I knew this would happen sooner or later.  Well, the time's come.

Choosing fill material for the neck rests has been a journey beginning with open pore foam which some folks love and others think is too firm, then anti-microbial latex which is cushy but has inconsistent density...so inconsistent that my supplier will no longer cut it, to what I'm hoping will be the best fill by far - Sun-mate medical memory foam. That's the exciting news.

The not-so-exciting news is that there were really no good options between the latex and Sun-mate, and the Sun-mate is three times as expensive.  Couple this with the fact that my margins were so thin to begin with, if I simply absorb the added cost then there's no sense in continuing to make these.  I've tried keeping the price of the neck rests as low as possible and that's still my intention.

So, I hope you'll understand my raising the price on both the ROLL and CURVE models.  In the coming weeks I'm hoping to make a decision about having all the parts fabricated in a production shop.  If I can do it at a reasonable cost it will help me overcome my greatest challenge - providing high quality neck rests in a reasonable time.  I don't yet know what the impact would be on the price, but that'll be a major decider in whether I go ahead.

Thanks to all of you who've purchased my neck rests.  Since I'm really excited about this new fill material I'm hoping those of you who are considering a new neck rest will be enticed to try a CURVE or ROLL, even if it costs a small bit more.  Thanks.

I realize I can't push against the natural forces of the universe...but in this case that bit of information doesn't really help.

Neck rest orders continue to back up.  The PVC I ordered came in...the wrong stuff.  And when they told me they re-ordered what I'd asked for it turns out their computer didn't place the order because it checked inventory, found the wrong stuff, thought it was the right stuff...and so it didn't order.  And its been 4 days since I was told my new foam cutter would be here in 2...still not here.

But...covers have been sewed and embroidered, and brackets cut, finished and painted.  And the great new medical quality foam is sitting here ready to be cut.  Now I just need base material and a foam cutter and I'm back in business.

I did get one neck rest mailed out yesterday and one special order for Jim Artis, soon to depart on his "Ride for the Republic" adventure on his newly designed and built quad, Fargo.  It's quite the amazing hpv - hopefully some pictures will follow as soon as his set-up is complete and he's ready to begin his journey.  I'm hoping our neck rest will comfort at least one small part of him as he rides.

Travis and I took advantage of yesterday's spectacular weather to do our post office and errand run in style.  He ran alongside and helped going up hill into the village, then grabbed a ride in the trailer all the way home, sitting with his head out the sun roof taking in the sights, ears flapping in the breeze and encouraging me to pedal faster.

Since I couldn't make neck rest bases I spent the afternoon hanging about 35' of gutter from the roof of the old stables, and then ran the downspout into a rain barrel I've made from a surplus 50 gallon plastic syrup drum.  I've wanted to catch water for a long time so we can use it to water our vegetable garden.  The barrel's about 30" off the ground and I've installed a spigot near the bottom that's connected to a hose.  The beautiful weather held until last night, then the rain started.  It rained and drizzled all night.  And today when Penni went out to pick some greens for breakfast, she returned saying the rain barrel was full!  I thought for sure she was wrong, but she wasn't.  In just a few short hours off a relatively short run of roof we collected more than 50 gallons of water.  Amazing.

More life on a sine wave.  Zubin broke the news yesterday that she's leaving the island at the end of the month and moving back to San Francisco to be closer to her family.  That means 1/3 of this cottage industry is leaving...the third that makes the neck rest covers.  She has been a great friend, and while I absolutely wish her well, in addition to the beautiful covers she makes I'm sure gonna miss the long conversations at her front door about Buddhism and Sufis, the meaning of life, the gifts of kids and stupidity of adults, and a myriad of other things having nothing to do with sewing.  She's irreplaceable.  And I'm thinking I'd better learn to sew.


Today I picked up my first 3' X 7' slab of 2" memory foam.  It's such a totally different feel from the latex...I think users are gonna love it.  That it costs 3X as much is definitely going to have an effect, but I'm committed to filling the current orders at the current price even using the new foam.  

And there's another change in the shop.  Trying to muscle a sagging, twisting, squishy slab so large I can barely hold it through my band saw has been an adventure...at times a risky one.  I can't cut a straight line, the saw sucks the foam down into its innards, the blade binds and then snaps, the damn foam simply can't be cut because it's too big to fit between the blade and the neck of the bandsaw...it just goes on.  So...today I bit the bullet and bought this.  I'm hoping it's gonna change my life...or at least save me a ton on eliminating a lot of waste when I cut.  I sure hope this works because who's kidding who.  I have absolutely no nostalgic feelings recalling that horrible sucking sound the bandsaw makes when it shags a piece of foam and quickly sucks it down into the lower wheel, binding the blade.  And then there's that "Twoing!!!" when the blade snaps.  I think I'm gonna love this cutter.


The pvc should be at the supplier's tomorrow so I can pick that up on the way home and start cutting CURVEs.  I truly appreciate the gift of having consulting work right now, but at the same time it tests customers' patience as they wait for products.  Next step, a fabricator.

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.