"Admiral, there be TRIKES here!" With apologies to Scotty in StarTrek IV: The Voyage Home.
Dorcas bought a Catrike Villager in the spring 2009. I tried to talk her out of it, but I failed miserably. First, I felt that she wouldn't use it, and that it would be a waste of money and just take up space in the basement. Second, how the hell would we transport it? Over time, I have perfected a
system to haul all our toys when we travel. We can put a canoe and two bicycles on top of the Element. While still keeping the rear seats up, we can put all the support gear (i.e. paddling gear, hiking gear, biking gear, dog stuff, gravity chairs, folding chairs, etc.) behind the seats. No problem. Until now. There was no way to put the trike on the top with the boat and a bike. I had no choice but to put the trike inside the Element. I put the rear seats in the storage position against the side walls, and the trike took up the entire rear portion of the Element. All the miscellaneous support gear was now piled up around and on top of the trike. If we wanted to unload the trike, we had to unload all the other crap and set it on the ground first. We couldn't take any friends out to eat, because the back seat was gone. Matilda had to ride in Dorcas' lap. Not an ideal situation. But Dorcas wanted her trike, and I had to live with it.
Well, it turns out that Dorcas really enjoyed her Catrike, and perhaps it wasn't just a passing fancy after all. I found that I enjoyed riding it too and began to envy her and the comfort and ease with which she was riding. Should I eat crow and get a trike too? If we had trouble hauling one trike, how the heck would we ever manage with two?
Well, I guess there is always a solution to every problem. You just have t0 think it through and do your homework. Also, it doesn't hurt if you throw some $$$ at it. While at Thousand Trails last month we saw some folks with a unique rack designed to haul two trikes, made by Hitch Rider. The rack mounted to a receiver hitch and carried two trikes, one on top of the other. Cool, but we had no receiver hitch on the Element. A little research revealed that most receiver hitches manufactured for the Element had a 1 1/4" receiver, and were not stout enough for the double trike rack. Bummer. Further research revealed that U-Haul made a 2" 2000 lb hitch for the Element, which would be perfect. While on our way to Sam's Club in Tampa, we stumbled upon a U-Haul service center and decided to stop in for a look-see. It turns out that they had our hitch in stock. 30 minutes and $175 later we were on our way with a 2" receiver hitch.
Shortly after arriving at Bahia Honda State Park I pulled the trigger and ordered the Hitch Rider double decked rack and a used Catrike Expedition I found on-line. The rack was scheduled to be
delivered this past Monday via FedEx. I had previously alerted the folks at the park entrance station to expect two heavy packages for me. When I went up there early on Monday morning to remind them, the Hitch Rider had already arrived. I spent the next few hou
rs putting it together and adjusting it for the Element and Dorcas' Villager. The Expedition was scheduled to be delivered via UPS on Wednesday. Again I alerted the folks at the entrance station that I had an EXTREMELY LARGE package coming today. No problem, they said. I asked them if they would call me when it arrived, but they said I would need to call them to check on it. OK. I waited on pins and needles all day, checking its progress on the UPS tracking page. Finally, about 2:00, Dorcas looked up and saw the UPS truck coming across the bridge. Five minutes later I got a call from an angry ranger at the gate. She said I had
a package, and that it was "too big, and don't ever ship anything that big here again". Fine. She said they were bringing it to my campsite as we spoke. I guess it was so big they didn't want it in the gate house or in the road or wherever it was that the driver left it, any longer than possible.
When the trike arrived I anxiously began unpacking and assembling it. The trike had to be disassembled to be shipped, and the bike shop did an extremely thorough,
perhaps excessive, job of taking it apart. It was basically a naked frame with all the various parts in a bag. I am a fair jack-legged bike mechanic, but some trike parts look nothing like bike parts, and the task looked a bit overwhelming. Thankfully I had Dorcas' trike to look at when I got befuddled. With my engineering background, a stout picnic table and my trusty Swiss army knife, I had it all put together in about three hours. By that time it was too late to ride it and to make the fine adjustments. Also one tube had a puncture and would need to be repaired.
