We should have known better than to try and reassemble the trike after a 10 hour drive, not to mention the drama of me backing the camping trailer into it's parking spot at the bottom of our back driveway. Did I mention we hadn't eaten any supper yet? We could sell tickets to the backing up event. I've been known to draw quite a crowd at a campground, especially if I am blocking the road. I'm not a very good "backer upper" with a car, much less, one with a trailer behind it. The task is made even more interesting by the fact that here at home, I have no spotter. Actually, I have a spotter, but he happens to be blind, so if I start to turn the wrong way, which I do a lot, there is no one to tell me to go the other way. Instead I get out walk to the back, get in the car, pull forward, and more often than not, repeat the same move I just did, and end up in the same position I was just in. This can be repeated up to 10 times or more. After much pulling forward and backing up many times, and many more times, I finally get it where it needs to go. I owe much thanks to a dear friend and brother-in-law, who spent hours coaching me on how to do correctly, back up a trailer. Their voices are recorded in my head. I replay them when I am backing up the trailer, but sometimes they are in the wrong order.
That should have been enough excitement for one day, but not for us. No we just knew we could get the trike put back together. As mentioned in an earlier blog, it has 4 couplers, I suppose some would say 2, but I call them 4,(airplane couplers) that need to be perfectly aligned, held together with a metal band that screws around both couplers.
It's a challenge to figure out which one should be joined first, the couplers for the top bar of the frame, or the ones for the bottom . We tried the top, got it fastened in OK, but then couldn't get the bottom, so we undid the top to try again, only to have the back of the trike tip over on it's side, yes, the side where the chain, the new chain was, and of course it landed in the sand. Sand and bike chains do not mix well. They don't like each other. Sand wants to destroy gear cogs, de-railuers and anything else it can grind against with it's shape edges. We finally gave up and put the trike, sandy chain and all, in the garage in 2 pieces. Loaded it up on the trailer the next morning, went to work, parked the car , trailer and bike in the parking lot there, and when I had some time free, I took it into the local bike shop to get the chain cleaned and to get some help in getting it together. Got it back together, and got the chain cleaned, Loaded the trike back up and went back to work, so happy that we could soon try it out on our very own hills. Got home, and decided it would be easier to lube the trike while it was still on the trailer. That's when I discovered the chain was on wrong, very wrong.
I was determined to correct it, so got out my master link tool, took the link off the freshly lubed chain, and attempted to reroute it. That was a mistake. Had no pictures or diagrams to go by, even if I had, they may not have helped. I'm not very good at things like that. They never covered that in the bike maintenance class I took , probably because they don't know how to do it either. One thing I did learn in the class, is it doesn't hurt to try.
Tony solved the problem for me. My hero, once again. He went in the house, called Terra Trike, about 90 miles south of us, and asked if they would help us with the chain if we stopped by on Saturday. We have to be in Grand Rapids for the weekend anyway, so the trike is going with us. Who knows we might even get a ride in this weekend.
By the way, no tickets needed to read the adventures or mishaps on this blog. However, if you see a ticket booth at a campground, with a blind guy selling tickets, (please have correct change.) and some lady trying to back up a little red and white trailer in to an camping space surrounded by big trees,... it might just be us.
A good P.S. ending.
Got to Terra Trike today and found out that I DID route the chain correctly. Just needed to crank the pedal forward to take the slack up. Well, like my instructor in the bike maintenance class said, "It never hurts to try."
I take my trike (a foldable Greenspeed) when we camp with our T@b, too. The combination of a T@b and a grownup on a trike is a surefire way to meet people. Throw in a ham radio operator set up with his antennas in front of the T@b and it's a party.
ReplyDeleteLove your blog.
Leslie Noon