A motor is not much good when....

... you get a flat tyre in the motor wheel!

At least I got some really good exercise yesterday pushing the trike about 3km to the bike shop then walking another 4 km home! Something pretty sharp took a large chunk out of the tyre and tube (even though I had a Mr Tuffy installed) thus the wheel had to be removed which is not easy now due to its very tight fit, the torque arm etc.

First Scout run.

My eldest is in Scouts and normally we would drive him there as it only goes for an hour and given the hills on the way home my two options on the bike would previously have been -

a) drop him off and then ride home up hill with the weight of my youngest in the bike and then pretty much turn around and come straight back again to pick him up or

b) drop him off and then hang around whilst trying to keep my youngest amused and out of the way of the Scouts!

But with my new found freedom to travel up hills at a great rate of speed (relatively speaking!) I was able to use the bike to dropoff at Scouts and then come home with plenty of time to get dinner ready etc before going back for pickup. Normally my wife is home before pickup time so I can leave the youngest with her for my return journey. And all the Scouts were fascinated by the bike!

Reconfiguring the seat

As mentioned previously I have been eager to properly lower the seat (rather then just remove it entirely) so the boys can fit under the rain cover and I can still have a lockable storage area. Well it took a bit of carpentry (a skill I do not have to any great degree) but I managed to do it!

The seat comprises of two side pieces that bolt on to the side of the cargo box. These pieces have a horizontal groove to allow the base of the seat to slide into place and also a vertical groove that positions the front support for the seat. You can see the grooves here with the top and front of the seat removed -

And how it normally looks with the seat fully assembled and the mattress that came with the trike in place -

It was just a matter of unbolting the side panels and cutting the bottom off them so that the new seat height was about 10cm. The front panel also needed to be cut so the seat could slide in over the top of it. This new height is low enough for the kids to fit under the cover but still high enough to allow the battery and some tools to fit under the seat -

I had to install a new locking plate as the original one was now to tall to fit on the front panel. I also put two rather dodgy looking holes in the base of the seat over the charge port and the on/off switch so I can access these without unlocking and removing the seat -

The original seat mattress now does not cover the whole seat but with some velcro I've managed to position it so that it can cover about the half the seat and the cushion from Ikea sits on top of that. The seat belts were adjusted to the new height it it was all good to go. A very comfy ride according to the boys -

And while it was out in the sun I took a few more shots of the finished product. As you can see the motor is barely noticeable with the panniers in place -

First daycare run.

On Thursdays the youngest is at daycare and I normally pick him up around 5pm so that means I also have to take the oldest who finishes school at 3pm. The trip home from daycare has a couple of long inclines and with both boys in the box my previous average speed was about 9km/h. Today the average speed was 17km/h! And get this - on the long incline where I was also battling a headwind I overtook another cyclist. The poor guy (dressed in lycra!) is probably still in shock as my heavily burdened trike flew past him at 20km/h!

First shopping run.

I hit the shops today and loaded up the trike with the usual amount of food and drink. As mentioned previously the trip home is the hardest as it is mostly up hill but it certainly was not hard today! On the long stretches were I used to drop down to my lowest gears and travel about 4 or 5 km/h I was today going about 18 to 22 km/h! It was exhilarating stuff! Trip time was 10.44 minutes at an average speed of 17.5km/h where it previously took around 19 or 20 minutes with an average speed of around 10km/h. And the good part is it is still a workout for me as I am still pedalling but doing so in my high gears.

First school run.

Loaded up the 2 boys and the school bags and headed up to school this morning. Average speed for the trip used to be around 6 or 7 km/h (it is a long climb up about a 1 to 2% grade to get to the school gate). This morning the average speed was 14km/h! The kids could not believe how fast we were going and the average speed would have been higher if we did not have to slow down for people on the path. Fully loaded up for a school run the bike weight is just under 190kg (418 pounds for all those on the old scale).

I can get up the hills!!!

