A lot's been going on.  I finally found a good spot for my latest gate.  Turns out that finding a place to put them is actually more fun than making one to fill an existing opening.  Hanging this tree gate meant planting a 30' hedge row and sinking posts...kinda backwards I know, but with no location constraints it's definitely more fun.

Because we all needed a break, the three of us, P, T, and me, drove down to Cannon Beach for 4 days.  Last year when we were there the weather was wild.  Day and night - high winds, freezing temps, sleet and rain.  The weather didn't keep us off the beach, we just bundled up in all our rain gear and went out.  Travis could have cared less...regardless of the weather he just wanted to play ball.  It was funny...facing south on the beach I could throw the ball about 20' when I really tried.  Facing north and using the same effort, I could throw it about 20 miles!  
 

All the required gear - ball, thrower, poop bag.

 This time, though, the autumn weather couldn't have been more beautiful.  Each day was warmer and sunnier than the one before.  The Hallmark Inn is beyond dog-friendly...when we arrived in our room there was a basket of goodies just for Travis - treats, a frisby, special towel and a water bottle with fold-out drinking trough.  We had a great time - long walks on the beach, exploring tide pools, spectacular sunsets, lots of ball-chasing exercise for Travis, good food and fun wandering around Cannon Beach, the best company, cozy evenings by the fire...

Truly a dog with a one-track mind

Is it possible to love a dog too much?

The only thing wrong with our time away was that it was just too brief.  But we came back to some other bits of good news...3 dozen mtb stems that'd been back-ordered for 6 weeks finally arrived, and I finalized an agreement with a new embroiderer, The Salem Emblem Shop in Salem, Oregon.  Turns out they did our great-looking TOT patches the past two years and are willing to take on the neck rest embroidery.  They do really wonderful work, so I'm excited to see the first batch of covers that'll be arriving soon from Zubin.  

One of those first covers will be this one.  It'll be fitted to the first TerraTrike CURVE kit, and should soon be on its way to Las Vegas and a new orange TerraTrike Rambler.  I sure hope Renie loves it.

It's true...I Photoshopped the extra length of the "T" tube to make it shorter.

And speaking of the TerraTrike CURVE kit, I recently fitted the powdercoated prototype on a Rover Dale has at Angle Lake Cycles.  The "T" tower was too long (I Photoshopped it shorter in the first picture,) and I'm changing out the 75mm mtb stem for one of the new shorter 60mm stems.  I just finished the first batch of 8 adapter brackets that are now at John's to have the tubes TIG welded on; then they're off for powdercoating, and as soon as they return they're ready to ship.

Even without posting on BROL that the kits are in production (ha...that's a fancy over-stated way of saying that I'm making them,) I've already got orders for half the first batch.  I've tried hard to make the adapter bracket as simple as possible in part to make producing them relatively straightforward, and also to keep the kit price low.  If you see one of the adapter brackets you might reasonably ask what took me so long to make them.  And the truth is I've procrastinated...I didn't believe it was fair to have to charge more for the TerraTrike kits than for the kits that fit Catrikes, ICE, HP and  others.  In the end I just decided that I didn't design the double-tube seat braces on the TerraTrikes that require the adapter, so I'll just make the kits and let the market decide.  The bracket adds about $20 to the cost of the kit, so the TerraTrike CURVE kit (adapter bracket, "T" tower, CURVE neck rest, mtb stem and end caps) will be about $110.

Now I'm hoping I can find a fabricator to produce the brackets inexpensively so I can stop making them myself, and I can get on to a couple of other projects about which I'm really excited.  But that's a story for another time.

I must get at least one email a week about fitting a CURVE kit on a TerraTrike.  And it was probably almost a year ago that Jim and I made a couple of day trips up to Mike's Bikes in Sequim to take TerraTrike seat frame pictures and measurements.  

Getting this relatively simple bracket right has been quite an exercise.  The first prototype looked neat, but involved multiple individual pieces that had to be welded and holes to be tapped.  The quote to fabricate the bracket was $64...I thought it was a typo.  So I started over with prototype 2...no bending, no tapping holes, no seam welds.

Now that Dale at Angle Lake Cycles is a TerraTrike dealer life's a lot simpler.  He's just a short ferry ride away, and he stocks plenty of TerraTrike, Catrike, ICE and HP Velotechnikit trikes in addition to a goodly supply of Rans and Bacchetta 2-wheelers.  So it's no longer an expedition to try fitting my prototypes and new accessories.  

