Ready the flashing lights, party poppers, dancing girls and brass band...

[Tim Hall]

Is that a spaghetti jar full of cable ties?

Has Jurek seen it?

[Polar Bear]

Kim,

That looks bloody awesome.  A very good day's work.

What cycle computer is that please?   Looks big enough to be of mega use to me 

[Kim]

Is that a spaghetti jar full of cable ties?

Well it's a spaghetti jar sized tub of cable ties, yes.  I seem to have run out of black ones.

Has Jurek seen it?

Seems unlikely.

[Kim]

What cycle computer is that please?   Looks big enough to be of mega use to me 

I think you've asked me about this before?  It's a Specialized Speedzone Elite, same as on my other bikes (I knew I could mod the wiring, and I'm happy with the general lack of stupidity in the design).

[andrewc]

Bows down before Teh Kim's awesome fettling skillz   

[rower40]

Okay, I'm calling it a day.

 

10/10 for molishing/mantling/fettling skillz.
But couldn't you think of a better name than "a day"?

Coat. I'm Gone.

[Kim]

I think its name might be Spike^[1]...

There's still some electrical fettling to do (chiefly, the installation of dynamo rear lights on the front mudguards, with Tamiya connectors to facilitate mudguard removal, but also adaptation of the standard ICE flag^[2] to double as a half-wave aerial for the hearing assistance radio band), and I'm going to extend the lever of the bar-end shifter in a slightly more graceful manner than cable-tying a spork to it.  If that goes well, I'll probably drill a hole in the handlebar to route the gear cable internally under the grip, as it looks awful hanging loose like that.



_{[1] A politically incorrect contraction (in the reclamatory sense, in honour of barakta's general attitude to disability mods), m'lud.
[2] Finally, a sensible reason to have a flag on your recumbent!}

[Kim]

It's probably unwise to drill holes in shiny new expensive things after midnight, but nevertheless:



Spanninga Pixeo rear lights on the trailing edges of the front mudguards.  Wired through a Tamiya connector to simplify mudguard removal in the event that removing the wheels is necessary to pack the trike into a smaller volume.  The computer wheel sensor is visible on the mudguard support directly below the Tamiya connectors (this will need releasable cable-ties for the same reason, but I didn't have any of the appropriate size).

Astoundingly, they actually work.   

[DrMekon]

So they are powered by the dynohub? I don't think Id have been ashamed of using battery lights there (we have battery lights on all the guards if our trike, and ours doesn't fold), but I hugely admire your commitment to doing the job properly.

[yrmail@blueyonder.co.uk]

Impressive! I took the wimp's way out (drilling holes is not my forte) and fitted lots of reflective strips to my mudguards.

[jogler]

I reckon Kim has a Doctorate in fettling.
Dr.Kim.
yes,that sounds right

[Charlotte]

She is the Undisputed Fettleweight Champion of YACF 

Random thought: one day, it is my ambition to take a photograph of Kim, holding a popular brand of retractable knife in one hand and a glass of barley water in the other.

[andrewc]

We need  a bottle of Champagne to smash over the boom before the inaugural ride 

[Kim]

So they are powered by the dynohub? I don't think Id have been ashamed of using battery lights there (we have battery lights on all the guards if our trike, and ours doesn't fold), but I hugely admire your commitment to doing the job properly.

Axa bottle dynamo for now - the budget didn't stretch to a Schmidt.  TBH it didn't really stretch to lights, but some things aren't worth fucking about with.  Hub dynamo is a reasonably straightforward (wheelbuilding^[1] aside) upgrade for later.



_{[1] That reminds me, what's the secret for truing trike wheels?  There must be some way to get the dishing right...}

[Kim]

Random thought: one day, it is my ambition to take a photograph of Kim, holding a popular brand of retractable knife in one hand and a glass of barley water in the other.

That's a very strange ambition   

Seriously, I'm not that good at fettling - none of this stuff is particularly difficult - after all, ICE make self-assembly to a much higher standard than Ikea, and at no point were any adhesives required.   

