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.

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.