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Sunday, June 28th 2009

16:03

The Colonel By Drive - Another Unsuccessful Attempt



I should start off this report by admitting that this breakdown was entirely my own fault and not due to any design problem with the Rhoades Car. It was even an after-market part that I had installed myself that broke.

We got up nice and early today and the forecast looked good - no rain and a warm day of 25C predicted. We set off just after 0830 and made it onto the Colonel By Drive just after it closed to motor vehicles. Just at the north end of Carleton University we decided to take a break and pulled up a curb cut-down and onto the grass. Some guy with an off-leash dog stopped to talk to us. He wasn't making a lot of sense, but then the NCC enforcement officer stopped his truck and asked him to get the dog on a leash. The guy objected, decided to start a fight and we decided that we had better give the officer some space to write the ticket out.

So we backed up to the curb cut-out and entered the roadway again. Something wasn't working right, my side drive train was making a lot of noise. So we stopped. Everything looked okay, but it wasn't working. We pulled the quadracycle up onto the grass and into the shade. Things still looked okay on a closer visual inspection, but the rear driver's side derailleur was not running correctly.

Since I had all the tools I needed in our bin I decided to remove the derailleur and have a closer look at it. Sure enough it was bent, quite a lot, too. The top idler sprocket was badly gouged and the shims were torn up. This was one of the Shimano derailleurs that I had installed to replace the (twice) cracked SunRace ones last year. Obviously we had had a chain jam when moving the quadracycle backwards, didn't hear it happen and damaged things. My fault.

The owner's manual clearly says:

Caution: Pushing the Bike Backwards Can Cause Damage

Like on any multi-speed bike; never force the bike backwards, if there is a binding or tightening of the chain or derailleur. If the chain, derailleur, and shifter are not fully in gear forcing the bike backwards can cause damage. Always pedal the bike forward, shifting fully into the proper gear (when the chain and sprockets are lined up), before pushing the bike backwards. If the gear is properly engaged, then the bike should push backwards, freely.

Yup it is right, completely right. We were 12.5 km from home.

I tried straightening out the bent frame, but it was not possible to do so. We looked at the possible plans:

1. Put it back together, swap seats and have me pedal the whole way home again, just like last week.
2. Push the bike 12.5 km home.
3. See if I could replace the part.

I had had enough uphill pedalling on my own last weekend, so I opted for 3, although I was not at all sure I could find a short-frame Shimano derailleur on a Sunday.

So I took the old derailleur, some water and set off on foot, leaving Ruth to sit with the quadracycle. I cut through the university and onto Sunnyside, hiked up to Bank Street and there was a cycle shop, right near the corner! Of course it is closed on Sundays. So I caught a bus southbound. I was heading for our local cycle shop, Rebec and Kroes, which I was fairly sure was open on Sundays. I got off the bus at Bank and Alta Vista and walked over to Rebec and Kroes. The sign confirmed that they are open Sundays, but not until noon. It was 1052. I decided to walk back north a few blocks and try Kunstadt Sports. Yes, they sell bikes and yes, they sell bike parts. I went upstairs and the young man working in the fix-it shop had a brand new short-frame Shimano Tiaga derailleur, still in the box for $59.99. So I bought it, picked up lunch from Subway to make it up to Ruth for having to sit and wait, and headed back to the Colonel By Drive.

Ruth was in good spirits and had even managed to attract the attention of some friends of ours who were biking by. We had some lunch, installed the new derailleur, made a few adjustments to it and headed off north. It didn't take long as this is the fifth rear derailleur I have installed, but it was too late to complete the run before the Colonel By Drive reopened to car traffic, so we turned around south of the 417 bridge and headed home. We made it home fine, at nearly 1345 hrs, so it was a good thing I picked up lunch.

So lessons learned: the manual is right - if you are going to move the quadracycle backwards, make sure the chains are absolutely free and don't bind. Penalty for ignoring this edict: $59.99 plus tax and two hours.

Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 140 km
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Monday, June 22nd 2009

14:40

Library Run



It is finally officially summer, the solstice having been yesterday.

We missed another Sunday bike day on the Colonel By Drive yesterday. We were actually keen to go, but we had the back flow from a low pressure system funnelling weather over us and it rained most of the day. On the plus side our garden is looking pretty good, but it hasn't been great for quadracycling or any other outdoor activities much this year so far.

So when today dawned clear and sunny Ruth said, "let's go out this morning, before it gets too hot", so we did. She had some library books to to return so we pedalled via South Keys Shopping Centre and on to the library. The shopping centre management has recently put in a large number of extra, portable, rubber speed bumps. I have no idea why, as they didn't have a speeding problem there, it is usually too crowded for that. Instead the speed bumps seem to create new safety hazards as drivers drive on the side walks or through the parking areas to avoid them or run stop signs since they seem to feel they have slowed down enough. From a quadracycling point-of-view it just makes it a rough ride and motivates us to go shopping elsewhere.

While we are complaining about South Keys I should mention that we used to take our quadracycle to The Second Cup there regularly in past years, but no longer. It was recently torn down to apparently make way for a bank. The end result is that South Keys is really losing any lustre it ever had as a destination.

So eschewing the bumps and lack of coffee we headed onto the library. There was an eastern breeze for the third day in a row, which slowed us a bit on Johnston Road, but then we cut off and into the suburban streets and onward to the library, including a run through the drive-through book drop off (that is fun to do). With that job completed we cruised around the neighbourhood streets admiring the flowers, before heading south to cross Bank Street at Queensdale and stop in at Giant Tiger for a couple of grocery items. Finally we made it home for lunch after about 16 km of cycling, definitely a nice way to spend the morning.

I am pleased to report that the pedal that I bonded with Permatex Red is holding in place quite well. Perhaps I can tentatively say that this is the way to attach them, so they stay in place?

Most of the early part of this week looks like it will be relatively sunny, so perhaps we will get out and do some more quadracycling in the mornings before the warm afternoons drive us to more indoor pursuits.

Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 115 km
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Wednesday, June 17th 2009

11:07

Fixed - I hope

After cleaning the errant pedal and crank threads carefully and gooping it up with Permatex Red on Sunday, torquing it into place and then leaving it to dry for almost three days, I decided to take the quadracycle out and give the pedal a try today. The forecast was for "warm" this morning and "hot" this afternoon, so we both decided to head out right after the morning rush hour at about 0900.

This trip was intended to just be a test run, but turned into another grocery trip instead, since Ruth pointed out that we needed a few items, so we got both tasks done at the same time. I dropped Ruth off at Giant Tiger to get some milk and other necessities and, rather than wait for her, I did some more pedalling around a new housing development and then headed back to pick her up. All worked according to plan and, best of all, the pedal stayed in place!

