I had read that they fit very tight on the rim and can be challenging to put on, but on Friday, I decided to give it a try. Tony helped me put the trike up on the trailer, so the tire would be at a good height to work with.
It did keep the part I put on from coming off, but didn't make the last 6 inches any easier to get on, they were taut against the tire, behind and in front of the rim. I tried using the tire lever to ease it on bit by bit, but had no success, it might have worked for the guy on You tube, but it sure didn't work for me. Tony tried to muscle it one, but couldn't get it on either. He called the local bike shop, they suggested letting some air out of the tube, said it would go on easy then. Easy by whose definition? Not by ours. They said if we couldn't get it on ,we could bring it in, and that is exactly what we decided to do.
Of course the guy who did it made it look easy, but basically, he still had to muscle it on. This all leaves me a bit concerned about how I will ever get these new tires off or on, if we do have a flat. I think there is a special tool I can buy that makes the whole process easier, so I think I'll check into that.
The trip to the bike shop made our day pretty hectic, we had a 90 minute drive to a surprise birthday party for our daughter later in the day. We got home, unloaded the trike, got cleaned up and were on our way by 4:30. The party started at 6:30, so we got there with 10 minutes to spare. We came back home afterwards.
Sunny skies this morning, so we were eager to get out and try out the new tires. Our local bike shop is knowledgeable about bikes, but they don't know much about trikes. Typically, bike tires are inflated to about 45 pounds. Our old tires called for 90 PSI, our local bike shop told us the new tires needed about 45 pounds of air. That is about half of what we have been riding with, when I questioned them, they told me that 45 was what that tire called for. I didn't understand how that could work. so I posted on BROL (Bent Rider Online) which is a forum for recumbent riders. Most responders felt that the tires needed more pressure than 45 PSI, so before we went riding we called Terra Trike in Grand Rapids and asked them how much air to put in. They checked with their bike mechanics and told us to use 95 PSI, so that is what we did. The tires did fine and the pressure seemed about right. I was glad we didn't ride with only 45 PSI, we would have been working way to hard to get going and to keep the trike moving.
We wanted to try the tires on both hills and on the trail, so we headed to LeRoy. On our way in we were riding up a medium sized hill, when I heard a noise from behind us, I asked Tony what he was doing, "Just pedaling," came the reply. Then an Amish fellow on a recumbent bike pulled up next to us, he was the noise i had been hearing. He rode next to us for awhile, but it was in spurts, since he had to drop behind us when cars passed, and we would pull ahead of him going down hill. He would catch back up when we went uphill. He was quite curious about our trike and we had many questions about a nifty little trailer he was pulling. He told us it was made in Napanee IN. It could hold up to 125 lbs, but was pretty light and easy to pull. It was made of aluminum. We rode together for several miles, then he turned off and headed to the store, we went onto the White Pine Trail. WE have quite a few Amish i our area and see them out on bikes or in buggies when we are out riding, but this is the first chance we had to ride with one. It was a neat experience. It was interesting to talk to him. Wish I could have taken a picture, but Amish folks don't like to have their picture taken, so I didn't ask. Here is a link to the trailer he was pulling. It was pretty cool.
http://www.bicyclecart.com/
On the trail, we could see that the fall color season is starting. Rode through a pretty section where the sumac was bright red. It was so pretty. Soon the woods all around us will be lit up with color. Looking forward to getting some pictures then.
We rode past one of the apple trees I had taken a picture of when it was in bloom, it has many apples now, quite a few were on the ground already.
As we rode on big clouds started to roll in. The sky was so blue, the clouds were so big, it was quite a contrast. I could hear the wind rustling the dried corn stalks as we rode past the cornfields. I love the sounds and smells of fall. I love the crispness of the air, it seems to magnify the fall smells.
When we were coming up the hill we saw 2 turkeys come out of the trees and cross the
road. I was kind of far away to take a picture, but here are my attempts. In the first picture one turkey is starting across the road.
In the next one, if you look closely you can see the 2 turkeys heading into the grass.
Some color in the trees on 155th Ave., which is where we saw the turkey's. Once we get up the big hill there, we know we have just one more big hill to climb before home.
The clouds turned kind of dark just before we got home, we thought we might get rained on, but we didn't. Shortly after we got home, the sun was shining again.
When we were in the bike shop the guy who put the tires on, commented on how dirty our bike chains were ,which is true, they are terrible.
I switched to Boeshield T-9 early in the summer and really like it a lot. It is a wax rather than an oil based lubricant, and needs to be applied about every 300 miles.
The instructions say to spray the Boesheild on,, let it dry and then wipe it off, so that is what I have been doing. I didn't know I was supposed to clean my chains too, well I knew chains needed to be cleaned but had no idea how to do it, or how often. In fact, I didn't even know how to clean a chain. I admit I haven't done it because I thought I would have to take the chains off and when I put them back on, I might not route them properly. As always, the bike shop was very helpful and told me what I needed to clean the chain. There is a kit that can be used without taking the chains off. It's called a Chain Bright kit, which is a little box with a sponge and brushes inside that line up with the chain on the bike, or in our case, the trike.
The box is filled with chain cleaner, and clamped onto the chain, and the chain is rotated around about 10 times. I had hardly started to turn the chain in this picture, but already you can see how dirty the cleaner is getting.
Our trike has a total of 10 feet of chain, so it took quite awhile to get 10 revolutions done. Then I took a cloth and held the chain, while turning the pedals, cleaning the chain even more. After about 30 minutes, I had the back chain done. One down, one to go.
I had a hard time knowing where to put the chain cleaning box on the front chain. Our trike has a short boom on it, if I clamped the box on the front part of the chain, the pedal hit it when it came around, stopping the whole process. I finally decided to clamp the box on the chain where it was behind my seta. it was still a tight space, but it got the job done. I was amazed at how well the chain cleaning box worked. The chain was visibly cleaner, and the cleaner inside the box was filthy. I was going to take a picture of it, but my hand were so dirty, I didn't want to touch the camera, so you'll have to take my word on it.
You can see by the picture, that the chains were much cleaner when I was done.
Once the chain was clean, it had to be lubed, so out came the Boeshield. I use the spray, which does a good job, but I have yet to find a way to do it, without ending up with quite a bit of Boesheild on the frame of the trike. Today was no exception. Once the trike was lubed, I waited the required time, then wiped the chain off again. When I was done, I had 2 sparkly clean chains, and one very dirty trike.
Got the bucket ready and gave the trike a good washing. Now it's all ready to go on a new adventure, new tires, clean chains and all.
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