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Monday, November 16th 2009

15:57

Late Season



Here it is, the third week in November and we are still out quadracycling, which is pretty good!

We went out for a run after lunch today, when the day has warmed up to its forecast high or +7C. The sun was shining, so it didn't feel too bad out cycling in this weather, especially after a wet weekend. The weather at this time of year has varied greatly in the past number of years. Thanks to climate change you never know what you are going to get. It can be mild, warm and sunny or it can be wet or even snowy, putting an end to the season. You have to take the weather you get and if it is nice, get out cycling.

Today we decided to go for a ride around the local area and go past Giant Tiger to pick up some more soup. With the H1N1 flu virus in full swing you can never have too much soup in the house. As usual I waited in the parking lot with the quadracycle, while Ruth went inside. I spent the time giving the vehicle a clean-up as it was a bit dusty. I had carefully picked a parking spot in the sunshine and I was pleasantly warmed while I waited for her return. We even had one couple drop by to ask questions, something you get quite used to when you drive a quadracycle.

With the shopping done we headed home, but it was too nice out to go straight home, so we took a detour. The nearby housing development at Deerfield Village finally had its streets given their last layer of asphalt, so we cycled around the neighbourhood and enjoyed their new, smooth blacktop. We even quadracycled on their recreational pathways, now strewn with dead leaves.

Finally we made it home, unpacked the groceries and put the quadracycle away in the garage. The rest of this week looks fairly similar to today for weather, sunny and cool, with no snow in the offing. So perhaps we will get some more rides in before the ski season starts up.

Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 344 km
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Saturday, September 19th 2009

20:56

How Many Wheels?



We have both had a busy week and a half, doing lots of cycling recently. The continuing great weather has been wonderful for all outdoor activities - no rain and fairly warm, but not hot, temperatures.

On 20 August Ruth took a test drive on a Catrike tadpole-style recumbent tricycle and decided to order a Catrike Trail model from the local dealer Les Bicyclettes de Hull. She wanted me to order one, but on 9 September 2009 I found a used Catrike Speed model for sale in the area and bought that. Going out to see it involved a 50 km round trip on my mountain bike - easier than taking the bus to the far reaches of Aylmer, Quebec! I put in 20 km bringing the Speed home from Westboro, where I was able to pick it up. Since then I have done a number of trips on it and have a good feel for its speed, handling and load carrying capabilities.

Ruth's Catrike Trail arrived on Tuesday 15 September. Ruth got the call from Les Bicyclettes de Hull that her order had arrived, had been assembled and was ready for pick-up. She took the bus up there and I rode my Catrike Speed there to be able to ride home with her. That was a 45 km trip.

Since then we have done more trips together and individually, getting used to the Catrikes and what they can do, as well as tweaking and adjusting things, installing racks and saddle bags for carrying gear on the road. We have also done some quadracycle trips, mostly getting groceries and hauling loads home.

The first question many readers may ask is "are we selling our quadracycle?". The answer to that is "no". When we got our Rhoades Car in early 2007 we knew it would not entirely replace our mountain bikes and in a similar manner the Catrikes don't replace the quadracycle. They all do different things for us.

The Rhoades Car is comfortable and carries a good load, but isn't very fast. Also its width restricts it from NCC bike pathways. Our biggest load carried to date was 280 lbs of top soil - something you can't do with many other cycles. Our longer trips turn in consistent average speeds of 15 km/h. It also has the advantage of side-by-side seating, which is much more friendly and enables both people to carry on a conversation easily while pedalling. It makes a great pick-up truck.

The Catrikes are definitely fast - I can cruise mine at 30 km/h without too much effort on a flat road and get 35 km/h out of it with a bit of work. They are both also very comfortable to ride. With my two saddlebags installed I can carry a few items up to about 30 or 40 lbs total weight. They are both very much road bikes and do best on very smooth surfaces. The handling is very light and they are very manoeuvrable, very much like a sports car. They are also light weight, my Speed is just 29 lbs basic weight weight. When we are out together it is quite different from being out on the Rhoades Car - we are almost always in single file and that means that it is hard to communicate, unless we stop for a break. Still her Catrike Trail does give Ruth some mobility when her balance is off, which is often the case these days. Also, unlike the four-wheeled quadracycle, her Catrike can be electrically motorised legally in the future and turned into an e-bike, if need be. We have started a diary of our Catriking experiences.

