I'm at nearly full "stuck" for filling neck rest orders. 

The PVC I use for the CURVE neck rests has been back-ordered, and the latex fill is no longer available except in mattress-sizes the wholesaler will no longer cut.  In a way the latex really isn't a loss since the manufacturer couldn't control its density and the variations were definitely noticeable. 

So last week I picked out some really nice medical grade memory foam that'll definitely be a great upgrade.  The down side is it's three times as expensive as the latex.  They didn't have samples of a large enough size to be able to choose the right density so I came home for the long weekend without fill material...another delay.  

I'm going back to Tacoma mid-week to check out the different foam densities, choose one and get some foam cut, and then to pick up the PVC material.

Clearly this is venting and a not-so-subtle hope for customer patience while I sort this out.  All materials should be in my shop by mid-week and I'll be back in production.  Then it's off to visit fabricators to see about automating production of the brackets and bases. THAT will change my life.

It's definitely springtime.  The garden, re-making the pond with new plumbing and bentonite, laying down a patio, rewiring and remodeling the laundry room, re-wiring my shop, finishing fabricating two steel gates, building some stone walls and a myriad of other projects all compete for my time.  Plus for the moment I blessedly have an abundant amount of consulting work taking the bulk of my day time.  And then there's trying to squeeze in a weekend trike ride with Pen and filling Finer recliner orders.  There just isn't enough time in the day.

Then in every spare nanosecond Travis is always up to a game of fetch (he's even willing to play in the dark.)  He's always got a ball in his mouth, and no matter what I'm doing he'll push the ball under my feet with his nose and then sit patiently staring at the ball...for hours...until I pick it up and toss it.

So I'm having a tough time making shop time for the neck rests, and I'm finding myself out there in the middle of the night.  Getting bids from fabricators is momentarily stalled...I just need the time to meet with them, and I just found out the latex I've been using for fill is no longer available.  I complained about the lack of consistency in the latex density from batch to batch, and it turns out I wasn't the only one.  Plus the supplier said cutting it was a nightmare.  So I've got to work with them to find a suitable replacement which will probably be a medical grade closed cell and unfortunately more expensive.

Even though all this juggling is making me nuts it's clear that all the competing projects and the fabricating challenges are a learning opportunity.  Learning more about manufacturing is really exciting.

The good news is that neck rests continue to leave the shop.  Here are a couple of the latest...a ROLL and a CURVE for Jim Artis and his new quad, and a very cool tiger CURVE for Tony Geraci.  

 

And people continue to say nice things about their neck rests.  " I wanted to let you know I got your neck rest and just love it.  I have ridden with it today on a 50 mile ride and absolutely love it."  "Neck-rest received, installed and test-ridden today on a 26 mile ride. Your design is like night and day compared with Catrike's stock component - well done."  Now if I can just do them faster.

It must have been new moon-itis.  The truck clutch went out, the mower lost its blade, the tractor threw a belt, my not-well-backed up hard drive crashed, the dryer melted a part, the water district informed me there was a leak somewhere on our land, Gomez (our cat) got chewed by some animal or other, and then the band saw blade snapped trimming neck rest foam...it was the glue.  All of this in about 3 days.

Good news?  There's plenty.  Penni and I have been out riding the past few weekends, and Travis has really taken to his new trailer.  

Last Sunday we rode about 35 miles.  Travis will run 4 or 5 miles hard, then he seems fine with climbing in for a rest, sitting with his head out the sun roof watching and sniffing as things go by.  He's also a good watch dog, willingly keeping an eye on the trikes during a coffee stop.  

The days of just quickly taking off for a ride seem to be over.  Now it's load up both trikes, Travis in the back and his trailer folded in the back seat, snacks for all, leash, toys and treats...and Ms. Penni in the front of course.  We're kinda like a traveling carnival.  And the car's really cozy.

More folks are ordering Finer recliner and TOT2010 gear, and maybe because  it's Spring we're seeing people choose some especially beautiful colors.

Really nice riding jerseys for women

And more neat news.  The complete neck rest kit for Catrikes is now finished and the first one is about to be shipped.  This one is made with a CURVE neck rest, but it's also available with the ROLL.  Both can be embroidered, and the kit comes with the neck rest, tower, stem and shim.  The tower is 6061 aluminum thin wall tube so it's light and strong.  The kit is $80.

There's been a lot of activity in the neck rest factory.   Of course with my good fortune the orders arrived at about the same time as some beautifully sunny weather.

