Cycling UK Forum

We have an ICE Adventure RS which has a bottom gear of about 16 inches. Even so, MBH has a struggle on moderate gradients on quarry dust topped, smooth, hard surfaced paths and hopefully this is mainly due to a lack of fitness . She had a stroke in 2011 and has been riding various electric assisted upright trikes, but the recumbent is so much better for stability and other aspects.
I had to give her a helping push now and again while wheeling my bike and did wish there was a motor, but we would prefer to try without one for various reasons, not least the cost, the weight and do they fold?

Has anyone perfected the art of human assistance while riding a bike, either by towing, which I don't fancy, or by pushing?

I've been looking at the relative heights of the ICE rear carrier and my bike's front forks and see possible solutions, but why reinvent the wheel?

The advantage from behind is that the assistance would stop as the front rider gained some speed and pulled away without needing to stop and disconnect a towbar or towrope.

Am I chasing windmills? Is there a trick cyclists' forum?

Not whilst riding, but I have an older quill stem in the top of one of the seat tubes to act as a handle for when pushing the trike around.

My electric kit would still fold if I ever wanted it to.

Perhaps it would be worth looking at a Circe Morpheus tandem? For electric assist, I'd recommend a crank drive system like the Sunstar SO3

PAB855 wrote:We have an ICE Adventure RS which has a bottom gear of about 16 inches. Even so, MBH has a struggle on moderate gradients on quarry dust topped, smooth, hard surfaced paths and hopefully this is mainly due to a lack of fitness . She had a stroke in 2011 and has been riding various electric assisted upright trikes, but the recumbent is so much better for stability and other aspects.
I had to give her a helping push now and again while wheeling my bike and did wish there was a motor, but we would prefer to try without one for various reasons, not least the cost, the weight and do they fold?

Has anyone perfected the art of human assistance while riding a bike, either by towing, which I don't fancy, or by pushing?

I've been looking at the relative heights of the ICE rear carrier and my bike's front forks and see possible solutions, but why reinvent the wheel?

The advantage from behind is that the assistance would stop as the front rider gained some speed and pulled away without needing to stop and disconnect a towbar or towrope.

Am I chasing windmills? Is there a trick cyclists' forum?

Try a Pedelec/pedal assist ebike - this is being discussed in another post. It might be just what you need.

The only way I can see anything like that working is with something like a butchers bike where the frame is extended to in front of the front wheel.
Anything built off the front forks would just twist the forks if the load is off center.

But you'd need lower gears on the bike than on the trike, otherwise you'd just stall your legs due to extra load.
So can you balance at 2.5 mph without wobbling while spinning at 80 rpm.

What's the exact gearing/back wheel size.
If it's the standard 48/36/26 front triple, you may be able the repace the 26t inner ring with a 22t inner ring to give you one more gear down.
That's what I did on my Q as it's the cheapest way to get a lower gear.

Hooking a bike to the back of a trike might cause difficulties, not least the possibility of the bike flipping the trike in a corner (and it doesn't have to be particularly sharp) as it tries to lean and the trike doesn't. At a minimum it might result in a damaged rack. One wheel trailers are not recommended for trikes for his reason, I believe.

I'm guessing that you're not riding a similar machine... if you were you might be experiencing the same problem! Tadpole trikes often have poor traction on the surfaces you describe, on steep gradients, and I don't think motor assist is going to solve that problem, just give you wheelspin. You need to get a bit more traction and that might mean wider, stickier tyres at low pressures (e.g. Schwalbe Big Apples or Big Bens) - or moving weight backwards, by putting more load in the panniers (bizarrely more weight can make hill climbing easier!!) or moving the seat back a bit - ICE sell a bracket to do just this.

On a cold day my Trice QNT really struggles on frosty or damp climbs where my Kettwiesel with most of the mass just forward of the rear axle positively sprints up the same gradients.

Thanks for all these suggestions and it's not the first time you have helped me. Much appreciated. It looks like an electric conversion is the answer again! We now have a Pashley tri-1 with a retrofitted electric motor and an electric Jorvik trike, but for stability we went for the recumbent.
How much would an electric motor conversion cost? ICE conversation I guess would be about £1400?
The Pashley was retrofitted and has a variable throttle control which has given very reliable service . Could someone with the necessary skills swop that on to the ICE? It would mean a new rear wheel, but using the same control unit, battery and throttle. We like the variable control rather than the new regulations stepped levels control anyway, so it may be a way of keeping the cost down, but would it be the most sensible idea.?

