The Red Baron Rides North...
This one's been a work in progress for a while now, after years of doing not very much in Charlotte's
SEEKRIT BUNKER. Plenty of type 2 fun with internally-routed cables and corroded bolts, plus the usual joy that comes with obtaining short cranks.
Anyway, I finally got it roadworthy with the addition of a middle chainring earlier this week, so I took it out for a
fall-down shake-down ride in the local park this afternoon. It's a fairly twitchy beast, so most of that was spent practising starts and stops, tight turns and riding very slowly. Neverthless, I can report that while it doesn't necessarily show signs of wanting to go fast, it certainly likes going around corners a fair bit more than the Streetmachine does.
Several items on the buglist: Loose steerer. Ergonomics. That bloody headrest. I also remain unconvinced about the merits of a 36-spoke SON28 on a small-wheeled ostensibly fast bike (presumably the original owner had one in the shed or it predates the SON Delux or something) - some dirty wheel-swapping may be required.
I only dropped it 1.5 times. After an hour or so of manoeuvres, the
In The Night Garden Live showdome emptied out, so I fled the mass of excited toddlers to have a go at the uphill silly sustrans gate slalom (no issues) and see how it handled at 30mph+ on the road back down the outside of the park. And promptly fell over sideways twice when trying to set off at a junction with a silly camber.
I also need to find a proper hair solution that doesn't involve either a) stuffing it all under something sweaty or b) an unobtanium carbon fibre tailbox. My hair's notoriously uncooperative at staying tied up, and I fear that if it snags in the wheel I may end up with a broken neck, or at least rocking the RichForrest look.
Obviously I've enough ICE trike experience to know that being low down isn't a problem in traffic, but without tadpole wheels, it does leave you vulnerable to goose attack (DAHIKT).
