| My Trike Diary |
|
|
|
|
Read my diary on triking my 2005 GL1800.I started this when I first rode a friend’s GL1500 Motor Trike conversion because of my health issues. I had been feeling very weak and tired from the form of MD I suffer from called Polymyositis. Yea, I look normal, who would think I can’t lift a gallon of milk, can’t reach up to comb my hair or even put a jacket on like a normal person does. But I’m not complaining. Oh heavens no, I see many people in worse shape than I am and thank God every day for what I can do.
One of the things I can do is ride my GL1800. I have been riding since I was about 12. My Dad bought me a “mini-bike” when I was about that age. I rode it around the block for one whole summer only making right hand turns (maybe that's why I like them more than lefts?). The next summer I rode it around the neighborhood in either direction. The next year I got a “real” motorcycle, a Honda 50cc Sport. I was on my way. Now almost 48 years later I have gotten to the point where I will be switching to a trike conversion done on my 2005 GL1800. August, 2007 As I said, I rode this 1500 Motor Trike and neither my wife Bonnie nor I liked it. To us it just didn't seem like a comparable ride to what we had on our 1800. I was offered a ride on a California Sidecar trike from another friend. After riding on it with him I took it out for a spin by myslef. What difference! It rode like I expected a trike to ride. I also gave my wife a ride on it and she also said that this was one great riding motorcycle. Sept, 2007 After the CSC ride I started looking for a DFT kit conversion that I could ride as this unit you could do your own conversion to save some money and it also was IRS (independent rear suspension like CSC). I asked Bernie Newton the local dealer for DFT, if he knew of anyone who had an 1800 DFT. He told of a gentleman named Robert Hill who lived in Collegeville that had MS owned own that didn't get ridden much. He said I should give him a call and see if he would be willing to let me try it. So I called Robert and he said sure he’d love to have me ride it. I liked the ride of the DFT almost as much as the CSC except that Robert’s bike needed front end work badly. The front wasn’t raked and the headset was terribly loose. Once we were moving down the road however the bike absorbed the bumps just like the CSC. Sept, 2008
After riding Robert’s DFT Bonnie wanted to ride our friends (name not given to protect the innocent) CSC so off we went to their house. Bob gave her another ride and said I could borrow it for a day this next weekend as they were going to the Hershey car show. So on Friday afternoon we went over to Bob and Natalie’s to pick up the trike and leave our bike. I rode it all day Saturday on the chapter’s “great eating” adventure, a total of 235 mile plus the 70 coming and going to Bob’s. By the time I gave it back to him we had both made up our minds that CSC was for us. And I made most of the transition to a trike and became able to handle his trike with some aplomb. Following that weekend we had a gathering so no trip to Lebanon Valley Honda was possible for me to check out their inventory but I did make it the weekend after that. I wanted almost every option that you can get on the trike. Doug at LVC told me it would be $17.600 with tax and installation included. Whew, almost as much as the bike when first purchased! So now we are ready to take the plunge. LVC requires half down and half when delivered. So we are saving our pennies for the down payment. I should take a few lines to discuss my thoughts on the whole trike issue having ridden two wheels for so long. I read Tony Foile’s book on motorcycle design and handling, I’ve been an MSF instructor and an all around good motorcycle rider. I have been a shade tree mechanic on all my bikes up until this current GL1800. I just can’t do a lot of things I wanted to do to it. Oh don’t get me wrong, I’ve done plenty to it: converted the seat to heated seat, put heated hand grips on it, put in relay operated plugs for heated suits, seat and grips. Put in a flashing brake light, Electrical Connection driving lights and many other items. But I just can’t take the bike apart to work on it like I did the GL1500. So just so you know, I know something about motorcycles and their design. This is my way of saying I know what I based my decision on to purchase the CSC IRS trike and it has sound scientific and rider principles. Remember that trikes have mainly two different design theories, these are the solid axle and independent axles. The solid axle phenomenon comes from the fact that the designer took an automotive axle and fixed it to the drive shaft of the (at the original time GL1500s) GL1800; makes perfectly good sense, drive shaft, differential and output shaft to (two) wheels, saved on designing a differential, indepent suspension elements for the rear end and a drive system. Of the solid axle brands there are two variations, those with a straight drive shaft and those with an offset drive shaft. The straight driveshaft requires cutting one axle of the output axles so that you effectively move the different to be directly in line with the output shaft from the motorcycle engine. Which is better, an offset or inline axle? Well do you want to ride with a drive shaft that is always running cock-eyed or one that is running in line? The other side of the argument is this: Do you want a drive train that has most of the weight balanced between the left wheel and the right or do you want the weight to be mostly on the right rear wheel, because the differntial is locatedon the right side? Which one is going to act better when the rear axle hits a bump? The manufacturers like to show you with their little cartoon-a-grams that the axle pivots aroung the center of the differential on a balanced solid axle. Horse patunies… the cartoon can show whatever it wants regardless of what happens in real life. When one side of the axle goes up because of hitting a bump in the road, the whole axle is affected. The side where the bump is going up and towards the center of the bike. This causes the other side to also go up a little bit and away from the bump a little bit. This is felt as a jarring on the part of the co-rider and rider. I don’t care how “stiff “ you make the rear end or how “soft” it is you get some jarring at each bump you run over. What about the independent axles you say, don’t they have this same effect? From my experience I found that the independent axles are each dampend by their respective suspension components. If one side is going up due to a bump (or going down for that matter) the other side is not connected and thus not affected. I found all of the IRS to be very good in handling the bumps but CSC to be the best. And any of them to handle it better than the SRA units. Nov. 24, 2007 Went to LVC to put $11,000 down on the new trike. Had a nice time, they had a BBQ going and hot dogs galore. (I thought it was for my purchase but no it’s for their annual fall party. Quite a nice dealership and treated me well (of course they ought to for almost $18K in a trike). More next time. After they brought the trike around front, I paid for everything, Larry, Dan and I took of on a 135 mile break in ride around Lancaster county. Larry found every rode in South Lancaster he could that had horse poop on it. By the end of the day I had a dirty trike! I washed it on Sunday and out it back in the garage.