She had more errands to do over on Bank Street, which is a bit busy during the workday for quadracycling, so I dropped her off at the nearest point in the nearby park and headed home to put the groceries away.

A final inspection of the quadracycle showed that the pedal is staying in place, at least so far. This is one that I will keep a good eye on over the next while - hopefully the Red stuff will hold it in place.

Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 99 km
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Sunday, June 14th 2009

16:43

Good News - Bad News



The good news is that today was sunny and warm, no one was sick, there was no rain or other city events that pre-empted the Alcatel-Lucent Sunday Bikeday on the Colonel By Drive. No excuses, so we finally got out there. I had actually done a "dry run" last Sunday on my bicycle as Ruth had been under the weather and unable to get out cycling.

So we left home at 0830 and made it to the start of the Colonel By Drive exactly at 0900, which is when it closes to motor vehicles. Traffic was light, with just a few cyclists and roller bladers up that early. The new Schwalbe Big Apple tires performed really well and we could quite easily notice the difference in speed with these slicks over the factory-supplied knobby Cheng Shins we had before.

So the sun was shining, winds were calm and the Rideau Canal looked like a mill pond. Even Dow's Lake had not a ripple on it. We made good time and Ruth decided that she wanted to go to the Second Cup on Rideau Street for coffee. So we cut up through the University of Ottawa campus and made our way over to the coffee shop. We had covered the 15 km in about an hour, which is pretty good speed. We even found a parking spot right in front! That was about the last thing that went right for the day.



The first problem was that Second Cup was closed, even though we were there at 0930 and the place opens at 0700. It seems that they had a programmed power outage for some upgrades and they were not opening until 1000. We decided not to wait and instead headed back. So we wound our way back through U of O and onto the Colonel By Drive once again. Immediately I had a problem - loose pedal. We drove up onto the grass and had a look, the driver's left hand pedal was quickly coming off. This was repeat of a previous problem that I thought I had solved last Hallowe'en by using some Permatex Blue (formerly Locktite) thread-locker to secure the pedal. Apparently the thread-locker broke and the problem was back and we were 15 km from home.

The good news is that I carry every tool in our bin that could possibly be of use in fixing the Rhoades Car. So I got out a wrench and torqued the pedal back into place. With some misgivings that it would stay in place we started out.

The misgivings were well-founded as after about 300 m the pedal was falling off again. This was now a problem that we couldn't fix where we were. What would it take to keep this damn pedal from falling off? Drill and pin it? Weld it? There was no solution out there on the Colonel By Drive.

The passenger's side pedals were working fine and so Ruth powered us along for a couple of kilometres, but she wasn't doing well on the up-slopes. So we pulled the quadracycle off the road, switched the seats around and re-retorqued the pedal again. I took the passenger side and Ruth did the steering, with an admonition not to pedal unless it was an emergency.

We did make it home in about an hour and a half, but it was very hard work pedalling the two of us up the hills between there and home. I certainly got enough exercise for the whole week.

So what to do? I decided that the Permatex Blue, which is designed to be removable with hand-tools was the problem, assuming that it was just not strong enough. So a walk up to Home Depot resulted in a tube of Permatex Red. The Red is designed to be permanent, which is what I want. So, back home, I removed the pedal, cleaned the threads thoroughly with de-greaser and then put on a liberal dose of Red, torqued it back into place and left it to dry.

Hopefully this will fix this problem.

Of note, the remaining three pedals all seem fine, with their lock washers on them. It is only the pedal I had previously removed for maintenance that has been the problem. My advice - never, ever remove the pedals for any reason. You will never get them on again tight enough to prevent them falling off.

Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 89 km
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Sunday, May 31st 2009

18:01

Another Not Alcatel-Lucent Sunday Bikeday on Colonel By Drive

Yup today was another Sunday and should have been an Alcatel-Lucent Sunday Bikeday on the Col By Drive, but again we didn't get out quadracycling.

We were very keen to go and the Rhoades Car was all polished up, especially after last weekend when the biking was cancelled in favour of the Ottawa Marathon Weekend. But today was a non-starter. It was very windy, rained much of the day and the temperature dropped to 5C. Once again I doubt many people would have been out there as the north wind gusting to 50 km/h would have deterred most people.

May now comes to a close, having proven colder, windier and wetter than April. Ottawaians are starting to ask if we are going to get a summer at all this year or if climate change is going to deliver something like last summer. Ironically the dismal weather is keeping people from walking and biking and instead, of course, they are driving everywhere and thus contributing further to climate change.
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Wednesday, May 27th 2009

13:00

Blogging About Blogging

Here is something that I am definitely excited about, there is a new blog about quadracycling that has just been started!

David and Andrea live in Winnipeg and have just ordered a new Rhoades Car 4W2PLF "long frame" for delivery. Because the coupe (short) frames are on back order and the long frames are in stock at Rhoades Car right now they should have their LF in just a couple of weeks. The two of them are keen cyclists and have been living car-free for two years. They get around the city on foot, bike and bus, to which they will shortly add their quadracycle.

They have decided to start a blog about their experiences, starting from the day they placed their order, Tuesday, 26 May 2009, allowing everyone interested to follow them through the process of taking delivery, first impressions and getting out on the roads of Winnipeg this summertime. It should be great fun.

We just think it is great that someone else believes that quadracycling is worth blogging about. There is still a dearth of information about quadracycle ownership experience on the internet and their blog will help fill that gap.

You can find their new blog "Prairie Quadracycling" at http://www.prairiequadracycle.blogspot.com/
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Saturday, May 23rd 2009

20:27

Quadracycle Work



Last year most of our quadracycling trips were recreational in nature, nice Sunday drives together, picnics, that sort of thing. But this year we seem to be using our quadracycle almost exclusively for doing work, errands and shopping.

Yesterday was a good example: in our neighbourhood one of the best places to get milk is at Giant Tiger. It is also a great place to buy canned soups and other similar grocery items. The only problem is that it is a 6 km walk down there and back from where we live. That is not a long walk for us, but we usually end up buying a week's worth of milk (8 kg) and then we add on some cans of soup and other necessities and you are hauling back 15 kg of stuff, which is a fair load for that distance.

So instead of walking down there we take our Rhoades Car. The 3 km trip to the store takes only a few minutes on nice quiet back-streets. Then, as we usually do, I stay with the quadracycle and Ruth goes shopping. I could lock it up and go with her, but, to be honest talking to passers by about the quadracycle is a whole lot more fun than Giant Tiger is.

When she gets back we toss the groceries in our bin, (wow she got a lot of heavy cans this time), cinch down the tie-down strap and pedal home.