A bunch of new neck rests were made, embroidered, covered and shipped.  They including some new fonts and a neat piece of art for Dr Duk.  What's so neat is that the embroidered duck matches Terry's tattoo perfectly.

We even embroidered the duck on a Dr Duk tee shirt so it looks like we may be starting a whole line of Dr Duk apparel.  I can just see it - leggings, sandals, hats with bills...maybe even the DA hairstyle will return.

Just before mailing out the neck rests I realized I had both mounting options and three of the four possible models right in front of me.  The fourth model is pictured below without its cover.  

I can make both the ROLL and the CURVE with round brackets, so either can fit on a horizontal tube.  And with brackets fitting bars from 1/2" to 1 1/4" diameter tubing there really are loads of options for mounting the neck rests.


 
The next step is an entire kit - neck rest, stem, L tube and shim.  I just picked up 1" 6061 aluminum tube for the mounting tube so I've got everything ready to go.  Next...fillet and weld the aluminum tube and the kits are ready to go.

Until now I've done just about everything by hand.  What's especially exciting is that next week I'm talking with some local fabricators about making all the base and mounting hardware in aluminum...boy will this make my life simpler.  

So what are the customers saying? 
  "Steve,  Neck-rest received, installed and test-ridden today on a 26 mile ride. Your design is like night and day compared with Catrike's stock component - well done. The check is in the mail."  Yoyospin.  

"Received my new custom tee shirt and curved neckrest with the above mentioned covers today. They are truly a work of art. Can not wait to attach the new neckrest on my Speed. Thanks again Steve and my best to Cara."  Dr Duk.

Gosh...it's hard to believe I haven't made an entry in 6 weeks.  But then lots has happened.


We had an arrival who's caused us to pretty much re-order everything in our lives.  Travis was described on Petfinder.com as "Urgent!"   Turns out he was in a high-kill animal shelter in eastern Washington.  Now he's home safe with us.  He's about 16 months old, half German Shepherd, half Australian Cattle Dog, the most incredibly loving dog, eager to please, always ready to play, constantly in search of something or someone to herd or a ball to fetch, and totally unwilling to believe that Gomez, our large black Maine Coon cat, might think of anything better to do than play with him.  Unfortunately what's tops on Travis' list is bottom on Gomez'.

Of course we can't leave Travis home on the days we're out riding, so now we this residing in our kitchen...without its wheels and tow bar.  We're hoping he'll just take to it like one more part of his domain, will be comfortable climbing in and out, and so putting the wheels on and towing it won't be any big deal for him.  So far so good.  We've fed him in it a couple of times and he's happy in it searching for the treats we've hidden inside.  Maybe this weekend I'll put the wheels on it, and in a couple of days then it'll go outside and I'll hook it to the trike.  I've got a funny feeling he'll ride in it just fine, but only after he's run along with the trikes until he's totally exhausted.

And then there's Penni's birthday present.  What do you do when work's slow-to-non-existent and money's tight?  Well I briefly subscribed to the theory that if I gave a chunk away of the little I have then I'd simply make room for more.  So when this brand new Greenspeed GT3 II showed up on BROL at a great price...and only about 20 miles away, I grabbed it.  It folds, has the perfect seat angle for her, has neat little 16" wheels, and best of all according to Penni, it's purple.  So most likely she'll get to tow the BOB and I get to tow you-know-who.


The really sad news is that shortly after Travis arrived, Penni put Frankie down.  He was our 20 old orange tabby retired barn cat.  The past year he'd settled into a life of mostly sleeping days away.  But finally he was in so much pain it became really awful just watching him trying to get around.  Neither Pen nor I can feel his presence so we figure his spirit has gone back to his cozy spot in that barn south of here where he spent so much of his life.


Then there's been a brief thaw in the governor's freeze on state personal service contracts.  So all of a sudden I got five really interesting consulting contracts...real work after I was thinking I was retired.  It feels great to be wanted and even better to be earning a living, but of course everyone has wanted everything done right away.  Its gone from famine to feast.  And that's meant that I've had to let The finer recliner gear, TOT gear and the neck rests just sit in idle for a bit.   With Zubin laid up after knee surgery and Cara from embroidery central command traveling for a while, my work distractions weren't the only things putting sand into our production gears.

