A quick post from the school of, "Nothing's easy."  

My old Cannondale panniers have pretty much given up the ghost after 35 years.  They've finally transitioned from water-resistant to water-attractant.   I love the design of the Ortlieb recumbent panniers - waterproof, big enough without being RV-sized, designed to tuck in behind the seat, solid mounting system, too expensive, but otherwise they look like great touring panniers.  So I shopped around until I found a great deal and bought a pair for the yet-to-arrive GLO.  In fact the deal was so good I posted it on BROL...which stirred up a buzz of comments about what racks and what trikes the bags would and wouldn't fit.  Seems like the days of my old Cannondale's ultra-simple and primitive mounting system fitting every rack ever conceived are long gone.  Now, with the list of manufactured racks running into the dozens and the list of recumbent frame designs being at least that long, what fits what is no longer an easy question.  So by the time the posters on my "Great Deal!" thread concluded that they just didn't know if the Ortliebs would fit the GLO, or an ICE, or a Catrike for that matter I'd already ordered the bags.  So I'm awaiting their arrival and still won't know whether they fit until I get the GLO home from Florida.  But I still think they're beautiful...and perhaps if all else fails they'll fit on Travis.

Here's the other 'ooops.'  Take a look at the latest embroidered covers I shipped this week.  I think they look great so I wanted to post them all in spite of one having been Photoshopped.  

For sure accidents happen, but the embroiderer saw it, Deana saw it before she mailed the material, Zubin saw it when she was sewing the cover and I saw it when I installed the cover on the neck rest and shipped it.  But I didn't see the mistake until I uploaded the photograph of the cover I'd taken before I wrapped the order and shipped it.

 
When I wrote to the customer to apologize and to tell him there was a typo in the mail on its way to him, his comment was, "go to bed~  no sweat. ;-)  I am a high school administrator, THIS is not a problem."  Clearly everything's relative.  But the moment I saw that picture my first thought was, "Rats!" 


 

Look what's coming to the island...a Greenspeed GLO!  It's a product of the Greenspeed Custom Shop made about 5 years ago  for Larry Varney of Bentrideronline.

I love the Catrike Expedition but have always wanted a touring trike that could be disassembled pretty quickly into a small-enough bundle to be easily taken on a plane, train or intercity bus.  Greenspeed and touring are synonymous...their touring and expedition trikes are legendary.

The GLO is a touring hybrid - 16" wheels for superlow wall-climbing gears, a DualDrive hub, hydraulic brakes, quick disconnect cables, an S&S connector that quickly takes the frame apart into two pieces and a 10 degree more seat recline than the GTO.  I'm hoping to pick it up from Larry at the Catrike Rally in March.  It seems a bit weird that because it doesn't fold, taking Msafiri (the Expedition) to Florida for the Catrike Rally is practical nightmare and I'll be riding the GLO.  Oh well.  So now it looks like my list of reasons for not taking off on another cycle-touring adventure is one hellofalot shorter.

Totally unrelated, here's a photograph Dave sent of the new CURVE kit mounted on his TerraTrike Tour.  Because I didn't have a TerraTrike in my shop, his masterful up-close photography has been incredibly helpful as I've re-designed the bracket to maximize rear wheel clearance.  Now I just need to get him to back up a bit so we can see how the whole trike looks with the CURVE kit!

And finally, someone recently asked which trike manufacturers we made CURVEs and CURVE kits to fit.  So I figured I'd just attach our product descriptions, price list and how to order information here.  Just click on the pictures and the information will get larger. 

For more information you can always find me at www.stevesussman@earthlink.net.  Don't be scared off by the spam protector...I root around in the 'suspect mail' pile at least once a day and will fish you out...promise.

Some nice news...and finally a chance to move on to other things.  I posted this on BROL the other day:  

"Finally...thanks to the seemingly endless patience of the friendly testers from the BROL community and a couple of re-designs, the CURVE kits for TerraTrikes are now available.