Most of 2009 has been like that so far - hauling groceries, top soil, bark mulch and sand around. The Rhoades Car really makes a great pick-up truck and a viable motor vehicle replacement.
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Sunday, May 17th 2009

18:23

Not the First Alcatel-Lucent Sunday Bikeday

Today was the first Alcatel-Lucent Sunday Bikeday of 2009, starting a season of Sunday quadracycling all the way into downtown Ottawa that will last until 6 September. Well at least it should have been the first Alcatel-Lucent Sunday Bikeday, but we didn't go.

Usually we are very keen to take advantage of these events and the chance to put in 30 km of quadracycling, enjoy the sunshine and the warm morning air, before the Colonel By Drive is re-opened to cars at 1300 hrs. But we got up this morning to a temperature of +3C and winds howling to 45 km/hr, giving wind-chills well below zero. The weather system that had dumped six inches of snow on western Manitoba had arrived here in eastern Ontario. It didn't bring any snow, although the temperatures were close to that mark, but it was way too cold to go out quadracycling. I wonder if anyone from Alcatel-Lucent was out there manning the checkpoints? I hope they didn't freeze! I also wonder if the normal assortment of early Sunday morning cyclists, skateboarders, baby-walkers and in-line skaters went out. Somehow I doubt it.

We went out for a walk after lunch and wore coats and sweaters. Ruth wore her gloves and I wished I had worn mine.

The weather is supposed to warm up later this week, into the high 20s. That makes next weekend look like a better bet, except the NCC website carries this warning: "On May 24, 2009, Colonel By Drive will be part of the Ottawa Marathon route and will therefore not be accessible for Alcatel-Lucent Sunday Bikeday participants."

Phhtttt!
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Wednesday, May 6th 2009

8:24

Four Wheels Good – Three Wheels Different

Our regular contributor Gordon Koppang from Lethbridge, Alberta recently sold his Rhoades Car 4W1P single seater and purchased a Catrike Villager tadpole-style tricycle (two wheels in the front, one in the back). Gordon lives "car-free", so the Villager is his only vehicle. He recently put together some thoughts on his new trike versus the Rhoades Car for us.

Four Wheels Good – Three Wheels Different

By Gordon Koppang

I continue to be impressed at how beautifully made the Villager is. I love the fact that they sorted out the front end: built the proper Ackerman angle into the steering geometry and it is also “self-centering.” That means the bike will track straight when I take my hands off the bars. It also means the bumps and irregularities in the road will not throw the bike off its line.

I love the fact that, at 32 lbs, the Villager is light enough and small enough that I can easily take it on the elevator. It sleeps in my living room snug as a bug!

Things I don’t like:

To squeeze maximum gear range out of a 9-speed, they fitted the Villager with an 11-32 cassette. To get the chain around that 32-tooth sprocket, you need a long-cage dérailleur. But long-cage dérailleurs and 20-inch wheels are a bad mix. In bottom gear the dérailleur arm is less than an inch off the dirt. I can’t ride in the coulees with that!

Aluminum is light-weight, but it’s so stiff that it gives the bike a harsh ride and very abrupt handling. Scott’s brother is an old formula Vee race driver. He said right away, “When your frame is stiff it passes all the “give” on to the wheels. So the wheels “wind-up” over a bump, then spring back – making for abrupt handling and sometimes nasty surprises.

A tricycle is a tricycle is a tricycle. Clobbering my way through bumps and turns never gave me a lick of trouble with the Rhoades Car, but doing that on the Villager will dump me out! When turning with a trike, inertia is not your friend! The Villager has a great, very tight – turning circle, but add a bit of speed and a bump to a sharp turn and the Villager just rolls over like a kayak in a swimming pool. It’s not a fault, it’s just physics and I need to re-calibrate my brain.

The Villager actually requires some skill to ride. The direct steering requires a light touch. Don’t yank the bars; nudge them. Maybe I’m getting the hang of this three-wheeler, though, today I went around a corner on two wheels and landed upright!

I am definitely much faster on the Villager than I was on the Rhoades Car. The difference comes down to weight: about 90 pounds for the RC and around 30 pounds for the Villager. I get to all my familiar destinations faster than before and with less effort. To burn the same number of calories with the Villager than I used to burn riding the RC, I’ll have to run all my errands three times over!

The Villager is intended to serve as a town bike, as the name implies. I chose it because it has a higher seat height and more ground clearance than most other tadpole trikes. Only the ICE-T has a 12.5-inch seat height and similar ground clearance – but the ICE-T costs about $1,000 more than the Villager's US$1550 retail price. The Villager has a more upright seat angle than most tadpoles, and I like that. The pedals are mounted only a smidgen higher than the seat, so you don’t get that “ankles-over-ass” seating position that some all-out speed trikes force you into.

Over time I will upgrade the gearing and replace the stock 1.5-inch tires with 1.95s or even 2.0s if the rims will permit it. Interestingly, Schwalbe makes a studded tire that fits the Villager!

The big test will come when Scott and I strike out for Cardston. Town bike or not, the Villager is a far better choice for long out-of-town rides than the 4W1P ever could have been.

The other news here in Lethbridge: my friend Scott is now Car Free! His 1985 VW Sirocco needed to be replaced, so it was time for a new car, or time for “no car”. Since he cycles everywhere, even in winter, it just didn’t make sense to spend a huge pile of money on a new car only to have it sit idle most of the time. So instead of spending a pile of money on a new car, Scott will treat himself to a new trike- probably something from the TerraTrike line. Of course, I still hope that he’ll go nuts and buy a Hase KettWiesel!

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Tuesday, May 5th 2009

15:27

Quadracycling in Montreal



On the first weekend in May Ruth and I decided to go to Montreal to celebrate our tenth anniversary. While we were there we did what all the tourists do in Montreal - saw the sights, including the Redpath Museum, climbed the mountain, ate some bagels, explored the underground city, visited the gardens and, of course, went to the planetarium. We also went down to the docks and Old Montreal, which has been converted into a tourist area and rented a quadracycle!

Even though we are now into our own third season of quadracycle ownership, we have never rented one in another city. Actually I am aware of only two places in Canada that you can do this, Montreal and Toronto's Centre Island. Centre Island features International Surrey Company quadracycles. The quadracycles in Old Montreal are made by Quadricycle International of Montreal. In fact the company not only builds the vehicles, but also runs the rental operation on the Jacques Cartier pier as well.

I had previously been through the Quadricycle International website and they have a very unique design for a rental vehicle in their Quad-3 model. I have wanted to give them a try to see how they are built for some time and also to compare rental quadracycles in general to touring quadracycles. We had a chance to do all that and more.



