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Message started by mleuck on Jun 21^st, 2008, 4:10pm

Title: Tour d' Italia
Post by mleuck on Jun 21^st, 2008, 4:10pm

This was my first time on this one, the course was okay although the chip seal surface and heat slowed me down. (hydrate Mark hydrate!). For the most part it was a blah ride although that was more my fault than anything else

They need to change the way the ride starts since the school parking lot is too small and it bottlenecks badly when leaving. Once you got outside Italy's city limits there was nobody patrolling the intersections although I think only one might have been slightly dangerous (which of course I blew through). I guess the last 2 years it rained although that wasn't a problem this time.

It was nice to see another fast recumbent although to the guy on the P-38 I never did get your name, it was fun riding with you, sorry I didn't see you after the ride

62.81 miles
3 hours 16 minutes
19.3 mph average

Images will be posted at www.lifeonabaron.blogspot.com

Title: Re: Tour d' Italia
Post by jcsadowski on Jun 22^nd, 2008, 1:21pm

The guy on the P-38 is Bob Frank.
He alternates between a Df and the P-38.

Title: Re: Tour d' Italia
Post by bikerteam on Jun 22^nd, 2008, 3:57pm

Angie intended on riding the 50 mile and I intended on the 100k on the Catrike 700. I hung with the fast 25 plus gang to the first stop. I let them go as they weren't too keen on a trike hanging at that speed. It was awesome to ride that fast for 11 miles in the lead group on a trike. As we pulled out of the first stop, I told Angie I'd hang with her until a fast group cam up. a few seconds later, I see Mark Leuck in my mirror. I waived to Angie and took off. I rode with Mark for about 1/2 mile, and just as I told him I was going to hang back and wait for Angie, I had a major mechanical. I limped in to the 2nd rest stop (mile 20), and my day was over.

The whole lower end; idler, chain, stops, etc... all binded together. Two bike shops tried unsuccessfully to fix it. EVBLAZER and his very nice wife stopped and tried to help. Angie said she wasn't going to leave me, and we caught a SAG back to the start.

I've had quite a few problems with the trike since day 1, so I called Woody at RBM. He gave me a prompt refund, was very kind to me and said that they are trying real hard to improve their image.

Due to work requirements, I cannot go to the Rans factory next week either. I still may pick up th V3 Al when PCF gets one in stock for me to test.

So now that I'm two bikes short, I'm going to possibly go to Calif., and test a V2K.

Title: Re: Tour d' Italia
Post by mleuck on Jun 22^nd, 2008, 4:48pm

jcsadowski wrote:

The guy on the P-38 is Bob Frank.
He alternates between a Df and the P-38.

I should have asked you first, he mentioned he knew you and apparently he was the guy you told me about concerning the battery life of the Garmin 605 in the MS150

Title: Re: Tour d' Italia
Post by barlows on Jun 22^nd, 2008, 5:04pm

Sorry to derail the post, but if the 605/705 shares the same charging/data connector that the 305 has, you can get an external battery source to power it indefinitely. I rode a double century yesterday and just recharged my 305 on the fly about half way through. The one I'm using is an older version of http://www.tekkeon.com/site/products-tekcharge1550.php.

Steve

Title: Re: Tour d' Italia
Post by FlyingLaZBoy on Jun 22^nd, 2008, 5:32pm

Oh, man, Ray destroyed the 700!!!!!!!!! So sorry, but glad Woody treated you right... :)

Title: Re: Tour d' Italia
Post by sstexex on Jun 22^nd, 2008, 5:52pm

We did the 40 and had a great time. The roads in Italy are, I'll admit, pretty bad. Once we got out of town the roads got better. We met bikerteam and saw JS and Corsa Ken on the road. (JS - John Sadowski not John Schlitter, although I do get them confused on occasion :D)

Title: Re: Tour d' Italia
Post by Richard on Jun 22^nd, 2008, 8:15pm

Yeah John,

Its easy to confuse you with Schitter!! ;)

RichardC

Title: Re: Tour d' Italia
Post by mleuck on Jun 22^nd, 2008, 8:53pm

barlows wrote:

The 605/705 does have the same connector however the 705 seems to have at least double the real-world battery life over my old 305. At best I could barely get 6 hours out of the 305 and so far at least 12 from the 705. My problem was I simply forgot about recharging it after using it all week which is the first time that's happened since I got the thing over a month ago.

