Life with a Trike

Thumbtacks!

2012-02-04T20:26:00.000+11:00

For the second time since owning the trike I received a flat tyre due to a thumbtack! I don't know why these things appear on the bike paths - I suspect idiots leave them there to create mischief. Anyway it was time to get a new tyre anyway so I ordered a Schwalbe Marathon Plus after hearing about them some time ago from my LBS. Unfortunately buying the 24 inch size in Australia turned out to be pretty difficult hence I ordered one from Chainreaction Cycles in the UK. It arrived really quickly and thanks to this helpful video I had it on pretty easily. The ride seems pretty good and hopefully punctures will be a thing of the past. It might be my imagination but the tyre seems to cushion the ride a bit better then the old Schwalbe Big Apples. Anyway the other two tyres on my trike have not been replaced since purchase so I have now ordered two more of the Marathon Plus to ensure all round protection!

Trike update

2012-01-19T15:13:00.000+11:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Life has been a bit hectic and the trike was off the road for a while after I had some issues with the steering. It was all a bit technical but the part of the trike frame that interacts with the pivot point / headset under the cargo box was slightly worn away. Simon from Cycle Surgery helped diagnose the problem and after discussions with Peter from PSBikes a new frame was supplied by him and has now been installed. Christiania in Denmark say they have never seen one of their trikes have this issue before so all should now be good - probably just a one off manufacturing issue with my frame. Indeed a google search turns up no reports of anything similar ever happening to anyone else. As always great to see after sales support from PSBikes and I couldn't have got it fixed without my great LBS!

Original handlebar - all in one piece with lots of curves

When the new frame was dropped off by Peter he had a new trike in his van and I noticed the handlebars were higher then mine. Apparently they now come this way as standard and as an added bonus the handlebar splits in two to make it easier to install brake levers, gear shifters and all the other gadgets people like me put on their handlebars. As you can see from this old photo of my trike, previously anything that needed to be 'slid' onto the handlebar could only be done by removing the entire bar and sliding it from the bottom, over the drink bottle mount points, around a few corners and over the hand grips. I remember the trouble we had getting the throttle around this obstacle course - it was almost as hard as getting the motor itself on! So I took the opportunity to order the higher set of handlebars and installed them whilst also switching over to the new frame (with help from Simon of course). I find it a lot more comfortable to ride now and making changes to items on the handlebar will be a lot easier in future as the bar splits in two about 3/4 of the way along the top.

New handlebar mounting point for lights

Another new item from Peter is a headlight mount that attaches to the front of the box after drilling a small hole through it. Positioning bicycle lights on the handlebars is obviously not much good on this type of trike as it would just illuminate the back of the kid's heads (hence my current helmet mounted light). This new mount from Christiania screws through the front of the box and basically adds a small 'handlebar' where any standard bicycle light can be positioned. I am thinking of obtaining one that can run off the motor battery so am researching a few options for this.

And my youngest is happy with this new piece of equipment below that he spied on the trike Peter had in his van. A bit florally for my tastes but hey whatever keeps the kids happy and it does spin very well in the breeze!

Every kid should have one on their bike!

School run.

2011-07-08T20:06:00.002+10:00

Winter is well and truly here and this morning the ride to school required some rugging up and the use of bright tail lights! The trip to school is up hill and with the kids only getting bigger I am very thankful for the torque of the geared hubmotor in the back wheel.

Christiania goes electric!

2011-03-23T10:41:00.005+11:00

I was chatting to Peter from PSbikes and received some information on the new e-trike now available direct from him. Christiania has come to the electric bike party and can now supply cargo trikes (and two wheelers) with a small geared hub motor in the rear coupled with a 9 amp hour Panasonic Li-ION battery integrated into a rear carrier rack -

It utilises a pedal assist sensor (common in Europe) that applies power automatically as you ride. The power level can be varied from none to low to high through a controller on the handlebars. Power is cut when you stop pedalling or your speed reaches 25km/h and I believe this is the European legal standard for e-bikes. I actually have a 25km/h cut off on my trike as well because if I am travelling faster then this I am probably going down hill and don't need the motor on!