On Thursday we spent the day in Key West. Key West has perhaps more bikes and scooters than people, and there are many bike shops. I went to three of the biggest shops with the best parts selections and found exactly one 20" x 1/8 presta style tube. Not exactly a common size where most bikes are fat-tired beach cruisers. They all thought I was crazy wanting such a small skinny tube. When we returned to camp I patched the punctured tube and set aside the new one as a spare, for when the patches failed.
Today we were ready to ride. I made all the final adjustments and the Expedition rode great! I zoomed around the circle in back of our campsite while Dorcas tried not to get run over. We drove to Big Pine Key, the center of the National Key Deer Refuge for a long ride. The Hitch Rider performed flawlessly, and we explored the north end of Big Pine Key. We had a great ride and saw a number of Key deer. We ended up at No Name Pub and had a few brews and split a burrito. By the time we returned to the car we had put in a little more than 15 miles. It was the easiest 15 miles I ever can remember pedaling.
It was great day, but we had a little excitement on the way home. I let a car out onto the highway in front of me. About 15 seconds later a deer bounded into the road and
hit that car broadside. The deer bounced off and ran back into the woods, apparently unharmed. The car was not so lucky. The driver's side mirror was smashed and was dangling by its remote cable on the side of the car. I guess it might have been us if I had not been a courteous driver???
We arrived at camp shortly before a significant storm hit with 30-40 mph winds. We were able to bring in the awnings and stow the chairs and tables before the storm hit. The winds were strong, but short lived; it was over in about 20 minutes. I was amazed that my portable satellite dish, which was sitting on the ground un-anchored, never moved.
Our stay at Bahia Honda is winding down, and we will be leaving on Sunday. Tomorrow will be much cooler than it was today, with a high in only the low 60s. Hopefully we can get one more good ride in tomorrow.
Dorcas bought a Catrike Villager in the spring 2009. I tried to talk her out of it, but I failed miserably. First, I felt that she wouldn't use it, and that it would be a waste of money and just take up space in the basement. Second, how the hell would we transport it? Over time, I have perfected a
system to haul all our toys when we travel. We can put a canoe and two bicycles on top of the Element. While still keeping the rear seats up, we can put all the support gear (i.e. paddling gear, hiking gear, biking gear, dog stuff, gravity chairs, folding chairs, etc.) behind the seats. No problem. Until now. There was no way to put the trike on the top with the boat and a bike. I had no choice but to put the trike inside the Element. I put the rear seats in the storage position against the side walls, and the trike took up the entire rear portion of the Element. All the miscellaneous support gear was now piled up around and on top of the trike. If we wanted to unload the trike, we had to unload all the other crap and set it on the ground first. We couldn't take any friends out to eat, because the back seat was gone. Matilda had to ride in Dorcas' lap. Not an ideal situation. But Dorcas wanted her trike, and I had to live with it.Well, it turns out that Dorcas really enjoyed her Catrike, and perhaps it wasn't just a passing fancy after all. I found that I enjoyed riding it too and began to envy her and the comfort and ease with which she was riding. Should I eat crow and get a trike too? If we had trouble hauling one trike, how the heck would we ever manage with two?
Well, I guess there is always a solution to every problem. You just have t0 think it through and do your homework. Also, it doesn't hurt if you throw some $$$ at it. While at Thousand Trails last month we saw some folks with a unique rack designed to haul two trikes, made by Hitch Rider. The rack mounted to a receiver hitch and carried two trikes, one on top of the other. Cool, but we had no receiver hitch on the Element. A little research revealed that most receiver hitches manufactured for the Element had a 1 1/4" receiver, and were not stout enough for the double trike rack. Bummer. Further research revealed that U-Haul made a 2" 2000 lb hitch for the Element, which would be perfect. While on our way to Sam's Club in Tampa, we stumbled upon a U-Haul service center and decided to stop in for a look-see. It turns out that they had our hitch in stock. 30 minutes and $175 later we were on our way with a 2" receiver hitch.