Well today was the big day! My last task was to mount the battery and this was fairly easy. I simply placed it in the cargo box under the kids seat. To make it sit flat however I had to drill a small hole in the floor for the fuse holder on the bottom side of the battery to sit in. I used some heavy duty velcro to secure it in place and recycled some of the packaging from the Ezee carton to wedge it in place -

Eventually I will lower the seat so that it fits snugly over the top of the battery. This will enable the kids to sit lower in the box and fit under the rain cover and I may also be able to put some holes in the seat to enable quick access to the on/off switch and charging port (ie I wont have to unlock and remove the top of the seat as pictured above to charge it or turn it off).

One final check of all the connections and bolts and off I went! Some video of the first few runs follows. The hill is about a 3.5% grade according to Google Earth and without a motor from the standing start at the bottom I have to gear it down pretty low and do it at about 5-10km/h. Total weight of me, the bike, the motor and battery is about 135kg.

After these few runs I checked the motor to ensure everything was holding on as it should and it all looked good. Took the five year old for a spin (another 21kg!) and was still very impressed with the uphill assist with no noticeable difference in speeds.

Out of ten I would have to give this kit an eleven! The power comes on smoothly and stops as soon as I let go of the throttle. Using it on the uphills I am encouraged to also pedal to keep the speed up and reduce the load on the motor and this probably gives me a better workout then spinning up the hill in a very low gear!

Big thanks to Justin and everyone at Renaissance Bikes. I was often amazed at the speedy responses to my questions during the installation!

Progress report (2)

Well it is getting close now! I had to put some thought into the kill switch. My main issue was what sort of switch to buy that could be easily mounted on the bike. A quick search through Dick Smith found one that was close as I thought I could drill a hole through the cargo box and screw it on with the lock nut from the other side. However it turns out the thread was not long enough to enable this. I then thought about using a part from the Ezee kit that was not needed (due to my purchase of the CycleAnalyst) -

It is the default 'fuel gauge' that shows a green, yellow or red light depending on battery capacity. The switch is not used as far as I know but I figured I could open it up and rewire the switch to pins 2 and 4 of the pedal assist connector. I could then mount the gauge on the handlebars with the supplied hardware and hey presto - a kill switch! So I opened it up -

The yellow wire on the switch lead directly into the cable so I only had to rewire the black one to lead into the cable instead of the circuit board. I snipped the connector end off the cable and tested the black and yellow with the multimeter. First with the switch off -

No connectivity and then with the switch on -

Yeahh zero resistance! It was then a simple matter of soldering the black and yellow to pins 2 and 4 of the pedal assist sensor. I connected the battery, lifted the rear wheel and sure enough the motor will not start with the switch on!

The handlebars are now starting to look a bit crowded though! Below from the left is the thumb throttle, kill switch, CycleAnalyst and my original speedo -

A bit of trial and error was necessary to mount the CycleAnlayst's wheel speed sensor but eventually I managed to put it on in such a way that both it and my original speedo can be used with the one magnet on the spokes. I also needed to splice some more wire into the sensor cable as it was not long enough to reach the mount near the front wheel.

All the cables have now been 'tidied' up underneath the box -

So all that is left to do is to secure the battery in the cargo box and take it for a spin. That may have to wait for tomorrow though as the kids are home from school now and need some attention!

Progress report...

My five year old was pretty good today and he let me do some work on the trike. He even offered to help - 'I know dad, when you need something from your work box you tell me and I'll get it for you.' He can be so cute when he is not being naughty!

Anyway I digress. I had a good look at all the wires and various bits and made some decisions about how it should all be wired up. The battery will definitely go under the lockable kids seat in the cargo box so my attention turned to where to put the controller. Originally I thought I would just put it under the seat also (it fits in the supplied bag next to the battery) but upon looking at all the connections it occurred to me I would need some big holes in the floor of the box to accommodate the connectors from the various cables that connect to it. I had also read that sometimes it is good to have the controller outside of the battery case in the 'fresh air' to assist in keeping it cool. So I flipped the bike up and found that the controller could fit nicely underneath the cargo box nestled into the frame -

The controller is held in place by two cable ties and heavy duty velcro which is attached to the base and the bottom side that rests on the steel frame. Due to a weld in the bottom right corner of the frame I was unable to make the controller sit flat against this edge so I wrapped a nut in some black insulation tape and placed it up the top between the frame and the controller. Thus I was able to ensure the horizontal cable tie pictured above could be pulled tight while keeping the base square on to the frame. With the controller mounted here I now only have to drill a hole in the box for the power cables to the battery directly above. There is also plenty of room under here to wind up any excess cable lengths and tuck them neatly out of the way of the steering mechanism.