The rear hub gears standard on a normal Christiania are replaced by a seven speed derailleur system and the rear coaster brake is replaced by a hydraulic disc brake. It all looks very good. Throw some panniers on the rear rack and you would have no idea it was electric!

Nice to see Christiana copying my idea for a geared hub motor in the rear! These bikes really need a geared motor with the extra torque it provides to get up hills - especially when you have substantial weight in the cargo box. Peter tells me some people in Australia have them already and are happily riding around hilly areas loaded up with the kids and groceries!

Quick update!

2011-02-21T19:20:00.003+11:00

Yes it has been a while since the last update. A combination of Christmas holidays, school holidays and not much happening with the trike are the main causes of the lack of posts.

The only issue lately was some weird noises emanating from the left front wheel - lots of 'clunks' as we rode along. The kids thought the wheel was going to fall off but it turned out the wheel bearings were the cause and I had these replaced (as well as the ones on the right hand wheel as a precaution). Got the front disc pads replaced also - they get a fair workout trying to stop my fully laden trike! Speaking of brakes the installation of Avid BB7s inspired a fellow Christiania owner to undertake the same thing with similar success. His write up of the Christiania and the modifications he has undertaken are well worth a read as well.

The motor is powering along very well. On a couple of tests of my range the two batteries I have now installed in parallel have given me full power for about 16 amp hours before dropping off. I routinely charge up well before this though.

I hate posting without a photo so here is a shot of the boys in the trike and my lovely wife after a trip to a local park. Happy cycling!

Reelights

2010-10-11T21:44:00.005+11:00

A recent comment on my blog led me to this website - an Australian distributor for the rather nifty Reelights. I had purchased a set of these previously from a local bike shop for a 'normal' bike and they work very well. From the site I saw they now had a version that fitted to a rear rack with a generator unit attached via a cable. Previously the light and generator were an all in one unit and therefore it had to be mounted at wheel level on the axles (either front or rear). These lights are very popular in Europe due to their set and forget nature - once installed they just work without ever needing batteries and they have no discernible affect on the bike's performance. This looked like a great new gadget for the trike so I ordered one!

In this shot you can see the light, the generator unit and the magnets that attach to the spokes and provide the power as they spin past the generator -

The installation was very easy and the thought that has gone into the product is quite impressive. For example -

The generator unit can 'slide' once attached to the seat stay to ensure it can be positioned the correct distance from the magnets attached to the spokes.
The magnets that attach to the spokes are well designed and could be attached to any wheel regardless of the spoke pattern.
Any excess cable can be wound into the generator unit.
The mounting bolts for the light are able to be adjusted to fit different mount points on rear racks.
The light also has reflectors on either side.

A video of it in operation follows -

Now the Reelight company just needs to work out how to put a front light on a Christiania where there is nowhere to mount the generator unit!

And just another interesting footnote regarding the delivery of this light. It was posted in Melbourne on a Tuesday and I received it in Canberra the following Monday. On the Friday afternoon I ordered some computer memory from America (go Aussie dollar!) and it was this package that arrived first (about 30 minutes before the light!). Australia Post really needs to lift its game!

Electric vehicle show

2010-09-18T14:08:00.005+10:00

An electric vehicle show was held today and it had something for everyone. From these 1917 Detroit electric vehicles (yes electric cars have been around that long!) that have a top speed of about 40km/h and a range of 50km -

Through to the showstopping Tesla roadster with a range of about 380km (this one drove from Sydney to Canberra without a recharge), a top speed of 200km/h and 0-100km/h acceleration in 3.7 seconds! It is a strict two seater and the 'boot' is full of batteries so it is not exactly the most practical car in the world but I would not mind one anyway -

In other displays one guy had even converted his ute to electric and piled all the batteries into a lockable box on the rear tray -

No petrol required here-

And of course lots of electric bikes were also on display. The one below is an interesting prototype. With a weight of just under 10kg it is (apparently) the lightest and probably the smallest electric bike in the world. The motor is on the front wheel and looks like it uses a cog to drive a series of notches built into the rim. The battery is built into the central tube and is recharged in place. The range is about 30km but it is not built for speed so it may take you a while to go that distance! The bike was imported by Switched on Cycles who I have done some test riding for previously.

