Tony's Tasmanian Cycling Blog

Athough there have been no long rides since our trip to Somerset, I’ve ridden a series of shorter rides during January. Total distance covered is 178 kilometres, ridden mostly on the recumbent trike and the E-City with extra kilometres on Mrs C’s tricycle (good to go shopping on) and the Brompton.

I am getting better at riding the tricycle but it doesn’t really fit me. The cranks are very short and the saddle doesn’t go up far enough. What I have found is that, balance-wise, if I sit and generally pretend to be a sack of potatoes I don’t react badly to the lurches to right and left that it does. Lurches are caused by changes in road camber, dints and dings in the road surface, footpath impedimenta etc.

The “ghost pedalling” effect is good. I can leave the bike in a low gear then slowly pedal – the motor powers up and pushes us along as if one was pedalling properly. I have the available power levels set to 7 and find 2, 3 and 4 to be sufficient around town. All this with a 200 watt 36 volt motor. Why am I doing this? Well, there is a For Sale sign on the back and riding it gives it some visibility. Only 1 person on Gumtree has expressed any interest after 6 months of advertising. The tricycle didn’t impress her – well, it scared her.

News Flash. I was out on the tricycle yesterday and the rear brake now has an issue. Apply it and the tricycle jinks to the right. Why? That I have yet to find out but I guess it’s something to do with the single brake somehow working on two wheels; or not.

Leaving that to one side, overall I’m quietly pleased with the monthly total as it represents some enjoyable rides and more kilometres than I have ridden in a month for a while. Let’s do the same in February.

E-City into the car

I found I can get the E-City into the hatchback but it is a fiddle. Therefore I have yet to take the bike anywhere interesting. What is holding me back is I need to work out how to deconstruct the bike a bit more to make it easier to fit in the hatch – and easier to break down and reconstruct. Attempts to remove a pedal have met with a cast iron resolve on its part not to move. (Yes you at the back, I do know the direction to spanner a pedal !). I would also like to be able to quickly pull off the handlebars and headset as a unit but not sure I am doing it right. Simply loosening the handlebars doesn’t help. Taking the stem out of the headset maybe works but it didn’t seem to go back in correctly to fit the dust cover over the bolts holding the headstock in. Also, having pulled off the handlebar/stem unit I have yet to work out a safe way to protect it and strap it to part of the frame for travel.

This is a downside of buying a small car with limited boot space and which cannot tow. Other than this I’m really enjoying the car!

You may be wondering why the car can’t fit a bike rack. Well, as the car is not built to tow, fitting a tow hitch bike rack would probably void the warranty – not something I would like to test. In fact I asked BYD what hitch racks met with their approval and was told there are none.

So I looked at boot/trunk racks after deciding roof racks would be beyond my capabilities to use. While various model boot racks will fit, none found so far can hold the weight of an e-bike (even with removed battery). I have now raised the query on the BYD car forum. Cars, as with the rest of life, are one big compromise. Init?

I had better hurry up and get this sorted as the crappier colder weather will soon be upon us again. I used to be much better at riding in cold weather but it does tend to react badly with the arthritis. At the start of each winter I seek better gloves – maybe this Autumn I should examine the range of heated gloves. (Thinks….yes……why not). (Double think. Rambling again!)

Now, what else?

How did the camper trailer construction hold together?

Brief history.

I built the bicycle camper-trailer over winter 2023 using plans obtained from Robert Beriault. It was constructed using a lightweight wooden frame skinned using corflute – a plastic cardboard lookalike. Waterproofing and some fixing was by gaffer tape. The wheels and tow-bar were supplied from a Burley trailer.

It went on some trips in ’23 and ’24 but I didn’t use it in 2025 for two reasons. First – I didn’t do much cycle camping last year due to family reasons and Second – I found it getting harder to use the doorway as knees and hips don’t work as well as they did.

So, after it sat in the yard for 2025, it was time to dispose of it and I returned to tent camping for our Somerset trip.

I have now completely pulled down the camper, tossed out the parts glued and screwed together, saved the parts which were screwed and taped but not glued and have reconstructed the Burley trailer.

The final section was taken apart just last weekend. It was the push-out where my feet went when the trailer was in sleep mode. As with the previous deconstructed sections, I am very impressed with the construction method. The foot push-out worked well for the trips, the spray paint generally remained on the corflute and the gaffer tape was really hard to get off. The same was true for the rest of the trailer. Before I started pulling it apart it has sat outside for approximately a year in rain, frost and sun and it was as strong as the day I made it.

After this I looked around the shed and realised the available floor space had gotten smaller. I had stacked bits of wood, plastic sheeting and other bits and pieces around the walls, on top of other bits and generally cluttered the place up. A new shelf was needed. So I built one – a strange looking but useable unit from some remains of the trailer!

Finished today I looked around the shed and enjoyed the reclaimed space!!

Recycling

Can and bottle collecting continues but it seems like there isn’t so much to be found now – which is a good thing.

I did take 4 weeks of collecting in recently and received $10.60. The box had 106 items that were accepted by the system and no longer sitting by the roadside.

February

Things have started much as January – short rides and 2 so far. I wish to get going on some longer morning rides and will report back at the end of February. I do have one item of interest booked – a Brompton ride with my Dentist! He has an old Brompton used when he was in the UK. We will be riding through Launceston to get a coffee by the Tamar river.

’til next time ………………………………