The same gently curved 3"x6" neck rest with a 2" thick and cushy memory foam fill, "T" tower, 75mm mtb stem and end caps, plus an adapter bracket designed just for TerraTrikes. 

The cover is breathable and water-resistant, and secured with a poly cord and slider.

As always, embroidery is available to personalize your trike...and you're limited mostly by your imagination.

The complete kit is $110 plus a small ship charge.  The cost of embroidery depends upon your selection, and you get to see the art before we do the embroidery."

  

I honestly don't know that I'll sell many of the TerraTrike kits but getting the adapter bracket made was becoming an obsession.  So I'm glad it's finished and I can move on to other projects like hardshell mounts, new sidemount stuff and the top secret project X.

Letting people know about the kit was also a perfect opportunity to gather up just some of the recent embroidery we've done.

Larry Varney's cover is being embroidered as we speak.  With luck he'll have it in time for the upcoming Catrike Rally the beginning of March.

Its been sunny and in the high 50's for the past 4 days.  Now it's raining again but I just noticed that the daffodils are beginning to appear.  Oh boy...Spring's coming!

The new TerraTrike CURVE kit adapter mount brackets look great.  The tube is thicker wall, the fit is tighter and the weld is much longer.  Today I mailed out the new brackets to all the wonderful testers who received the TerraTrike kits with the older mounts.  And the new kits are now available for sale...finally.

The other day I was asked whether the CURVE neck rest with brackets that fit the stock Catrike mounts can also fit the kit mount...the "L" tube and mtb stem.  In the past I've said no, that even though the CURVE neck rests were the same the mounts were different and not interchangeable.  Well that's not entirely true.  Here's a picture I received from a customer who no longer wanted to use the stock mounts and wanted to fit his CURVE to the kit.  It's ingenious really, and quite simple.  The horizontal arm of the "L" tower is 1" OD, just like the seat brace tube on the Catrike.  He mounted the two stock black clamps on the "L" tube and then mounted the CURVE to the stock brackets.  Adjusting the neck rest face up and down by rotating the clamps means the tube can be used to stop the neck rest from rotating downward.  And I think by moving the clamps closer to the neck rest brackets you can eliminate the spacers as well.  Good idea.  So in case you were wondering, turns out the answer is yes the stock brackets can be retro-mounted to fit the kit tower.  Not an intentional design...but it works.

TOT's coming.  I know it's only February 2, but if the next 4 months go as quickly as the last 4, it'll just be a flash before we're loading up the trikes and heading for Kellogg.  I hired a well-known industrial designer in Germany (right...my son Noah) to  create some new art designs for the TOT souvenirs.  I saw on his blog that he'd hired a junior designer to bring a fresh and youthful perspective.  Here's what Noah posted on Maya's blog.  I'm excited to see their work!

Grandpa Dirt asked Papa to design some graphics for his bicycle friends...Papa asked Maya for some help sketching out a few rough comps...
payment naturally delivered on completion:  "Chocolate!"

I was asked to see a CURVE on an ICE trike recently.  Here's a picture someone sent me a while ago of their beautiful blue ICE.

It’s sure cold in an un-insulated shop.  We probably had about 8-10” on the ground by the time the snow stopped.  All that snow on the shop roof did a great job keeping the cold in.  The thin metal walls did their part too, and after standing on the concrete floor making parts for a couple of hours my knees were so sore that anything falling on the floor will be staying there until June.  It’s not a good sign when I’m thinking of welding as a way to stay warm.  But while the weather definitely dialed down my enthusiasm for spending time in the shop there’s still be a lot going on.  

 

I did some overdue fine-tuning on my trike stand after finding some neat ball bearing rollers at Harbor Freight.  With one on the bottom of each leg the stand rolls and spins easily…it’s so much easier to use now.  I also removed the gimcracky assembly I built to hold the trike’s main tube and replaced it with a simple rubber-coated “Y” hook.  There’s definitely something to be said for simplicity.  