So far I have only had a chance to connect the grey cable pictured above to the motor. The Ezee kit as supplied is very good as it includes a connector housing with zip tie holes to ensure this connection is secure and watertight. You can see it here just in front of my pedals (still have to secure and take up the slack on the grey cable) -

The bottom of my tube also has a few ziptie mounts that are used to hold the gear cable in place on its journey up to the handle bars. I was able to utilise one of these to help secure the connector housing. The Ezee kit also had a tube of dielectric silicone compound for smearing on the connectors.

One issue that occurred to me is that with the battery mounted under the locked kids seat it will be a hassle turning it off every time I leave the bike alone. With the bike often left up at the school it would not take much for one of the curious kids to hit the throttle! I asked Justin from Renaissance Bikes about wiring in a 'kill switch' and he said this was easily done by shorting pins 2 and 4 on the 'pedal assist sensor' connector which is unused on my setup. This connector is also used for the brake cutoff lever which I may look at getting if I install a rear rim brake down the track.

Tomorrow I will hopefully wire up everything else!

It's alive!

With some kid free time today I took the opportunity to fully charge the Ezee battery (took about 5 hours) and wire up the bits to see if it all works. And it does! Small video below of the moment it came to life!

I now just have to work out the best way to mount the battery in the box so that it is secure and I still have room for the kids. Though I may temporarily wire it up and place the battery on the rear rack just to get it on the road so I can test it out up some hills!

Derailleur versus internal hub gears

After a few days of riding with the derailleur gearing (with the motor not wired in yet) one thing that has struck me is how much easier the bike seems to ride. As an example this morning I was able to cycle the two kids and their heavy bags up the hill to school in my 3rd and 4th lowest gears (15.5 and 18.1 gear inches). Previously with the Nexus hub I used to have to do this in the lowest gears (11.7 and 13.7 gear inches). And I might add that I am not as fit as I was when I was pedalling around with the Nexus! I also did a 3km ride today to the bike shop and managed  to do it a couple of minutes quicker then I had before by being able to pedal in higher gears then what I used to.

Maybe it is my imagination but I had read that internal gear hubs are not as 'efficient' as derailleurs and can introduce some 'drag' and I would have to agree based on my short experience!

The motor is on!

Well it is done. After a few hours of intense work at Cycle Surgery we managed to install the Ezee motor, the Mountain Drive and a new derailleur gear system (no wiring of the motor as yet). Simon and Tom are pictured below doing the hard yards on the new derailleur and shifter -

The 'tricky bits' of the install were as follows -

• The rear dropouts had to be spread slightly to accommodate the motor - no big issue despite my initial concern!
• Had some trouble with the torque washers due to the position of the axle in the dropouts so left these out.
• Had to cut off a connector to put a torque arm on the wiring (right) side of the motor so will need to solder this back on.
• The nut and bolt to secure the adapter claw for the derailleur hanger interferes with the 11T on the freewheel so effectively I have six usable gears instead of seven. When you count the Mountain Drive low gear though it is really 12 gears instead of 14. Again no big issue as the gear range with the newly installed 34T chain wheel (instead of my previous 42T) is 10.2 to 62.8. If the motor works out as well as I expect I may go back to the 42T chain wheel and bump the range up to 12.6 - 77.5.
• Needed to drill out a bottle screw mount on the handlebars to slide the thumb throttle and new gear shifter into position.

The end result looks pretty good -

Did a quick ride around the shop and the derailleur and Mountain Drive combination work very well. Though I'll need to get used to shifting gears on a derailleur after becoming accustomed to shifting thru the gears very quickly (and whilst stopped!) on the previous Shimano Nexus 7 internal hub.

TIme to get serious - electrify the trike!

As detailed in my previous post I have been without the trike for a few months and I have certainly missed it! Needing to use the car even for short shopping trips and school pickups has taken its toll on my fitness level and our petrol consumption! While the Mountain Drive issue was being rectified I thought it an opportune time to further explore ways to improve the trike.