Yesterday I hopped on the ferry and headed down there to try out prototype bracket #2 on a Rover.  Three pieces of good news - the bracket's a very simple build, it works perfectly and version #3 (the final item) will be about 1/3 smaller.  I should be able to get the new one made and be sure it works within the next week.  

With some luck the TerraTrike kits can be available by mid to late October, just in time to bring the trikes indoors and use them as lounge chairs while watching tv.  

I realize that speed hasn't been my greatest strength, and not just with these brackets.  Back-ordered parts continue to be a nagging problem.  And the worst of it is that I never know when, for example, stems will be out of stock for a month.  

Since I'm mostly doing all this for fun I try to look at this micro-industrial complex as a great learning experience about manufacturing.  I have most of the same challenges I'd have if the business was 1000X larger...just with less to lose (or gain) financially.  Size aside, I hate having to explain delays to customers, and I don't want anyone to think I'm not grateful off the charts for their patience and understanding.  In some ways being small presents more challenges - one in particular is trying to find providers of certain services consider doing work for me as fill-in for them...something they'll get around to at some point when they have time between large jobs.  I understand their realities, but that doesn't help me.  Still, I'm pretty sure I'll figure all this out.

Recently a couple of folks asked whether the side mount kit would fit on the new Catrike Villager with the adjustable seat.  Well it fits just fine.  Dale has a great selection of Villagers in stock, and my toughest decision was choosing on which color Villager to try the kit.

Time to get some orders filled.

The sun's out and it's still warm but the season is clearly changing.  It's getting darker about an hour earlier than just a month ago, there's that scent of Autumn in the air, the alders in the pasture are beginning to lose leaves, and while there are still caches of plump blackberries to be found, the island is beginning to look kind of berry-picked-over.

I finally got around to mounting my new neck rest, and now that how I see how great it looks I'm not sure why I didn't do this a long time ago.  The nut on the embroidery  matches a burn scar on my arm that's a perfect image of a 1/4-20 nut...something I did to myself trying to make a jam nut with a pair of vice grips and my belt sander.  As the red hot nut landed on my forearm I remember thinking, "This is gonna be a great scar!"  Right.  A perfect metaphor that says a lot about me.

This is the first "L" tower using different size vertical and horizontal tubing.  By using 1.125" OD tubing for the vertical arm there's no longer a need for a shim.  Plus the extra 1/8" in diameter makes the tower even stronger.  Jim (jimali) was right...the mount is rock solid enough to lift the entire trike using the neck rest as a handle.  

Also, all the new "L" towers have the extra 1" stub on the short end so you can mount a pair of tail lights if you choose.  Being the tallest spot on the trike, mounting the lights on the tower should make you even more visible.

And speaking of tail light mounts, someone recently asked for a bracket like the one I have on my rear rack for mounting a pair of lights.  I made him one and he sent this picture.  If anyone else is interested let me know.  The bracket will fit any rack having a plate with two side-by-side mounting holes underneath the rack top.

 

Mom's 89th birthday present - her first-ever bike

On a totally different subject, my mom, who's about to turn 97, has been spending the summers here on Vashon with us for the past 5 or 6 years.  This has been her escape from Florida summer heat and a chance to hang out with her family (both my sisters also live on the island.)  Summers here have meant a lot of time spent outside in a comfortable chair reading, and enjoying the service around here which is pretty darned good.  She's been a local fixture as she takes her daily walks and often parks herself down at the mailbox, sitting in her walker and reading the mail.  Folks driving down the road often stop to say hi and to chat with her.  A few years ago I remodeled one wing of the house so she has her own room, bathroom and entrance, and while she's no great fan of the cold season this really has become home for her.  Well about a month ago she decided that this year she's not going back to Florida and will be staying here with us.  So a part of my life has now come full circle.  Blessedly mom's totally present, so even though the conversations can be awkward this has been an opportunity for some relationship re-negotiating.  Lucky for me Penni is incredibly welcoming and caring...and seems to have a wonderful relationship with "Syl."  So along with trying to help my mom work out closing up a life 3000 miles away, I've also been busy building ramps and extending steps.  Just inviting another person to live with us would be tumultuous enough...that person being my mother increases the tumult potential exponentially.

