Hartford tour

I rode the trike with the fairing into Hartford today. It was a great opportunity to publicize the Burlington Bikefest and velomobile rally coming up on Oct 3-5. As usual the velomobile attracted lots of attention and people were taking pictures of it before I even got to Bushnell Park. I ran into Dave, Mike and Maggie who are all planning to make the trip up to Burlington.
I wasn't the only person who thought the Hartford tour might be a good place to promote something cycling related. At the East Coast Greenways table I ran into Steve Mitchell who has a new web site www.bikingiscool.com Among other things it has links to videos of trail related shows shown on Simsbury's public access station. Steve was talking up a New Haven to Hartford ride along the route of the greenway.
I also met a couple who noticed the ad for Bianca Signs on my velomobile and asked if they could take a picture because her name was Bianca. I never caught his name but he handed me a sticker for BeatBikeBlog which is all about riding in Hartford, CT

David's trike is done!

At long last, trike #4 is done and off to Maryland with its new owner, 14 year old David. We visited his parents (old friends from high school) back at Thanksgiving of 07. I showed them this blog and David who has never really been able to ride a bike due to a disability that effects his balance, got very excited.
In the spring his dad emailed to see if I had a set of plans because David really wanted a trike. As if by design, the very next email in the in box was from my friend Mike who had started building trike with my help. He had just found a great deal on a used Catrike and had a new raise burning a hole in his pocket. Mike bought the Catrike and the half done trike with all the parts was available. I offered to finish the trike for David and now there's a very happy 14 year old who hopefully got to take a ride today after school.
The trike is a variation on my original design. It used the back end of a recycled suspension mountain bike. The front wheels are 20" BMX wheels with 14mm axles. It uses under seat steering is based on the Peter Eland's spreadsheet. The front wheels have rim U brakes operated by a single brake lever.