Our mountain bicycles are still useful for off-roading and taking routes that require an upright bike. They aren't fast - my long distance speed usually turns out to be about 22 km/h, but they are all-terrain. They can also do something that neither the Rhoades Car nor the Catrikes can do: hop over curbs.

So our garage is getting to be full of cycles of various types, but they all add up to complimentary solutions to getting around without a car. I have to say each one is a lot of fun in its own right!

Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 322 km
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Sunday, September 13th 2009

19:11

Continuing Amazing Weather

Climate change is weird - you certainly never know what you will get for weather from one year to the next.

This year we had the wettest month ever recorded in Ottawa and that was July! So far September has not only been very dry, but has proven warmer than July was. In fact September is about to set its own record, as the longest rain-free period ever recorded in Ottawa. Essentially it is like summer started after the first week of August!

Of course that did work out well for our end-of-August camping trip to Sandbanks Provincial Park and it has also worked out well for quadracycling and most other outdoor activities, too.

Today was one of these beautiful days we have been having - it reached 22C in the late afternoon, with a bit of wind following a dry cold frontal passage overnight last night. With the Alcatel-Lucent Bikedays over for the year, we decided to head out and do a local quadracycle trip around the neighbourhood for about 14 km, in the mid-morning. We departed just after 1030 when the temperature was a respectable 19C, not warm with the wind, but nice cycling weather. We stopped in at a local shop to pick up some groceries for lunch on the way home and I sat in the shade of a tree with the quadracycle while Ruth went shopping for vegetables. I even answered a few questions from passers-by about the Rhoades Car.

So far the rest of the month is forecast to have highs in the mid-teens and very little rain. In this part of the country we sometimes get Atlantic hurricane remnants coming through here, dumping huge amounts of rain on us, but this year has been very quiet for hurricanes, just like every year since 2005. I think we will have to take advantage of this late-arriving summer while we can, because the onset of winter has proven equally hard to predict. In the winter of 2006-07 we had no snow until mid-January and that meant a late season cycling instead of early skiing. In 2007-08 the snow was on the ground on 25 November.

I think the only strategy is to "make hay while the sun shines" or "cycle while you can".

Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 316 km
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Sunday, September 6th 2009

13:50

The Last Colonel By Drive Run for 2009



One of the sure signs that fall is almost here is the end of the Alcatel-Lucent Sunday Bikedays on the city's NCC parkways. This occurs every year on the Labour Day weekend, but for us it always seems too soon.

To my mind, at least in the last two years, the end of bikedays has come far too early. This year July was incredibly wet and in fact set a record for the wettest month ever recorded in the city. Summer really didn't get going in earnest until early August, leaving us with just four weeks of bikedays before everything is ended at Labour Day. If it were up to me I would extend the bikedays until Thanksgiving, as this seems to be the period when the best, or at least driest, weather happens. Of course if it were up to me I would just close the Colonel By Drive to motorized traffic permanently and make it a bike-commuter route to downtown!

Today started off a bit cool. We left at 0845 when the official temperature was 11C. By the time we got home again at 1130 it was 17C. With light winds and sunshine it was actually perfect biking weather - not too hot or too cold at all.

The run went flawlessly this time. We made it to the University of Ottawa in good time, made our way through the campus, paying attention to the new "pedestrian-only" mall signs and went to the Second Cup on Laurier for morning coffee break. The university was thick with new and returning students getting ready to start classes on Tuesday. It is the one time of year when you can see fresh young faces, all carrying their favourite pillows to their new life in residence. There were a few tears too, but I am not sure if that was due to separation anxiety or due to the tuition fee increases this year.

On the Colonel By Drive itself there was not all that much bike and roller skate traffic. I think the cooler temperatures dissuaded some people from coming out early. As usual we got lots of waves and positive comments on the quadracycle. The little kids especially seem enthralled by it when we ride by - "Lookit mommy, I want one."