Trike review

2010-09-15T11:58:00.002+10:00

I came across this great review of the Christiania by the owner of one in Portland USA of all places! I was impressed by some of his modifications and he was equally happy to hear about how I upgraded the front brakes with the Avid BB7s to address some of the issues he is also experiencing.

Throttle issues

2010-09-07T10:11:00.003+10:00

I have had some problems lately with the power dropping off. Initially I thought it might be because of the sub zero temperatures causing the battery to struggle a bit. However it also occurred on warmer afternoon rides and if I kept the battery inside overnight. And then one day it stopped working all together! When this occurred I noticed the red LED on the controller was flashing 5 times then going off and flashing again. A quick email to ebikes.ca and they informed me this was an error code for the throttle.

Closer inspection of the throttle cable showed a possible area of concern. The steering dampener situated underneath the cargo box seemed to be rubbing ever so slightly on the cable when I turned right. By wiggling this section of cable I was able to get the LED to stop flashing so there was obviously now a fault in this part of the wiring. I cut out this section and soldered the cable back together and all was good again. Sure enough the section of wire I removed did have some issues with the internal insulation and there was an intermittent short circuit occurring.

I rerouted the cable well away from the steering and checked everything else and it all seemed fine. The bike now powers along as it should. I only wish the controller was flashing this error code every other time I was looking for the problem!

Lots of trikes

2010-08-31T09:19:00.003+10:00

Yes I have not updated the blog in a while - life has been a bit hectic!

The Aussie distributor of the Christiania has a new website and if you look closely here you may even see a couple of shots of my bike (photo 82 and 83). Indeed looking through all the great photos I may even have some more ideas about what I can do to the trike!

Another electric bike

2010-06-10T16:27:00.006+10:00

A local company was after some test riders for a range of electric bikes they are importing and I volunteered! I spent two days with a 'townie' style electric bike with a 200 watt hub motor in the rear wheel, 36volt lithium battery, pedelec system, brake cut off and twist throttle.

I had read a lot about the pedelec system where the motor operates only when you are pedalling. On this bike as soon as you started pedalling a nominal amount of power assist was automatically applied and you could then twist the throttle if you needed more power. It took some getting used to but I quickly got the hang of it and found it very easy to use. Basically I could just hop on and pedal! I only needed to worry about the motor if I hit a hill though unless it was really steep I could just drop down a few gears and not worry about applying more power with the throttle. I did two rides over two days - 17km on day 1 and about 24 on day 2. I recharged in between and the power gauge on the throttle never got below 2 lights (out of 3). I would estimate range to be about 40km depending on how much you use the throttle.

The battery locks in to the frame for security but can be unlocked with a key if you wanted to bring it inside to charge it up. Another key turns the battery on and off. With the motor turned off this bike is a bit hard going with only 6 gears so you would want to make sure the battery is fully charged up before heading out. With a 40km range though this should not be a problem.

I was pretty impressed for my first ride on a 'normal' electric bike. For commuting to and from work one of these would be ideal especially in summer when you want to arrive relatively fresh and not dripping in sweat. And if you did not have a huge cargo bike sitting in your garage like I do you could also load it up with a handy amount of shopping with the addition of some strong panniers. I also liked the style of the bike with the more upright seating position which is common in Europe but not so much here. All in all a great way to get around!

Let there be light!

