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6 month / 6,000 mile Haluzak review



 
 
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  #1  
Old September 6th 03, 02:11 PM
m worth
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default 6 month / 6,000 mile Haluzak review

I bought my new first-time Haluzak Horizon last March
and wanted to share my experiences with it for the 6,000
miles I've put on it since.

First and foremost, I love it. This is no surprise to me since
I spent upwards of two years researching my first
recumbent purchase in general and Haluzak in particular (I
even visited their factory). The Horizon offered me
comfortable USS, a great seat, and a straight-forward
design. Six months and 6,000 miles later these features
remain a delight.

Putting on the Miles

Each day the first forty miles are the hardest. I've been on
the bike for awhile and yet have a long ways to go. By
the time I'm past 100 miles for the day I've been having
too much fun to notice. I may get tired but I don't get sore
or achy. It's a sweet ride though I keep even more of an
eagle eye out for potholes given the smaller diameter front
wheel. All the time I get attention, some more slack-jawed
than other. I encounter probably the same number of
harassing motorists as on a non-recumbent, certainly no
fewer.

Other experiential observations are that the bike has been
quite stable for me in high speed (up to 50mph) descents
and does well in the rain. I don't have them, yet, but
fenders are recommended along with a good rain suit and
booties if foul weather is a probability for you. I have not
tried one, but I think a fairing would be cool. The rear
wheel is easy to lock up under braking in the dry let alone
the wet so be advised and practice at what point it locks up
and recovering when it does. I've done a number of mile-
plus climbs with the bike; I can't see it as being any harder
or easier than any other bike. Sure, you can't stand up but
with the distance I do I can't see that I'd be doing stand up
climbs anyway (along with no need to give my butt a rest).
I have pondered replacing the inner chainring with a fewer
tooth one but never have so I guess the one on it works
okay. Over time the seat straps loosen so as to have to be
re-adjusted, which is a knack to get just perfect but not too
big a deal.

Suspension

In addition to its great seat, the Haluzak is most notable for
its labeled passive rear suspension. Everyone has an opinion
on it and I do as well. I like it though there are some quirks
for me to ignore. It works well along with the seat design as
smoothing out the bumps. However, there is undesired flex
under certain conditions, typically with the lowest gear
going uphill. Further, because the two chain stays can flex
independently, crowned pavement etc. can cause rotational
flex about the main tube axis. I take it in stride as just a
good reason to improve the smoothness of my cadence. The
one bug-a-boo for me it that this all can mimic a flattening
rear tire and with all the flats I get it sometimes distracts me
as to whether I'm getting yet another flat or it is just this
flex. Note that with me and my load I'm close to the 250lb.
maximum so your experience may differ.

Haluzak offers a front suspension fork that I got to test ride
during my factory visit. It was nice but my advice on this is
that if you have any doubts about purchasing it, you don't
need it. Unless your regular ride includes a lot of rough
pavement that calls out to you for a suspension fork, I'd say
your ride will be fine without it.

Travel

The two keys things I was looking for in my new bike were
long distance (100+ miles per day) comfort and travel
portability. I wanted to go long distances as well as take my
bike with me whenever I traveled. I wanted the perfect bike
that would leave me with no desire to seek out a future
replacement or companion bike. The Haluzak's straight
forward monotube design struck me as likely to be
modifiable for travel. Up to the last minute I thought a
single S&S coupling would do the trick until I was told the
manufacturer does not allow their couplings to be used for
monotubes. I still think that there must be some practical
way to split the single tube, after all tandem recumbent
tubes have a take-apart design. Until I find this way, I have
been using a reasonable alternative. I made a box of the
magic 26"x26"x10" dimensions and bought the longest
soft sided golf bag travel case I found. The single tube just
fits the travel case (actually being soft sided it can stretch
the needed extra 1/2") and the other parts fit pretty easily
into the box. Since there is not a golf bag inside the case, I
firmed it up and enhanced its protection by custom fitting a
box inside it, regaining the rigidity and protection a golf
bag would have provided. As my research indicated, the
airlines take the golf travel bag without a hitch although I
have found I have to keep its weight closer to 25lbs. than
the airline 50lb. maximum else it generates scrutiny. The
weight issue is not one of the bike but because of all the
camping equipment, tools, spares, etc. I pack in.