With the Mountain Drive whilst I can go up any hill I want it can take a long time to do some of my regular trips when only traveling at 4km an hour! The kids can get restless when going so slow and it can also be embarrassing being overtaken by old people going for a walk! So I have been looking at installing some form of electric assist system that could increase my speed up the hills to say 15-20km/h with me also pedaling. I do not need any assistance when on the flats or downhill as the trike fairly flies along in these situations even with a heavy load.

The two main options for pedal assist are the use of a 'through the gears' type of motor that drives the cranks or a hub motor that sits inside a wheel.

Through the gear options include the Cyclone, Epac or Elation type of systems that in various ways drive the front cranks or the chain line. Advantages of these types of systems are that -

• You retain the use of all the rear gears
• The motor can take advantage of the rear gears to provide better assistance
• You can choose to use only the motor, only pedal or a combination of the two
• Most of these systems use a freewheel system so there is no extra drag if you chose not to use the motor

The main disadvantage of these types of systems for me would be the difficulty in fitting them due to the non standard frame on the trike and that most would necessitate the removal of the Mountain Drive to have 'normal' cranks. However during my research on motors I came across this setup which is a custom built variation based on the above systems. It is fitted to a trike similar to mine with a Mountain Drive installed. However it does not 'freewheel' meaning the pedals always turn when the motor is engaged. The owner of that trike kindly answered a lot of my questions during my research on the best system for my trike!

Hub motor options are too numerous to list here! The main trouble with these for my setup was that I could not use them on the front wheels as there are no suitable forks to mount them on. This would mean replacing the rear wheel which on my trike has the hub gears and back pedal brake. Thus if I was going to install a hub motor I needed to examine converting the trike to a derailleur gear system. Unfortunately the trike has no derailleur hanger on the rear dropout but thanks to the late Sheldon Brown's informative web site I learned about 'adapter claws' and I managed to track one down from this ebay shop for only $US10. I also managed to find another Christiania Trike that had a rear hub motor installed and noticed his use of a rear rim brake mounted in a way I could replicate. With my recently upgraded front brakes I would rarely need a rear one but it would be nice to have it as a backup!

So after much googling and reading of various e-bike forums I started asking questions of Renaissance Bikes about the Ezee Geared Hub Motor Kit. These hub motors (as opposed to 'direct drive' motors) have a planetary gear system built in which means more 'torque' for getting up the hills. The motors are also smaller and weigh less then the direct drive types and thanks to the built in freewheel they have no drag when being pedaled without the motor engaged. I cannot speak highly enough of the people at Renaissance Bikes - they answered all my queries very quickly and were a great help in sorting out the best options to put on the trike. I went for a rear motor with a controller from a front motor kit as the longer cables on the front controller will enable me to mount the battery in the front box if I choose. I also purchased a cycle analyst so I can accurately monitor power usage and limit the motor to make it street legal.

And would you believe the motor arrived the same day as the repaired Mountain Drive. I paid for it on October 30th, it was built (I needed the 26inch motor relaced into a 24 inch wheel) and then shipped from Canada on November 7th and I got it about 11am on November 9th! Incredible service. A couple of items were missing however (a rear torque arm and the 7speed freewheel) but after letting them know I was advised they would be sent out that day and they are now on the way.

The motor in the 24 inch wheel can be seen below. It has a fairly small diameter compared to non-geared motors and in fact is about the same size as a disc brake rotor -

The battery for the motor is contained in a neat bag that can be attached to a rear rack though I am likely to mount mine in the cargo box. A flap allows access to the charging port -

Now it all just has to go together! Simon at Cycle Surgery is going to do the Mountain Drive install, swap the rear wheels and install the derailleur. When that is all sorted I'll work out the best way to install the battery, throttle etc. Stay tuned for updates!

PS - I would like to thank my lovely wife for letting me buy the above! It will be great honey - trust me!

The trike is off the road...

Have been without the trike for a little while hence the lack of posts lately. As you can see it is looking a little worse for wear in its partially disassembled state and lack of pedals!

So what happened? Well in early September whilst heading up to school the Mountain Drive made a horrible noise then locked up! I could not rotate the pedals forwards or backwards so had to quickly wheel the bike home (downhill luckily) with the youngest on board, then put him in the car and drive up to school to pick up the oldest from Kindi. Was only a little bit late for pickup fortunately.

