epictrip said:
I'd definitely like to meet up with you on your way thru. If you can say in advance about when that will be, I can make sure I have the day off from work to theoretically be available. (otherwise I can't be sure I won't have to be at work when you'd be coming thru, and that would suck). You can reach me here on the forum publicly or via PM, or via email (if you PM me for it).
I've seen those whips on the web before, but never seen one in person. I'm sure it will help on the road--just remmeber that it will also affect your aero some, adding to your cross section--and whips and flags and stuff that stick up high can really suck in high crosswinds like we get during desert storms.
Tires...it depends. There is a thread in the Reference section about them that lists and links to stuff like that. I'm still on the lookout myself for a local source for some tires like that (I haven't tried really hard yet, just casually keeping an eye out while riding). AFAIK there's a Pirelli tire that will fit many 20" rims (remember not all rims are exactly the same so some work and some don't). The ex-Zero rims I have from Ypedal definitely ought to work with at least some of them, cuz they *were* used with them on the Zeros.
But what I'd do if I could (in your case or mine) is use motorcycle or moped *rims* as well as tires, cuz the rims are stronger and can be used with thicker spokes and still get the right tension, and make the wheel much more bulletproof than otherwise, ifyou're going to put heavy loads on it or put it thru "hell" on bad roads at speed (or both, like I sometimes have to).
There's arguments for not doing it this wya, too, such as weight overall, and unsprung weight for suspended wheels (like yours), affecting how well your suspension can actually do it's job. So you have to make a call on that one. The signs on the SAG are good, but remember that they may not bother to *read* them, or it might not sink in even if they do.
I've seen trucks hauling those half-houses (mobile homes?) where they are filling a lane and a half with it, with the gigantic "wide load" sign across the whole back and sometimes side of the thing, and *still* seen cars and trucks just drive right up to the back end of it on the half-lane side before they suddenly notice it's in their way and watch them swerve farther left (or right) to avoid hitting it, literally at the last second, cuz they weren't really paying attention.
Many drivers only pay attention to the fact that there is something large in front of htem that they cant' plow over or thru without hurting their vehicle, and not to anything it actually is telling them...so the "bigger" your own trike "looks", the more it stands out from the road and background, the more likely they are to avoid it without thinking about it. If they have to think about avoiding it, they might not do that, as it's common for the mind to be very distracted from the road, especially on stretches of road where any other traffic would just be other car-sized (or bigger) vehicles all going the same way at the same speed, and not expecting any other kind of traffic on the road or anywhere near it (even though they should be aware of it anyway, they aren't).
I bring this up becuase I regularly see this situation: A car is towing another car, often by a rope or other cable, at a distance greater than a car length, often up to two. The rear car has it's flashers going (the front one might, too, but not always). A car behind them decides he's impatient and wants to go around the slower one that's flashing it's lights (even though often they are NOT slower than the rest of traffic--they see the flashers and automatically react as if they are being impeded by that vehicle; another reason I don't use flashing rear lights on my bikes). So they go around the towed car and immediately try to cut back in front of it, only to find that there's a tow cable/rope in the way, and on one occasion they didn't evne notice it, and swerved into the tow cable, jerking the towed car inot their rear end and themselves into the rear of the towing car, all of which then skidded to a stop and were in turn hit from behind by other traffic.
Similarly, I sometimes get very courteous drivers that instead of riding my rear tire stay a fair distance back from me in traffic where we are all going slow due ot construction, road speeds, or conditions, and that leaves a gap between us where another car could almost be, but not quite really big enough for one. When I was on just a not-as-visible bicycle, taking the lane instead of dangerously riding at hte edge of hte road, day or night, drivers would snap around that trailing car and try to swerve into the place I occupied, and/or the insufficient space behind me, and often not even react to my presence until too lat eto do anything but screech their brakes. As I improved the visibility of my bikes, with first DayGlo paint, then daylight-visible lighting systems, big boxes, and finally my "gigantic" CrazyBike2, this happens less and less and less (it's never completely stopped though).
Usually no collisions happen because of either of the above, but the possibility remains that drivers see a gap they can move into and they just do it, without ever looking *into* that gap to see what's there, if it's not blindingly obvious to them without *thinking* about it. I know not all drivers are like this, but often enough if it's not something big enough to hurt *them*, they aren't particularly concerned about running over something smaller than they are that isn't likely to hurt them or their vehicle--it's nto even a conscious choice, I think, it's just a reaction.
One other issue you're very likely to encounter at night (which you may already be used to) is that oncoming headlights on outside-town stretches of road are likely to be on high-beams, and very bright in your eyes, washing out the lighting from your own trike (and probably SAG, too if it's far enough behind you), making it very hard for you to see the road surface, markings, and hazards during those moments and right afterwards. The brighter your own headlight and ground lighting is, the less of a problem that will be for you, which is one of the reasons I have been using automotive headlights for a while now (couple of years? I forget).
Another reason is that side-street traffic is less likely to pull out right in front of me where I can't avoid them without crashing myself into something else if my lights are physically larger surface areas, making them appear closer to them. Point source lights like most bicycle lights appear farther away despite their brightness (evne if they're brighter than the car headlight), just cuz they're smaller. The bigger something is, the closer it looks, especially if it's a light source and is the only part of the vehicle you can see. With pair of headlights, the farther apart they are the closer it looks too. Try it sometime when riding, when all you can see is just the headlights of a single vehicle, and try to guess how far they are from you with no other referents to judge from. A hummer will look a lot closer to you than an old Jeep, cuz the jeep lights are not on the fenders but are in the grill, and are thus *at least* two feet closer together than otherwise, and up to four feet closer together than on a really wide vehicle that has headlights on the corners of the front end. So the jeep looks significantly farther away than it really is, unless you *know* it's a jeep already and can "fix" your judgment based on that. But your instant reactions will be based on the distance between them and their apparent size, and it takes more time for you ot process all the other info consciously and figure out it's really closer than you think it is.
I have had some people disagree strongly with me on all of that, but I've observed my own and other's reactions on the roads for all my life, and that is what I see happen, all too often.
And since going to physically larger headlights, I've had way less problems with people pulling suddenly out in front of me because they think I'm far enough away to be able to do so when I'm not.
