We’re wrapping up the first month of 2022. Last December I was planning to use my new trike for weekly grocery trips and my bicycle for everything else. That went well for a few weeks until a stabilizer wheel on the bicycle broke 5 spokes and punctured the tube. That was January 2, so now the stabilizer wheel wobbles; I pushed it half a mile of the 15 mile short ride, and then decided to ride the last mile. I was able to keep one side rolling, but that was at low speed – maybe 5 MPH. I’m still nervous about ridding on 2 wheels again since my last attempt was bloody and left me with a black eye for a couple weeks.

I’ve been riding my new adult trike more, ~50 miles a week. It rides as fast as my previous trike; the high end gear inches on the old trike were 111 but only 71 on the new trike; however, the old trike weighed ~60 pounds while the new trike weighs half that, ~30 lbs. Plus the gears are responsive, so less weight and responsive gears to match changing road conditions require less horse power. The cardio is still good; my legs spin the pedals faster. I’ve done it both ways on various trike setups: spinning faster with less resistance builds stamina while spinning slower with more resistance builds strength. I can’t decide which is better, but in the gym I opt for strength training so endurance for cardio is probably a good thing.

Lastly, I’ve had a problem with the primary chain on my trike dropping ~ once a week. This morning I had a feeling I should replace the chain. They usually last 1,000-2,000 miles before stretching and slipping + damage to cog and sprocket teeth. My trike only had 255 miles, but I measured the chain before I threw it out and discovered it was stretched. Hopefully the new chain resolves the chain drop issue; at least I caught it in time but in the future need to measure chains on new bikes.