We found the Quadricycle International booth staffed by two teen-aged girls. They really didn't know anything about quadracycles at all, including who built these ones. They were just there to collect our money, take Ruth's driver's licence as a deposit and make sure the quadracycle came back at the end of the rental period. The company has three models available that we saw: The modern-looking Quad-3 and the antique-car-resembling Q-cycle 3 and 6, all built by Quadricycle International. The company does build a Quad-6, but we didn't see any of those on site.



The rental rates are not cheap. They charge $20 for a half an hour for a Quad-3, with the six seater Q-cycle-6 going for $30 per half hour. The Quad-3 costs Cdn$3150 to buy so it seems that you could pay for one in just 78.75 rental hours. The day we were there it was cool and windy and well before tourist season, but still there were three or four quadracycles out on rental. I imagine in the summertime they are out making money all day and evening long. The fact that they were all fitted with lights makes me think that evening rentals can be factored in.



We started off with a close look at the Quad-3. The vehicle is actually fairly conventionally built from both square and round welded steel tube. The square tube is all one inch and makes up the main structural elements. Some parts, like the seats, are bolted in place. The welding is all first rate and looks solid, indeed the company claims that the Quad-3 weighs in at 180 lbs, so it is very solid.

The seating is a non-adjustable bench seat for three people, with the outer two positions pedalling and a foot rest for the centre seat. There is a seat in front for two small children, although we used it for baggage instead. All the seats are vinyl-covered and padded somewhat. The seating is durable, which is good for the rigours of a rental environment, but not all that comfortable. The seat cushions are thin and I get the impression that after more than an hour or so you would feel it. The ergonomics of the fixed seats were problematic. Ruth is 5'6" and found that she had to sit forward on the seat to pedal and steer properly. At 6'4" I found that the passenger seat left me with the pedals too close. I was able to pedal, but not develop much strength doing it. In trying out the driver's seat I found that my knees would contact the steering wheel, so Ruth did the driving and we both pedalled. The seating is probably an adequate compromise for a rental vehicle, as you have to fit a variety of different sized people and adjustable seats are an inconvenience.

The Quad-3 does have some nice passenger conveniences, including cup holders! As mentioned we used the front child seat for our baggage, but there is a space and even mounting holes under the seat for a cargo rack or basket, although it was not installed. The canopy top is what grabs the eye when you first encounter the Quad-3. It is mounted on a sweepingly curved steel frame and is what gives the quadracycle what the company website says is its "contemporary look". As a real sunshade it works okay as long as the sun is high in the sky, although I suspect it fulfils more of a style function than anything else. The square channel-style chain guards are a good idea and keep the renters' pant cuffs out of the oily chains. Four-wheel mudguards seem to be standard on this model as well.



The running gear is worthy of note. It is a very conventional front sprocket, chain and rear sprocket. The most obvious feature is that both sprockets are the same size! This, combined with the fact that there are no gears to shift, means you won't set any speed records. We found that top speed is about 8 km/h, as the website advertises and above that you just over-speed yourself pedalling. Obviously this one-speed set-up would never do in a touring quadracycle, but it works well in a rental environment as it keeps speeds down and means that there will be no derailleurs to adjust or thrown chains to worry about. It all adds up to a safe and worry-free experience for the renters.

Of interest there is no rear axle. Instead each set of pedals drives its own side rear wheel only. This is obviously a far-cry from the Rhoades Car's posi-traction, which is an absolute requirement for uneven surfaces and off-roading. But the Quad-3 design is adequate on hard and even surfaces and that is all you have to ride on, down on the water front in Old Montreal - they don't let you take them off-roading anyway.

The brakes are what we used to call "coaster brakes" on kid's bikes, in other words you pedal backwards to engage the internal drum brake system. At first blush this seems odd, again because the pedalling is totally independent and therefore the braking is as well. This means that the occupant of either front seat can brake. On our Rhoades Car the brakes are both hand-controlled and solely in the driver's hands. Once again though the set-up on the Quad-3 makes sense - lots of renters put their kids in the left seat to give them a chance to drive the vehicle and this gives the passenger the ability to stop the vehicle, which is a good idea. The brakes work really well, too. From about 5 km/h we called a coordinated stop, applied both our brakes at the same time and it stopped right away, in about four feet. The brakes actually work much better than even the dual disc brakes on the Rhoades Car do.

Once out on the car-free road along the waterfront Ruth had a chance to try out the steering. The steering is via a car-like steering wheel. The mechanism is well-designed, with roller bearings throughout the rack-and-pinion design and is light enough to turn easily. It is set-up with a very low ratio though, meaning you have to turn the wheel a lot to get a tight turn out of the Quad-3. This is bad for avoiding obstacles, but prevents tight turns and possible roll-overs. Combined with the 8 km/h top speed it makes for a very safe rental quadracycle.

Once out on the open road along the waterfront we waved to the other tourists, who then hustled off to rent their own quadracycles. We crossed railway tracks, which the Quad-3 handled well, despite the lack of suspension and headed up a slight slope to the end of the road. With both of us pedalling and the less-than perfect ergonomic constraints we were easily able to handle the slope; of course the low 1:1 gear ratio helped us out there. Once Ruth turned us around we went back down the slope and still didn't pick up much speed. I think the draggy canopy top helped keep us to a low terminal velocity!

When we had finished our ride we returned the Quad-3 and Ruth got her driver's licence back.

Overall I would say that with its ample seating for five, rugged heavy duty construction and built-in safety features, including dual independent braking and an 8 km/h top speed the Quad-3 is almost an ideal tourist destination rental quadracycle. Maintenance would be very minimal and the return on investment should be quite good!

All the things that make the Quad-3 a great rental though would make it a rotten private ownership touring quadracycle. In comparing it to the Rhoades Car 4W2PCP, which is a pretty good heavy duty touring quadracycle it is easy to see why. The 4W2PCP can cruise at 25 km/h, has adjustable and very comfortable seats and has a base weight that is only 64% of the Quad-3's base weight. The 4W2PCP can also handle a lot more freight, making it a useful personal pick-up truck. As is evident, the two vehicles are really built for two completely different roles and clearly what makes a good personal quadracycle would make a poor rental and vice-versa.

There was one thing that occurred to me, while we were enjoying ourselves quadracycling along the waterfront in Montreal and that is that while it was great fun for a half an hour, I think that tourist rentals actually work against the concept of privately-owned touring quadracycles. I would think that anyone who rents one of these for a half an hour would think they were fun, but impractical and probably never consider that there would be a whole different class of quadracycles that are useful as personal transportation. The tourist rental quadracycle is really a novelty market and it may just instil the idea in the renter's mind that therefore all quadracycles are mere novelties.

Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 47 km
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Monday, April 20th 2009

16:41

More Quadracycle Gardening



Our garden is designed to be very low maintenance. We have no grass at all, our front garden is all junipers and cedar bark mulch instead. This means that we only have to replenish the mulch once a year and we are basically done gardening for the year.