Shortly after arriving at Bahia Honda State Park I pulled the trigger and ordered the Hitch Rider double decked rack and a used Catrike Expedition I found on-line. The rack was scheduled to be
delivered this past Monday via FedEx. I had previously alerted the folks at the park entrance station to expect two heavy packages for me. When I went up there early on Monday morning to remind them, the Hitch Rider had already arrived. I spent the next few hou
rs putting it together and adjusting it for the Element and Dorcas' Villager. The Expedition was scheduled to be delivered via UPS on Wednesday. Again I alerted the folks at the entrance station that I had an EXTREMELY LARGE package coming today. No problem, they said. I asked them if they would call me when it arrived, but they said I would need to call them to check on it. OK. I waited on pins and needles all day, checking its progress on the UPS tracking page. Finally, about 2:00, Dorcas looked up and saw the UPS truck coming across the bridge. Five minutes later I got a call from an angry ranger at the gate. She said I had
a package, and that it was "too big, and don't ever ship anything that big here again". Fine. She said they were bringing it to my campsite as we spoke. I guess it was so big they didn't want it in the gate house or in the road or wherever it was that the driver left it, any longer than possible.When the trike arrived I anxiously began unpacking and assembling it. The trike had to be disassembled to be shipped, and the bike shop did an extremely thorough,
perhaps excessive, job of taking it apart. It was basically a naked frame with all the various parts in a bag. I am a fair jack-legged bike mechanic, but some trike parts look nothing like bike parts, and the task looked a bit overwhelming. Thankfully I had Dorcas' trike to look at when I got befuddled. With my engineering background, a stout picnic table and my trusty Swiss army knife, I had it all put together in about three hours. By that time it was too late to ride it and to make the fine adjustments. Also one tube had a puncture and would need to be repaired.On Thursday we spent the day in Key West. Key West has perhaps more bikes and scooters than people, and there are many bike shops. I went to three of the biggest shops with the best parts selections and found exactly one 20" x 1/8 presta style tube. Not exactly a common size where most bikes are fat-tired beach cruisers. They all thought I was crazy wanting such a small skinny tube. When we returned to camp I patched the punctured tube and set aside the new one as a spare, for when the patches failed.
Today we were ready to ride. I made all the final adjustments and the Expedition rode great! I zoomed around the circle in back of our campsite while Dorcas tried not to get run over. We drove to Big Pine Key, the center of the National Key Deer Refuge for a long ride. The Hitch Rider performed flawlessly, and we explored the north end of Big Pine Key. We had a great ride and saw a number of Key deer. We ended up at No Name Pub and had a few brews and split a burrito. By the time we returned to the car we had put in a little more than 15 miles. It was the easiest 15 miles I ever can remember pedaling.
It was great day, but we had a little excitement on the way home. I let a car out onto the highway in front of me. About 15 seconds later a deer bounded into the road and
hit that car broadside. The deer bounced off and ran back into the woods, apparently unharmed. The car was not so lucky. The driver's side mirror was smashed and was dangling by its remote cable on the side of the car. I guess it might have been us if I had not been a courteous driver???We arrived at camp shortly before a significant storm hit with 30-40 mph winds. We were able to bring in the awnings and stow the chairs and tables before the storm hit. The winds were strong, but short lived; it was over in about 20 minutes. I was amazed that my portable satellite dish, which was sitting on the ground un-anchored, never moved.
Our stay at Bahia Honda is winding down, and we will be leaving on Sunday. Tomorrow will be much cooler than it was today, with a high in only the low 60s. Hopefully we can get one more good ride in tomorrow.
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