Title: Re: Tour d' Italia
Post by evblazer on Jun 23^rd, 2008, 12:59pm

Those roads were quite a beating heading out of Italy. They just had to tease me with a nice fresh bridge section to get my vision straight and my voice straight and then wham here is some more chipseal. My wife was still on her road bike and didn't like it but at least could suspend herself a bit rather then just take it in the tailbone like I had to on my giro26. We had started at least half an hour into the open start and had to stop once for me to remount some little bits that rattled loose on the chipseal. Those delays put us into the hot part of the day and it was hot out there. We were pretty much the last ones in from the 62 mile route but they had plenty of water and ice. At one of the rest stops there was supposidly a good 10 people behind us. 3 people passed us just before the last stop and when we got there they said we were it and the rest sagged for cramps. We saw the sag van pass us twice on the last leg but they didn't just follow with strobe lights like cross timbers did so they didn't seem so just get in the back so I can go home already like.

63.66 Miles
MPH?? Slower then 19.3 ;)

I must say though that destroyed 700 wasn't what I wanted to see after my wife just ordered a new one :( Hopefully hers will never hit the showroom floor and we'll take careful watch over everything before/during/after rides for a bit. They leave those trikes on the floor at RBM and they get beaten up pretty bad as everyone sits in them and plays with them knocking everything about having a little party. We found a couple with the boom all screwed up and the clasps that lock it in place way up out of place, some with the handle bars all twisted around. When my wife test rode a 700 in silver a month or two ago they let my wife ride it with the chain on the ground instead of adjusting it for her which couldn't be healthy just running along the ground especially when it got caught on something occasionaly. Now that I'm writing this out I think I remember there was a problem with one of the chain tubes rubbing the idler or getting too close to the FD since she had to bring in the boom all the way. The sales person really just wanted us to be done with it and would say yeah it is supposed to be that way no matter what the question/problem.

Two bikes short? stop giving my wife ideas! N+1 is bad enough ;D

Title: Re: Tour d' Italia
Post by bikerteam on Jun 23^rd, 2008, 1:21pm

Mark, it sounds like the silver 700 your wife tested is the one I ended up buying. Even after being fit as part of the purchase I had to take it to my LBS in Flower Mound to have 4 links taken out of the chain, and multiple other adjustements. That's when I first called Woody to compalin and he offered to order a new one for me. Until the breakage that took place Saturday, I was going to accept his offer. However, and as you saw first hand at the 2nd rest stop, it wasn't either rideable or fixable. As Angie and I waited for a SAG vehicle I decided to call RBM and request a refund.

When we arrived a RBM Woody asked me to speak with Jack, who I belive is the head mechanic. He told me some of the same things that Mark did in his post above.

Mark - I purchased a few items for the Catrike that your wife can have. For example, I purchased a pretty cool looking flag. I also have a triangle shaped accessory bag that attaches to one of the rear stays.

In hindsight this will work out to my benefit. As I've lost weight, I'm starting to get my Cat III speed back from a few years ago. Thus, I'm going to replace the Catrike with some type of racer (Velokraft, M5, Challenge; Carbent, etc.).

Title: Re: Tour d' Italia
Post by jman on Jun 23^rd, 2008, 5:30pm

Bummer about the trike but sounds like it is going to be a blessing in disguise. I know about the "display" trikes at RBM, I have sat on a few but noticed they were getting pretty beat up and instead of bike reps, the guys reminded me more of used car salesmen :D