8th April 2015 More images of "No Question" racing trike:

*

Ivo Santavo of No Question trikes of Czechoslovakia has kindly provided more images of his trike rear axles to show how these new differentials fit: This trike belongs to Lada Ekrtova, the Cz lady tricycle racer.

Here is the view for the cassette side showing the Campagnolo Chorus 11 speed rear changer on its fabricated hanger.

A closer look. The welding of the alloy framework shows very neat and competent workmanship.











A square-on view of the differential housing. Presumably the large splines are to aid dismantling.

It can be seen that the alloy framework welding is very neatly done and the fillets generous.

The disk brake rotor is attached on the right to the differential housing to provide equal braking to both axles. Rear braking is always subject to adhesion limits on a lightly loaded trikes.

A better view of the rotor disk. Its large diameter sets the clearance required for the rear axle housing reinforcement tubes.

Where disk brakes are fitted to the rear of British trikes they have usually been duplicated to provide balanced braking on one brake lever.

Though some vintage trikes had rear drum brakes. Sometimes a single at the centre of a differential model. Or one for each wheel fixed out at the rear hubs.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

*

7 April 2015 Daffy ecoterroristii?

*
Tuesday 7th 41-47F, 5-8C, heavy overcast with a cold S-westerly wind. Did my usual circular walk. I saw a robin at the entrance to the woods. Stop laughing at the back! Robin's are timid and a very rare sight in Denmark. In the UK we always had tame robins in our garden. They would fly down and take food from the hand or sit on the handle of the garden implements while we worked nearby. Over here I doubt I see a Robin more than once in five years.

Some eco-terrorists must have been at work locally. Several daffodills were bravely growing on the grassy verges. Perhaps they were planted in protest at discarded McLardy's packaging and beer cans? Twenty years ago you never saw any litter in Denmark. Then the breweries/sugar bombers pushed for disposable cans instead of the default returnable/recyclable glass bottles and the rot set in from there. [Quite literally!] Nowadays you'd need a large sack to clear half a mile of grass verge! I find it interesting that crappy, fat-and-sugar loaded takeway food, fag-ends and empty packets, booze and sugar-laced crappy drinks are the most likely packaging to be seen gracing the verges. The same "household" names crop up regularly. Most of it life-threatening to the idiot consumer. If nobody picks up the rubbish then it joins the [recycling station commuter] trailer fall-out to be shredded by the council's mowers.

It stayed grey, cold and quite windy for my ride. Though I managed to avoid a headwind until the last leg. I looped down to the coast via some very hilly lanes. By retracing the same route I was able to enjoy descending the same hills which I had previously climbed. I still haven't found a hill I can't climb reasonably comfortably in bottom gear [28"] but still wish for another lower gear. A couple of inches lower would allow me to keep my cadence a little higher with less effort. It is never about just being able to climb a particular hill in a particular gear. It's all about maintaining an optimum pedal rpm to avoid damaging knee pain. Climbing a hill is really no different from pushing too high a gear on the flat or into a headwind. If you run out of low gears, such that your cadence drops too low, then you become a pusher rather than an effortless twiddler. 25 miles.

Wednesday 8th 43-55F, 6.C, an overcast start has burnt off to bright sunshine with a light breeze.  My poor 7-year old computer's hard drive was within a couple of GB of overflowing. So I ensured my pictures were all on the external hard drive and unplugged it. Then I deleted 148GB or 32,000 images from the C-drive. Probably a mistake because the external hard drive has been syncing since I turned it back on. It is endlessly loading MP4 files which I presume are old action camera videos. Now it has started work on the images. I just hope it doesn't refill the C-drive to the brim! The C-drive is showing GBs less free capacity with every passing minute. Eek! I left it running while I went for my walk and thankfully it stopped with 60GB free space left.

I'm having to share the roads with giant, leaky, pigshit spreaders again as I jump onto the verge to leave as much distance as possible. They were leaving long, wet, stinky tracks on their way to the fields. I caught a glimpse of the Robin in my binoculars but it rapidly disappeared into the undergrowth. Still a cold wind despite reaching 52F at 10.30am. I am struggling to match my clothing to the rapidly rising temperatures again. I leave early at just above freezing and it has often risen 20 degrees F by the time I return.