It is always sad to do the last bikeday, as it means that summer is coming to an end soon. Fortunately we will still have at least a couple of months of cycling here in Ottawa before the snow puts an end to the season. We will just be out quadracycling on the streets and other routes, instead of on the parkways on Sunday mornings.

Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 304 km
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Tuesday, August 25th 2009

19:21

A Tale of Two Trips



Ruth has been doing pretty well with her balance for much of the summer of 2009 and so we have been doing some more trips on our mountain bikes. We have also been doing some quadracycling and the contrast in uses shows where each vehicle's strengths are.

Yesterday the weather forecast was free of rain and so we planned an ambitious round trip of about 54 km from our house near South Keys to Lac Leamy and back. Lac Leamy is a beach in the heart of Gatineau, Quebec, near the casino of the same name. We planned to take a picnic lunch and lots of water as the temperature was forecast to reach 25C. The trip lent itself to bicycling for two reasons:

* We didn't need to carry much, so the pick-up truck capabilities of the quadracycle were not required.

* The route is not open to quadracycles.

The route was the key thing. It starts out on roads north to Mooney's Bay, but from there we are much better off on bike pathways, rather than the roads on a workday, with all the traffic that entails. The NCC's recreational pathways vary in width a lot and overall are too narrow for the quadracycle.

The route was the pathway parallel to the Colonel By Drive, over the Corktown Bridge and then down the western pathway to the bottom of the canal locks. Then traverse the top of the last lock to reach the pathway on the eastern side, up the pathway and onto the Alexandra bridge with its bike pathway. Carrying the 160 lb quadracycle over the canal was a non-starter! From there the route followed NCC recreational pathways all the way to Lac Leamy. An easy biking route, but not possible by quadracycle.

With some scenic lookouts and dawdling over lunch at the beach, some popsicles and such, we made it home in about six hours, a beautiful day well spent and really only possible by bicycle!

Today we did a typical quadracycle trip. This entailed using the Rhoades Car's considerable cargo capacity to do a run to Giant Tiger to get a quanity of milk, can goods and other groceries. The route is over quiet suburban streets - perfect for quadracycling. Completing the 6 km run, we were back home in 40 minutes, even given lots of time for shopping. This is really a mission that the quadracycle excels at - hauling loads.

I think this tale shows that both quadracycles and bikes have their advantages and disadvantages, but in the end, they are quite complimentary.

This mix is going to get more complex, however. Inspired by Gordon's stories about Catrikes and her own try on the Leitra velomobile trike, Ruth wanted to get a closer look at trikes. We made a trip to Gatineau to visit the local Catrike dealer, Bicyclettes de Hull. Ruth test drove a Catrike Pocket and was impressed enough to order a Catrike Trail model. It should be here in early September. Once she gets familiar with it we will be able to compare bikes with two, three and four wheels.

Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 274 km
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Tuesday, August 18th 2009

10:31

The Leitra Velomobile



We recently made contact with Jamil Shariff who found us on though our website! Jamil is an Ottawa-based writer and consultant who works on green projects for The Boxfish Group. He is also the author of 50 Green projects for the Evil Genius and rides a Leitra Velomobile, probably the only one in Ottawa.

Jamil was interested in meeting up with us to have a look at the Rhoades Car. He does fibreglass work and thinks that the 4W2PCP would be a candidate for a full fairing, like the Leitra has. I think that would be an interesting challenge, given the Rhoades Car's width, but Jamil thinks it would work well and probably not add more than about 25 lbs to the vehicle.

We met up with him on Sunday 16 August 2009 at the University of Ottawa. That was a good location, only a few blocks from his home and just off the Colonel By Drive on a Sunday Bike Day for us! We met there at 1000 hrs, which gave Ruth a chance to get a coffee at the Second Cup on Laurier Avenue first and then make the rendezvous. Jamil brought along his Leitra, sans the body fairing, as he indicated that it was pretty warm and humid out for the fairing. We all had a look at both vehicles, took a bunch of photos and then swapped to head out for a run on the Colonel By southbound. Jamil drove the 4W2PCP with Ruth and I tried out the Leitra, then Ruth took a turn on the velomobile.