The manufacturer (Florian Schlumpf) was very quick to respond to my emails and I sent it back to him for inspection and warranty repair on September 21st after arranging for my local bike shop to remove it. I did not get the old cranks put back on because the thread in the bottom bracket needed repair and I thought I would just wait for the Mountain Drive to return (it does not use the bottom bracket threads).

The reason why it failed is rather unexpected to say the least! Upon receiving the Mountain Drive Florian said the one I had is designed for 'hand trikes' (something I had not heard of before). It uses only 2 instead of 4 planetary gears to reduce weight and has a 'softer' shifting mechanism. In short I somehow got sold a Mountain Drive never designed to go on a 'normal' bike and the extra stress has ruined it! I never even knew there was a Mountain Drive version not meant to go on pedal bikes and I will now be having serious words to the guy who I got it off locally. After all he knew exactly what type of bike the Mountain Drive was going on because he installed it!

Florian kindly agreed to repair and upgrade the Mountain Drive for just the cost of the parts and freight which is fair enough given it is not his fault it failed. It arrived today with some free extra bits thrown eg some new crank arms (my original ones were wrecked by having the pedals cross threaded on to them). Florian certainly stands behind the product he manufacturers!

The kids are getting bigger...

Well the two boys are growing up fast - which is quite amazing when you consider my youngest who is 4 refuses to eat just about everything I put in front of him! Anyway whilst they can both still sit on the storage box / seat, I am unable to put the hood over them when it rains unless they crouch down. This photo of the boys and my lovely wife taken 5 months ago shows how the eldest is well over the side hood frames and they have only gotten taller since!

To rectify this Peter from PSBikes kindly sent me some cushions from IKEA that are just the right size for placing on the floor of the box. Unfortunately (and to the disappointment of many) there is no IKEA near us where I could get them!

Originally I was thinking of reducing the height of the seat so I could still lock a few items away in the box. I may yet do that, however to start with I thought I would just remove the seat entirely and see how the boys go. When I originally purchased the trike I ordered an extra lap seat belt so I simply installed that at floor level. I was able to utilise the existing bolt holes that attach the side panels of the storage seat to the frame of the box so no drilling was required! As you can see here the boys can now be seated a lot lower and I can easily get the cover over them -

The other good thing about this seating arrangement is my youngest can sit facing the other way and both boys can have some more elbow room -

Not sure yet if I will leave this seating arrangement in permanently or squeeze the cushion into the lockable box with my other odds and ends and just reconfigure the seating when it looks like rain. By installing a second seatbelt at floor level and leaving the original one in place as illustrated in the next photo I can easily choose either option on the go!

Upgrading the brakes part three....

Stopped into CycleSurgery today for a quick adjustment to the right hand side brake. The new disc brakes are now well bedded in, the parking brake engages and releases very well and the stopping power is very impressive! The low quality video below from my phone will give you some idea. It shows me traveling down hill with my six year old in the box (he is doing the filming). All up weight is about 155kg (341 pounds for the non-metric amongst you). My speed is about 25km/h (15.5mph) before I apply a full emergency stop just past the green wheelie bin you can see on the left side of the road.

And it because of stops like this the kids always wear the lap seat belt to stop them flying forward during sudden braking!

From three wheels to two!

Just back from holidays on the Sunshine Coast and the place we stayed now has 'Segway Safaris'! These are all-terrain Segways that go through the bush tracks and around the resort's lagoon beaches. Unfortunately they are not allowed on the surf beach as yet due to issues with Council regulations. You start off in 'turtle' mode where they are speed limited to about 9km an hour for use around the shared paths of the resort. At the end of the tour once you have mastered them they are taken off turtle mode in a large park and you can really fly - video below! An awesome way to get around but a bit hard on the lower calf muscles if you are not used to standing (and leaning!) for long periods.