The challenge for us is, of course, to go and get heavy things like bags of bark mulch without an automobile. Last year we hauled four bags of mulch back from Home Depot. This year we got a break when Loblaws decided to stock the stuff for a lower price than Home Depot. They are closer to where we live and so we did two runs down there today and picked up four bags of cedar mulch, two bags of plain mulch for the back yard and a bag of sand at Walmart, too. The sand is to mix with the clay soil we have along with the loamy topsoil we got last time to make something that drains a bit better for vegetable gardening.

The cedar bags were 30 lbs each so that first run was about 120 lbs - child's play for the Rhoades Car after the 280 lbs of soil we hauled previously. The second run was about 100 lbs, including 40 lbs of sand.



Once we had the supplies at home it only took about thirty minutes to dump the mulch strategically around the garden and spread it out by hand. Now the garden is all ready for summertime and all done with the incredible hauling power of the Rhoades Car.

Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 21 km
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Thursday, April 16th 2009

18:16

Time to Re-Tire?



For the last two seasons we have been running our Rhoades Car 4W2PCP on the tires that came with it from the factory. These are Chinese-made Cheng Shin tires 20 X 2.125 with a knobby tread on them. These have a maximum inflation pressure of 35 psi. They are actually wearing okay and would probably last a couple more years at the current rate of wear.

While the Cheng Shins are okay, they aren't ideal for the Rhoades Car. The factory probably used them because they are an all-around compromise tire for on-road and off-road use and also because they are cheap.

Readers of this blog will know that our regular contributor, Gordon Koppang, has written much about tires, having examined probably every tire that comes in the small 20 inch size that fits the Rhoades Car rims. Gordon was actually getting ready to install a pair of German-made Schwalbe Big Apple 20 X 2.35 tires when he sold his Rhoades Car and bought a trike instead. Gordon sold us his Big Apples to use on our Rhoades Car. These are the really "big" Big Apples with the 2.35" width.



Once I got the tires and had a look at them I liked the way they were built. The tread is very slick indeed, low profile and low drag, definitely an on-road tire, but then on-road is where we do all our riding these days, anyway. The tires have a good height, meaning that they would give a bigger diameter to the overall wheel-tire combination, plus good shock absorbing. They also incorporate a built-in Kevlar layer for spike protection and a reflector stripe on the sidewalls that would look god at night. Best of all they are rated for up to 60 psi, which combined with the slick tread means that they should be fast on asphalt. Gordon only got two for the rear wheels on his Rhoades Car, but I really didn't want to install just two. If we were going to go "Big Apple" then I wanted to get the full benefit of these tires. So I called up my local bike shop here in South Ottawa, Rebec and Kroes and they were able to order me another pair.

The second pair took ten days to come in, and cost $43.50 each, but they were worth the wait.

Today we installed them, using the existing tubes I had. This was easy on the Rhoades Car, because you don't have to remove the wheels to change the tires, a great design feature. All I did was block up the frame and swap the tires, which took under an hour to do all four. After pumping them up to 50 psi (10 psi under max rating) I took the quadracycle out on the road to give it a solo test run. The first thing I noticed was that solo if you step on the gas you can spin the tires in low gear from a standing start! I did a couple of runs and there is no doubt that they make the cycle faster, both in top speed and acceleration. We didn't have any reliable means of figuring out how much faster, but it is noticeable when riding.

So next Ruth and I decided to make a local run down to Giant Tiger to get some milk and give them a workout. This is a 6 km round trip, so while it isn't far it does give a good run on the local asphalt streets, including stops, starts and lots of turns. Our overall impressions? The Big Apples are superior in every respect to the Cheng Shins, except perhaps in price. Our top speed was higher, as was acceleration while braking was still good. The cycle has more suspension effect from the new tires because, even though they are higher pressure, they are a higher profile. They definitely smooth out the bumps. As a bonus they really reduce road noise as well. The knobby Cheng Shins are loud on hard surfaces, especially when cornering. With the Big Apples cornering is actually easier and much quieter as well. Even when going straight and level the Big Apples are very quiet.

So our conclusion is that if you are looking for tires for your Rhoades Car, the Schwalbe Big Apples in 20 X 2.35 can't be beat, although expect to pay close to Cdn$200 for a set of four of them. They aren't cheap, but they are worthwhile.

Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 15 km
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Sunday, April 5th 2009

16:01

Quadracycle Gardening - 2009 Edition



This year Ruth decided that she wants to do some vegetable gardening and less flower gardening. Sounds relatively easy and practical! However we really needed to get some soil to replace and replenish what is in our pots and beds. The good news is that Walmart at South Keys had bags of soil on sale for $1 a bag, a very good price. The bad news is that the bags are 35 lbs each and we figured we could use about 8 of them and, of course we have no car.

So how to get 280 lbs of topsoil home? Well we decided to use the quadracycle, of course. Last year we managed to go to Home Depot and retrieve 120 lbs of bark mulch without any difficulty at all. This trip was closer to home, but much more weight.

So we pedalled to South Keys and Ruth went in to pay for the bags of topsoil, while, as usual I answered questions from passers-by. That is always great fun! After a few false starts (Walmart staff) Ruth paid for her eight bags of soil and I moved the quadracycle over to the pallets to load it all. I had put on all three large 68 litre bins in advance and these proved just big enough, with the bags standing up on end. I had to have Ruth sit on the seat to hold the front end down as the last few bags were loaded, but they were all on board and the front wheels were still on the ground.

Setting off it was obvious that the front end was a bit light, but it was no problem to handle. We had a good hill to go up getting home, but didn't get any lower than about sixth gear. My guess is that due to balance considerations 280 lbs is about as big a load as you would want to carry on the 4W2PCP model, although I am sure the long frame 4W2PLF would handle a lot more!

Back at home I unloaded the bags while Ruth stayed in her seat. She didn't want to chance up-ending the cycle. It all worked out just fine and we are now set for planting season. The Rhoades Car is very impressive for what it can carry!

Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 3.0 km
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Friday, April 3rd 2009

15:19

Some Steering Maintenance



While doing the test drives a couple of days ago I noticed that there was a fair amount of lateral free-play in the front wheels. This is similar to what Gordon Koppang wrote about last year when he rebuilt his steering system for exactly the same reason.

I lifted up the front end and the problem seemed to be in the same place. The large vertical bolts that hold the steering pivots seems to have a lot of looseness in them, allowing the bottom of the wheels at the tires to move in and out about 1/2".