Mmmm! McLardy's coffee! Burp! ©

I left mid afternoon to find a puncture-proof wheelbarrow wheel. I noticed I had a semi-flat rear tyre but pumped it up hard to 100psi with the track pump and thankfully it stayed up. A tiny square of flint was sticking out of the tread of the Durano. Having dodged the pigshit spreaders again  there were no barrow wheels at the first DIY superstore/builders merchant. So I had to cover some hilly ground before the next one shut at 5pm! [They open at 6am] Made it by seconds after several shopping stops on the way. Success! They had one left in stock. Remind me not to ride at the same time as the inadequate psychopaths early commuters are being driven home by their robotic cars while they sleep! 26 miles.

Thursday 9th 41-52F, 5-11C, light winds, variable cloud. A long walk through the woods. Saw a superb Greater spotted woodpecker in its best and brightest clothing. Later, a straight there and back shopping trip for 15 miles.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

*

6th April 2015 Keep off the grass!!

*

Monday 6th 32-50F, 0-10C, clear and sunny after another frost. A replay of yesterday's weather including light winds.

A long and pleasaant walk through two woods. Where I saw a pair of Goldcrests and a pair of Longtailed tits. Several hares were sunbathing or sniffing about on the fields in between the woods. It is good to have the birdsong back again after the long cold winter.

I found myself arbitrarily blocked from using two converging footpaths which join the two woods separated by the main road. These tracks date back at least to the 1880s on all publicly available maps online. Denmark has several excellent and completely free online mapping and aerial photography systems with much historical data and imagery. They make Google Earth's fuzzy imagery look like an amateur night slide show! These same tyre rutted tracks cross boggy, long-uncultivated, mixed grass, tussocky fields. So it is impossible to cause any crop damage. They certainly aren't grazed and aren't even fenced. Only an idiot would walk on a wild flower.

I pointed out the long history of these tracks to one owner but he responded that I had not contributed to the upkeep of the paths. Nor paid any land taxes, as he had, so I could walk elsewhere. As far as I know I must be almost the sole user of these tracks. I never see any other tracks except the owner's restored tractor and trailer on firewood collecting missions. The paths are clearly shown on all maps and aerial imagery right up to the present day. I was very tempted to call his bluff and walk on. Perhaps inviting him to call the police if he thought himself on safe legal ground but I had no Danish word handy for tresspass. [I later discovered that tresspass is the same in both languages.]

There isn't the same clearly marked public footpath system, as there is in England. I am still fairly certain that I do have the legal right to use mapped paths and tracks on private land under Danish law. The law relating to public access to the countryside in Denmark has been awaiting an update for years without progress or even agreement.

With farms growing ever larger and increasingly industrialised, many former paths have been lost to field expansion into the present vast monocrop "prairies." Which are efficiently worked by vast machines guided by GPS accompanied by an ever increasing pesticide load [doubled since 2000] and major habitat loss. Research suggest that 54% of field tracks and paths have been lost in the last ~60 years. Making acces to the countryside far more difficult. Moreover, most kommunes [local authorities] have no system to regulate illegal closure of paths and tracks. Which is odd considering how poor a press modern farming gets on so many fronts. You'd think the farming community would be glad to see families and walkers freely enjoying the countryside at such low cost to themselves. If only as a token sign of goodwill. Much of farming subsidy is earmarked for [often completely false] environmental grounds.  

Modern, high density, "greenfield" housing estates are springing up on the edge of larger villages and towns. Mostly on steeply sloping sites no longer suitable for big machine agriculture. Many sites leave very poor access to the natural world for the family occupiers on their housing "island." I know of one large housing estate locally where the solitary farm track to the picturesque village [with pond and year-round ducks] is marked as strictly private. The whole area was once scrubby fields and tracks.

Meanwhile there is a desperate need to convince the remaining rural Danes not to escape from the countryside to the allure of the big city. The closure of local village shops and such facilities is at an all time high.

There is an equally desperate need to convince the Danes to get some exercise out in the fresh air. As an aid if not an actual cure for the growing epidemic of heart disease, obesity and diabetes. With people driving themselves and their kids to work, school and the shops people just don't walk anywhere anymore! Even when they get to their intended goal they park as near to the entrance as possible. Then lean on the handle of their shopping trolley to avoid carying their own excess weight on both rear legs. In addition to my cycling I walked for over 2½ hours today over mostly rough ground. The images here are taken from the track back in only slightly colder February.

My ride was less eventful and in continuing bright sunshine. The supermarkets were full of customers but badly understaffed. I hit 31mph on one descent thanks to the light winds. It was more like a breathless 8mph in bottom gear on the earlier climb. The Brooks B17 'Special' saddle is slowly regaining my trust. 14 miles.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

*