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.