In a week of rain, the weather was actually nice yesterday so we opened up the garage and rolled the quadracycle half out, blocked up the front end and proceeded to pull the steering mechanism and the front wheels off. It is all very logical and easy to see how it works. After disconnecting the tie-rod and the small steering rod the vertical bolts slide through the frame, a few washers, a large rubber bushing and the steering pivot brackets. In pulling this assembly apart I found the same thing Gordon found - the shimming between the bolt and the steering brackets consists of two plastic split cones on each side (see photo). These had either worn or were undersized to start with and were allowing a small amount of movement. Of course through the wonders of leverage, a small movement in the bearing surface becomes a fairly large movement at the wheel rim and tire.



I decided that the best solution was to snug the gaps up, but rather than use masking tape, as Gordon did, I opted for Teflon tape. This type of tape, used in plumbing, is very thin and so several wraps were needed to take up as much slack as possible. Teflon tape is very tough and of course makes a good sliding bearing surface. After wrapping the split cones we assembled the whole thing and found that the slack is now much reduced. Obviously you can't take out all the play in the system or else the steering would bind.

A quick test run showed that the free-play has been reduced and the steering feels much better as well.

Having the quadracycle front end apart also gave us a chance to see how the parts are holding up and, other than the plastic cones, I am pleased to report no visible wear on any other parts.

Today was more rain again and the next seven days looks like lots more rain and perhaps even some snow, all except Sunday, which is forecast to be +8C and only cloudy. I guess we will have to get out quadracycling on Sunday!
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Tuesday, March 31st 2009

15:23

We're Back!



Well sort of. We got in the first quadracycle ride of the season today, six days earlier than last year, but that is not to say that we went very far.

Today was the first dry day after two solid days of rain. The rain washed away the salt and grime from the streets, but even this afternoon was still pretty cool outside, just above freezing, so we rode with gloves on.

We started by rolling the Rhoades Car outside the garage and giving it a good check over. It looked fine, no rust or damage from being stored all winter. The tires were all about 25 psi and so we pumped those up to a good 35 psi. We then wiped down the chains, rear axle and steering mechanism with oil and it was pretty much ready to go. When we last rode it the quadracycle was set up for Ruth to drive and she wanted me to take the first trip this year so we unbolted the seats and set them up for our own heights.

That done, we went for a spin down to the end of the cul-de-sac and back. Once we got up into high gear the wind whistling past was cold! We had sweaters, jackets and gloves on, which helped, but it was still pretty cool. We made a few adjustments, a few test runs, tried out the full gear ranges and that was about it. By that time we had cooled off sufficiently to call it a day.

The weather forecast says nothing but rain, rain, rain for the most of the next week, with +16C and sun on Thursday and then +11C and sun on Sunday, so we may get out again this week.

At this time of year I really don't mind losing a few cycling days to the rain, we need the salt washed away and we need the rain for the vegetation as well. Ottawa normally gets about 1/3 of its snow in March, but this year we received almost none at all. It was a very dry late winter and consequently the forests were getting very dried out. Rain is good as the city will turn green sooner.
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Thursday, February 5th 2009

10:03

At Least Someone Is Quadracycling

Yes here in Ottawa it was -23C this morning with windchills close to the -40 mark. There is about three feet of snow on the ground and the roads are either snow-packed or covered in a thick layer of rock salt. Not really quadracycling weather!

But out in Alberta or correspondent Gordon Koppang has been out riding his Rhoades Car 4W1P this week. Of course it was +14C there yesterday and will be the same temperature today and didn't even hit freezing overnight!

Now that February is here and the days are getting distinctly longer it won't be too long before the snow melts here and we are back to riding our quadracycle once again. Hopefully the summer of 2009 will be a bit less wet than the summer of 2008 was!
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Monday, December 22nd 2008

16:36

The 2008 Quadracycling Season



Yesterday was the winter solstice, the official first day of winter. Actually we have winter here for a while. Today was very cold, with high winds and high wind chills. We also have about two feet of snow on the ground and the piles of snow beside our driveway are now five feet high. It is definitely winter here in Ottawa and may prove to be a record-breaking year for snowfall, too.

As I have mentioned before, winter is definitely not the time to quadracycle here in Ottawa. Some people do cycle all year round here, but the city's habit of pouring thousands of tons of salt on everything each time it snows means that bicycles, like cars, disappear in flakes of rust quickly. We just cover our quadracycle in oil and park it in the nice dry garage until the snow is gone, where it stays rust free.

2008 was an odd year for cycling, because it was an odd year for summer, at least in this part of the country. Without a doubt we are solidly in the grip of climate change now. Our winters seem to be suddenly colder and with a lot more snow. They also seem to arrive earlier and leave later than in the past. The summer of 2008 was cool and very, very wet. In looking back through our blog entries most of them seem to mention the endless rain we had to contend with. We don't like cycling in the rain so that meant that we didn't do as much quadracycling as we wanted to do. We had set a goal of trying to quadracycle 1000 km and only made it to 505.8 km for the year.

Of course it wasn't just our quadracycling trips that suffered, we didn't do as many hikes as we would have liked or other outdoor activities, either. We had to plan carefully and count on the weather forecasts to deliver a rain-free day now and then. Our infamous quadracycling camping trip was a complete wash-out.

But the wet summer wasn't all bad. The city stayed very green all year long, until it turned white, anyway. The flora was amazing, like living on the west coast!

Whenever we had a dry day we took advantage of it and got out cycling. We didn't get very far from home this year, getting downtown Ottawa on the Sunday bike days was about it for some 30 km rides. We love doing those - we always have a great time and meet lots of interesting people along the way, many of whom stop just to ask about our Rhoades Car.

2008 was also the year of the cracked dérailleurs. It was in mid-June that we discovered that both our rear dérailleurs had cracked. Our Rhoades Car was delivered with two rear SunRace derailleurs and two front Shimano derailleurs. The Shimanos have been great, the SunRace have not.

When we identified the two cracked units a quick call to Beth at Rhoades Car plus a couple of photos had new dérailleurs on the way to us, covered under warranty. We installed these and rode on them for a while, inspecting them regularly. And then on September 1st both rear SunRace replacement dérailleurs turned up cracked too. The factory were happy to send us a another set of SunRace derailleurs, but we decided to get our own Shimanos locally. It saved a bunch of time in shipping delays and we were quickly back on the road. The Shimanos have been great ever since.

The only other mechanical problem we had was a loose pedal on Hallowe'en, while we were out enjoying a rare dry spot on the calendar. This was quickly solved by replacing the factory lock-washer with some locktite blue instead and it has been fine ever since, as well.

I think the best cycling week of the year turned out to be the first week of November, when we had finished Indian summer, had a significant snowfall and then had another Indian summer again. It was week of dry and warm weather.

Of course 2008 was also a good year for participation in our little website adventure by our good friend and correspondent from Lethbridge, Gordon Koppang. He contributed many great articles on a variety of quadracycling subjects. We settled on him sending us completed items in PDF format and just posting the results whole. They are all still there, cataloged and linked from our home page.