2010-04-11T14:23:00.006+10:00

The local bike shop received a stack of lights for our upcoming winter and I liked the look of the Cygolite MiliOn 200. Unlike other helmet mounted lights I have seen, on this one the light and li-ion battery are together in one neat little unit. The velcro strap on the helmet mount could have been a bit longer though as I was unable to mount it in my preferred position at the front of my helmet due to the large spacing between the air vents. It fitted very securely on the top though -

The light output is fantastic and simply does not compare to the lights I had mounted previously. The run to Scouts with my eldest is now done one hour after sunset and I can see quite clearly on the unlit bike paths with this light. It was a good thing too as tonight I saw that someone had dumped a bunch of old mattresses on the path. Further up someone had dumped all their tree cuttings over their back fence straight on to the path as well! Honestly sometimes I think I am just better off sticking to the road!

Sheldon Brown Memorial ride

2010-04-04T10:49:00.005+10:00

Each year the LBS holds a ride around the local lake in memoriam to Sheldon Brown - bicycle guru who gave so much of his time to helping others. He replied to one of my email questions (of which he received hundreds per day apparently!) shortly before he died - it was regarding the torque on a Shiman Nexus 7 speed hub if you change to a smaller front chain wheel.

It was a great evening for riding and I enjoyed 'letting loose' on the trike around the bike paths without having the kids on board. Though I quickly discovered that a number of the paths are on a rather severe angle which meant I needed to do a bit of leaning on the trike so as not to tip! It is not so bad with a bit of weight in the front (ie if the kids were in the box) but the camber of roads and paths needs to be watched when empty! Some of the other riders who I had not met before were also a bit amazed at my ability to keep up on the hills until they heard the motor noise! It was a bit dark on the way home and though I was lit up like a Christmas tree I had trouble seeing the odd obstacle so may look at investing in a helmet mounted light that will enable me to brighten up the path ahead properly. I can't really use handlebar mounted lights as I have no room and the light would be blocked by the kids sitting in the box.

Some shots of the trike as the sun set over the lake -

Battery range part 2

2010-03-31T17:00:00.003+11:00

Since the recent surgery on my battery pack I have done 7.85 amp-hours without any cut offs from the battery management system. So it would seem the early cut offs around the 6 amp-hour mark are a thing of the past! The minimum voltage this time around was 32.9, resting voltage was 35.8 and I used 288 watt hours.

The local bike shop is organising a Sheldon Brown memorial ride tomorrow which will involve a bit of distance and some hills thus I'm charging the pack up tonight so I don't run out of juice half way home! I'll probably aim to recharge around the 8 amp-hour mark from now on.

Battery range

2010-03-29T13:14:00.003+11:00

Seeing as the big trip in my last post did not flatten the battery I thought I would have another go to see how it was performing in terms of capacity. Unfortunately after not doing any top up charges last week it cut out after about 6.4 amp-hours which is where it has cut out on my previously. I should at least be getting 8 or 9 amp-hours so I sent an email query to Justin at ebikes.ca. As usual I got a reply very quickly! Justin informed me that yes I should be getting more out of the pack and that it was likely a cell balance issue. He offered me a replacement pack straight away or a chance to pull it apart and have a go at fixing it. I went for the chance to fix it as sending mine back to Justin overseas may have been problematic with our laws regarding postage of battery packs. And I was also keen to see the inside of the pack!

I was instructed to do a full recharge and then pull the pack apart and check the voltage of each battery cell. Getting it apart was fairly easy and I must say it is very well put together. As you can see from the photo it has 2 separate groups of 5 battery cells that are securely attached and wired together with some circuitry to manage the charging, balancing and low voltage cutoff (LVC) to protect the cells.

When fully charged each cell should be 4.15 volts or higher however one of mine was only 4.02 and Justin thought this cell might be prematurely tripping the LVC. To fix it I found an old charger that put out about 5 volts and soldered some alligator clips to the output wires. I attached the clips to the weaker battery cell (making sure they were the right polarity!) turned it on and waited.... and waited .... and waited for the voltage to increase. Eventually it got up to 4.04 and we were on our way. It took about 7 hours to reach 4.17 volts! I asked Justin why it was taking so long and he figured that given my charger was only 500 mili-amps, and that the cell was cutting out about 3amps short of where it should (ie at 6 instead of 9 amp-hours), that it would likely take about 6 or 7 hours to put another 3amps of capacity in to it.