Msafiri is now resting comfortably in the refined stand while I finish fabricating the new front fender mounts.

As for neck rests, I managed to get enough made to fill all orders and (for a wonderful change) even have some actually available in stock.  I even finished extra “T” and “L” towers and side mount kit “L” arms…this definitely is a first.  We have a bunch of covers currently being embroidered…people have created some very neat images that I’ll post as soon as the covers are done.  Here are two I just shipped out the other day.

Speaking of shipping, yesterday when I was mailing orders I discovered the USPS rates had gone up.  So anyone receiving an order with the shipping charge changed…it’s just because the postal rates have been increased.  Sorry.  All things considered I think the postal service is still a great deal and I’m invested in keeping it alive.  It’s an interesting case study - whether a highly prized service or commodity in one era can successfully adapt to challenges of another.  Kodak couldn’t, but I’m hoping the postal service will.

The last bit of current news is about the TerraTrike kits.  Yesterday I mailed out the first kit orders after stewing about it all weekend.  Renie’s was in that batch.  It has been here too long, so it was great to put the cover on a neck rest and finally pack it to ship.

The reason for my shipping procrastination was all about the power in the number “3”...deciding whether to wait until the Type 3 brackets were welded and powdercoated before shipping the kits.  

You know about "3's"…third time’s a charm; three strikes and you’re out; three’s a crowd; three times lucky…which would it be?  

Trying to get these adapter brackets right has been a great lesson in the value of destruction testing.  I used a Rover when I did the Type 1 design and it fit just fine.  Based on the fit I made and powdercoated about a dozen of the Type 1 brackets before sending one to Mark Peele and another to Doug McConnell to test.  I learned two things – first the design dimensions were fine for a Rover but not for other TT models…not enough rear wheel clearance.  And second, the force of pressing against the neck rest created enough torque to essentially pull the tubing stub out of the adapter bracket.  It didn’t break the weld but it did peel the tube off. 

So I quickly changed the bracket design to move the tube to the bracket top.  Figuring I'd licked the problems of torque and seat clearance I made a dozen of the Type 2’s.  Before sending them to be powdercoated though we decided to sacrifice one to make sure it would stand up to the torque that leaning against the neck rest would generate.  

Using a long piece of steel pipe as a lever I torqued on the bracket until it broke.  Although it took quite a bit more force than the original bracket, it did eventually break.

Interestingly as we applied torque to the lever we noticed that the tubing stub on the bracket to which the mtb stem is attached began to deform from round to oval.  The deformation increased as we increased the force until, while the weld never broke, the thin wall tube literally tore.  I used a lot more force than anyone leaning against the neck rest would most likely generate.  However I decided there was a need for Type 3.  It's a bit more compact than Type 2 and with some production refinements.  But the biggest change is the tubing stub.  Rather than having a very thin wall, it’s now either .095 or .125 wall.  Since the tube is only 3” long it doesn't increase weight much, and it dramatically increases the bracket’s strength.  A dozen of the Type 3 brackets being powdercoated now and should be finished in about a week.    

 

So in the end, rather than delaying shipping even again, I mailed the first kits with the unpowdercoated Type 2 bracket, a letter of explanation, and a promise that the first Type 3 brackets will go to these folks.

Should I have waited and even further tested folks’ patience?  Maybe, but I’m hoping folks understand and that the power of “3” will be, “third time’s a charm.”

 
 

I figure I'll start 2012 with a notice, an admission and an executive decision (albeit a somewhat painful one.)

The notice:  I’ll be gone until January 10…I’m going south to play with my kids and grandkids for 6 days, and to see if I can warm up my feet from standing on the concrete floor of my unheated shop and dry out the moss growing on my body.  So for the next 7 days the factory’s closed.

