This summer Robyn and I (and a whole bunch of friends) are going to trike the Erie Canal - 400 miles long and a wealth of history.

Starting in Buffalo NY and traveling 40 to 50 miles per day we expect to finish in Albany NY about 10 days later.

The Erie Canal ride is actually the main attraction of a much larger summer road trip:

• starting in Austin TX
• drive north to Buffalo NY
• trike the Erie Canal 10 days and 400 miles to Albany NY
• drive to Danvers MA and trike the local area
• drive to Bar Harbor ME
• trike Acadia National Park (lobsters & seafood) for 3 days
• drive to Burlington VT
• trike the area for 3 days (Island Line Trial & Brew Fest!)

Here we will part with our friends and Robyn and I will head west to Portland OR to visit our kids.

This post is divided into the following parts:

The Erie Canal Trail

The Trikes

What to take on the Trike

Robyn and I have taken a couple of extended trips on our trikes with our friends around the US.

The other couples have purchased “HP Velotechnik Scorpion fs 26 S-Pedelec” trikes.

What a mouthful to say. From here on out we’re going to call them “HPScorpion"s.

Next summer we are planning on doing the Erie Canal trail. 440 miles in upstate New York starting in Buffalo and ending in Albany.

Just got the HPScorpions late last week and did a shake down ride last Friday morning.

Here are the pictures with some comments.

Outfitted for touring the trike has two big Ortlieb panniers and the extra second battery for longer distances.

Shake down ride

Friday morning I went out for a short ride to get initial impressions of the HPScorpion. I meet up with Nelson Lamb at the top of the Georgetown Dam. What started as just a little easy ride turned into a 25 mile, two and a half hour, fun filled time with Nelson just cruising the neighborhoods and gabbing.

The three miles from home to the top of the dam to meet Nelson I had the pedelec assist on and it is amazing. Kick back, move the pedals, and enjoy the scenery. The trail to the dam is narrow, twisty and for a short section very rough uneven gravel. The HPScorpion did great.

After I met up with Nelson I turned off the assist and rode the next couple of hours pedaling manually. The HPScorpion is a cruising machine. Even the roughest chip-seal is not noticeable because of the HPScorpion’s suspension. It makes for a very relaxed ride - on my Catrike Expedition my teeth would be rattling.

The only downside is the HPScorpion is HEAVY. Going up hill, without the pedelec assist engaged, is the same as going uphill in my Quest velomobile. It probably weights close to 75 pounds with the extra batteries and panniers. When I get those panniers loaded up the weight is going to be close to 100 pounds. My Quest was 85 pounds.

I did not seem to have any problems riding the HPScorpion manually with Nelson on his Catrike Expedition.

Summary: What an awesome trike! Sometime in the next month Robyn and I are going to take an overnight ride to a small town 35 miles north of here to check out it’s touring abilities.

Ordered mid October each HPScorpion is custom ordered from Germany so they take awhile to be delivered. Ours finally arrived December 9th.

The right side handle bar contains the controller. The the left top round button controls all the functionality. Press the top power button for on/off. Press the plus and minus to increase or decrease the power assist.

Press and hold the minus button (and then goose the pedals just a smidgen) to engage the reverse gear.

The mirrors came detached. Remove the headset on the top of the suspension and replace them with the mirrors.

The front chain ring setup is quite impressive. The pedals came detached. Put a little grease on the threads and use an allen wrench to screw them in.

I really like the chainring guard and the headlights already assembled.

We ordered our with the Terricycle Boom Adjusters. Glad we did. Made the initial setup for getting the boom length correct really easy.

This is weird compared to our Catrike Expeditions.

The right side brake is hydraulic with a splitter just below the seat so that the right side hand actually actuates both front brakes at the same time. No more pulling to the right or left when braking due to uneven pressure with your hand strength.

The left side brake goes to a rear wheel rim brake. Included is a parking brake level that is tons better than the velcro strap included on the Catrikes.

It was not obvious how to attach the panniers. Took many tries to finally find the correct combination. They tended to collide with either the batteries for the water bottles.

Here is the final position that seems to hang together with everything.

From the top.

How you have to adjust the SL2 system so that the pannier just easily clips on and off the HPScorpion.

Surprise! The second battery has just a placeholder and is not electrically connected to the system. When the first battery runs dry you have to get off the bike and move the battery cable from one side to the other.