Upgrading the brakes - part two

Well the upgrade is complete! First the new brake handle. Common on recumbent trikes apparently, this new handle is metal alloy with a push button park brake that is automatically released when you squeeze the handle hard. The park brake button is a bit hard for the weak little fingers on my left hand to push in but might loosen with a bit of use. If not it can be adjusted to make it a bit easier to engage. The following two photos show the handle with the park brake button disengaged and engaged -

The other good feature of this handle is that it directly controls both brake cables so no need for a splitter box anymore -

The new Avid BB7s can be adjusted very easily by the red knobs seen below or you can use special allen keys (supplied) if you are unable to fit your fingers through the spokes in the wheel or require a bit more leverage -

The fitting of the Avid's required some drilling into the frame to reverse one of the existing brake mounts. A quick check with Andrew, who recently put Avids on his Christiania, confirmed that the drilling was necessary on his also - thanks for the quick advice there Andrew!

The stopping power is very good! With a bit of riding around Simon's shop to test them, plus the ride home and for school pickup (about 10km all up in pouring rain at times!) I found they bedded in quite quickly. The right wheel may have bedded in before the left at it now locks up quite dramatically when stopping at speed. I'll ride for a bit more to see if the left one follows suit before undertaking any adjustments.

All up a very worthwhile upgrade to the trike! Thanks to Simon for doing the hard yards installing them.

Upgrading the brakes

I mentioned in a previous post the trouble I initially had with the front disc brakes. Though eventually rectified, Simon from the local bike shop recently suggested an upgrade. He had just put a pair of Avid BB7s on a 'dog trike' for a mate (scroll down to March 2009 from the link to see the trike) and was raving about them. Besides amazing stopping power these brakes are easy to adjust via knobs that are 'indexed' (ie you can adjust them one 'click' at a time). Simon had also sourced a brake lever that applies pulling power directly to both cables ie two cables going to each disc brake from a single handle. At present the brake handle on the trike pulls one cable-

with this cable then going to a 'splitter' which is positioned under the box. From the splitter, separate cables go to each disc brake on the front wheels-

I should point out that when we originally received the trike the cable run was slightly different with the 'splitter' off to one side. The cable run was modified when we were troubleshooting the original brake problem. Tomorrow the trike is off to the shop for its brake makeover - stay tuned!

And while I think of it this is a good time to point out one other feature of the bike - the fact you can tip it onto the front box to allow easy access for repairs or adjustments to the gears, brakes, crank etc.

It balances quite nicely though you should position it so the rear wheel rests close to a wall to be extra safe from having it tip over!

How much can one trike fit?

Well a fair bit! Here is my shopping trolley -

and here it all is in the trike -

In fact there is room to spare as I can still put another layer of bags on top of what you see here. Todays load was probably half what I have carried in the past. It is just a shame the trip home when I am loaded up is mostly uphill! My trip computer records it as 3.2km with a time of 19.5 minutes so average speed is just under 10km/h. One long uphill stretch is done in my lowest gear with the Mountain Drive engaged at a speed of about 4km/h - easy pedaling but only walking pace! As a comparison on the way to the shops when empty I can do it in 12 minutes averaging about 16km/h.

Attaching gadgets...

After riding the trike for a while I realised I needed a few things to make the experience more enjoyable and informative - plus I like gadgets!

The speedo...

First task was to put on some sort of trip computer. The initial difficulty with this was the front wheels have no 'fork' that you would find on a normal two wheel bike - this fork being necessary to attach the magnetic sensor. Attaching the sensor to the rear wheel would have necessitated a very long cable to cope with the turning of the front box. The problem was solved by the fabrication of a small bracket and pop riveting it to the metal frame supporting the front cargo box -

Time for a drink...

Next up was drink bottle cages. The frame of the Christiania does not have the screw points you would find on a normal bike to attach a cage. There are two on the handlebars but for some reason Christiania have put one on each side and not two near each other to enable the secure attachment of a cage. These problems were solved by the use of a cage bracket that attached to the top of the handlebar. You can see this in the photo below along with the display for the speedo and a thermometer I picked up from Kmart (always nice to know if my water bottle is likely to freeze) -

For the the kids water bottles I used the existing screw points on the handlebar tube for the upper hole on each water bottle cage and trusty old cable ties to secure the bottom of each cage -

Odds and ends...

