Rebuilding Turtle

Turtle had been feeling a bit different for a while but it was suttle so I was not sure something was wrong but she did feel different. The Saturday before the MS Tour for Cure weekend several of my cycling friends told me my rear wheel looked like it was tilted slightly - after the ride I look at the wheel and the trike but could not find anything that would explain the tilt. After the Sunday ride the Team CBC machines helped me look at it and we removed the read wheel to look at it. The wheel was fine but once it was removed I could see that the right side fork arm was bent up slightly - later I found a crack in the cross support for this arm. Monday was Labor day so I could not contact Terratrike until Tuesday. I called them and sent them a picture. They were very helpful and began the process to get me I new frame - I told them about the MS Tour and about how long I had been training for it. I was assure they would get me a frame in time for me to rebuild the trike and riding the Tour. At about 2:30PM Terratrike called me back to inform me that due to my weight they were NOT going to honor their warranty but would be glad to seel me at a reduces rate a new frame. This made me very angry because I have seem them go out of their way to honor their warranty for other users but since I could not delay if I wanted they frame I had no choose but to buy a new frame! Then they told me they would try to get it shipped that day but did not ship it until the next afternoon meaning the earliest it could arrive was Friday afternoon. It did arrive about 2PM Friday afternoon.

I took it home and unboxed it and found it was pretty well packed but all of the internal parts on the box which were support to keep it from moving around were broken and it was just loose inside the box.

I carefully removed the packing material and examined the frame - in spite of its shipping it seemed to me in perfect shape and I began my putting the front axle, brake and wheel assembles.

This turned out to be diffcult - the Kingpins had to be driven in and fit very tight but with a little work and use of a hard rubber mallet I got them in and tighten down but I was now worried about how the rest of the assemble would go. It turned out that this was the only problem I had with things beeing very tight.

Next I installed the rear extensions to the rear fork. THese are an addon sold by Terratrike to allow one to use a 26" rear wheel. The 26" wheel great inproves the trikes ability to go fast because of the increase in gear inches it has.

After I got the extensions installed I put the rear wheel on and Turtle is a trike again.

The seat, handle bars with the brake and shifter attached and rear rack had all been removed as one assemble - it was just easier to do it this way and turned out not to be a problem to reinstall this this way - the rear derailler was also still attached to the shifter cable so it was installed at this time also.

Next I installed the Boom with the HSD installed. Routed the chain and made sure is was at least working. I also installed the power side idler and checked the chain line.

After that all that was left was to put the fairing back on and check this out like the fairing alinment and to make sure the Bionx powers up and looks normal.

Without even sitting on her I put her in the van and finished packing then het the road for the 2 hour drive to New Bern. Time to do the rebuild was four hours and thirty minutes. I was very pleased to get the frame and to be able to assemble Turtle so that I coulld ride the 2010 MS Tour for Cure, however the stress this epsoide cause me did have a noticable effect on me.

I cannot begin to express how much all the concern and support my friends and fellow cyclist expressed to me and about me being able to ride. I was so much help and due to my stress level I am sure I have not adaquality express to everyone how much it meant and help me. Thank you. A speical thanks to Fred for helping with final adjustment Saturday morning. Also thanks to the tent erection team for setting up my tent.

(I am still working on this entry)