Repairs

I've been through what, four tires and who knows how
many tubes and patches but I don't see this as bike model
related. When the front tire goes flat, you have to stop now
since there's no moving forward. I've used tire liners with
indeterminate success and now have Kevlar lined front and
rear tires that do help. I have discovered that the front
spokes have a tendency to loosen so I often check them and
keep a spoke wrench with me. I had to replace a headset
bearing race, evidently I reinstalled it upside-down since
they are actually installed asymmetrically. Five mostly
minor spills have lead to the replacement of some bar end
and seat tube end plugs and some scratched metal but in
summary there have been no real problems.

Mods and Tweaks

Obviously I spend a lot of time and travel many miles on
my bike. Not surprisingly I have taken a good thing and
worked on making it better. Primary are changes to
haul my travel and bike repair items. For one-day or shorter
trips, I thread a waist pack onto the upper seat tubing. I
already had several of various sizes and found a medium
sized one works out well. I have also added one on the
lower seat tubing, resting on the main tube between the seat
and the seat angle support tube on occasion as needed such
as to hold cooler/wet weather garments. For multi-day trips
I use my old small (2,000 cu.in. each) panniers. I had put
them on a rear rack using the adaptor that connects to the
seat angle support tube. My experiences with this
arrangement were the same as those of others I had read.
Any significant load, say 10lbs. or heavier, flexes the
passive rear suspension and is felt while riding. As pointed
out by others, shifting weight to the seat back improves the
situation. Eventually the adaptor broke (no surprise given
the constant rear suspension flex) and I was even more
motivated to find another carrying approach. I discovered I
could actually mount the panniers directly to the rear seat
back. Each is as wide as the angled portions of the seat
back cross tubing and the angle tilts them away from the
rear wheel. I used small pieces of cord lashed to the tubes
to provide receivers for the pannier attachment hooks. It
works well although they can rub on the rear tire if the
mounting loosens or shifts and because of the angled
mounting the far edge of each sticks out a little beyond the
width of the seat. The load is now a little higher up than
with rack mounting and all the weight plus me are carried
by the seat. I have not noticed this resulting in anything,
though. My dream solution is a custom rear pack that has at
least the same capacity as I have now, provides an aero tail
and a rear fender function, and then can be removed and
unzipped into a large duffle bag that can store the whole
disassembled bike.

To make it easy to reassemble the crank boom to the main
tube as well as tweak its distance and angle position I put
punch marks on both the crank boom and where it meets
the main tube. Close proximity allows the chain to
sometimes rub on the water bottle in the rear mount. So I
took and re-drilled the cage mount holes a few millimeters
offset to give better chain clearance. I should have taken
copious notes on cable routing before my first disassembly
but I didn't so it now seems like the routing varies a little
each time I reassemble. I think regardless I've had to tweak
a little with a couple extra cable ties and some electrical
tape on rub points. A key area is preventing cable contact
with the chain in the vicinity of the take-up wheel. I have
trained myself to immediately stop and check out any new noise
regardless how subtle. Between the panniers
rubbing on the rear tire, a cable hitting the chain or take-up
wheel, or chain rubbing on the rear water bottle, any new
noise means something is up. I drilled a hole in the bottom
of the bottom seat angle adjustment tube since I found that
it often ended up filled with water since there is no way to
keep water from oozing in over time and no way for it to
drain out once it does (check your bike and I bet you'll find
this trapped water in it.) Oh, and of course I installed the
light/computer mount but I wish it was made of light
aluminum rather than heavy steel.

Finally, I did a few things to facilitate on-the-road repairs. I
bring an Alien RX that covers most of the tool needs for the
Haluzak and one additional tire lever. (I contacted Topeak
to get a second tire lever of theirs that I would substitute for
an Allen wrench I don't need but they said no way, no
how.) I got a nice small and light Craftsman 4" adjustable
wrench for the couple nuts and bolts on the bike and
modified it so it will open wider to work on the outer cone
nuts as well. I also got a wide mouth 6" adjustable wrench
for the other end of the one bolt-nut combination and also
modified it so that it will open real wide to fit the 32mm
outer headset nut along with shortening the handle and
drilling holes in it to lighten it up. I drilled a second hole in
my inner cone wrench and mount it under the water bottle
cage alone with a compact Park headset/cone wrench that
was designed already for such mounting. (This has turned
out to be the one Park tool I've come across of poor quality
and unfortunately has not worked well.) On one airline trip
they lost some of the bike's small parts so I took the
opportunity to replace the seat angle adjustment tube to
main tube bolt with one with a metric Allen drive, thus
eliminating the need to bring two wrenches (I don't know
why I did not do this earlier). As much as I liked the cute
4" adjustable wrench, I don't even need it now.
Ads
  #2  
Old September 6th 03, 02:17 PM
'BentRider
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default 6 month / 6,000 mile Haluzak review

WOW!!! 12,000 miles a year is smoking! Most I ever did in one year
was 14,000 and that was when I was training 4-5 hrs a day days a
week. Very impressive. Keep it up!


