By Gordon Koppang
My friend Arlyn and I rode down into Alexander Wilderness Park yesterday. Arlyn was on his Bike-E and I was on the Sinner. The park is one of my testing grounds because the road down is what I call “car gravel” (the same course rocks they use on gravel roads). There is also a fairly steep climb on a shale trail. The last time Scott and I were down there on our Catrikes, we could not climb all the way up the car gravel or the steep shale trail. We spun out because there is just not enough weight over the rear wheel of a tadpole trike.
When I went down the car gravel hill on the Catrike Villager my glasses bounced off my face and my water bottle rattled out of its cage. No such drama on the Sinner, though to be fair, I don’t think my descent was as fast. The good news is, the Sinner climbed to the top of the shale trail and back up the car gravel hill and didn’t even spin its tires in the loose gravel. The weight of the Sinner is punishing however. Pedaling almost 70 pounds of trike up hill is no fun! I have decided to go up two teeth on the input sprocket on the mid-drive hub. The change will drop my bottom gear from about 14.5 gear inches to about 12.8 gear inches. That should level out the hills!
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