Catrike headset bearing swap PART 2

Today was the day of the Catrike bearing swap which means I replaced the plastic top bearing in both headsets with a Cane Creek cartridge bearing and compression ring.

I like it when the hidden parts are so colorful ! The green bearings are mountain bike spares that I added to the picture just to show how Cane Creek seems to love fun colors.

This is all I needed for the swap. One 5mm wrench, two 38mm compression rings, and two 38mm bearings.

This swap took about five minutes.....The handling difference isn't huge but it's noticeable. The steering is smooother now and i like it!

Catrike headset bearing swap...

Catrikes are built with two headsets to allow a strong and smooth pivot point for the front wheel assemblies and  this just seems like such a high quality and good looking setup.The headsets are readily available from most any bike shop and they'll almost never wear out when they're properly assembled and maintained.

Both of our Villagers use Cane Creek ZS22 headsets with one oddball piece. Catrike swaps out the top bearing for a plastic bearing which is probably some sort of nylon or delrin. They supposedly do the plastic bearing thing to slow down the steering to make the trike more stable.

It takes a lil' more guesswork to properly tighten a headset with plastic bearings compared to a normal set of caged or cartridge bearings like I've done thousands of times, soooooooooo, in comes some Cane Creek cartridge bearings and  I'm sure they must be more durable than a slick piece of plastic. It's nice that we can easily get these tiny parts with a few clicks of a mouse and minimal searching by going to www.canecreek.com . The conversion takes a pair of 38mm bearings and two 38mm compression rings. I haven't done the switch over yet but there will surely be joy in the land once I get around to it.

Once the switch is completed, we'll have a spare set of stock Catrike top bearings for Jetaime's trike so she should be set for years. There's no real notable reason for me to want to switch from the plastic top bearing to cartridge top bearings other than simply wanting to do it. I've not heard of any issues with the plastic bearing but I'm just a guy who likes what I like and the cartridge bearing is my preference. We'll see how handling and durability might be affected since we can observe these sibling trikes as the mileage accumulates.

New wheels..

I love my Catrike and I love Mavic rims sooooooooooo, now they're together. I've been using Mavics for a lotto' years and they're on all my bikes. It's easy to find a nice Mavic rim in 26" and 700c sizes but not so much in the 20" size. Luckily, there is one on the front of my Tour Easy and I just bought a stockpile of them so the XY's are flowing like water around here.

I measured the ERD of the stock Catrike rims and the Mavic XY rims to see if they could be swapped out without buying new spokes.....As luck would have it, they match up very well.

The XY rim and the stock rim. The XY rim is twice the width of the stock rims and this spreads the tire out better and makes for an improved ride. Made in France with supa' high quality.....Oui. 

This is an easy way to do a straight rim swap. Bread ties keep the spokes in place. Another way is to tape the rims together and move the spokes over as you take them out of the old rim. 

Here's what the bread ties do. I use beeswax on the spoke threads when lacing them back up. 

Mmmmmmm, harmony.

Catrike family

I enjoyed building and test riding my wife's Catrike Villager so much that I started looking for one of my own. We bought her trike as leftover stock from a bike shop in Wisconsin. That shop had two of the old style Villagers but I just didn't like dealing with them. Luckily I keep an eye on E-Bay and found another "new old stock" Villager for $500.00 less than we paid for Jetaime's Catrike so I ordered it.

As strange as it may be, my Villager also came from Wisconsin.....That means that I couldn't find any of these anywhere else but I know there were three of them sitting in bike shops way up there in the dairy state so I did my best imitation of a socialist and redistributed some of that Catrike wealth to this time zone. Actually, capitalism redistributed the Catrikes because I paid for them with my hard earned money.

Jetaime and I went on a Catrike ride around town and it was a blast! There was a short steep hill that was so easy to climb simply because we could go as slow as we wanted. We experienced this because at the base of this hill is a cross street and the traffic separated us as I started up the hill so I simply slowed to a standstill to wait for her and it was very cool.

Catrikes, herbs, and marigolds

Sugino cranks, MKS pedals, Kleen Kanteen, and Suntour Barcons. 

Close view of the Suntour shifters.....They are completely serviceable and I have a box o' parts. 

Commuting....

Getting our schedules in line enough so that Jetaime can commute to work again....She likes the Catrike a lot!

Added some power grips and a Kleen Kanteen Reflect water bottle.....This model has zero plastic in the bottle or the cap and looks lusciously retro and stylie.

The light of day....

Jetaime's Catrike made it outside. I carried it sideways through the house. I knew it would be tough to get it outside when I built it inside because all of our doors are narrow but I wanted to be able to build it at my leisure in our office and it was a relaxing thing.

After building this, I must say that my appreciation for Catrike has shot through the roof! This just seems like such a high quality vehicle. All the Catrike proprietary parts are so nice and fit so well. The building process may have been tooooooo nice because now I want one too.

The rear derailleur is slightly messed up because the low gear limit setscrew wasn't adjusted properly and it looks like it went into the spokes on a test ride. I could make a big deal out of this and make an angry phone call but I'd rather not talk to those guys again. It will work in 8 of the 9 cogs so it's still useful until we get another.

We've ridden trikes before so this isn't anyone's first time on one but it's the first time either of us has ridden one east of the Mississippi. All of our experience has been riding KMXs, a Terratrike, and the elusive Catrike Silvercat on the bike friendly streets and Greenbelt of Boise. This is probably the first Catrike that's ever been in this particular town.

Tires are backwards 

This angle makes the boom look crooked

Too big for him

Also gathering herbs for drying since it's getting colder 

Jetaime likes it ! 

Jetaime's new ride....

After a fair amount of searching, we found a trike for Jetaime. It's a Catrike Villager and I just gotta' say I've always loved the concept of the Catrike company because they're an American company who actually make their own stuff and have even gained a few patents along the way. That sounds like a nice brand to support!

One of my favorite things about these trikes is/was the solid/non adjustable seat because it equals one less thing to go wrong out in the real world. You pretty much buy the Catrike that has the built in seat angle that you prefer.....Whether it's super laid back or more upright. There are plenty of other variations in the models but I suspect many people start with the seat angle and go from there. Recently, Catrike decided to give the Villager and Trail models an adjustable seat and to phase out the frame style I prefer. I wish the old style could have stuck around as an option but that's not for me decide. The new style is very solid and very nice but it still takes away some of that wonderful simplicity and I think the old style frame also looked better. So having said all this...We searched until we found an old style Villager sitting unsold on the floor of a bike shop way up in Wisconsin.

Because of events that have happened in the last year, my mind wanders and remembers the swarms of angry Wisconsinites skipping out on their schools and jobs to protest and make themselves into a spectacle. It seems sadly ironic that this Villager (which is a giver of smiles) would be sitting there as an orphan right under their noses. If one is going to skip out on school and work, you should take a happy ride instead of doing the angry mob thing......But thanks for leaving this Villager for my wife.

Anyway...Here's pictures......


The big box 

There it is....Somewhere

Pulled out the Park tool case

I love the skeletal look of the naked Catrike

Finished, but how do I get it out of the room?