The Leitra actually works quite well. Without the fairing it is just a welded tubular steel framed tadpole trike with standard bike components, six rear-mounted gears, a single Shimano derailleur, one rear caliper brake and two front drum brakes. The steering is a curious lever-controlled system, operating through a series of scissors that makes for a very compact set up. Actually the whole vehicle is small and compact, as well as low to the ground. The steering is very sensitive, even compared to the Rhoades Car. The gearing has a very narrow range and it took me a few tries to figure out which gears were low and which were high, they are that close together. This model previously had an electric motor installed and Jamil indicated that the gearing worked better with the motor.

The velomobile is pretty light in weight and accelerates quickly. For me at least the ergonomics are pretty good and I could generate fairly good leg power. Jamil has built a carbon-fibre seat for it and I rode on that without a cushion. It really needs the cushion as the seat back wasn't that comfortable. When Ruth tried it she found the set-up was too tall for her to ride properly, but then I should have put her ObusForme behind her!

I found the trike remarkably stable on the road and easy to pedal. I can see how, with the right cushions that you could comfortably cover long distances with it.

Jamil enjoyed his ride on the Rhoades Car and we guided the two vehicles down the parkway for a few kilometres before we had to head home. It would be interesting on a cooler day to try out the Leitra with the fairing installed and see if it provides any speed advantages through drag reduction. With its windshield it would certainly provide good weather protection.

I have often hoped that velomobiles would catch on better in North America, as they seem to be popular only in Europe, especially in Germany, Denmark and the northern parts of the continent. Given what is going to happen to gas prices in the near future (again) there would seem to be a good market for these almost all-weather vehicles here in Canada, with our climate. I think most of the lack of interest is a "social normativity" problem. Here in North America velomobiles are only seen in commercials for green products and thus seem to be considered part of the "ultra-green fringe". Hopefully that will change.

Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 268 km
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Monday, August 3rd 2009

20:10

Picnic Weekend



The rain has not totally abated yet. The final stats are in and July 2009 was the wettest month ever recorded in Ottawa and that is looking back over records going back almost 150 years. This long weekend turned out to be two good days and one wet one, which is better than we had been doing in July.

On Saturday we decided to get on our bicycles and do the 32 km round trip to Rideau Canal Locks 14, 15 & 16 at Manotick, Ontario. We took a picnic lunch and found ourselves a nice bench in the shade there to watch a flotilla of small boats negotiate the locks. It was a great trip, one we might repeat some time, maybe by quadracycle next time.

Sunday was a write-off for weather. It started raining very early in the day and poured all day until late in the afternoon. After it had finally stopped I gave the roads an hour or so to dry out and then carefully checked the radar and the sky and went for a little local bicycle ride to get a bit of exercise. I hadn't been out ten minutes when a thunderstorm welled up out of a small cumulus cloud and dumped rain and hail over our part of town. I got soaked to the skin before I made it home again.

Today was again a dry day. This was a holiday Monday, Colonel By Day locally. Yes, everything in Ottawa is named after Colonel John By. He supervised the building of the Rideau Canal in the 1840s and laid out the original town plan. He could probably get elected mayor today, although that is not much of a feat. We originally looked at the weather and considered a trip downtown. The trouble was that this is not a Sunday and so the parkways are not closed to motor vehicle traffic. We considered bicycling downtown on the pathway network, but Ruth's MS was acting up and her balance was definitely not god enough to be bicycling. She was having trouble walking unassisted as it was.

So we re-thought it and decided to quadracycle up to Mooney's Bay instead, about a 12 km round trip. Ruth made up yet another picnic lunch and we set off after 1100.

