Luckily, I live in one of those places. Vancouver Island is about as far west as you can go in Canada. This huge land mass stretches about 6000 kms from East to West & if you were so inclined you could be riding for quite a few weeks to get from one side to the other. I’m quite content to explore this West Coast part. With so much scenic beauty, fresh air & friendly people, you’ll be hard pressed to find better touring places anywhere in the world. We have clean water, normal food, oh! and No Guns! On these pages you’ll find photos & stories of our trips. Some are day trips, some are overnighters & some take on the feeling of having a real adventure. We meet other riders from all over the world who have discovered our little island paradise. I call it Canada’s Hawaii as we are the warmest location in all of Canada - others call it FANTASTIC! |
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I’d like to welcome all visitors to our great island lifestyle & share the one thing we all need regardless of your culture, beliefs or colour - each other.
January 2017
If you are here it’s probably because you have a Winter Trike Bug, stuck indoors, wishing for Spring. Nasty little things, Winter Bugs, they tend to last until you can get outside enjoying the fresh air, getting exercise & be off exploring new trails to ride. I’m going to assume you have a mild case of the jitters & see if I can offer some relief. I caught my dose of the Trike Bug about 6 or 7 years ago. At that time I had a passing interest in Recumbent Vehicles but hadn’t ridden anything more sophisticated than a Mountain Bike. There was something about being low to the ground & cornering that was calling out my name though. I had previously been involved with amateur sports car racing but knew instinctively that those days were behind me. How does that old saying go? You can take the boy out of the car but you can’t get his foot off the accelerator. One recent shot down Anarchist Mountain near Osoyoos, BC & that was it - I was hooked. On this particular day, the weather was awful, bitter cold rain, close to freezing temperatures but a trike, a mountain, a rain suit & no experience. What could possibly go wrong? Being the Speed Freak that I am I soon found myself hitting 70kms/hr. & being slowed down by this annoying truck driver in front of me. It was quite the switch for a change. A cyclist getting annoyed at a slow truck driver! What Irony. Fortunately he moved off the main traveled portion of the highway leaving me free to do my dance with death. I literally discovered why some trikes are designed for high speed or other specific purpose & others are designed for a gentle run to the store & back. My trike was designed for the gentle errand run - NOT blasting down a mountain road at breakneck speed. A slight touch of the right brake lever had me veering perilously close to the edge of the road as well as the edge of the mountain, At this point quick decisions have to be made. Touch the brakes & rapidly change direction or choose a different line through the sweeping bends in the road? Remember the roads were slick, close to freezing temperatures, I’m barrelling down a mountain road at 70kms/hr. & an inexperienced trike pilot with glasses covered with rain. By the time I got off the mountain onto the flat roads in town, I was shaking. Of course I could claim it was the cold & that I am an incredibly brave Clark Kent but truth be told it was a stupid thing to do in those road conditions on a trike that was not designed for the job at hand.
If you are here it’s probably because you have a Winter Trike Bug, stuck indoors, wishing for Spring. Nasty little things, Winter Bugs, they tend to last until you can get outside enjoying the fresh air, getting exercise & be off exploring new trails to ride. I’m going to assume you have a mild case of the jitters & see if I can offer some relief. I caught my dose of the Trike Bug about 6 or 7 years ago. At that time I had a passing interest in Recumbent Vehicles but hadn’t ridden anything more sophisticated than a Mountain Bike. There was something about being low to the ground & cornering that was calling out my name though. I had previously been involved with amateur sports car racing but knew instinctively that those days were behind me. How does that old saying go? You can take the boy out of the car but you can’t get his foot off the accelerator. One recent shot down Anarchist Mountain near Osoyoos, BC & that was it - I was hooked. On this particular day, the weather was awful, bitter cold rain, close to freezing temperatures but a trike, a mountain, a rain suit & no experience. What could possibly go wrong? Being the Speed Freak that I am I soon found myself hitting 70kms/hr. & being slowed down by this annoying truck driver in front of me. It was quite the switch for a change. A cyclist getting annoyed at a slow truck driver! What Irony. Fortunately he moved off the main traveled portion of the highway leaving me free to do my dance with death. I literally discovered why some trikes are designed for high speed or other specific purpose & others are designed for a gentle run to the store & back. My trike was designed for the gentle errand run - NOT blasting down a mountain road at breakneck speed. A slight touch of the right brake lever had me veering perilously close to the edge of the road as well as the edge of the mountain, At this point quick decisions have to be made. Touch the brakes & rapidly change direction or choose a different line through the sweeping bends in the road? Remember the roads were slick, close to freezing temperatures, I’m barrelling down a mountain road at 70kms/hr. & an inexperienced trike pilot with glasses covered with rain. By the time I got off the mountain onto the flat roads in town, I was shaking. Of course I could claim it was the cold & that I am an incredibly brave Clark Kent but truth be told it was a stupid thing to do in those road conditions on a trike that was not designed for the job at hand.