So I got it all charged, put it back together and have been riding around this week to see how far it would go. Today I hit 8.5 amp-hours before it cut out! The lowest voltage was 28.9 and for the last little bit of riding (around 8.3 to 8.5 amps) it got a bit sluggish as I hit the 30 volts limit I had on the Cycle Analyst. At 8 amps the lowest voltage was 33.3 so the last bit of use really drops the volts off quickly. The range was 42 km which I am very happy with!

So the battery is back on the normal charger and hopefully I will get a similar range next time without having to pull the pack apart again. I am confident that will be the case. As an added bonus Justin offered me 25% off any future battery pack I purchase off them in recognition of my receiving an unbalanced pack and the work I put in to hopefully fix it up! Outstanding!

A ride in the wet!

2010-03-05T13:09:00.024+11:00

Well my 'big' (for me at least) bike ride to test the range of the battery went better then I thought it would. It was 11.5 km each way and I only used .87 of an amp on the way there and 2.24 on the way back! The trike was empty though so if I add 50kg of children I expect those figures would increase. However even if I double them that is still only about 6 amp hours for a round trip.

Though it is a hilly trip I was able to use the downhills to gather a fair amount of speed to tackle at least some of the next uphill. I have the Cycle Analyst set to a 23km/h speed limit and I found that this worked as a great 'cruise control' eg go down hills at around 30km/h then start going up the next one and as speed gradually dropped the motor would kick in around 23km/h and I could pedal in higher gears for most of the hill. After a while I could then kick down a few gears and pedal to match the gradually slower speed of the trike up the hill. By not maxing out the motor with this method the range seems to be quite impressive. The uphills are longer and steeper on the way back hence the higher use of the battery coming home.

I was not counting on the rain being as heavy as it was though! I guess this was a good test for the 'waterproofness' of the motor and all my wiring and it looks like it passed as no sparks flew!

Electric motor range

2010-03-04T11:51:00.010+11:00

Am only now getting back into riding the trike regularly as the kids are back at school and we were away for Christmas and New Year.

I have been careful not to overtax the battery and have only twice hit the BMS cutoff (on recharge cycle 1 and 3) after I had pulled about 5 or 6 amp hours out of the 10 amphour pack. The cutoffs both happened whilst going up some sort of monstrous hill with a full load of groceries. However I only use the motor when going uphill so I guess that is the only time it is ever going to cut off for me!

My most recent recharge (prior to any shutoff) was when I had pulled 6.2 amp hours out of the battery and it still seemed to be travelling pretty well with minimum volts a fairly good 34.7 (at least I think that is fairly good as on previous charges I had dropped to 32). To date I have always recharged after about 5 or 6 amp hours and I am averaging about 7 watt hours per km actually travelled. However that includes travelling downhills and on the flats where the motor is not used at all.

In the next few days I plan on doing a big ride with a fully charged (and now hopefully well worn in) battery towards some of the more distant attractions we take the kids to. This trip involves some pretty horrendous hills that go on for a while so it will be a good test to see if I can get there and back on one charge and how many amp hours I can now pull out of the pack before it shuts down.

Rear rim brake installed!

2010-02-02T17:42:00.007+11:00

The rear rim brake is on after some great work by my LBS (as usual!) -

It works really well and today it passed the big test of riding down hill from school fully loaded with the two boys and the school bags on board! It has no where near the stopping power of the front disc brakes of course but on the descents it slows me down quite smoothly. When heading into corners it also works well at smoothly reducing speed where as the front discs tend to 'swerve' a bit when trying to brake in turns. So just a matter of getting used to them and being careful not to overuse them on long descents and risk heating up the rims to much.

I also now have another parking brake thanks to utilising the old brake handle that used to control the front disc brakes. Here it is on and then off-

The brake mount is very secure with just the two hose clamps in place so I have decided to not worry about the bolt meant to go through the top as this would greatly interfere with the wheel lock on the reverse side of the frame. For added strength though I will put two more hose clamps on the upper parts of the brake mount in such a way that they don't interfere with the wheel lock.