Cheers

I fitted a brand new rear wheel and all associated gubbins for £500 - throttle controlled.
That included battery etc, so you could do it for less.

One advantage a motor has on poor surfaces is the consistent torque - there is no pulsing as per pedalling.

Yes, that sounds more like it. Very encouraging, thanks very much.

The Pashley would return to its original spec without a motor because it would get its original front wheel put back on. I could have its current front wheel with the motor modified as a rear with a gear cluster to suit the recumbent instead of the Sturmey Archer hub brake which sits alongside the motor for the Pashley at the moment.

What happens regarding the motor cable, which currently enters the motor from the left side, the same side as the SA hub brake? Any gear cluster would be on the opposite side, so that looks ok. Even having to remove the wheel would be no more difficult, in fact it could even be easier! Once the vee ( parking) brake was released and the power cable to the motor unplugged, extricating it through the chain loop would be even less bother than removing the wheel from the Pashley because the Pashley also needs the disconnection of the SA brake cable.

All we need now is for someone to say it can't or shouldn't be done which would be disappointing. I can't believe it could be that easy. There's even stacks of room under the seat for mounting the battery, possibly on the seat frame. Feasible?

I look forward to any further comments, positive or negative.

Thanks again.. Cheers

It's doable .....

Just remember that the back forks of an ICE trike are asymmetrical.
If you use any wheel with a 9 speed block on the back of the trike, then it needs to be dishless.
So you may need to respoke/rebuild the wheel to swop it from bike to trike.

I wouldn't try and modify a front wheel personally - but I'm sure it could be done. Tiger has covered the main points

From what you've been saying, particularly Tiger and Bob, the question is, do I get a completely new rear wheel ie reusing nothing or how much could be used from the existing front wheel which has a stronger rim than the other two ( rear )wheels on the Pashley, and reuse the motor by separating it from the SA brake and fitting a new gear cluster. Perhaps there would be a more satisfactory result by going for an all new wheel as it wouldn't be too costly and would make the recumbent look better and will be more reliable.

Thanks again.

You could fit one of these T20
http://www.mountain-goat.de/product_inf ... ducts_id=9
fitting - https://vimeo.com/7203326
or fit a motor, I did both
http://www.electric-bike-conversions.co ... _Kits.html
I did it for £600

PAB855 wrote:From what you've been saying, particularly Tiger and Bob, the question is, do I get a completely new rear wheel ie reusing nothing or how much could be used from the existing front wheel which has a stronger rim than the other two ( rear )wheels on the Pashley, and reuse the motor by separating it from the SA brake and fitting a new gear cluster. Perhaps there would be a more satisfactory result by going for an all new wheel as it wouldn't be too costly and would make the recumbent look better and will be more reliable.

Thanks again.

How easy is it to fit a 9 seed block to your motorized front wheel ??
And how strong will will the result be ??
If it's a standard mod then in theory ........
The trike needs an un-dished wheel with a 9 block.
The motorized front wheel is un-dished.
So the motorized front wheel + 9 block should work without having to rebuild the wheel .........
But depending on the exact dimensions of the hub, spacers, block, etc, etc you may need to tweak the rim slightly to one side or the other.

PAB855 wrote:Thanks for all these suggestions and it's not the first time you have helped me. Much appreciated. It looks like an electric conversion is the answer again! We now have a Pashley tri-1 with a retrofitted electric motor and an electric Jorvik trike, but for stability we went for the recumbent.
How much would an electric motor conversion cost? ICE conversation I guess would be about £1400?
The Pashley was retrofitted and has a variable throttle control which has given very reliable service . Could someone with the necessary skills swop that on to the ICE? It would mean a new rear wheel, but using the same control unit, battery and throttle. We like the variable control rather than the new regulations stepped levels control anyway, so it may be a way of keeping the cost down, but would it be the most sensible idea.?

Cheers

I use Panda edrive, they are about £500 inc battery. easy to fit and the company is really helpful. The supply front, rear or mid drive with a choice of batteries.