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.

Getting up the hills

It is fair to say that before buying the Christiania I knew nothing about bicycle gearing. In hindsight I wish I had educated myself about the topic before purchasing the bike! On the Christiania you have a choice of a seven or eight speed Shimano hub gears.

I opted for the seven speed (a thumb shifter above) as it was cheaper and I figured one less gear would not worry me. However after riding the bike for a while and learning about gearing it became apparent to me the increased gear range on the 8 speed (a twist shifter) would have been useful.

I don't intend to discuss the details of bicycle gearing here suffice to say that when measuring your gear setup in 'gear inches' - the lower the number the easier it is to pedal uphill! Conversely though, the lower the number the slower you go when pedaling on the flats or downhill. If you wish to get a basic understanding of gear inches I can recommend this article (though it focusses on derailleur gears) and the great articles on the topic at Sheldon Brown's (RIP) website. The rest of this post will assume a basic understanding of gearing terminology.

My Christiania was supplied with a 33T front chain ring and a 18T rear sprocket on the Shimano Nexus 7 speed hub in a 24 inch wheel. When you plug those numbers into Sheldon's fantastic gear calculator you get 7 gears from a low of 27.8 to a high of 68. If I had purchased the Shimano 8 speed hub I would have immediately had a larger gear range of 23.2 to 71. A big improvement especially on the low gear side which is what I needed to get me up the hills. However all was not lost as by lowering the front chainring size, or increasing the rear sprocket size, it is possible to lower the gearing also. Peter from PSBikes was able to supply a 28T front chainring and this lowered the range to 23.6 to 57.7 gear inches -

Note that by reducing the chainring size you of course lose the higher gears which are handy for the flats. At the time though I was quite comfortable with losing the higher gears if it meant less effort pedaling uphill. I rode on that setup for a while but unfortunately a couple of hills near my house are long and fairly steep and of course are on the way back from the shops when I am loaded up with the groceries! Thus I asked Simon from CycleSurgery to change the rear sprocket to a 22T and this lowered the gear range further - 19.3 to 47.2. An 8 speed would have increased that range - 16.1 to 49.3! So I guess from my experience if you are in a hilly area definitely go for the 8 speed and perhaps ask for the 28T front chain ring as a starting point. See how you go on that before deciding about changing the rear sprocket.

But I was still not satisfied! Whilst it was easier to pedal up the hills I still had trouble in a couple of places when fully loaded and I did miss being able to pedal at the higher gear ratios on the flats and downhill. After a lot of Google research I came across the most amazing piece of bicycle gearing equipment I had ever seen. A Schlumpf Mountain Drive -

This device replaces the front crankset and basically puts an additional lower gear (by a factor of 2.5) in your pedals without a second, smaller front chainring! For the technically minded it is a planetary gear system built into the bottom bracket. All you do is click a little button with your heel and you have seven (in my case) extra low gears -

Because of the exceptionally low gearing it gives you when engaged, it is possible to run it with a larger front chainring so you can also obtain the high gears when it is not engaged. It is a bit confusing to explain so perhaps best to show you my setup with the Mountain Drive -

• Front chainring 42T
• Rear sprocket 22T
• Gear range when Mountain Drive NOT engaged is 29 to 71 gear inches.
• Gear range when Mountain Drive IS engaged is 11 to 28 gear inches.

When the Mountain Drive is engaged I have an effective front chainring size of about 17t! The addition of the Mountain Drive has given me 14 gears from 11 to 71 gear inches none of which overlap. The 11 inch gear gets me easily up any hill I want but only at about 4 km/h! Luckily this lack of speed can be made up on the flats and downhills as I can comfortably pedal along at between 25 and 30 km/h in the high gears. Like the Shimano hub the Mountain Drive gears can be changed when pedaling or stopped - very handy when having to stop pointing up a hill as I can just change to a lower gear and then proceed (something you cannot do on a derailleur system). One thing to note is that the Mountain Drive still works with the rear backpedal brake. However when you are in low gear you must pedal 2.5 times further to actually engage the rear brake! This takes a little getting used to however when in the low gear range I am generally not traveling very fast anyway.

The Mountain Drive was sourced through one of the local recumbent bike dealers and is not cheap. Unfortunately the guy I purchased it off had never actually installed one himself and there were some problems with the installation -

1. It was not tightened up enough around the bottom bracket and came loose when I was miles from anywhere with no tools
2. The pedals were cross threaded into the cranks
3. The 'button' to change gears was also not tightened up and it fell off and got lost leaving me stuck in the high gears with a full load a long way from home!

CycleSurgery fixed problems 1 and 2 while the guy I purchased it off ordered me spare buttons and fixed that up. So my advice is, if you decide on a Mountain Drive make sure the guy putting it on has some experience installing them or get your local bike shop to do it after they have read all the instructions from the website. I would also recommend ordering a chainguard as the Christiania supplied one will not fit with a larger front chain ring and Mountain Drive installed.

The Trike arrives - first impressions.

The arrival of the bike was very exciting! Here you can see our youngest with the Y-belt firmly keeping him place and there is also a lap-belt. They are sitting on a wooden seat / lockable box with a mattress. My first impression was along the lines of 'hard to pedal up hill but lots of fun on the down hills'! I had not really done any bike riding in our area and I guess driving everywhere makes one immune to how big the hills can be! At the time we purchased the bike (Dec 07) the boys were 4 and a half and 3 but they were (and are still) very big for their age. The trike weighs about 35kg, the boys totaled about 33kg and my weight added a bit also so my first goal was to get the gears lower and I will later devote a whole post to what I did to achieve that.