So...some good news.  Zubin has done a great job with the covers for the new CURVE model neck rests and  they're starting to sell.  Same cover material, latex fill, but with a velco closure instead of the poly cord  on the ROLL model.  It makes for a nice tailored finish.   So I'll be using it on Msafiri for a while, but first impressions are that I like it a lot.  Is it better than the ROLL model?  In the end I honestly think it's a matter of personal preference.  The ROLL easily conforms to the shape of our necks.  And the choice of open pore foam or latex fill should satisfy anyone.  The CURVE, filled with latex, also conforms nicely, and it offers some side to side support as well.  In truth I really like them both.
Isn't it nice to have a choice?

Something else exciting is this neck rest, shown without the cover.  It'll fit on a horizontal tube like the older Catrike model.  I have different diameter brackets to accommodate different size horizontal tubes.

Here's an inexpensive neck rest assembly for any Catrikes without the towers or any other trike with a horizontal seat top tube.

Can I make any one of these for you?

Gear for us non-lycra bikers, Part 2.   Return to "The finer recliner."

This blog isn't a good place for lots of pictures...the columns are just too narrow.  So for anyone wanting to check out "Finer recliner" gear, this site is really impossible.  The long term solution is to create a website.  Because I'm really excited about the gear (it looks even better in person than in pictures!) and I'm a web design cretin I've come up with an interim plan by posting everything in a Picasa album.  http://picasaweb.google.com/shag1941/TheFinerReclinerRecumbentGear#  Everything's there - all the gear, sizes, colors, prices, and how to order.

What is "The finer recliner" gear? It's a growing collection of personalizable wickable riding jerseys, tee shirts, caps and other cool gear for us non-lycra recumbent cyclists who like comfortable clothes for riding or just hanging out with friends, and who like to share our enthusiasm with others for our own rides and recumbent trikes in general.

How's it special?  For starters, everything is personalized.  It's gear that's uniquely yours, or it makes a very special gift.  Choose your gear from a rainbow of colors.  Then choose your logo - tadpole or delta trike.  We'll embroider the logo in the frame color of your choice so you can match your trike.  I think the embroidered logos look terrific.  Then add the name or nickname you want to create a comfortable garment you'll love to wear or give to someone special.

These clothes look great, perform well, are comfortable, AND they're not skin tight.  And we're offering unique clothing for women including a cap sleeve riding jersey that Penni loves.  Even the ball caps are cut differently for men and women. It's a growing

It was a great holiday season and I'm excited about the new year.  One of the best and most unexpected gifts from this little enterprise has been the way its brought so many nice folks into my life from all over the US, Canada and even overseas.  Email exchanges that began about neck rests evolved into much more, and I feel so enriched by the many delightful people I've met because of this small item.  Thanks.

I posted Kirk's feedback about the new curved prototype neck rest on BROL and the Catrike forum so I won't repeat it here.  He said he's not gonna return it, and that's endorsement enough so I'm tooling up to offer this curved version along with the current model.  I've heard from Dave about the "half-wrap" neck rest we made him that will hopefully help with his arthritis.  He said he hasn't tried it out on the road yet because of 12 degree weather and snow...a cheesy excuse, but according to Dave, the "Garage test is dreamy comfortable."  If nothing else it should make a comfy recliner in front of the fire.

I got an email from Paul saying he'd noticed that the glue binding the latex to the base hadn't held in several places around the edges on his new neck rest, wondered whether the extreme cold in my shop had played havoc with the binding, and asked about a fix.  The hallucinations from the fumes alone should have been enough to get me to switch adhesives.  Paul's feedback was the clincher.  I bag each neck rest in plastic and bind it tightly with tape for at least 12 hours after gluing the fill to the base, so the binding should be secure.  So I've switched adhesives to one recommended by my foam supplier and it seems to working just fine.  I'm kinda missing the visions though.  

As for Paul's neck rest, I offered to replace it immediately.  He decided to try his own fix first.  And here's what else he had to say.  "That being said, I mounted it and took it for a spin to see if it was worth considering some sort of remedy, and must say it is light years more comfortable than the catrike version!  I love it and hope you can offer some suggestions on what to do about the glue situation."  Anyone else with this or any other issue, please let me know so I can make it right.  The world's a complicated place, and in most instances there's little over which any of us has total control.  Making you happy with your neck rest is about as close to total control as I can ever have.  We just began making these toward the end of last summer, so each new batch has been an opportunity to learn, and to find ways to make what we think is a good product even better. 

Things in the works for the coming months include the new curved neck rests, and new brackets so our neck rests will fit on older Catrike models and other models with horizontal bars.  And since Msafiri (my Expedition) is still fitted with prototype #1, I think it's time I made myself a new neck rest.

Have a wonderful new year, and stay tuned.