The battery cable is long enough to reach from one side to the other.

The Pedelec motor is a beast. It has no problems moving my fat butt up the steepest hills.

The Ortlieb panniers are first class. Also, very large.

Was not obvious how to attach the headrest. Seems to work ok like this.

Beautiful day for a ride today! 66 miles @ 20.7 mph. Although, I did stop for a nice leisurely breakfast.

On my bike ride today, just south of Salado, I saw an Osprey! Huge bird. Stopped and took as good a picture as I could with my cell phone. Saw it fly away and chase / pester some buzzards!

http://www.strava.com/activities/421397606

Early spring 2014, with a wicked tailwind, Ron Swift rode his Carbent recumbent the 70 miles from Waco (Lorena), along the IH35 access road, to the Round Rock Outlet malls averaging 23.3 mph and capturing pretty much every Strava KOM along the way.

For the last year and a half I’ve been trying to retake the one Strava KOM close to Georgetown that Ron set - 1.6 miles at 31.1 mph - I’ve never even come close.

Well, today the perfect storm happened.

Within the last couple of weeks the access road has been repaved and is now glass smooth for the 1.6 mile segment, I have the latest, fastest, velomobile the IntercityBikes DF-XL, my legs are starting to get in pretty good shape and, finally, today, there was a forecasted 16 mph tailwind. Warming up with a 20 mile route to the start, I quickly accelerated to the segment, and with the slight downhill, and the wind pushing the velo, my speed varied from the low 30s to the low 40s.

Success - new KOM - 1.6 miles at 35.4 mph. Gonna be awhile before I lose that one.

http://www.strava.com/activities/420783235

Today I sold the TiAero and shipped it out to it’s new owner in Eugene OR.

I’m going to miss the TiAero but I have to make room in the garage for velos and trikes.

In February of 2014 I purchased a used TiAero at the HOT rally in Austin Texas.

After riding up and down the street to dial-in the fitting I hopped on it and did a first ride of 51 miles. The TiAero is extremely easy to ride, coasts like crazy and is solid as a rock.

Lots of great rides, and several ride videos, with the TiAero.

Beautiful day for a ride this morning.

Accomplished one of my goals I’ve had for the last couple of years - Ride 50 miles at greater than 20 mph average!

For Sale: $1,700. Shipping is included in the price to anywhere in the USA in the also included SportsTube.

Bike is currently located in Georgetown Texas.

If you have any questions not answered by the information below please send me an email at dhansen@triand.com

Sizing

I’m 6 feet 1 inches tall with very long legs. My weight is 225 pounds. XSeam is 48 inches (fat butt and long legs).

The seat has plenty of adjustment both forward and back.

I need to make room in the garage for my trike and velomobile addiction.

In February of 2014 I purchased a used TiAero at the HOT rally in Austin Texas.

After riding up and down the street to dial-in the fitting I hopped on it and did a first ride of 51 miles. The TiAero is extremely easy to ride, coasts like crazy and is solid as a rock.

You can read my various ride reports to see pictures of the bike and several ride videos.

The front has a Schlumpf Speed Drive as well as a compact double.

The rear seat back bag is included. The frame bag is not included.

Any extra 650 tubes and tires I have laying around the garage I’ll also include. I know I always keep a least a couple of extra on hand.

Strava says I only put 349 miles only the TiAero. Seems low, but I have a lot of other bikes and once I got the Carbent I stopped riding the TiAero.

I’ve shipped the bike to Portland OR before and ridden up and down the Columbia River gorge.

You can read about packing the bike into a SportsTube here:

http://danhansenjr.com/2014/06/14/tiaero-packing-in-sportstube.html

This blog entry also has a lot of detailed pictures of the components on the bike and how to disassemble and reassemble the bike for packing in the SportsTube.

Gearing

Several people have asked about the gearing on the bike.

The front has a derailleur with 48-34 front chain rings and with a Schlumpf Speed Drive. At least I think the small chain ring is a 34 - it is not stamped and I tried physically counting the teeth. I could be wrong and the small ring could be a 36 tooth.

The Schlumpf SD is a 1.65 times multiplier. I would only kick it into high gear when on a downhill and spinning out.

