Got a good social ride today on the prototype :-
I rode to S-in-A looking to see if a shop had survived the pandemic ? after that the first port of call was Sutton Lawns , this is the trike parked by their lake , it is fed by a spring and is the source of the river Maun that gives Mansfield it's name.
I mainly followed the river which is very small some times only 6ft wide and 2ft deep sometimes 14ft wide and inches deep , however it is very important to Mansfield. At one time there were 7 water mills on it and the Duke of Portland managed it as water meadows damming and saving the water to use on his fields in the past there were mile upon mile of meadows and people employed full time to manage the water.
This is one of the few remaining mill ponds the path is quite hairy at times it is tarmac however it slopes quite steeply across it's width towards the river and is slippery with moss and fallen leaves , to add a frisson of excitement to the ride the river is sometimes only feet from the path although it can be between 1ft and 15ft below the path !
The destination Tichfield Tea house for breakfast....
And the view from my table.
So first ride with stiffer tilt damping ? so how did it go ....
Awesome ! much more in control just 2 incidents both really old f*rt brain freeze really and not dangerous just frustrating.
a) hit a lumpy patch and trike lurched from side to side leaving it with a small tilt to the right - brain froze and was slow to correct it.
b) gears seem to skip a cog over a bump and became very noisy I had no idea what had happened so had to stop and look - if chain was not touching frame there would have been no problem
Stiffer tilt does not stop it swooping and carving up corners , however i think it stops the feeling the tilt is acceleration when it is initiated , it also stopped most of the ' unexpected tilts ' I also found it was easier to get through those pedestrian barriers as it was slower to tilt or resisted my inappropriate tilt actions.
I discovered tilting is NOT initiated by moving my shoulders when gripping the non moving bars ?
Tilting from me seems to be initiated by moving my hips ? I assume braced against my legs , this may account for some of the strange behaviour as steering is also the hips !
I think rocking the hips from side to side causes tilt and swiveling the hips front to back causes steering.
I can now ride one handed without any problems however I cannot ride no handed yet [ can on normal Python ]
The Finn's suggest NO dampers on tilting so I asked why ?
The first i need elastomer/springs when i learn to ride my tilting Flevo trike. But later when my ride skills improved elastomer/springs started hamper handling, especially high speeds.
Remember give a time and kilometers. 1000km is absolute minimum before final opinion.
I am sure, than you learn to ride without hands. Certainly.
So only about 922 km short
I had already come to the conclusion I will not butcher the prototype any further ? and get some miles on it
I have a small snagging list to attend to :-
Crank up front of frame to raise pedals and help chain clear frame.
Fix parking brake
Make handle bars longer and mount a little wider.
Fix rear end permanently
Improve seat mount and make seat a little higher
maybe reduce track a little , mainly to improve rear wheel fixing as they are way out of tracking 0'
So looking good and riding is getting easier.
paul