January 30th,2008 Feb. 2nd, 2008 Went to give blood for my monthly blood test at the Ephrata Gen. Laboratory facility. While I was in there someone opened a car door and nicked the left rear fender on the trike taking a piece of paint off. Of course no one owned up to it nor left a note!
Feb. 9th, 2008 Put the trike in the garage to tear it apart, had it two weeks and I'm taking it apart to put my ham radio on it and redo Bonnie's suit controller that didn't work. Worked on it the whole week. On Saturday 16th had it back together. So now I have the ham radio working and all the electronics, right? Go it all back to gether and I forgot to plug the radio back in. Feb 16th, 2008 Took the seat off and the shelter loose to redo the antenna connection. As I put it all back together I tested everything, my suit would not heat up. Seems I pulled one of the wires off when putting it back together, if it's not one thing it's another. So I worked on replacing the wires to my outlet, buttoned everything up and tested the whole trike. Success! It all works. March 1st, 2008 Very cold out but rode the trike to Larry's to put heated seat in his and Ralph' seats. The chrome trim on the bottom of the wrap around was loose on the right side. I put some Gorilla glue on it and clamped it. When I got home it was still glued so again another success. A beautiful day with temps in the 60's. Rode to work and enjoyed the ride home, can't wait for spring.
March 10, 2008 File this under "What the heck were you doing?" Last Friday I took the seat off to fix the ham radio push to talk switch that was shorted when I sat on the seat. Found a bare wire, covered it in rubber tape and put the seat back on - it worked so I put the handles and bolts back in. Then on Sunday I went on the dinner ride to Middle Creek and then Cat's Meow. Guess what? I forgot to plug the heated seat in when I put it back on because I was going to check if it worked, it did and I didn't take it back off to plug it in. So there you go, What the heck was I doing? Obviously not paying attention. March 11, 2008 Removed the seat and plugged the heater back in - about a 5 min job, working great now. I had noticed the rear brakes acting "soft" the last couple of days but put it down to my imagination. Well I came out after work today and it isn't my imagination! My brakes were really soft, the first time I stepped on them they went about half way down. I hope that it gets fixed on Friday, I'll take it up on then to get them to look at it. Urghh!! Makes me mad, don't know what to expect when I go to use them. More later about this but not another episode, I hope. March 28, 2008 Just a note to tell you that I put the trailer hitch plate in the receiver today, rode to the son's place in Newtown to get the trailer. Came home on Bike Route S which goes thru many small towns back to Lancaster. Only 10 more miles than going on the turnpike and Rt 611. I had to check often to make sure that it was stilo on there. It really had no effect on the trike at all. The worst part of the journey was that the right tire was flat when I picked it up. I had to tow it 3 miles to a service station to get it blown up but then it was ok the whole way home. The trike rode like a dream on all types of roads - from farm lanes to super slab. I like how it rides on almost all roads. March 29,2008 Problem is - somewhere on Bike Route S I lost the right side cover of the bike. :( Only $250 to find a repolacement - not happy about that! Don't know why it blew off, I hadn't had it off in a couple of weeks and I know it was snapped in the grommets. April 18,2008 Time to change the front tire. I went to Philadelphia this morning to deliver some quilts for the "Quilts of Valor" group. On the way home I had scheduled a tire change at Leola Motortrike. So I stopped there at 3PM and half an hour later I had a new Michelin Pilot ACTIV (yes spelled Activ without the "e"). If it has the e it is the wrong tire. I had them mount it reverse to normal rotation. I put about 100 mile on it Friday and Saturday, then on Sunday the 20th I went to Lightstreet to do a road captains course. This trip put another 225 miles on it. So what can I say after 350 miles of riding on the new tire. It is unbelievable what difference a front tire can make to the steering and overall ride feel. The only problem I have noticed is a slight wobble at around 5 mph, but I think it is the buggy grooves in the road, or normal road wear. I will test it out more on new asphalt with no buggy traffic and let you know.
May 27,2008 It's been a while since I've posted. Most of the trike trips have been local and work commuting. This last weekend, Memorial Day, Chapter B took a longer trip, all day riding (or mostly riding all day anyhow). So now I have the experience of riding a trike for hours at a time and can compair it with riding a two wheeler all day. More miles than the 350 from the trip to Chapter H and back. The front wobble is due to what ever is in the asphalt at the last 150 feet or so before the stop. If there are a lot of ripples, it is really bad. If not noticeable, it could be felt slightly but on new asphalt it is inperceptable. An all day ride is a handful. I've noticed in the last couple of months that the Musculat Dystrophy is getting worse. At least now I know it is either Limb Girdle or FacioScapuloHemrial Dystrophy. Both hit at any age and have no cure nor treatment to slow the progression down. So look for Bonnie to be doing more of the riding (yea, right). Well at least she did some this last week so maybe in the next few years she will pick up more of it. Next year we plan on riding to Oregon on the trike so she will definitely get some hours in then. More later.
|
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