A good web reference on the Schlumpf drives is here: http://www.cyclemonkey.com/schlumpf-innovations.shtml

The Schlumpf can be removed and a standard double or triple bottom bracket put on instead.

The rear cassette is a 11-34 nine speed.

When figuring the gear inches remember that the rear wheel is a 650c.

I would have a hard time doing a sustained (several minutes) climb of grade greater than 10 percent with this bike. You can check my strava links for the rides to see typical elevation changes I would normally handle.

The

Weight

The bike with peddles, empty seat bag, headrest, etc. weighs 22.5 pounds.

Head Rest

The head rest shown in the pictures is included.

Frame Size

Not sure of the frame size but I’m 6 foot 1 inch with very long legs - 48 inch X-Seam.

Online blog indicated that the if the Serial number starts with a RBL then the size is a large.

Picture of the Serial number (RBL0023) on the front bottom bracket:

Someone else indicated you can tell the frame size by measuring the frame from the steerer to the end of the bottom bracket.

Here are some pictures of that: (looks like 13 and 3/4 inches)

I’d say the frame is a large size.

Year Made

Not sure the year made. The Serial number is RBL0023.

Online blogs indicate it might be a newer model because the seat mount is bolted on (not welded like some older models).

Picture of seat mount bolted on:

Well, I sold the Quest - the most photographed riding machine I have ever owned.

The Quest was an incredible machine, always lots of comments at rides and many photos taken.

I purchased the Quest in August of 2014 and sold it October 2015 putting 3,972.3 miles on it. The first month of riding I put just over 800 miles on it.

The Quest is definitely the king of the roadies. I captured many Strava KOMs in the Georgetown area trading first place back and forth with professional triathletes, mainly depending upon the strength of a good tailwind for them and dead still air for me.

I also did more centuries (100 mile rides) with the Quest than any other bike. With three wheel independent suspension it has an amazing ability to cover a lot of ground in great comfort.

• Austin to Shiner GASP ride - 100 miles - 5 hours 40 minutes
• 24 Hours in the Canyon race - 100 miles - 7 hours 22 minutes - climbed the canyon wall!
• RUSA 160k - 101.7 miles - 109.4 degrees high temperature
• Hotter N’Hell ride - 100 miles - 5 hours 39 minutes
• 18 Strava KOMs in the Georgetown area

It went to a great home - congrats Greg Gross!

One last ride in the minivan for the Quest as I deliver it to it’s new owner.

The Quest

Washed, waxed, buffed and ready to roll.

Well, today was not my day. Throughly enjoyed the ride, but about mile 80 I started getting very weary and decided to shorten the ride to “just over 100 miles.

I knew that 300k (200 miles) was going to be quite a stretch for me so I easy peddled the first 50 miles all the way to Rockdale. Coast as much as possible, easy peddle up hills, try to never touch the brakes.

Here we are getting ready to ride again after stopping at the Rockdale control.

Lots of wild live leaving Rockdale.

First, a Bobcat. Big, but not very pretty being fresh road kill. Don’t usually see Bobcats on the side of the road.

Next was this huge hawk. Flying right next to me about 20 feet in the air and just pacing my speed - about 18 mph. Beautiful to see one close up flying along side the velo.

Then a little while later, at 20 mph a tarantula came flying up and into the opening of the velo and landed on my right shoulder.

It was huge. All I could see out of the corner of my eye was lots of legs and hair.

No matter how big my eyes widen, or how much I tried to tilt my head to the left to lengthen my neck, that big o’tarantula stayed right there on the front of my shoulder right next to my face.

As fast as I could I reached across my body with my left hand and flicked it off my right shoulder towards the rear. I never saw it again. It could still be in the back of the velo as far as I know.

Later, texting Robyn after the ride she texts: “We want to see the film!” (from the video camera I usually have on).

I respond, “The only film is a brown spot on the bottom of my shorts. Damn that thing was big.”.

It was a very fast group today. Even though I pushed it some between mile 50 to mile 80 (Rockdale to Bartlett) the group was always right on my tail. I stopped to take a picture of the country side and the group quickly caught me.

This rider, Julie, was in Austin for a convention and decided to rent a bike from Performance Sports Shop and ride the 300k with us. She is a member with the Davis rando club in CA and said they have thousands of members. Hill Country Rando have about 12 riders that usually show up.