[TimO]

...That reminds me, what's the secret for truing trike wheels?  There must be some way to get the dishing right ...

By and large trike wheels don't need dishing, so they're easier to build and maintain.

Whilst the rear wheel may be a little off if it's not dished, it won't really matter, and it obviously makes for a stronger wheel.  I'd imagine the one supplied isn't dished.  If they've done things sensibly, the rear forks will be aligned such that an undished wheel does place the rim in the centre (ie exactly between the front wheels).

Since you've also got disc brakes all around, truing is far less critical anyway, you can tolerate a lot more error before it becomes a problem than you would with rim brakes.

[Kim]

...That reminds me, what's the secret for truing trike wheels?  There must be some way to get the dishing right ...

By and large trike wheels don't need dishing, so they're easier to build and maintain.

Well yes, but I include confirming the lack of dish as a flavour of "getting the dishing right".  You can't just not measure it, otherwise it could be anywhere (a la Red of this parish's front wheel after the LBS had been at it), so there must be some way to do it...

Interesting point about the rear wheel.  I'll squint at it in a bit.

[TimO]

Well yes, but I include confirming the lack of dish as a flavour of "getting the dishing right". ...

The advantage with an undished wheel is that you use identical sized spokes on both sides (assuming that the hub is the same on both sides, which isn't always the case with rear wheels), and get the tension roughly correct, and the same, and the wheel will naturally be pretty much in the middle.  Getting it exactly there doesn't really matter, so long as it's not fouling on the frame anywhere.

I've tended to make rear wheels in the frame, with the frame on a stand, which allows me to align it to the frame, which may not work in this scenario, but you can certainly put it into the frame at strategic points during the build to make sure it's approximately correctly aligned.

[Kim]

Interesting point about the rear wheel.  I'll squint at it in a bit.

Doesn't look very dished, but then it is a disc brake hub, so they're not always obvious.


Anyway, I've dug a pair of really nasty tyre-shaped objects out of the pile of crap that was bound to come in useful eventually, fitted them, and we're about to go for a test ride...

[Feline]

Good luck 
We are hoping for pics!

[Jurek]

Is that a spaghetti jar full of cable ties?

Well it's a spaghetti jar sized tub of cable ties, yes.  I seem to have run out of black ones.

Has Jurek seen it?

Seems unlikely.

It's here.



































































































On Streetview.

[TimO]

Indeed, pictures, and ideally, videos, are required.

[zigzag]

looking good, and very neatly assembled! now all it needs is many happy miles of rolling road underneath.

[Kim]

Well that went better than expected.  After negotiating the front door (more work needed there), I took it for a quick loop round the block and confirmed fully operational brakes and gears.  Then barakta got on and we rode to the local park, where we did several laps, a few handlebar adjustments, a bit of bollard dodging, scared some geese and did some controlled testing on the nice new flat area of hardpacked gravel (over a giant sewage tank) to check that it wasn't pulling to either side, even under braking.  I had a couple of goes, during which I managed to lift two wheels at the same time, and executed a rather good handbrake turn.  For ^_SCIENCE.

So yeah, my fettling appears to have been fairly successful.  I was at least expecting to have to tweak the brakes a bit.  The bottle dynamo performs better than I expected, and is inaudible under the noise of the studded tyre.  The pixeo rear lights were, I reckon, an excellent choice.  Main thing to do now is sort out a proper extension for the bar-end shifter, an aerial for the FMGenie, and do something about mirrors - obviously we've filled all the good mirror-mounting places with controls, maybe something on the top of the mudguard...

Barakta will be along in a minute to give her verdict, but it seems that there were zero shoulder issues, and the main point of concern is her somewhat unconventional hip...

Here are some of the photos, taken while there was something that could loosely be described as daylight available.  I need a better camera - moving targets were not an option:









I make it 10.5km for barakta, a little more for me.  Perfectly respectable first ride, especially as it wasn't warm.   

[LindaG]

Congratulations barakta!  Sounds like a most promising start.