The little bag in the picture above I found at a clearance store. I used velcro to attach it securely and it is great for holding the phone, house keys etc. I also installed a handlebar mounted mirror which is very useful as I have a habit of unconsciously turning the box slightly when glancing over my shoulder to check for traffic. At speed this habit means I can actually turn into the path of traffic when I don't want too!

Who turned out the lights???

In winter it gets dark very early and we get some very thick fog on a regular basis that sometimes does not lift until midday. The front frame of the box is steel and thus magnetic so I had an idea based on my previous camping experience. I purchased two tent lights that use magnets to secure the light to a steel bracket placed on the outside of a tent. The magnets in these lights attach very well to the front frame as can be seen here before our ride to daycare in some of that cold fog we enjoy -

I also used a small bit of velcro on the back of each light for a bit of extra strength. Despite all the bumps and jolts they have never fallen off but are easy to remove when not needed and are usually stored in the lockable seat box. And as a bit of trivia that particular bike ride was very eventful with lots of fire engines and police whizzing by until we then came across this scene -

Not entirely sure what happened but looks like the van may have swerved and hit the traffic island before continuing on to the wrong side of the road and tipping. But back to the lights they are more for being seen rather then seeing in the dark. For some extra illumination I converted my AA Maglite to be used on the bike through the use of a magnetic clip and a bulb/switch upgrade. The magnetic clip was not quite strong enough to remain attached to the front frame over bumps so I also used some velcro to secure it - by now you may have realised I like velcro! I have not tried this setup at night yet but the bulb upgrade has meant the torch is now a lot brighter then it was previously so I expect it will at least illuminate the road directly in front to a fair degree. The new switch on the Maglite also has a flash mode and it can all be seen in this video -

If you wanted really powerful lights I would suggest investigating helmet mounted options as installing headlights on the handlebar is fairly useless in this type of bike given the kids would be sitting right in front of them!

On the rear of the trike I have mounted a very cheap (ie I wont be worried if it gets stolen) tail light that I can switch on when needed. I have additional tail lights on the luggage rack and on the side of the box (mounted low down on handlebar tube). These can be unclipped and stored in the lockable box when not in use. In recent heavy fog though I noticed that when I was a short distance from the bike (maybe 30 metres) I could not see any of these lights (or the trike) very well! If you click on the photo below you may just be able to make out the trike in the centre (or maybe you wont!) -

Given the fog is common this time of year when doing school drop off at 9am I upgraded one of these lights to a 'Superflash' tail light that has two normal LEDs and one very bright 1/2 watt bulb. The bike also has good reflectors mounted in all three mudguards plus I have one half of a set of Tioga pannier bags (my wife's 'normal' bike has the other half) on the rear rack which have a large reflective patch on them. It all reflects / lights up fairly well as can be seen below.

I think that is everything I have put on the bike so far (with the help of the local bike shop!) Always looking for new things of course so let me know if you have any ideas!

Posting from my phone!

And now testing sending a post from my mobile:)



Sent using mobile phone. Please excuse any abbreviations!

A post from my email.

Just testing my blogging ability from my email account!

The Bugatti Hood in detail

In a previous post I mentioned the versatility of the Bugatti Hood. I finally took some photos of the different configurations to illustrate this point. The two shots below are with the cover and side windows in place (for me though I still have to lower the bench seat so my eldest is not hunched over whilst inside this on a rainy day!) If you zoom in on the photo you can see the numerous clips that allow you to firmly attach the cover to the side windows.

One or both of the side windows can be removed if you wish to use the cover as a sun shade in summer whilst allowing cross ventilation. In my normal riding I have the cover rolled back and tucked in front of the handlebars and leave the side windows in place. The clips that are used to attach the cover to the side windows also aid in rolling up the cover and keeping it in place.

The hood can also be used as a wind break as seen in the next two front and rear photos. Here the boys can still pop their heads out but are fairly well protected from the biting cold winds that our town is famous for. Again the clips are positioned in such a way to ensure the cover remains where you want it to be.

The only downside to the cover is that the cold wind can be deflected up to the person riding the bike but hey at least the kids are warm (and it is all about the kids isn't it!)

Also when using the Bugatti cover I had to move the child's step from the rear of the box to the front. Kids can't really climb in through the high points of the side windows (closest to the handlebars) unless you keep taking the windows off when they hop in and out.