On 6 Sep 2003 06:11:04 -0700, (m worth) wrote:

I bought my new first-time Haluzak Horizon last March
and wanted to share my experiences with it for the 6,000
miles I've put on it since.

First and foremost, I love it. This is no surprise to me since
I spent upwards of two years researching my first
recumbent purchase in general and Haluzak in particular (I
even visited their factory). The Horizon offered me
comfortable USS, a great seat, and a straight-forward
design. Six months and 6,000 miles later these features
remain a delight.

Putting on the Miles

Each day the first forty miles are the hardest. I've been on
the bike for awhile and yet have a long ways to go. By
the time I'm past 100 miles for the day I've been having
too much fun to notice. I may get tired but I don't get sore
or achy. It's a sweet ride though I keep even more of an
eagle eye out for potholes given the smaller diameter front
wheel. All the time I get attention, some more slack-jawed
than other. I encounter probably the same number of
harassing motorists as on a non-recumbent, certainly no
fewer.

Other experiential observations are that the bike has been
quite stable for me in high speed (up to 50mph) descents
and does well in the rain. I don't have them, yet, but
fenders are recommended along with a good rain suit and
booties if foul weather is a probability for you. I have not
tried one, but I think a fairing would be cool. The rear
wheel is easy to lock up under braking in the dry let alone
the wet so be advised and practice at what point it locks up
and recovering when it does. I've done a number of mile-
plus climbs with the bike; I can't see it as being any harder
or easier than any other bike. Sure, you can't stand up but
with the distance I do I can't see that I'd be doing stand up
climbs anyway (along with no need to give my butt a rest).
I have pondered replacing the inner chainring with a fewer
tooth one but never have so I guess the one on it works
okay. Over time the seat straps loosen so as to have to be
re-adjusted, which is a knack to get just perfect but not too
big a deal.

Suspension

In addition to its great seat, the Haluzak is most notable for
its labeled passive rear suspension. Everyone has an opinion
on it and I do as well. I like it though there are some quirks
for me to ignore. It works well along with the seat design as
smoothing out the bumps. However, there is undesired flex
under certain conditions, typically with the lowest gear
going uphill. Further, because the two chain stays can flex
independently, crowned pavement etc. can cause rotational
flex about the main tube axis. I take it in stride as just a
good reason to improve the smoothness of my cadence. The
one bug-a-boo for me it that this all can mimic a flattening
rear tire and with all the flats I get it sometimes distracts me
as to whether I'm getting yet another flat or it is just this
flex. Note that with me and my load I'm close to the 250lb.
maximum so your experience may differ.

Haluzak offers a front suspension fork that I got to test ride
during my factory visit. It was nice but my advice on this is
that if you have any doubts about purchasing it, you don't
need it. Unless your regular ride includes a lot of rough
pavement that calls out to you for a suspension fork, I'd say
your ride will be fine without it.

Travel

The two keys things I was looking for in my new bike were
long distance (100+ miles per day) comfort and travel
portability. I wanted to go long distances as well as take my
bike with me whenever I traveled. I wanted the perfect bike
that would leave me with no desire to seek out a future
replacement or companion bike. The Haluzak's straight
forward monotube design struck me as likely to be
modifiable for travel. Up to the last minute I thought a
single S&S coupling would do the trick until I was told the
manufacturer does not allow their couplings to be used for
monotubes. I still think that there must be some practical
way to split the single tube, after all tandem recumbent
tubes have a take-apart design. Until I find this way, I have
been using a reasonable alternative. I made a box of the
magic 26"x26"x10" dimensions and bought the longest
soft sided golf bag travel case I found. The single tube just
fits the travel case (actually being soft sided it can stretch
the needed extra 1/2") and the other parts fit pretty easily
into the box. Since there is not a golf bag inside the case, I
firmed it up and enhanced its protection by custom fitting a
box inside it, regaining the rigidity and protection a golf
bag would have provided. As my research indicated, the
airlines take the golf travel bag without a hitch although I
have found I have to keep its weight closer to 25lbs. than
the airline 50lb. maximum else it generates scrutiny. The
weight issue is not one of the bike but because of all the
camping equipment, tools, spares, etc. I pack in.