The admission:  Getting away from this enterprise's simple beginnings has been fraught with tough lessons and not much fun.  Making the TerraTrike adapter bracket has been way more a stress test than a design project.  The first version bracket was a perfect fit for Rovers but not for other models.   

The second version (at least judging from Dave McConnell’s Tour) works fine on all TerraTrike models.  To make it a bit more compact I down-sized the bracket slightly from Dave’s type 2 version and made the first batch of the new type 2's. 

Just before taking the new brackets to be powdercoated I heard from Mark Peele who was testing out the type 1 version.  He had some troubling news.  The short 3” piece of thin wall tube on the bracket actually tore from the torque of the neck rest and “T” tower on the mtb stem.  The weld held just fine, but the thin wall tubing first deformed and then tore. 

The tubing used on the type 2 version has a thicker wall, but only marginally.  And I have more than a dozen of these new brackets sitting here, although not yet powder coated.  So earlier today I went over to John’s.  We attached one of the new brackets to a steel plate, mounted the mtb stem and used a 1” piece of steel tube in the stem as a lever.  We torqued the bracket until it broke.  Well it’s definitely stronger than the type 1 version, in part because of the different design.  But before making another batch of brackets I’ll try torque testing them with some tubing of different wall thicknesses - about twice as thick as on the current type 2 brackets.  And that leads me to the executive decision…

The decision:  Even though I realize this slows down delivery on TerraTrike kit orders even further- I think I’m setting a Guiness anti-speed record, I’m not sending out kits with brackets if I’m unsure of their strength. Clearly this doesn't do much for my reputation, but trading quality for speed just doesn't make sense.  What a way to begin the new year.

That said, I do have about a dozen of the original type 2 adapter brackets sitting here.  They may in fact be plenty strong enough, but honestly I don’t really know.  If anyone would like to be a tester I’ll gladly give away the brackets for free.  They aren’t powder coated, but they have all the hardware needed.

The new TerraTrike kit, which includes the CURVE neck rest, “T” tube, mtb stem and adapter bracket, will be $110.  If you’d like a kit with one of the original type 2 brackets you can have it for $85, the same price of the Catrike and ICE kits which don’t require the adapter bracket.  If you want one of the $85 specials and for some reason the bracket doesn't hold up I’ll replace that bracket with one of the new ones for just $25…free shipping.

If no one wants the type 2’s then I’ll simply pile them next to other near-great ideas in the shop’s museum.

Might as well end on a glimmer of good news:  Here are the two latest embroidered covers.  The flaming blue trike cover is looking for a home.  If you’re interested let me know.

 

Perfection is elusive…or maybe “illusive” is a better word.  Everything, even good news, seems to come with qualifiers,. 

A couple of days ago I got an email from a customer who’d been waiting patiently for his order and was just checking to see if I’d died.  This has been a year where just about everything that could have happened to disrupt production and slow delivery did happen.  Its been a bit of a nightmare.  But then just in that moment when I was thinking this really isn’t fun anymore and I’m worn out from apologizing and trying to control the uncontrollable, I got a note that said, “Thanks for the quick service.”  And then I got another, “Your package arrived today!  It works great! Your check is already in the mail. I hope you get it as quickly as your package came to me. Thank you.”  Perhaps there’s hope after all. 

The TerraTrike project has been another example of both elusive and illusive perfection.  It took a while, but about a month ago I finished the first batch of powdercoated TT adapter brackets.  At last I could offer a CURVE kit that fits TerraTrikes…or so I thought.  Here’s the kit (without neck rest cover), along with the new adapter bracket, mounted on a Rover.  It fits really well and leaves plenty of room for adjusting the recline angle of the seat back.  So what was elusive? 

Well Dave McDonnell lives not far from Seattle and wanted a CURVE kit for his TerraTrike Tour.  He was down here during the Thanksgiving week so we met for coffee in Seattle, had a great visit along with Penni and Dave’s partner Jim (honest, that’s her name) and I gave him the first kit to try out.  

