billyk
Guru
Well, someone needs to get this thread started ... Here's pics of my Quest mods.
I am a daily, year-round commuter in Seattle, which means rain and darkness are a given. Also potholes and hills. Speed is a secondary consideration.
My mods are all beta versions (like everything else in my life). All are constantly being remodified and reremodified. Working on bicycles is almost as much fun as riding them.
Photos in the link show the mods described below:
https://picasaweb.google.com/108555949105733959248/QuestModsNov2012?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCLG95PPd8p7DvAE&feat=directlink
1) Fenders (No mount points for the front wheel; Note the funky homemade ones. Need braze-ons!)
2) 26x1.5 slick tires (Barely fit under the front fork crown. Fender needed to be cut out at that point and it still catches leaves and road grit there.)
3) Fairing. This is a 15-year-old Zzipper fairing that I've used on several different recumbents. It's not easy to find one this long (54-inches over the top). Polycarbonate is very tough but it shows the signs of the odd crashes over the years. The fairing does add speed above about 15mph (say 10% or more), but the main reason I have it is for raingear. It's not complete protection but with our drizzly little rains and my 20-25 minute commute I am pretty dry (and warm). Feet are dry. Hands are dry. It makes winter riding a pleasure. It also keeps the drivetrain clean.
The upper mounts were made from cutoff bar-ends (There's another post from last March showing the fairing mounts in detail.) With stiffeners (the red tubes on the sides), the fairing is perfectly stable, even in high winds from any direction.
4) Not visible in the pictures is the ordinary round 36T chainring that I substituted for the elegant elliptical. Sad to do this but I needed lower gears to get up our hills (I climb a 15% grade every day, and the only way to keep the front wheel from slipping is to maintain a high cadence).
5) I raised the seat 3/4-inch (about 2cm) with wooden shims. It feels better that way.
6) The steering damper is a new addition I'm testing. It does nothing when riding (there is no effect until the wheel is turned more than about 20 degrees), but makes it much easier to maneuver the bike on foot, fit it into bike racks, etc. The spring is extremely strong (I can barely stretch it at all by hand) and it means I can wheel the bike holding the seat like a normal rider. But it also means the kickstand doesn't hold up the bike - I need a solution for that.
7) Minor things: spinner thing for visibility, rack trunk (unsuspended), orange pedals (with Powergrips), monkey lights on the rear wheel (check out the videos at monkeylectric.com; these are extremely cool).
No comments about the holes in my knees, please! These are my working-on-bike clothes. I earned those knee-holes honestly, kneeling by the bike. I didn't dress up for the photos. And yes, I built that copper arch fence in the background.
BK
I am a daily, year-round commuter in Seattle, which means rain and darkness are a given. Also potholes and hills. Speed is a secondary consideration.
My mods are all beta versions (like everything else in my life). All are constantly being remodified and reremodified. Working on bicycles is almost as much fun as riding them.
Photos in the link show the mods described below:
https://picasaweb.google.com/108555949105733959248/QuestModsNov2012?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCLG95PPd8p7DvAE&feat=directlink
1) Fenders (No mount points for the front wheel; Note the funky homemade ones. Need braze-ons!)
2) 26x1.5 slick tires (Barely fit under the front fork crown. Fender needed to be cut out at that point and it still catches leaves and road grit there.)
3) Fairing. This is a 15-year-old Zzipper fairing that I've used on several different recumbents. It's not easy to find one this long (54-inches over the top). Polycarbonate is very tough but it shows the signs of the odd crashes over the years. The fairing does add speed above about 15mph (say 10% or more), but the main reason I have it is for raingear. It's not complete protection but with our drizzly little rains and my 20-25 minute commute I am pretty dry (and warm). Feet are dry. Hands are dry. It makes winter riding a pleasure. It also keeps the drivetrain clean.
The upper mounts were made from cutoff bar-ends (There's another post from last March showing the fairing mounts in detail.) With stiffeners (the red tubes on the sides), the fairing is perfectly stable, even in high winds from any direction.
4) Not visible in the pictures is the ordinary round 36T chainring that I substituted for the elegant elliptical. Sad to do this but I needed lower gears to get up our hills (I climb a 15% grade every day, and the only way to keep the front wheel from slipping is to maintain a high cadence).
5) I raised the seat 3/4-inch (about 2cm) with wooden shims. It feels better that way.
6) The steering damper is a new addition I'm testing. It does nothing when riding (there is no effect until the wheel is turned more than about 20 degrees), but makes it much easier to maneuver the bike on foot, fit it into bike racks, etc. The spring is extremely strong (I can barely stretch it at all by hand) and it means I can wheel the bike holding the seat like a normal rider. But it also means the kickstand doesn't hold up the bike - I need a solution for that.
7) Minor things: spinner thing for visibility, rack trunk (unsuspended), orange pedals (with Powergrips), monkey lights on the rear wheel (check out the videos at monkeylectric.com; these are extremely cool).
No comments about the holes in my knees, please! These are my working-on-bike clothes. I earned those knee-holes honestly, kneeling by the bike. I didn't dress up for the photos. And yes, I built that copper arch fence in the background.
BK
