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Triking around Bath

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Here are a couple of recent video's from family rides around Bath, Somerset. (taken from YouTube description)  First the Two Tunnels route -  This is Jayne's Birthday wish - to go for a ride somewhere nice. The Autumn colours where spectacular. From the Stables on the outskirts of Wellow what3words.com/hillside.trend.functions That seems to be blocking the line of the former railway over a viaduct, forcing those travelling in the opposite direction abruptly onto the road. We follow the path of the former Somerset and Dorset joint railway, through two tunnels, one of which, Combe Down Tunnel, is just over a mile long. I have included the full mile once in this video. Our turning point in Bath was just before the former line deposited us onto local shared roads, in Linear Park. what3words.com/square.locate.goods We also took a really nice ride along the Kennet and Avon Canal path. We start this ride from the Canal and River Trust carpark in Bradford-on-Avon, ( https://what3wor...
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Puttin the brakes on

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 This is a follow up to the previous post regarding Brake-up grading on the ICE trikes The  Apse Enterprise Ltd,  brakes we had fitted turned out to have issues. While we are extremely grateful to the company for sending us samples, the master cylinder was not up to powering two calipers. This meant constant pumping the brakes, and a incident where I lost brakes completely going down hill. Jayne, my partner and bicycle mechanic, wrote a blog post which I share below, with a few pictures of the new replacements:- "Alas my friends, I write this while baring sad news. I have broken the APSE Artek brakes on my trike. They have always felt quite soft in use, the small piston in the master cylinder struggled to push enough fluid to activate the pistons in the calipers. However, when they bit into the disk, they bit hard and braking was generally excellent, until suddenly, it wasn't. The cause of this sudden change was because I did something a little daft, but great fun. I tri...
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Chepstow to Tintern Wye Valley Greenway

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Thought I would share some images from our first couple of rides along the Wye Valley Greenway . This is a former railway line that stretches from Chepstow to Tintern .  This includes the just over a Kilometre long Tidenham Tunnel . This is home to protected Bats, so there is only low lighting and riders are asked not to use their lights. It also closes at night, and also is only open from April to September. There is an alternative route around it.  There is a Carpark at Wyedean School, Sedbury, Chepstow. With a short ride down a lane, this gives access to 5 miles of traffic free riding. 10 if you go to Tintern and back. T The Wireworks Bridge crosses the Wye into Wales at Tintern. To find out more about the route check out Wye Valley Greenway  
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Brake-up grading on the Ice Trikes

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  Update:- Since writing this article we have upgraded the brakes due to issues.  Read the follow up blog @   Puttin the Brakes On While the Sturmey Archer drum brakes, that came standard on the Ice Adventure and Adventure HD, are capable of stopping an average person, we are far from average people. So something needed to be changed, to improve the braking performance. You see, Jayne has arthritis in her fingers, a result of her former profession as a climbing, mountaineering and mountain biking instructor and it is getting worse, making her fingers weak and stiff to move. The obvious step is to swap to hydraulics, to improve the brakes, given the mechanical advantage that they offer compared to cable operated drums. But options for this are limited, even with the bizarre and even esoteric systems that Jayne could find on line, some of which included running master cylinders from one company, paired to callipers from another, but with no fluid reservoir! One option which...
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The Severn Way past Severn Beach, returning along Sustrans routes 4 and 41 to Avonmouth

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 We have been exploring the idea of using my daughter Alice's work base to safely leave our vehicles while going for rides on trikes and bikes. She works for Bucher and while usually out on the road, her branch is based in Avonmouth, near Bristol, South West England. You can watch the long version of the ride on Video, or read the brief highlights with images below. This trip was an afternoon exploratory ride to see if we could access the severn way and ride past Severn Beach, passing under the M4 severn Crossing, and maybe getting as far as the M48 first Severn Bridge.  The first couple of miles followed the main A403 trunk road that links the large trading estates and business hubs of Avonmouth and the surrounding area with motorways in all directions. Not the sort of road that makes riding a trike enjoyable. While I have much respect for the driving skills of the 44 Tonne Artic drivers, sharing a narrow road with them does not fill me with confidence. While the path is mark...
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