April 28, 2002 (pre trip)

Made some progress on the wonky steering problem I’ve been having with the trike. When I run, pushing the trike as a push cart, the front wheel wobbles around and small constant adjustments to the steering have to be made to keep the cart rolling straight. Until now, I had been using two straps connected to the steering rod to turn the front wheel – kind of like reins on a horse.

That didn’t work out to well – constant adjustments were necessary and didn’t jive well with trying to push at the same time. Also I found that it was easier to just give the trike a shove, then slowly catch up to it and push again.

So – I devised a clever solution to the small steering adjustments that are required to keep the trike on the straight and narrow. I rigged a break lever cable up to the frame and attached a break lever fastened to a small hand-held bar. When I squeeze the break, the front wheel turns right and when I release break tension, the front wheel turns left. It works!

Now I can give the trike a push and let it roll out in front of me. There is enough excess break cable slack so that I can hold the break lever with one hand while swinging my arms in a normal running style. As the cart moves forward, I make small adjustments to the track by squeezing or releasing the break cable.

Smart if I do say so myself, although my nerd quotient just doubled!

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