The roads were pretty clear of traffic, duie to the holiday and the sky was clear, too, except for a few cumulus clouds of little vertical extent. We covered the distance very quickly, even with the hills to climb and got there just after 1130. Ruth was already hungry, so we found a picnic table and set out our lunch. Mooney's Bay is Ottawa's beach on the Rideau River and with the better weather there were lots of people there. The day was not too warm, it had just reached a respectable 22C when we got there, but the wind was cool out of the south-southwest and getting gusty. At noon the city staff announced the beach was open and people did go into the water to do some swimming. For our part we were fending off the too-friendly gulls who thought they had been invited for lunch!

Ruth wanted some ice cream and found the concession stand was open and came back with two cones. Between the sun, sand, gulls and ice cream it was just like a day on a beach on the coast!

After lunch had settled and we had spent an hour or so watching the boats plying the canal system, the kids chasing the gulls and the pirate ship that calls the bay home (don't ask) , we decided to head out. We opted to not go straight home and toured through some of the neighbourhoods near Mooney's Bay, a really nice part of Ottawa. Finally we pedalled home and had popsicles on the front porch.

Ruth was pretty pooped out from out trip, but once again the quadracycle proved itself a very useful vehicle for her sake, since with her MS acting up, her balance and energy levels weren't at high-ebb today.

Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 226 km
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Thursday, July 30th 2009

19:27

Dry At Last

The last two weeks have been amazing - just endless rain. In fact we have only had two days fit for quadracycling, including today. This July has been very much like last year's July, wet, wet wet. It has set records for rainfall.

Friday 24 July 2009 was perhaps the wettest yet. One weather observer reported that Ottawa received 152 mm of rain that day. We were out for a walk in the afternoon and even with our Gortex coats and an umbrella, we still ended up taking cover in a bus shelter for 40 minutes while the rain pounded down, flooding all the streets, over the curbs. Of course, western Canada is suffering with extreme heat and drought. As I write this it is an unheard-of 34C in Vancouver with a humidex of 38C. Climate change has been really a drag so far.

So today there was no rain and the mid-afternoon temperature was a very moderate 24C, so we headed out for a quadracycle ride. With no errands that needed running and no place to go specifically we covered about 15 km in an hour around our local area. Of course with all the rain we have had, the gardens all look nice! It was just good to get some exercise in the sunshine.

It seemed to me that today many other residents were in a good mood, too as we got lots of smiles and waves and even a few positive comments about our quadracycle.

This year seems to be a bit different with regard to comments. We have always received positive comments at a rate of about 2000:1 over negative comments (the latter usually from people driving BMWs, who for some reason seem to be a group permanently annoyed at the whole world), but this year we have heard no negative comments at all. They usually run from the six-year-old who says "Mommy I want one" to the teenagers "You rock" to the older adults "That's the way to travel", or similar. It actually seems odd to be out riding my bicycle, because they are so commonplace that everyone just ignores you!

I think after July we have really now had enough rain. I am hoping it dries out a bit and we can get a bit more outdoor fun in gear for what is left of the summer.

Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 204 km
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Friday, July 17th 2009

17:45

Wheel Maintenance



I got to do a little unscheduled maintenance today and it turned out to be simpler than I thought it would be, in fact no problem at all.

While Ruth was in grocery shopping yesterday I opted to stay with the quadracycle. I usually do that to chat with people about the Rhoades Car, which is more fun than Wal-Mart is, by far. This time there was no one to talk with, so I started inspecting the quadracycle over and discovered that the left-hand rear wheel brake disc-retaining nuts were loose. I checked the right-hand side and those were fine.

The rear wheel set up is interesting - the wheel rides on the axle, of course, which passes through the wheel's hub-mounted bearings. The brakes are mounted inboard of the hubs and use a machined spacer to mount the brake discs at the right location with respect to the brake callipers. The spacer is attached to the wheel with three studs on one side and attached to the brake disc with three different studs on the other side, all evenly spaced. On the inside of the wheel, the nuts for the studs that retain the brake discs can be seen (photo). These were only finger tight, so obviously my plan was to tighten them. This was thwarted by the fact that you can't get at the stud-heads as the brake disc is over top of them, blocking access. I tried just tightening the nuts, but, of course, they just rotate with the bolts.