The wheel lock went on with a bit of encouragement - I had to mount it on a slight angle to allow clearance for the hose clamps. Because of this angle I had to place a few washers behind it to bring it out from the frame slightly to allow free movement of the locking mechanism -

Brake mount installed

2010-01-27T18:25:00.005+11:00

Well it is a bit hard getting anything done during school holidays but managed to temporarily install the brake mount so I can see how it will fit with the frame lock. First impression is that I should be able to mount the frame lock on the reverse side of the brake mount with some longer mounting screws or maybe the odd zip-tie!

The brake mount seems very secure even with just the metal hose clamps in position -

I am not going to drill the top mounting hole until the brake is installed and everything is in the right position. I have a habit of drilling things only to find I should have had the hole in a different spot!

The rear wheel also needs a bit of spoke re-tensioning / truing so plan on getting the that and the brake sorted all at the same time at LBS next week (when the kids are finally back at school!!)

Brake mount arrives

2010-01-22T12:17:00.004+11:00

The brake mount arrived very quickly from Gaerlan Custom Cycles and the owner was very helpful with my questions along the way. Highly recommended!

A picture of it is below. It looks like it will fit quite well on the trike. My only issue will be that my wheel lock (similar to this) mounts on the other side of the frame where the brake mount will be. The top centre bolt of the brake mount will interfere with the current location of the lock but pretty sure I can get around this though by not having the lock sit flush with the frame.

Next project for the trike.

2010-01-12T16:58:00.004+11:00

Have not done any riding or blog updating for the past few weeks as we have been away on holidays interstate. Am keen to get back on the bike once the maximum temperatures come down from the current 39 degrees celsius!

My next little project will be putting a rear rim brake on the trike as a backup to the disc brakes up front and also as a 'drag' to just slow me down a little when going down hills. The previous back pedal brake was good for these two purposes but obviously I lost that when the hub motor was installed. The plan is to use a 'Vbrake adaptor' from here (scroll down a bit) to install some brake studs on the rear frame. Stay tuned for the progress on this!

A motor is not much good when....

2009-12-11T09:58:00.002+11:00

... 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.

2009-12-09T08:27:00.002+11:00

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

2009-12-07T16:44:00.012+11:00

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.

2009-12-03T17:51:00.003+11:00

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.

2009-12-01T13:25:00.002+11:00

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.

2009-11-30T09:48:00.002+11:00

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!!!

2009-11-28T14:59:00.003+11:00

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)

2009-11-27T15:50:00.012+11:00

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...

2009-11-25T17:20:00.012+11:00

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!

2009-11-24T16:51:00.003+11:00

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

2009-11-24T14:08:00.001+11:00

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!

2009-11-20T09:22:00.000+11:00

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!

2009-11-10T14:39:00.009+11:00

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...

2009-11-09T14:18:00.002+11:00

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...

2009-08-21T18:51:00.011+10:00

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....

2009-07-22T15:40:00.004+10:00

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!

2009-07-19T16:23:00.005+10:00

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

2009-07-03T10:50:00.000+10:00

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

2009-06-29T12:41:00.007+10:00

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?

2009-06-22T11:51:00.008+10:00

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...

2009-06-17T22:16:00.002+10:00

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!

2009-06-14T12:01:00.001+10:00

And now testing sending a post from my mobile:)

 Sent using mobile phone. Please excuse any abbreviations!

A post from my email.

2009-06-14T11:52:00.001+10:00

Just testing my blogging ability from my email account!

The Bugatti Hood in detail

2009-06-11T11:55:00.007+10:00

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

2009-06-04T10:11:00.027+10:00

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 -

It was not tightened up enough around the bottom bracket and came loose when I was miles from anywhere with no tools
The pedals were cross threaded into the cranks
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.

2009-06-03T17:25:00.015+10:00

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?

2009-06-01T14:16:00.014+10:00

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?

2009-06-01T12:19:00.006+10:00

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.