Day –93 • November 27, 2011 • Cartwright Loop • 18.6 mi
This started out as just a fun ride rather than a shakedown trip; middle 50’s and sunny is not something to squander in late November in Boise. I’d made a few tweaks to the Trets—added a parking/drag brake and a water bottle cage—but nothing too complicated. We decided to ride to Hidden Springs for dinner and to play with the brake on some big descents.
It turns out Zoe’s comfort level with high speed descents has increased dramatically. Even at a little over 40 she wasn’t interested in braking. I ended up having to brake a bit to keep things under control.
On the way back we got a good test of the parking brake. Heading up the last big hill we noticed a strange sound coming from the Trets. We pulled off the road on a 12+% grade, engaged the parking brake, and did some troubleshooting. It didn’t take long to discover the tension strap for the mesh seat bottom, right below Zoe’s butt, had been sawed through by the chain. I’m not sure if it had loosened up enough to come in contact with the chain or if the strap failed first but the net result was that the mesh seat was now resting on the chain—not good. We avoided a bail-out from Lisa by having Zoe ride the remainder of the way without pedaling to avoid damaging the seat. Zoe graciously feigned disappointment at not being able to pedal any more. Later this turned into a great lesson about the benefits of actually contributing back there, as the temperature had dropped about ten degrees and Zoe got pretty cold. We made it home about dusk with a new task to fix the seat before our commute in the morning.
Zoe says: HI! whatever he says about me is not true. Also, weird title Dad.
TransAmerican Trike Adventure 2012 
Good comment Zoe! Keep your dad honest…
Mark
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Cartwright! I remember that loop. Thought I was going to have a heart attack. And then I was passed by a guy pulling a trailer with a toddler, on the uphill climb. How humiliating! 🙂
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If it helps at all, I can assure you we weren’t passing anyone. Our average speed was slooowwwww. Of course Zoe’s no toddler anymore 🙂
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Good move Zoe – feign disappointment when you can, especially uphill.
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Just over 40 on the downhill? Ida been brakin’ for sure. Nice site, Kurt–I look forward to the updates.
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Yeah, I cringed a bit when I re-read my post. Forty is pretty fast but also pretty stable with this setup as well as pretty brief– we’re only dong that kind of speed during the runout of a big hill. The rest of the time we’re plodding along in the low teens. Providing some speed control is one of the reasons I added the brake to Zoe’s tagalong. My brakes are plenty strong enough but hers can be set with a friction brake lever.
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That’s great guys! We’ll be following your progress from Omaha and hope to meet up with you at some point.
Any chance you’ll post a pic or two of the trike? Maybe some before, during and after shots?
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I have a couple of pics on the About page and will be adding more as I get them. And expect lots of pics during the ride. I have a fun video that Zoe took this summer from the tagalong during a descent toward the Snake river that I’ll post if I can figure out a good way to get it up here.
Thanks for the comment, looking forward to hooking up along the way.
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The video is now in the training section.
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