I always like riding through downtown Bartlett. Very picturesque.

When getting back into the velo after the Bartlett rest stop I notice that my left foot is caddywonked and when peddling my left knee is slanted inwards quite a bit.

Of course I scrap up my ankle trying to straighten out shoe. I finally get it good enough to ride with but it is still an irritant.

After the ride, back at the minivan, I finally decide to take a look at my cleats. Hmmm, missing a screw, and definitely twisted to the side.

You know, the screw has been missing for awhile. A few days ago I found the rectangle shaped cleat washer on the garage floor next to the velo. Did not know what it was and just picked it up and set it aside. I’ll pay more attention next time to lose random parts. I’ll also start using medium lock-tight on the cleat screws.

Had a great time with a good group of people on the ride. The weather was great and the scenery was incredible.

I probably need to do a few more RUSA 200Ks and build up my endurance before trying a 300k again.

Strava:

http://www.strava.com/activities/415300047

Garmin:

http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/930962276

Bright and early Satuday morning at 6:45 am I arrive at the starting location for my third RUSA ride. The 200k Rock Dale and Ice route. That’s 129 miles. My longest ride to day was a 105 mile ride a couple of years ago.

We start at Oh-dark-thirty (ie 7am). Since I’ve ridden a couple of rides at night before I have most of the night riding challenges solved. Clear riding glasses, night riding lights, headlamp in case of flat tire or mechanical, etc..

The DFXL came with a tiny little battery which I have since upgrade to four times the size. This one should last the whole ride (which it did at 10 hours for the whole ride).

I’m riding with a new group so hang out at the rear of the pack riding the brakes most of the time.

Soon the sun is peaking over the horizon. It is going to be a beautiful day!

Pretty quickly we get to the first control stop in Granger. Everybody gets their RUSA cards stamped and refills all their water bottles because the next control is 30 some miles on down the road.

Jeff says “Hey, it is pretty downhill towards Rockdale, go on ahead if you want to.” I stay with the group for a little while until we hit a big downhill run. Then I stop ridding the brakes and quickly coast out of site in front of the group.

Sky’s were clear and the morning beautiful. What scenery.

After leaving Rockday (50 mile down) Jeff takes some great pictures of the group riding. Me bringing up the rear as usual.

A good picture of me in the DF.

Mechanical Problems

Leaving Jarrell heading towards Florence there is a section of road that is tore up and just really rough gravel / caliche. What a mess. I is a little down hill so I’m just coasting along about 20 mph for the whole mile long section trying not to get my teeth shaken out. Once I get back out of the construction section and back on the road for awhile I’m just getting up to cruising speed when my peddles lock up.

Can’t peddle forward or backward. I’m on a bad section of road with no shoulder at all. If I pull off the road I know I’ll roll the velo so I stop as close to the edge of the road as I dare and get out of the velo.

Everyone else in the group slows down and asks if I need any help. I tell them to keep going it is probably just a thrown chain, I’ll put it back on and catch with them shortly.

Well it turned out to be much more than just a thrown chain.

The rough road had bounce the two things (head lamps) I did not put into the neoprene lunch bags into the rear of the velo and got one of them wrapped up into the derailleur. Crammed in there wrapped tighter than you could ever imagine. I pulled, I yanked, I cussed, I tried everything I could think of. Finally I’m looking at my phone contemplating calling my son to come rescue me. 100 miles already done and only 29 more miles to go and I’m going to have to DNF (Did-Not-Finish).

Well, I decided that if I’m going to DNF and get a ride anyway it would not hurt to really pull so hard that I might break the derailleur. I grab the head lamp strap and just gradually pull harder and harder until BOOM it comes loose. A little more gentler pulling the the strap is un-wound from the derailleur and the chain and cassette is running freely again.

I leave the rear cover off the velo and start easy peddling. Everything seems to be working fine. It is 15 miles to the next control, wonder if I can catch the group again?

While when I arrive at the next control in Andice the group is still there and resting. I have enough time to get my card stamped, use the rest room and refill by water bottle.

Then we are off again for the last 15 miles of the 200k.

Everybody finishes up pretty much at the same time.

Here is a great picture of us all at the finish.

Thanks Peter for organizing and putting this ride on!

Strava:

http://www.strava.com/activities/405698706

Garmin:

http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/917510749