Of course the nature of the future 2009 quadracycling season is currently a mystery. Will it be wetter than 2008? Hopefully not, but we have to get through the 2009 XC ski season first! We will continue to post quadracycling news here as we have it over the winter and then things will get busy again in the spring. We hope you will keep reading and perhaps add a comment or two to this blog!
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Wednesday, December 3rd 2008

9:52

Gordon's Story from 30 November 2008



Our quadracycling season was ended by a pretty good snowfall and the associated salt that the city dumps on everything in sight.

But the same is not the case in other parts of Canada. Out in Lethbridge, Alberta Gordon Koppang was still out riding on Sunday 30 November 2008!

After sending us an e-mail which we posted on our blog yesterday, Gordon decided to do a complete write up and provide some extra photos of the trip through the coulées of the river valley with his friends John and Scott. Since the day had a forecast high of +9°C, why not?

At least in southern Alberta they haven't got the snow, or the salt to contend with that we have here in Ottawa.

Read Gordon's 30 November 08 article A Late Fall Ride in Lethbridge. (3.1 MB PDF file)

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Tuesday, December 2nd 2008

18:53

Some People Are Still Quadracycling



Even though here in Ottawa we have been too snowed in (and the roads salted) to take our Rhoades Car out, that is not the case in every part of Canada. As our correspondent in Lethbridge, Alberta, Gordon Koppang writes:

********************************************************************************

Here are some pics from our latest Sunday Drive.  Snow on the ground today, so it's a good thing we were out enjoying the nice day while we had it!!
 
The fat K-Rads (58mm wide - regular K-Rads are 54mm) worked well on the coulees.  They did particularly well in the sand along the river and in the ice / slush that wasn't frozen hard enough to support the weight of me and the RC. 
 
I'm used to the fat K-rads on the rear now.  Keeping them at 55 PSI really helps, but the tread makes them howl like a truck tire on any smooth surface.  My theory is, noise is vibration and vibration equals drag. 
 
Speaking of tires....  I was at one of the local bike shops (three in Lethbridge) looking at tires, and the young fellow showed me a brand of tire I had not seen before.  The tires are called "wethepeople" (we the people) and they make a 20 x 2.25 slick ("Animal") which I am tempted to try on the front.  The tires are distributed out of Burnaby BC by an outfit called Ten Pack.  I handled "the grippin" tire and it was stiffer than the K-rads, but not as stiff as that damn Duro "Fantasy" I tried. 
 
Here are the tires!


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Tuesday, November 25th 2008

15:06

Season's End?



After the early part of November turned out to be really nice, not surprisingly things cooled off rapidly. We have been out for a few short rides in the past couple of weeks, but today the snow came down. Yes that picture is the view past the quadracycle in the garage of the white world outside.

So far we have about 4 inches (100 mm) on the ground, with more forecast for tonight and tomorrow. It is always sad when quadracycling season comes to an end, but the bright part is that XC ski season can't be far off!

Here in Ottawa the winters are very unpredictable, especially given the realities of climate change. Last winter was very snowy. The snow came early and we had amazing amounts of it. That made for an early end to quadracycling, but a great skiing season. In 2006/07 winter was very late - we had no real snow until the middle of January and even then it didn't last very long. So you never know when things will pick up again. It may be a great ski season or a poor one. It may be a long winter and a late start to quadracycling in the spring or not. The best part is that we are prepared either way!

As the winter goes on, this blog inevitably slows down, but we will try to post news of the four-wheeled world when we have it available, especially from our other contributors.

Total quadracycling for 2008 - 505.8 km
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Wednesday, November 5th 2008

20:03

Double Indian Summer



This week has turned out to be a amazingly gorgeous week. If climate change is to blame then this is one of the better effects it produces. Normally we have high temperatures of about 7C at this time in November and can expect snow showers every now and then, but this whole week we are experiencing temperatures in the high teens. Today it hit 19C, which is t-shirt weather around here!

So we took advantage of the beautiful day and went quadracycling for 10.4 km around the area. This trip was a regular "errand run" to return a couple of library books and also make a grocery stop. At the library we used the "drive-through" book return.

As usual at the grocery store I ended up staying with the bike while Ruth went in to do the shopping.

The quadracycle caught the eye of a very tall, slim woman who couldn't help stopping to ask about it. It turned out that she is visiting from Montana and lives in a small town there. She has been car-free for ten years, which is quite a feat in a small rural US town! The quadracycle always seems to attract the interest of interesting people!

This run was also a chance to check out the loctite on the pedal and see if it did the trick. Loctite is a great stuff - I have used it a lot in the aircraft world where if things fall off, the consequences are usually more serious and so I really trust the bloo-goo! It held just fine on the pedal. We will monitor it for a while and see if there are any problems. It would be a better solution than washers!

Price of gas locally today $0.867

Total quadracycling for 2008 so far - 491.8 km
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Friday, October 31st 2008

18:20

Hallowe'en Quadracycling: Pranks and Cranks



We thought that the weather would put an end to quadracycling this past week when we got 11 cm (4 1/3 inches) of snow. We even had some drifting snow as well! Yes this is pretty early for Ottawa, we often don't have snow actually accumulated on the ground until just before Christmas. Climate change is certainly taking its toll.

Of course the climate is more unstable than anything and so after a couple of days where the temperature didn't get much above freezing, today we made it up to 14C and all the snow is gone. It was just about "T-shirt weather" outside in the sunshine.

So, given this respite from an early winter, we decided to get out and do some quadracycling. We waited until after lunch, when the weather had warmed up near the high for the day. It was truly nice outside, only a small amount of cirrus cloud in the sky, portending tonight's cold front and a return to high temperatures near zero for the weekend.

Besides that, we wanted to get out around the neighbourhood to see some of the Hallowe'en decorations. Yes, some people around here go nuts with inflatable jack-o-lanterns, cotton wool, orange plastic bags full of leaves and plastic gravestones. I guess they then feel all warmed up for Christmas.

We had a nice ride, went south from our house and then back north with the intention of crossing Hunt Club Road and making our way to Loblaws to pick up a few heavier items. But then, while about 6 km away from home, I felt something not right with the Rhoades Car - my left-hand pedal was coming loose! Gordon Koppang had recently related a story where the same thing happened, also far from home. He mentioned that for some reason the crank-sets are installed backwards on Rhoades Cars. In most bikes the cranks are installed the other way up, so that the force from your foot tightens the pedals on the crank arm. Instead Rhoades Car installs them the other way around and puts a big split lock-washer on to stop the pedal backing off. I told Gordon, too early it seems, that I hadn't seen the same problem.

