127th ride of 2020 -Monday, 10/19/2020 (A NEW ERA)
2020 mileage: 3376.4
My last ride was on September 23—on that day I experienced the breakage of a part so that I had to take the trike back to the dealer for repair. However, the part has been out of stock due to COVID-related factors, and we concluded that the old trike was simply wearing out from heavy use, as I had put just shy of 20,000 miles on it (19,950+) in the 4+ years I've had it (since June 2016).
A new age for me in triking has now begun! Late Saturday afternoon I bought a new TerraTrike (Gran Tourismo) from Jack's in Dearborn.
I had hoped to ride yesterday morning with friends, but weather ended up ruling that out. As it turns out, though, it's probably a good thing, because when I went out in the afternoon to try and do a first ride with it, I found that (since they had neglected to size it to me) I could barely squeeze into it (though I am far from an exceptionally tall man). This morning, then, I loaded it up and took it back to Dearborn, along with a note of explanation,
Having me sit in it to check, they extended the boom a significant amount, and I trust that it's now sized correctly. It does not let me extend my legs as completely as the old one did, but that simply makes me suspect that the old one must have been incorrect.
I was glad I went there, though, because another thing they explained to me was how the pedals were supposed to work (in the picture below):
My former trike had pedals with bindings that were sort of like skis, into which I could clip the cleats on special shoes that I wore, and this gave me both the security of a strong attachment, and also the efficacy of being able to pull on the upstrokes as well as push on the downstrokes. However, the new one doesn't have this. The pedals in the pictures have, instead, those velcro loops, and I had mistakenly thought that the foot was to go through them somehow. However, as they demonstrated and explained to me, the straps are actually heel slings.
I found the difference to be quite dramatic during my ride today. Mechanically, the new trike is a dream—it glides along so smoothly and almost effortlessly. However, this pedal issue is decidedly worse, and I will be investigating options to make my attachment more secure. On my 13.7-mile ride today, my feet flew off the pedals numerous times (probably 20 or so), and this is not only disconcerting, but unsafe as well. I have, in fact, already emailed Customer Support at the manufacturer to inquire about this.
Still, I am heartily glad for the upgrade—for the suggestion of my friend Doug Tidd which brough it about,, and for Michelle's agreement that it would be a wise move for us.
I should note that the ride also had an unfortunate ending. With about a half mile left to go, as I was riding the sidewalk between Ellsworth and Oak Valley, I came to a spot that I could not see in time to choose a different route, where workers had the sidewalk torn up and blocked off. I thought I could successfully ride the hillside around their machine ... but I was wrong. The wet nature of the grass, from rain we've had today, left me unable to get the traction I needed, and I ended up tipping on the side hill and rolling into a big puddle on the sidewalk. I was totally uninjured, and consider myself fortunate in that and in being so close to home, as I was soon putting the trike in the garage and coming in to toss my clothing in the washing machine and to warm up.
I don't know why, but for some reason the video calls it a Walk, even though I created it as a Ride.
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