So today I rolled the quadracycle out, blocked up the rear bumper on a bin and, with some degree of trepidation, removed the brake callipers and then the main wheel-retaining nut. The wheel then slid off the axle easily. Laying the wheel down, I was able to remove the studs that hold the brake disc to the spacer easily and then the brake disc itself. This nicely exposed the stud-heads and with a hex wrench on the stud-heads and a 11 mm wrench on the nuts I was able to tighten the studs in place. Then I reassembled the rear wheel in the reverse order without any problem at all, adding some new axle grease and inspecting everything over as I went.

I have to admit that I was surprised it was that easy! After also adjusting the crank nuts with the enormous wrench that I have for that purpose I took the Rhoades Car out for a test run and it worked beautifully. I do think, in general the Rhoades Car is easier to maintain than a bicycle, especially when it comes to removing wheels and such.

Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 183 km
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Sunday, July 12th 2009

18:25

Success!



Today was our next attempt to complete the 30 km round trip downtown on an Alcatel-Lucent Bike Day. Our two previous attempts this year had been thwarted by breakdowns and we lost a number of other Sundays to bad weather or just deciding to go and do something else. Last Sunday we went hiking in Gatineau Park instead.

But I am pleased to report that today's foray went without a hitch. Following the uncharacteristic (for July) passage of a cold front we were left with a cool and clear morning, with a starting temperature of 14C. We set off at 0830 and passed the southern gate at the Colonel by Drive exactly at 0900 to the second. That was mostly good luck as you can't time that with any degree of accuracy, given the traffic lights and such.

The run on the Colonel By Drive was quite quick as there was surprisingly little traffic. There were lots of joggers, but mostly on the pathway and not the road and we saw few cyclists until later on in the day. The skaters were out in force, however. Ruth voted for coffee at the Second Cup on Laurier and so we made our way through the University of Ottawa and along Copernicus Street (no kidding) and found a parking spot right on Laurier. The morning was still a bit cool at only 18C by then, but we were warm from having completed 15 km quite quickly at that point so we had our cold drinks outside on their patio.

The forecast winds hadn't appeared and what little wind there was, by that time of day, was behind us, so we set out for home. The Colonel By Drive was getting a bit busier, mostly with parents and younger kids on bikes, but it was still not very busy, even at 1030, which is often a the peak time there most years. Maybe the wet weather has caused people to give up on the bike days? Nevertheless the tailwind and light traffic made for a quick run back to the south end of the Colonel By Drive and we exited onto Hog's Back and quickly made our way home, with only a short stop at the Metro on McCarthy to pick up some groceries for lunch.

The run was quick enough that, even with the dawdling for coffee and groceries, we were home before 1130. With the quadracycle parked in the driveway, it seemed like a good opportunity to also move the bikes and some other items out and give the garage a good sweep and vacuum out, before putting everything away. I had wanted to do that on Saturday, but the torrential rain convinced me to wait for a nicer day to complete that task.

The last thing to do before lunch was to oil the quadracycle's chains, steering rod and axle and check it over. The inspection revealed everything working just fine, no problems at all. So the Rhoades Car is now locked away awaiting our next opportunity to get it out for a grocery trip or just a fun ride. Hopefully the weather will stay dry for a bit now.

Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 178 km
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Thursday, July 9th 2009

11:12

No Rain Today!



Today the rains finally abated long enough to get out on our Rhoades Car 4W2PCP and do a run down to Giant Tiger to buy some milk. The past two weeks have been pretty wet and cool, with only last Sunday rain-free. It is starting to remind us of last summer, which was very wet.

On the plus side, while quadracycling though our local neighbourhood streets it was quite apparent that the surplus amounts of rain have resulted in very green and lush-looking parks and gardens. In more normal years the city starts to look a bit browner starting in mid-July.

It was nice to be able to get out for a cycle today and do some errands at the same time. The forecast looks pretty dry for the next few days and Ruth has suggested that we should try the Colonel By Drive Bike Day once again on Sunday. It is my ambition to complete that trip incident-free at some point this summer!

Total quadracycling for 2009 so far - 148 km
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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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