I always have lots of tools with me, so I tightened the pedal carefully and set off again. About 300 meters along the road it was loose again. I tightened it again and the same happened right away.

Time for a Plan "B".

We decided that we had better head home and only have the right-hand seat do all the pedalling. That was Ruth in that seat and we started off up a good hill. The results were not pretty or very effective. So we pulled over and adjusted the seats so we could swap; she would steer and I would pedal. Unfortunately adjusting the seats takes a while to do. Our Rhoades Car seats have to be removed and re-installed as we have two separate range holes, due to our height disparity. Fortunately I always carry rubber gloves to do this as the seat adjusters are right next to the chains and it is impossible to carry out this operation without getting covered in grease, hence the gloves.

The seats finally adjusted, in a less-than-totally-good humour we set off again with Ruth steering, but not pedalling and me providing all the horsepower. We had some good hills to take going home and it was hard work without Ruth's help, even in first gear.

Finally we made it home. I pulled off the offending pedal, cleaned the threads carefully with degreaser, toothbrushes etc. When the surfaces were all clean and dry I re-installed them, without the lock-washer. The washer actually reduces thread contact area and I think makes it more likely you will have a pedal come loose. In place of the lock-washer I applied a generous amount of Loctite "blue" thread locker. Loctite is essentially metal glue. As long as the surfaces are clean then it will stop the pedal from coming undone, hopefully.

The next step is to wait a few days for the Loctite to fully dry and then try it out. If it works well I will probably remove all the pedals and Loctite them all. I would hate to be far from home and have another pedal come loose.

Overall this was not a big problem to solve, but it was really unnecessary to have to deal with it in the first place. Why not put the cranks and chains on the correct side in the first place? Perhaps there was a design reason, but I don't know what it was.

In the end we did do our grocery run, but on foot instead. Tuesday is supposed to be 17C, so perhaps we will take the quadracycle out for another run then and see how it performs.


Pedal with lock washer


Loctite blue on the threads, ready to be tightened


Price of gas locally today $0.869

Total quadracycling for 2008 so far - 481.4 km
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Saturday, October 11th 2008

17:55

Indian Summer



We have had our first frost and now the temperatures have returned from last week's chilly daytime highs to the 20 degree Celsius mark, which is the very definition of Indian Summer. The last few days have been warm, sunny and dry. So far it has turned out to be a better season than the actual summer we got, which was very wet.

We haven't done enough quadracycling recently, due the weather last week and some injuries, but we had to get out today, as the day was so gorgeous that it could not be avoided.

The trees in the south part of Ottawa are starting to really change colours and even though the colours are a bit muted this year, probably due to the rain and lack of sunshine, they are still not bad at all. Passing by a city park in the area I had to stop and snap a photo to share the colours here.

So we cycled 14.2 km around the area. It is odd, but even for a Saturday there was a lot of traffic out on the roads. Maybe it was because gasoline is suddenly cheap due to the wild stock market situation and "economic downturn" so everyone is out driving. I don't know. I do know that everyone in the city we talked to seemed to be in a good mood - we got lots of positive comments, thumbs-up and smiles for our quadracycle today - more than we normally get I think. I attribute it more to the sunny warm day here in mid-October than their mutual fund performances. Regardless of the reasons, it is good to see everyone feeling so positive today.

The warm Indian Summer weather is forecast to continue for the next few days, before it gets much cooler next week. So we will probably take advantage of the weather and get out for a few more rides here on the Thanksgiving Weekend. After all we have much to be thankful for, beautiful weather for quadracycling at least!

Price of gas locally today $0.986

Total quadracycling for 2008 so far - 469.5 km
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Sunday, September 21st 2008

20:11

The Last Day of Summer



Today was a really gorgeous day, 14C and sunny with almost no wind, perfect for a quadracycle ride. So we went out mid-afternoon around the local area, logging 9.7 km on the GPS.

We actually haven't been out quadracycling since September 8th. The main reasons have been, yes, more rain and that we have both had colds. The colds were a nuisance, but the rain has been something else. We had the left-overs from a hurricane (Ike) and even a Pacific tropical storm (Lowell) blow through and bring more unwelcome precipitation. It has been this way all summer.

The good news is that this next week is shaping up to be a dry one, at last and perhaps we'll get more quadracycling in, before it gets wet out again.

At this point all I can say is that it doesn't look like Ruth will meet her 1000 km goal for this year, but we will give it a shot. Perhaps the fall, which starts officially tomorrow, will prove drier than the summer, spring and last winter were? We aim to get out everyday that we can, especially when we get clear, calm and dry days like today was.

Even while we are quadracycling near to home and think that everyone in this area must have seen us out pedalling in the past two years, we still get questions! Today we got "pulled over" on a quiet suburban street by a guy driving his car who wanted to ask us about the quadracycle. We don't mind - it is always great to talk to people about the vehicle and how much fun it it to ride together.



Price of gas locally today $1.124

Total quadracycling for 2008 so far - 455.3 km
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Monday, September 8th 2008

14:32

On the Road With the New Derailleurs



After doing a short run last week to check out the new dérailleurs, we parked our quadracycle in the garage for the weekend. On Saturday it rained 17 mm, which is quite a lot. Sunday was a bit better and I did a bicycle trip with my old Norco Alpine 12 speed to Carleton Place airport and back (100 km round trip) to attend the fly-in there. Later in the day it started raining again and rained most of the evening as well.

Since this morning was dry and the forecast didn't look good for later in the day, Ruth wanted to get out for a quadracycle ride while we could. We did a trip of 13.9 km around the local neighbourhoods. This late in the year the gardens are fading fast as the flowers lose their blooms for the fall. We even stopped at South Keys Second Cup for a mid-morning coffee break, which was nice as the sun was still shining at that point in the day.

We had a lot of interest in the Rhoades Car from passers by today and answered quite a number of questions from interested people, all women today for some reason.

The longer trip today gave us a chance to really test out the Shimano dérailleurs a bit more extensively. Ruth and I both agree that they are a great improvement over the SunRace units that we had in the rear position before. Aside from the fact that the SunRace ones cracked easily, the Shimanos are smoother, shift easier and are far quieter. Essentially the only advantage the SunRace dérailleurs have to offer is cheaper price, but they aren't worth the savings in my opinion. We are now very happy to have four Shimanos on our quadracycle.

As we head into fall soon, we haven't quadracycled as many kilometers as we had hoped to. The wet weather has been a real problem. Climatologists say that this summer is just an indication of climate change, mostly brought on by humans burning fossil fuels. We are doing our part by not owning and running a car. It would be nice if the weather were a bit less wet so we can show everyone else the benefits of quadracycling instead of driving everywhere.

Price of gas locally today $1.190

Total quadracycling for 2008 so far - 445.6 km
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