I think Gareth was relieved when we rode for a mere hour on Saturday morning. Turns out that we actually took the less hilly route by choosing the 20 mile over the 10. I tried the 10 mile route solo this past Sunday and was amazed at how uphill it really was.

We’re running into a bit of a problem right now, though. His hip restraints are now a bit too small for him, and they’re digging into his thighs. I think this was one source of discomfort for him on the 20 mile ride. Time to start looking for a new solution, something that will keep him in the seat and will restrict his ability to slide his hips under and out. I have an idea in mind, but it requires an experimental gear purchase.

This past weekend saw the commencement of the RBR Recumbent Bike and Trike Rally.  Gareth and I attended on Saturday for what we originally planned as a 10 mile ride in Spring Mills.  The route was five miles out and five miles back.

But when we got to the fork in the route that was the decision point between the 10 mile ride and the 20 mile ride, I decided to go for 20 miles.

Gareth enjoyed it right up until, oh, mile 11.  After that, he got angry and very vocal about his displeasure.

When we finally got back to our car after the two hour trip, Gareth’s face busted out into a huge grin as I started to unbuckle him from the recumbent seat.  He was thrilled to finally be off the bike and back in the car.

He then told me that the ride was just way too long and that, as a result, it wasn’t any fun.  Days later, he now says it was fun, but I can’t be sure that he isn’t just saying that to make me feel better.

Next time, we’ll take the shorter route.

Gareth is recovering from a bout of pneumonia, so there were no rides this past weekend. With any luck, he’ll be feeling better by the time the RBR Recumbent Bike and Trike Rally kicks off on June 16th.

We got in two rides on 6/2.  The first was an hour long ride around the State College Weis Market parking lot as part of the Ferguson Township bike rodeo.  We got plenty of comments on Gareth’s bike, but all from a distance and mostly consisting of “cool bike” and “weird bike”.  Gareth and I barely noticed as we rode through the obstacle courses set up by the organizers.  We also took the opportunity to register Gareth’s bike with local authorities … not that it will be hard to track down the Pino.  It’s sort of uncommon.

Our second ride was on the Bellefonte Central Rail Trail. Recent storms downed a tree across the trail, but we managed to move enough of it to get by and continue our ride.  The worst part had to be climbing the hill from the head of the trail back up to Sunset Park.  Gareth and I barely managed it in first gear.  Brandy did the same on the trike.  Considering it was her second ride, I was thoroughly impressed.

I posted a few days ago about the arrival and installation of the Hase twin stand. Now that I’ve had several opportunities to use it with Gareth, I can say with confidence that if you’re going to purchase a Pino for somebody with a disability just order the heavy duty twin stand from the start. It makes loading and unloading Gareth much easier and allows me the ability to actually dismount the bike when he needs suctioned. Before this stand, I had to balance the bike between my thighs while twisting my torso back to front in order to get to his suction machine and then get to his trache.

Speaking of Gareth and riding, we rode three times over the Memorial Day weekend. On Sunday, we rode for an hour or so at the Pennsylvania Military Museum in Boalsburg. The great thing about that ride is that Brandy (my wife, Gareth’s mother) went along for the ride on my recumbent trike. She never learned how to ride a two-wheeler, so I’m thrilled that she took to the trike as quickly as she did.

Later that evening, Gareth and I went on a short ride not far from Colyer Lake as we were visiting his grandparents who had never before seen him ride his bike. And on Monday, we went out for a quick (1 hour) ride around the neighborhood, doing lots of fast turns and running through puddles from the shower the night before.

In adaptation news, Gareth and I have battled for a long time regarding his head positioning while sitting in the stoker seat. Gareth has a tendency to lean to the right. Normally not a problem, but while bike riding, that lean puts his helmet directly in the way of the handlebars as I’m turning left. There have been a few times where that has put us in a dangerous situation. Over the months, I’ve tried lots of possible solutions - different belts, shoulder harnesses, neck/head positioning pads - but none of them were effective. I now have a solution: a foam kayak roof rack. Foam block roof racks for kayaks come with two blocks that have a center channel meant for running a strap through and over the kayak. Those channels are also small enough and tight enough to grip to the side bars of the recumbent seat. Since sliding those into place, Gareth has been unable to get his head past the foam block and into the path of the handlebars. Problem solved. Foam block roof racks sell for about $20 (and I’ll try to get some photos of them fitted to the Pino since what I just typed probably doesn’t make any sense).