A couple of days later Dave sent me some pictures of the kit installed on his trike...he said he was really happy with it, but looking at the pictures it was clear that on his Tour the bracket design definitely limited the amount of seat back recline.  So I went to the TerraTrike website and checked the dimensions of the different models.  My “duh” moment was when I realized how different the Rover dimensions are from the other models including the new Rambler.  Unfortunately the only model easily available to me for testing had been the Rover at Angle Lake Cycles.

Embarrassed, I immediately made a new bracket by moving the cross tube from the bracket back to the top, and sent it off to Dave to try.  From Dave’s comments and the new pictures he sent it looks like it works just fine…no more limiting the amount of seat back recline.  So I’ve just finished fabricating 15 of the newly re-designed brackets that are also a bit smaller than the second one I made for Dave.  The cross tubes are at John’s being welded now and then are off to be powder coated.  Then hopefully finally the elusive TerraTrike CURVE kits will be available…with the first one going to Dave and the second to Renie for her new Rambler.   

Renie’s will be a special joy to deliver since her CURVE cover has been sitting on my desk for a couple of weeks and it’ll be great to finally send it home.  So anyone with a TerraTrike interested in a CURVE kit, this is a good time to get your orders in for delivery in about 3 weeks.

And so the year draws to a close at the Finer Recliner micro-industrial complex. 

Its been quite a ride – I’ve met loads of wonderful folks and delivered CURVE’s, CURVE kits and side mount kits to new friends around the US and Canada and as far away as Uruguay and the Netherlands.  The learning curve remained steep, but wonderful and unexpected gifts arrived often at exactly the right moment…generally when I was just beyond the end of my wits. 

A very special thank you to the folks who each make this small business run –  my friend John on lives on this island and does all the TIG welding; Zubin, a former islander now in San Francisco who sews the great covers; Deana who’s in Bellingham, a hardcore recumbent enthusiast and is doing the beautiful embroidery; John and Micah who own Tacoma Iron Work and do our powder coating; Jason, in China, who digitizes our original art; and all the wonderful folks at our suppliers who keep us in ‘stuff.’

A couple of weeks ago I got a note from someone saying he was glad I was making these parts because he preferred to use his spare time riding.  Well two days ago I turned 70…and it’s a bit of a stunner to associate that number with MY age.  What he said got me thinking. I’m dreaming of trying out that new DualDrive with a long bike trip next summer.  I want more time with my kids and grandkids…and most definitely with Penni.  I’m itching to return to building my own recumbents and building gates.  And there are loads of maintenance chores calling at our place.  Its lucky the Finer Recliner has been both fun and a great manufacturing learning lab because the way it works now is a lousy model for earning any money.  And it takes a lot of my time.  With so much else calling there’s a lot to think about this year and I’m excited to see how 2012 unfolds.

Penni gave me an iPad for my birthday.  I think it will be truly spectacular once I learn how to make it work...hell, once I can turn it on.  And then there’s my cell phone and monster iMac – I can’t even scratch the surface of their potential which is magnitudes greater than my ability to even imagine.  It took me a week after I got the cell to just figure out how to answer a call!  Well it’s my wish for 2012 that the human brain does NOT surpass my cell phone, computer and iPad as my least used mega-creation and gift. 

I don’t believe in waiting for judgment by a higher power because it doesn't take a genius to see how we are doing.  Just look around…and take a good look inside.  So I’m hoping that 2012 is a year for awakening - turning away from ideologues, religious and political self-righteous hypocritical extremism, group-think and sound-byte opinion-forming, us-versus-them justifying, selfishness and greed.  We don't need everyone to take their heads from where they currently seem to be stored and bring them out into the light - we just need each other...and a critical mass.  With some attention and some work we can begin to really use our brains, and 2012 can be a year for mindfulness, compassion, curiosity and informed choices.

Best wishes from Penni, Travis, Gomez and me.