made £220.

------------------------------------------------------------

 And now a simultaneous auction of a Rogers trike: Lady's model.


It has fairly modern, lightweight gear fitted so this helps to reduce costs to the eventual auction winner. No reserve!



 General view. It might make a real alternative to a heavyweight "invalid" trike. Though this would assume the rider has no balance problems. It would be foolish to think that a lightweight trike is the obvious answer to all mobility needs. Though it does offer an alternative.


 Front view


 Comfy sprung Brooks B66 but hefty weight penalty.


Rear hub brake and one wheel drive. Interesting "squared" reinforcing loops.

The yellow Rogers trike made £200 precisely.

Click on any image for an enlargement.