Lesson #1 - Decide on the type of riding that most appeals to you & buy the BEST trike you can afford for that purpose. Cutting corners here to try & save a few dollars only takes away from your enjoyment & will cost you money to upgrade. Do it once & do it right.
I sold that trike within a short time of owning it as I had discovered the cause of the poor steering & handling. On some cheaper trikes the friction surfaces in the head sets use brass bushings instead of proper hub bearings. As these brass bushings wear the steering develops end play which was causing my trike to veer at high speed by just touching the brakes. Shortly after selling my first trike I was in the market for another at which time I met Steve Greene. Steve’s Adventures & Exploits had me on the edge of my seat as he relayed his stories of crossing the Grand Canyon or riding through Snow Storms. We spent hours on the phone chatting & here I am learning from Indiana Jones himself! I soon realized there was still a lot I had to learn & only ever doing day trips previously the prospect of covering 90 - 100 miles in a day on a trike seemed daunting. With Steve’s guidance & assurance I was preparing for my first extended tour expecting to cover close to 1000 miles over a 2 week period but first I had to find a trike. With the Coast to Cactus tour scheduled to start in 3 months I needed to choose a trike that was suitable, affordable, available & would leave me enough cash to cover expenses for the trip. Since my entire life savings amounted to $5000. This wasn’t an easy task. I did manage to find a Trident Stowaway 11 that seemed to tick all the right boxes, however when it arrived it was missing pieces, parts were loose in the bottom of the shipping carton & the dealer I bought the trike from was less than helpful. I now had 6 weeks to train for the journey, sort out any trike bugs, get my camping equipment sorted & be packed & ready to hit the road. I really didn’t need any more challenges for the start of this trip. Fortunately Tom Flohr, the owner of Trident Trikes came to my rescue shipping me out the missing pieces that arrived in Canada in less than 5 days. I now felt I could manage this trip without being the slow guy at the back of the group. As luck would have it my challenges were not over. I had arranged to have Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires installed by the local Florence, Oregon Bike Shop but this proved to be an ordeal. Whether it was a bad rim/tire combination or lack of experience with trikes & Marathon’s doesn’t really matter. The end result was the tires were out of round on the rims so with each passing revolution the tires would thump as the bump in the tire would hit the pavement. This resulted in 3 flat tires from spoke nipples wearing through the tube on the rim side - not the tire side of the tube. A virtually impossible problem to correct without changing the tires.
Lesson #2 - Buy a Trike for your intended & preferred style of riding ahead of time. Leave yourself enough time before embarking on your journey to train, test, check your equipment & prepare for most occurrences.
By this time I now had a few miles under my belt. I had made several different types of Day Trips, High Speed Runs & Weekend Retreats. I was starting to get a feel for just the type of riding that suited me so naturally, I start looking for another trike. I need a low slung, high performance, solid handling, compactable travel trike that I can take with me on a plane or bus as I travel the world & carry my camping gear. Only problem is, there isn’t such an animal. Compromises will have to be made. Pick 2 out of 3. What characteristics can I live without? One trait that comes up frequently among cycling ‘experts’ is that their choice of Trike, Bike or Equipment has to be superior to your choice simply because THEY chose it. This is a shame as we are not all built the same or have the same level of fitness or comfort. On top of that we may not have the $5 or $6,000 necessary to buy the latest state of the art whiz bang machine. Should that stop you from getting out? Not at all. YOU Buy what suits you, what you find comfortable, what appeals to your bank account & above else ignore the cycling Paparazzi & their glitzy ego driven lifestyle. Fortunately this attitude is not prevalent among Trike Riders where you will find many willing & able to teach, lend you a trike to try out on a day trip or simply meet up at the end of a coffee run to answer questions.
Lesson #3 - Ask questions & take answers with a grain of salt. Buy what YOU want & can afford. Don’t be influenced by the $9,000. Trikes. They may not be what you want or need. There is a reason some end up being advertised for sale after just a few months use.
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