Other impressions were that it rode well with the boys in it. I just had to ensure I slowed down for corners until I got used to its handling. The other thing I learned very quickly was not to try and come into our driveway on an angle! As you can see from the photo of me riding down the street the kerb is at a 45 degree angle to the road. Trying to enter the driveway on an angle (ie riding parallel to footpath and then attempting to place left wheel onto the kerb) means you get very close to tipping! So I always approach the driveway at 90 degrees (ie front on with both wheels at the same time). Also with the handling it is good in tight spots as it is very easy to hop off and lift the back wheel to turn the bike through those silly barriers that appear on bike paths around the place.

The box up front has loads of room and the 'Bugatti Hood' is very stylish and practical. The photos here just show the sides of the hood, a separate cover can go over the top of these frames for full rain cover, or it can go part of the way as a wind break. The cover can also be used with either one or both of the side windows removed. I also ordered the bike with rear luggage rack and panniers (just in case I needed even more storage room). The rear luggage rack is very solid but I found I did not need the panniers so sold them a while later. The brakes worked very well but the front discs made a fair bit of noise even when not being used. This continued after the 'wear in' period also however Peter from PSBikes and Simon from CycleSurgery did a great job working through and rectifying the problem (after sales support from Peter is very good despite him being interstate). The tyres are Schwalbe Big Apples with kevlar so they must be bullet proof!

All up we were very happy with our purchase!

So which bike to buy?

After ruling out the trailer options the next question was what bike could I get to carry me and the two kids and perhaps some shopping? As always Google was my friend and I explored a large range of options. In no particular order -

Kangaroo Trike - it looked great and read some OK reviews from people using them (see for instance - Musings from a Stonehead). Main problems were cost and the lack of an easy way to get one in Australia with no local importer.

CargoCycle - a Chinese copy of the more familiar (to Europeans anyway) Bakfiets type of bike. I discounted the Bakfiets for similar reasons to the Kangaroo. The CargoCycle looked good but I was concerned the box may not be big enough for my purposes. More recently though I have come across the Gazelle Cabby with an Australian dealer - not sure if they were available in 2007 when I was looking around but might be worth checking out now.

Christiania Trike - From Denmark and it has a local Australian importer, PSBikes. Excellent reviews from my research on the web, very large carrying capacity but with quality comes some cost.

Countdown CargoBike - A cheaper copy of the Christiania.

In the end we decided on the Christiania. Though the 2 wheel versions have advantages in terms of handling (eg leaning into corners) they did not offer the same amount of space to carry the kids up front. We contacted Peter at PSBikes and had a test ride when he was next in our area. Very good service there! As you can see from the photo below my youngest was very keen on the bell!

The ride was a big hit with the boys. For me it took a little getting used to ensure it stayed upright through the corners (a matter of leaning the right way and slowing down until feeling confident). Though not cheap we figured the resale value if we ever out grew it would be very good especially given the comparatively small numbers of these types of bikes in Australia. The build quality looked very impressive with Shimano hub gears, disc brakes up front complete with parking brake built into the handle, 'back pedal' brake in the rear, marine ply used for the box and a host of extras (eg rain covers, kids seats, lockable storage box etc).

To give you some idea of the space up front Peter had one set up for a test ride with two smaller children - thus the car seats are used, safely secured by the seatbelts. In this photo you can also see the handbrake with the red parking lock. So we went ahead and ordered one and Peter delivered it fully assembled in December 2007!

Why not a trailer?

Our local area has numerous off road cycle paths, bike lanes and being legally able to ride on footpaths are just some of the ways cycling is encouraged here. With two boys to ferry around the place I thought the idea of being able to cycle to the shops, playgrounds, preschool etc would be something worth exploring, especially as the majority of our trips in the car were 5 km or less.

We started by looking at the children's bike trailers of which there are a lot around including Croozers, Burleys and Pacific (the most common in my experience) just to name a few. So we thought the best way to test some out would be to hire them from a local company who provided a great home delivery and pick up service! The ride was fairly successful but the trailer system had a few disadvantages. Firstly as you can see from the photo below our two boys only just fit in it!

They were only 4 and 3 at the time so it was apparent that given there growth rate it was only going to get more crowded in there as time went on! Secondly I did not like the idea of the kids being so far behind me - I sometimes forgot they were there! More seriously though it was difficult to point out items of interest on the ride or referee the odd disagreement they would have whilst sitting out of direct view in such close quarters.

Whilst bigger trailers were available then the one we had test ridden, it was decided that even those would at best only last a year or so with our boys before we would have to look at other options. Thus the hunt was on for a bike that could fit all three of us!

But that is not to say that trailers would not be suitable for a wide range of people. If your children are not as big as mine you could get many years use out of a trailer. Indeed if I had my time over again I may have opted for one of the Croozer / Burley bike trailers that can convert into a stroller. When the kids were younger this would have been ideal as an alternative to a dedicated pram or stroller eg ride to shops, disconnect from bike, load in the shopping, hitch it back up and ride home! The newer models also fold up very well for putting in the back of the car when a car trip with the kids is unavoidable.