Big Red, (ii).

The trike in action.

After getting The Mom warmed up Friday on a parking lot, I convinced her to check out one of our favorite spots to ride: Druid Hill Park. So Dan, The Mrs. and I met up at the Water Tower, rode down and had green/white fusion tea. We loaded the trike and The Dad’s bike onto a pickup. We left to bike down to Druid Hill and to meet the truck there. We got there at about the same time, seeing the truck against a very gray sky as we huffed up the hill that passes the big public pool, empty that day because of the clouds. We unloaded the bike and trike, had some bubbly water and teased the drivers that we had already ridden over two miles already.

So we had a mini bike gang running around the lake, stopping at the Castle to check out what I consider to be the best view in the city and of the city.

The Mom had the trike in its highest gear and trucked around the lake three times, totally about five miles — pretty dang good for someone so new to biking. Though I should acknowledge that strong legs run in The Mom’s family and that one of my brothers and I have quite large leg muscles and that The Mom works out at Curves several times a week. But nonetheless, that’s a good beginning ride.

The weather was ugly and soupy. Very humid and cloudy. So most of the photos I took didn’t turn out very well. This photo of Dan on the trike could not be fixed with my powers, so it’s colorized. But his face is priceless, so here it is.

The trike in action is very strange. I love to ride it, and I get it going pretty fast. But the steering is just weird, and I get it up on two weeks constantly. The band brake in the rear, frankly, doesn’t work very well. But once the brakes break in and I get some better pads on the front caliper brakes, I think it will stop better. It’s very comfortable to sit on, with a big tractor-style seat that sports nice springs. The grips are decent, and the gears shift smoothly — after I flipped it last week and worked on it. (For the record, it came from the shop unable to go into first gear because the cable was too loose. I won’t name the shop because they are nice.) The basket is great and winds up being our recycling bin on rides. It holds a dog, but the weight limit of the 68 pound trike is 240 pounds, so it can’t hold two people. She denies it, but I tell The Mom that she will be riding it to get groceries by Halloween. Complete with decorations on that big basket.

Check out Flickr for larger photos, as usual.