And, last but not least, Gareth and I are planning to attend the RBR Recumbent Rally on June 15th. If you’re interested in checking out the Pino, feel free to walk up and say “Hi”.

Our latest ride was last Saturday, 5/5/07. We met up with my mother, sister, and nephew at Tom Tudek Park for a ride around the park trails. My nephew tired out quickly on his single speed BMX, especially once he realized that riding fast downhill meant having to ride uphill on return.

Gareth and I took an extra few rides around the park by ourselves until he was ready to rest.

There’s no update on our twin stand from Hase. Two shipments from Hase arrived at RBR, neither containing our order. Hase apparently has not been responding to e-mail, either. I love the Pino dearly, but let this be a warning - avoid Hase. They seem pretty good on the initial sale but stink at follow-up support.

Gareth and I have gone for two more rides in recent weeks: one around the neighborhood; one around the south end of State College.

Neither ride has proper Ride Journal entries.  We seem to have become incredibly lazy about that.

Our ride around the neighborhood illustrated a major problem - Gareth has a very hard time keeping his head upright when riding the Pino.  As a result, his head flops to the right, and I find myself completely unable to turn left since the handles then smack into his helmet.  Not good.

During our ride in State College, I stopped by RBR to ask if there was any update on our new stand (no) and to talk about possible solutions for the head issue.  After some quick brainstorming, I came up with the idea of talking to a local fabricator about making side rails for the seat that would extend from the bottom (where the handles are mounted) to the top where the seat cover crosses.  For the sake of support, I think we would also have to create a rail that goes across the top to keep the seat from collapsing inward, though I don’t know what that might do for Gareth’s comfort when he gets older.

After RBR, we visited the home of my cousin Alex and the home of some friends of our family.

I’m really getting frustrated with Hase at this point.  It has been three months now since I put in the order for the new stand.  While the bike is mostly working well for us, I’m starting to think that we should have just gone with Bilenky since the drive to Philadelphia would have been much quicker than waiting for parts from Germany.

We packed up and headed for the Military Museum in Boalsburg for a two hour ride today.  I didn’t think the sun would be nearly strong enough yet to cause burns, but oh, how wrong I was.  Gareth came back with one side of his face reddened while I somehow was burned even on parts of my head that were fully covered by my helmet.  Time to stock up on sunscreen.

Once we got back home, there was so much stuff to do that we didn’t even crack open the ride journal.  Perhaps tomorrow.

One of the modifications we made to the Pino when fitting Gareth was to forego the use of the standard boom extension and adult crank.  Because we took it out, we were left with a large hole at the front of the bike where the extension would normally fit.  I originally filled that with some foam as a stop-gap measure but am now in the process of making something a little more elegant.  Should you ever be in a similar situation, 1 1/2 inch PVC pipe (about 5 inches) with a cap fits in there perfectly.  I’m going to rubber coat the plug that I made, but it’s working great as is.

And in other modification news, I finally figured out a headlight setup for this bike.  I’m going to be using headmounted LED flashlights.  They’re very common for camping and boating, but it turns out that the slight curve to most of the headmount systems works well with the curve of the boom at the front of the Pino.  I’ll just cinch it down tight, and we’ll be good to go.

Solutions abound today.

Finally, one really good day for a ride.  Gareth probably summed it up best in his journal entry.

The weather warmed up just enough to make a ride bearable. So we went for it.  Note the figure 8’s we did in a parking lot.

Since we had the bike outdoors sans rain, I took some photos of it that more clearly show the various components. A few people have said, “I can’t tell how it works.” Perhaps these will help.

Gareth had a lot of energy today and was able to get the bike rocking side to side when the kickstand was down. I think this means we’re going to have to purchase the heavy duty stand offered by Hase. I’ll be visiting RBR this week to see about ordering that.