What Tips and Tricks can you give me?

[mrandmrspoves]

Handlebar extender as picture -cheap, very light and the T can be moved to be vertical or horizontal. Fits fine on the front derailleur mount.

 

[mrandmrspoves]

My drinks bottle is mounted on my steerer with another eBay bargain part. I put it there as U cannot reach behind to get to the seat mounted one. It did tend to get covered in crap so I have a shield made from a plastic box file that is fixed behind the bottle cage.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I've put the waterbottle on the helping handle but they are just out of reach. Nothing can go on the steering handles because after the grips and brake lever, there simply isn't room. The mirrors are designed to go on them and were, but I've moved those over to the helping handles as well so I can see them better without constantly having to move my head. The front derailuer mount is in use by the front derailuer, so I have the official ICE bracket to mount the front lights.

 

[Tigerbiten]

I use the Radical sidepods.
They are expensive but have a pocket on each which will take a water bottle.
I can get the right hand bottle in/out without reaching/twisting too much.
With the bottle cage on the frame, thats 3x0.75 liters carried in them.
Then behind the seat is a large Camelbak bladder.
Because I use a tailbox on my rack, I cannot use the rack side pieces.
I've found one side piece makes a perfect frame for the Camelbak which is then bolted/zip tied to my hardshell seat.
That gives me a total of around 4.5 liters of water, which I can drink on a hot day.

Lights, I run dynamo lights which I leave on all the time.
It's hard to light the road well off a recumbent trike both due to the height of the light and the fact it's on the boom so it doesn't swing left/right around corners.
If/when you are go fast/far at night then two lights work a lot better as they can be angled out so they light up the road around corners a lot better.

Also put reflectives on the back of your front mudguards.
Drivers from behind will light them up at night and have a lot better/quicker idea of how wide the trike is on the road.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Also put reflectives on the back of your front mudguards.

I was thinking about this overnight... have you found anywhere that does red reflectives or did you just settle for white?

I still need to get the front gears sorted out. Kevin put a road chainring on the trike not a mtb one and I have a 30/42/50 which I am struggling with. At the moment we can only get 1 chainring working at a time. If the middle chain ring is functional, the inner chain ring slips badly still even with the long reach derailleur - though not as badly as before. I think the jump is simply too large personally and I will never need a 50t chainring. I was thinking of (long term) changing it to something like 30/36/44 if that combination is possible - or something vaguely similar but until I can sort the slipping out I don't know where to go. I'm going to get a new 17T Rohloff sprocket to rule that out. The existing one has only done around 3,000 miles (with about 1,000 miles in current direction) but I need to rule it out as cause.

What are you running with front and rear on both teeth and derailleurs please?

 

[Pale Rider]

Your Rohloff, as you know, has a famously wide range.

Could you take advantage of that and run a single front ring, possibly a 30 or even a bit smaller, and a rigid chain tensioner?

I don't know enough about long chain runs to be sure if this would work.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Your Rohloff, as you know, has a famously wide range.

Could you take advantage of that and run a single front ring, possibly a 30 or even a bit smaller, and a rigid chain tensioner?

I don't know enough about long chain runs to be sure if this would work.

The range is good, but I want to at least get 2 chainrings working at this stage simply because of the paralysis in my legs. I'm managing on the middle chainring which has been the only one working this last week and that is a large 42/17 combination which is actually larger than my Thorn Nomad which was on a 38/17. I was thinking that if I could get something like a 38/17 working for the middle chainring and have something lower available for hills and (long term plans) of touring again, that would be great... so something like 30 or 32 would be great I think.... not sure. I had originally expected Kevin to have gone with a mtb setup of 22/34/44 tbh!

 

[Nigel182]

I've a spare camelback bladder I can let you have if you cover the postage.....maybe fit it into an old rucksack or stuff stack ???

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

I was thinking about this overnight... have you found anywhere that does red reflectives or did you just settle for white?

If it helps, I got my last lot of red reflective tape from a yacht chandlery. The place I used doesn't have an online shop but a search brought up this one: http://www.marinechandlery.com/retro-reflective-tape-31209 and no doubt there are more around.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I've a spare camelback bladder I can let you have if you cover the postage.....maybe fit it into an old rucksack or stuff stack ???

that would be fantastic. I'll PM you. Many thanks.

 

[Nigel182]

that would be fantastic. I'll PM you. Many thanks.

no worries can send it by My Hermes later in the week due to pain in the Butt Shift Pattern.

 

[Tigerbiten]

I used the funny shaped yellow reflectors from Halfords on my mudguards.

I'm running on a 20" wheel.
My back sprocket is the 21 tooth one which you can get from Germany at twice the price of the standard one. I just use a Sora short cage mech as a chain tensioner. I've replaced one of the limit screws with a long one so the mech is locked in place with the two limit screws.
My front chainring are 38/53, the 38 is the smallest chainring I can run in a double due to the Schlumpf HSD. I run a 53 as my big ring but a 55 would be closer to 3 gears up. I just use a bog standard front mech.

The reason Kevin probably picked the 30 tooth small chainring is due to the lowest recommended chainring /sprocket ratio is 2:1 or 34/17.
Your ratio is very similar to mine at around 1.8/1 or 38/21 or 30/17 but I'm using a 20" wheel so my first gear is lower. 9.5" vs 12.2".
A 30t to 50t chainring jump is 66% or almost exactly 4 gears. The ideal middle would be a 39t as it's a 2 gear jump both ways. But getting a modern front mech to work with a 9 tooth jump could be fiddly.

Edit:- I do have a worn chain that I've just taken off my trike.
It may run better on your part worn sprocket.
If you want to try it, I can clean it up and post it to you.
Saves you getting a new sprocket.

 

[classic33]

The Range do self adhesive tape in Red, amongst other colours.
17mm wide.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Edit:- I do have a worn chain that I've just taken off my trike.
It may run better on your part worn sprocket.
If you want to try it, I can clean it up and post it to you.
Saves you getting a new sprocket.

Thanks, but I personally don't think the sprocket is the cause of the problem tbh. It really shows no signs of use. I'll photo it later and see what you think but compared to a brand new 16t one we happen to have spare it looks identical ... Other than 1 extra tooth that is!

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

The Range do self adhesive tape in Red, amongst other colours.
17mm wide.

I have ordered some silver and some red off eBay. I needed some for my crutches as well! My evening physio walk takes me down our lane which gets a touch of traffic at certain times of day and it's narrow, single track with distant lights and plenty of dark areas plus we get lots of night time cyclists and I wear dark clothing and usually don't bother with a light because I like my night vision!