It's Almost Done!!

Today, as with many days lately, I went out to where my trike spent the winter, where it has been turned from a 2 wheeled motor bike into a 3 wheeler. It has been so totally cool seeing, and being part of its transformation. It is coming so close now to being on the road, though even then it's won't be really 'finished' and may never be. That is, there are many little and some not so little changes that will be made as I have money to do them, things that may change each year for some time to come. However, for the most part it is nearly finished, just some wiring left to do for the brake/tail lights and the signal lights, the tail gate has to be done yet, as well as a few other little bits here and there. Today when I got there, I got to see it with the Diamond Dust all done, and the wood all in the box (except for the tail gate)... it's a metal frame with cedar. This trike has been made with mostly recycled materials and I will tell you more about them in a few days. I took photos of it today, they are still in the camera and the camera is in the truck while I am in bed and too tired to go back out for the camera. I am sure that tomorrow I will take more photos as more work will have been done. In a few days I will post photos and more info here for you to see.

The first day I rode, it was so awesome and yet kind of scary. I had to learn to coordinate my hands to work the brake, clutch and accelerator all at once. Just a tiny move of the wrist can over rev the engine so easily so it takes lots of practice to get used to doing it right. I practiced doing starts and stops in order to be able to start out without stalling the bike as well as to get used to using the hand brake (front wheel). The second time I day I rode it I again did the above as well as using the foot brake (back wheels), and just to add some interest to my practice session, I through in weaving around imaginary obstacles. Today was my 3rd day riding and I asked Tuggy how to change to second gear, he told me and I continued to do some starts/stops as well as shifting from 1st to 2nd then back down to 1st. I am now using my right hand to do the front brake and accelerator, my left hand to do the clutch, my right foot for the back brakes, and my left foot to shift the gears. I've driven cars/trucks for getting too close to 40 years and many of them were standards (my current truck is a 5 speed standard) so I am used to shifting gears while steering and braking and all that stuff, yet it is very different than what I am doing now. I am sure, however, that my years of experience in a 4 wheel vehicle stands me in good stead with riding my motorcycle.

Oh ya, this morning I went to town and had my A1C done (every 3 months I have to have this blood test done to check my blood sugar levels as well as doing regular testing with my blood glucose monitor). You have to fast for 12 hours before having this test done, so I figured today would work well for doing this. After the test I went to my insurance agent and put 5 months insurance on my trike!!!! Now I am legal to go onto public roads. From there I was headed to McDonald's to grab a tea & something to eat, driving past the entrance to Value Village (2nd hand chain store) I felt I should go in to look for 'saddle bags' for my trike. I had thought it would be nice if I still had my horse saddle bags, but I don't, so had looked at some purses though hadn't found the right ones yet. I got really lucky and found not just 1 but 4 back packs the same so bought 2. These are black, never been used, have 3 zipper pockets each & 2 net pockets on the outside for water bottles or whatever, have wheels and handles that pull up to extend for pulling them. I figured the handles would act like a frame to give stability to the bags. They fit perfectly on the trike and look pretty good too. I also bought another purse/pack that I liked and a little back pack that has horses and horse shoes on it, just couldn't pass them up though I have several purses and bags already... sigh. I don't have many pairs of shoes, but do have likely near a dozen purses and mini back packs.

At Tuggy's, as well as riding and photographing the trike, I took a bucket of soapy water and an SOS pad and gave the wheels (front & both back) a really good scrubbing. They look soooo much better than the did. I had ordered a helmet from the local Harley dealer last week and found out today that the one I ordered and pre-paid for was no longer available, so we went there today and ordered another kind. This is a small place so he doesn't carry a lot of stock, the helmets he has are mostly size L and even the M is too big for me, so I have to special order a S. Hopefully this one will come in and I will pick it up next Wednesday or so. In the meantime, I do have an older helmet that Tug gave me that does fit and is DOT approved, though the DOT sticker has been painted over so this could cause some problems if the law decided to check it. You can still see there is a sticker under the paint, but can't actually read it.

Having eaten an Egg & Bacon McMuffin & large tea for breakfast, some jelly beans at Tuggy's, a Fibre 1 bar and a bit of water, I was happy to go along with the plan when Tuggy suggested we go to town and split a large order of fries, and of course I had several cups of tea. Then we decided to split an order of bread pudding with caramel sauce and whipped cream. It was good, though not as good as my Mom makes, and I make bread pudding even better than Moms, so it was a bit of a disappointment yet still plenty eatable. After this though, I felt like my jeans were too tight and I might explode. Not that I felt all that full, just more like very bloated. I think I could have used a kymaro body shaper... though maybe I would have popped if I tried to hold the body in as it wanted to bloat and swell up. POP!!!

On my way home I went to visit my friend DJ and have a tea with her. She is part of my TOPS group. I lead the meeting last week, so still had the binder that Jan will need for tomorrow's meeting. I am not going to be going tomorrow, so needed to get it back and had thought I'd drive out to Jan's then called and found they were not home. It then dawned on me that it would be much less out of my way to go to DJ's than to Jan's anyway, so all worked out well.

Now... off to sleep so I can get up early and go back to do more with the trike.