Ask any regular rider of a tadpole-style (two wheels in front, one in back) recumbent trike and they will be happy to tell you about the many advantages that their ride of choice has over traditional, upright or “diamond frame” (DF for short) bikes. They are more comfortable in pretty much every way, less fatiguing to ride over long distances, present a lower profile to the wind, and wherever you go, you have a chair when you arrive…
Yes - maybe a little too happy to discuss it.
But then ask that person if you can ride their recumbent trike - take it out for a spin to experience that enjoyment for yourself - and you will likely see a bit of a pained look on their face, and you will then undoubtedly experience them seeming to size you up, looking you up and down.
In this moment you will wonder:
Do they not trust me? Are they trying to sort out my moral character before they let me try their expensive toy? Do they think I might ride off with it and never come back? I’ve known this person for years - how could they think that I’d do something like that to them…?
And it’s possible that there is a little of that in there - recumbent trikes are certainly a larger investment than those DF bikes at the big box store. But you feel like they are sizing you up mostly because they are literally sizing you up - trying to decide if your height and theirs is close enough for you to fit on the machine.
This is because most of the models of tadpole recumbent trikes are sized to the rider, and changing the size requires the rather tedious process of adding or removing sections of chain. That’s why you got the pained look - the simple question of “can I ride your trike” isn’t really a simple question - it’s a request for a modification to their machine that is messy, time consuming, requires special equipment and material, and may or may not be within the capabilities of the trike’s owner. And because of the physical layout of a trike, anything beyond a minor variation in size and shape between you and the trike’s owner is really going to prevent you from being able to comfortably be able to operate the machine.
On a DF bike, it’s mostly just a matter of raising or lowering a seat. And in this case, yes: Advantage DF.
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In a lot of ways, through the routine ownership of a trike, this is a minor issue. If it’s your trike, and you are the only one who will be riding it, once the machine is sized for you it’s really all good. It really only comes up as an issue if you want to share the machine with or between others.
But what if you do find yourself wanting to share a trike? There is a solution - TerraCycle makes chain-tensioners - sometimes referred to as chain “gobblers” - which allow you to install an extra length of chain and lets out or takes up the slack so you can resize the machine for different people.
Getting one of these for has been on my list for quite some time now - since getting my Expedition back in 2019 we are a two-trike household, and I wanted to set up MLW’s Catrike Pocket so that it could be shared with others on occasion. By “others” I mostly mean me - I’ve reached the point where riding my beloved Cannondale SR400 as a backup when the trike is in the shop is fine in theory, but honestly just looking at it hanging on the wall starts to make my neck and backside ache, so…
The chain tensioners have been marked as being sold out on the TerraCycle website for a very long time (and still are as I check them today). For a while my approach was just to check in on the website once or twice a week, and I did email in a request to be notified when they came in stock as well (which was cheerfully acknowledged). I’m assuming that this item is another victim of supply shortages due to the pandemic, which is understandable. Still, as we rolled closer to the warm weather months, I got a little more anxious - I resized MLW’s chain so I could ride the Pocket the last time the Expedition was in for repairs, and it’s remotely possible that I hadn’t gotten around to putting it back yet… I’d been waiting on the task, rationalizing that it would be better to wait until I had the tensioner. So it finally occurred to me that some of the trike shop sites might have them available. I checked all the usual haunts, and most of them were in the same boat - out of stock. Most were out, but The Hostel Shoppe turned out to have a couple in stock. I did not wait - I immediately ordered one up and waited impatiently for it to arrive.
Pocket and Gobbler
It arrived just before Memorial Day weekend, which was about perfect, the long weekend offering up time to work on the Pocket. I set up the workbench and got out my chain tools.
Instructions are supplied with the tensioner, and they are pretty straightforward, but rather brief:
Instructions
Fortunately, there are also more detailed instructions on TerraCycle’s product page, which I found helpful. The one missing item in the instructions - whether to add length to the chain, and by how much - is answered in the FAQ above the instructions (spoiler alert: it’s about a foot of chain you need to add).
TerraCycle designed these specifically for Catrike (there are also versions for other models), so it really does bolt right on. The upper bracket attaches right to the quick releases on the boom adjustment:
Getting Prepped
Bolts right on
The the lower bracket hooks on to the boom itself. I mounted it about as close to the largest front ring as I was comfortable with, like the instructions indicated.
Boom Bracket
There are pictures of it mounted to a trike (they cleverly chose the best color trike for the pics) on the TerraCycle product page as well, which is handy when you are eyeballing where it sits on the boom. Once I sited it on the boom it fit perfectly.
All that was left was to add a length of chain. I took the FAQ at its word and measured out about 12” of chain and went about adding it in. This was the hardest part of the project for me, relatively speaking, simply because while I’m getting better at working on the trike myself, everything still just takes me longer due to lack of practice.
And once I had the additional length on I needed to cycle through the gears at different boom lengths (I’ve marked the boom for both MLW and myself). Since I’m working at a makeshift workbench (wood on sawhorses) I’ve had folks ask me, on occasion, what I do when I need to spin the wheels. The answer is that I position the bench under the ceiling hoists that I use to store the trikes, and hook one up to the end of the trike that I’m working on. Usually this is the rear:
Slightly elevated
That gives me enough lift off of the table for the wheel to spin free. You do want to lock both front brakes when you do this though, or things will wobble a bit (or more than a bit). This puts everything at a comfortable standing height for me when working on the trike, and the whole thing can be easily disassembled and put aside when not in use. Some day I hope to have enough workshop space where I have room for a specialized trike stand (they are very cool), but that’s not now.
Once it was all together I took it out for a ride, and aside from initially not tightening the boom enough, everything worked almost perfectly. I needed to do a bit of derailleaur adjustment, but not much - “about a foot” of chain seems to have been the right amount. And it’s hard to find enough complimentary words to describe the build quality of TerraCycle’s products. Like the Adjustomatic Bottle Mount, this product is a real work of craftsmanship. Honestly, I think it looks like it comes with the trike:
Fully installed
In fact, there is a part of me that thinks maybe these should come as stock items on trikes - letting you easily adjust the boom for anyone who wants to try it out. And Catrike sells their own version of it, with their name on it (tho I imagine it is built by TerraCycle, and it is also on back order). But they are not inexpensive, and I suppose that would add more to the bottom line cost of a trike.
In any case, it’s on the Pocket now. Going forward, MLW can enjoy her trike and, on the rare occasion that my Expedition is down for the count, if I ask really nice and MLW takes pity on me, I can borrow the Pocket without dragging out my chain tools.