HPV Canterbury - March 2002

The Velocity guy (Gavin) has a huge collection of bikes and stuff - he's also a big fan of the Shimano four speed auto shift hubs, which work for him. I found them a bit disconcerting, but I suspect you'd get used to them. The monoque bike steers by pivoting the bars parallel to the frame, so one moves straight towards you while the other moves away. As the Tripendo does. Riding it was interesting, but again suspect I'd get used to it if I rode it a lot. Not something that I particularly like, but it's good to have ridden it. That bike is also dual suspended, which seems to be popular in Christchurch.

Aarn's bike had the interesting rear suspension - the cable seems to just wrap over a cross bar and return, with the only suspension being a bit of rubber hose around that tube. Still, it rides well which is what counts.

The Christchurch guys seem to be much more into having someone else build their designs than I'm used to, with Gavin seemingly doing much of the fabrication. So there's a lot of aluminium in use, since that's lighter and if the fabrication is done by professionals it's no harder. Aarn is keen on carbon fibre for that reason - he can make models and have a pro do the actual build. And there is a lot of expertise in the local yachting industry. But his new design looks very cool, and with any luck i'll be able to ride it. I can't quite fit my legs under the handlebars of the current model unfortunately (my usual problem on ASS bikes).

Bruce's trike is quite nice. The rear suspension works pretty well, and it is nice and low to ride. I peaked at about 35kph more due to my problems than the trike, although it does suffer a bit of suspension bounce under power. I'm even less convinced of ASS trikes now, his trike is almost as twitchy as a Windcheetah. But he likes it, which is what counts. Oh, and it apparently weighs about 16kg in race trim. Not bad at all for a suspended trike!