As for what's in the works, here's prototype #2 for a TerraTrike neck rest mount that will allow installing a CURVE kit on just about every TerraTrike model including Rovers and Ramblers.  I've had a lot of requests for neck rests from TerraTrike owners, but I've really dragged my feet on designing an adapter bracket.  For a long time I've thought it unfair to TT owners that because of the way TerraTrike makes its seats I'd need to add an adapter bracket to CURVE kits to fit their trikes...and as a result making their kits more expensive than the ones that fit Catrikes, ICE, Tridents, Bacchettas...  I've toyed with making an entirely different neck rest mount, one that didn't involve using a mtb stem or tower tubes, but that mount is so simple and solid I just kept going in circles.  Finally I decided that I wasn't the one who designed their seat frames so if CURVE kits are going to fit their double tubes then there was no avoiding an adapter bracket.  Now the challenge is to make it as simple, and therefore inexpensive, as I can.  I think we're close with this one.  I'll post pictures once I've tested it, probably at Angle Lake Cycles.

By the way, loads of neat new embroidery on the way - I'll post pictures next time.  The flaming trike image has gotten quite popular, with a number of folks requesting the trike frame embroidered in a color that matches their trikes.  Looks great!

Well, time to go play ball with Travis.

I just got a nice note and some pictures from Al deMoya.  Thanks to his collaboration we can now add Bacchetta's with recurve seats to the list of bikes we can fit with Finer Recliner CURVE neck rests.  Great job, Al!

And then there's the news from Catrike that they're stopping production of the Musashi.  That means anyone who has one or gets one soon will have a true American classic.  While I'm sure I'm not that influential, I do hope the Musashi's demise didn't have anything to do with the art I posted last week.  So if any Musashi owner would like one, here's what's available especially for these great bikes.

Finally, John posted this picture on BROL to show his new embroidered CURVE...it matches the tattoo on his leg.  Scots on trikes!!!

Here's a new embroidery image for Musashi owners.  

We'll gladly personalize it to match your frame color.  Neat, isn't it?  Maybe I should add flames.

We seem to be in an embroidery cycle lately.  It's funny - we go along for a while with people ordering un-embroidered covers, and then all of a sudden folks want to add a bit of personal bling.  The process can be fun...like when I wrote to Robert Crumb for permission to embroider Mr. Natural, and the results are really nice.  Here are some of the latest.

Here's the famous Mr. Natural, courtesy of Robert Crumb, and now off with the rest of a CURVE kit to Soldatna, Alaska.

You can get just about any image you want because if we can't find it somewhere amongst the thousands of embroidery stock images we can always digitize your original art.

This lighthouse cover and CURVE neck rest kit is a gift from Russell (Mt_Top), John (enumclaw) and me in Thomas' memory to Denise, the person with the winning bid for ROA...Thomas' Catrike Road.  Lighthouses were a Thomas favorite.

This pair is a "his and hers."

 

This cover's for dragon lovers.  The photograph doesn't do it justice...the colors are vibrant.

I'm not sure why this looks gold because it's really a brilliant candy red.  It was chosen to match a tattoo, and it's a near-perfect match.

I like this image so much that it's now a permanent part of our library.  Now anyone can have it, and we'll match the trike color to yours.

It's about 80 degrees on a perfect sunny and cloudless summer afternoon.  Travis is lying in the shade under a tree with a ball in his mouth just in case someone wants to come out and play.  I'm gonna go turn on the hose and soak us both down.

Training wheels begone!  I've always believed that training wheels are one of the first really bad bits of advice adults give to kids.  Ever seen a child turn a corner on a bike with training wheels?  S/he's always leaning the wrong way!  When Josh and Noah were little we built 2 wheelers without pedals out of wood.  So long as they could put their feet flat on the ground they could learn to balance in just a matter of minutes. 

I took the cranks off a Granny's Attic recycle bike to see how long it would take my grandson Henry to learn to ride on 2 wheels.  I don't think I've ever laughed so hard...but I didn't laugh long.  In about 10 minutes he was riding.

It's all in the concentration.

Okay, the helmet's not a perfect fit, but it's a helmet.

We're off!!!

Uh oh...something's caught.

Good thing it's just his tee shirt (no laughing.)

 

Without the damn helmet this is easy!

 

Success!

And here's my last bit of evidence...Maya, my 2-year old granddaughter having her first Laufrad experience.  

Why couldn't bike shops use these pedal-less 2 wheelers as loaners?  You put down $50 to borrow the bike, and as soon as your child can balance on two wheels the shop puts the $50 towards the purchase of a new bike.  And training wheels can go the way of Edsels.

Last tidbit for today...the embroidery learning curve continues.  Turns out that blending is one of the most difficult challenges for embroidery, and it's expensive.  The Flaming Trike art looks great, but it's really hard to get the color blend to work and it takes thousands of stitches, meaning it's expensive.  So I re-did the art, and I hope you agree that the finished product looks terrific.  And for only half as much.

I'm taking Travis and we're going riding.