Steering and More

I have collected the pieces I need to build the under seat steering. I'm using the rest of the fork stem from my old Huffy mountain bike for pivot bearings, a straight handlebar for the center portion and a kid's handlebar for the end sections. I rough cut the pieces now I just have to fit and jig them. I'll take some pictures along the way, as usual.

I also decided to shorten my seat back. I can trim about 4" off the top, and still receive the same amount of support in my shoulders, especially since my arms will be hanging down. It made me a little nervous to have the square corners of the seat back so close to my head in case of a real hard wipe out. I also think it will make it look a little less gangly. Of course, I'll need to sew new seat covers to fit the mods, but that's not a big deal.

Jack

Steering Tube

The kids and I rode bikes for a few minutes this afternoon. Not very far or for very long, but enough to decide I like everything on my recumbent except the steering riser. It wobbles a little fore and aft in the top of the fork. I'll tear that apart and see if I can tighten it up somehow. Really, I'd like to come up with a totally different steering riser, since the one I have looks clunky and heavy. With that exception the bike is ready for disassembly to get ready for paint.

I rode the clown bike around the cul de sac too. As always, my kids busted up laughing. My neighbors across the street had never seen the clown bike or my recumbent. #2 kid had been "helping" change a sprinkler. They were impressed - I could tell.

Jack