Repairs

I've been through what, four tires and who knows how
many tubes and patches but I don't see this as bike model
related. When the front tire goes flat, you have to stop now
since there's no moving forward. I've used tire liners with
indeterminate success and now have Kevlar lined front and
rear tires that do help. I have discovered that the front
spokes have a tendency to loosen so I often check them and
keep a spoke wrench with me. I had to replace a headset
bearing race, evidently I reinstalled it upside-down since
they are actually installed asymmetrically. Five mostly
minor spills have lead to the replacement of some bar end
and seat tube end plugs and some scratched metal but in
summary there have been no real problems.

Mods and Tweaks

Obviously I spend a lot of time and travel many miles on
my bike. Not surprisingly I have taken a good thing and
worked on making it better. Primary are changes to
haul my travel and bike repair items. For one-day or shorter
trips, I thread a waist pack onto the upper seat tubing. I
already had several of various sizes and found a medium
sized one works out well. I have also added one on the
lower seat tubing, resting on the main tube between the seat
and the seat angle support tube on occasion as needed such
as to hold cooler/wet weather garments. For multi-day trips
I use my old small (2,000 cu.in. each) panniers. I had put
them on a rear rack using the adaptor that connects to the
seat angle support tube. My experiences with this
arrangement were the same as those of others I had read.
Any significant load, say 10lbs. or heavier, flexes the
passive rear suspension and is felt while riding. As pointed
out by others, shifting weight to the seat back improves the
situation. Eventually the adaptor broke (no surprise given
the constant rear suspension flex) and I was even more
motivated to find another carrying approach. I discovered I
could actually mount the panniers directly to the rear seat
back. Each is as wide as the angled portions of the seat
back cross tubing and the angle tilts them away from the
rear wheel. I used small pieces of cord lashed to the tubes
to provide receivers for the pannier attachment hooks. It
works well although they can rub on the rear tire if the
mounting loosens or shifts and because of the angled
mounting the far edge of each sticks out a little beyond the
width of the seat. The load is now a little higher up than
with rack mounting and all the weight plus me are carried
by the seat. I have not noticed this resulting in anything,
though. My dream solution is a custom rear pack that has at
least the same capacity as I have now, provides an aero tail
and a rear fender function, and then can be removed and
unzipped into a large duffle bag that can store the whole
disassembled bike.

To make it easy to reassemble the crank boom to the main
tube as well as tweak its distance and angle position I put
punch marks on both the crank boom and where it meets
the main tube. Close proximity allows the chain to
sometimes rub on the water bottle in the rear mount. So I
took and re-drilled the cage mount holes a few millimeters
offset to give better chain clearance. I should have taken
copious notes on cable routing before my first disassembly
but I didn't so it now seems like the routing varies a little
each time I reassemble. I think regardless I've had to tweak
a little with a couple extra cable ties and some electrical
tape on rub points. A key area is preventing cable contact
with the chain in the vicinity of the take-up wheel. I have
trained myself to immediately stop and check out any new noise
regardless how subtle. Between the panniers
rubbing on the rear tire, a cable hitting the chain or take-up
wheel, or chain rubbing on the rear water bottle, any new
noise means something is up. I drilled a hole in the bottom
of the bottom seat angle adjustment tube since I found that
it often ended up filled with water since there is no way to
keep water from oozing in over time and no way for it to
drain out once it does (check your bike and I bet you'll find
this trapped water in it.) Oh, and of course I installed the
light/computer mount but I wish it was made of light
aluminum rather than heavy steel.

Finally, I did a few things to facilitate on-the-road repairs. I
bring an Alien RX that covers most of the tool needs for the
Haluzak and one additional tire lever. (I contacted Topeak
to get a second tire lever of theirs that I would substitute for
an Allen wrench I don't need but they said no way, no
how.) I got a nice small and light Craftsman 4" adjustable
wrench for the couple nuts and bolts on the bike and
modified it so it will open wider to work on the outer cone
nuts as well. I also got a wide mouth 6" adjustable wrench
for the other end of the one bolt-nut combination and also
modified it so that it will open real wide to fit the 32mm
outer headset nut along with shortening the handle and
drilling holes in it to lighten it up. I drilled a second hole in
my inner cone wrench and mount it under the water bottle
cage alone with a compact Park headset/cone wrench that
was designed already for such mounting. (This has turned
out to be the one Park tool I've come across of poor quality
and unfortunately has not worked well.) On one airline trip
they lost some of the bike's small parts so I took the
opportunity to replace the seat angle adjustment tube to
main tube bolt with one with a metric Allen drive, thus
eliminating the need to bring two wrenches (I don't know
why I did not do this earlier). As much as I liked the cute
4" adjustable wrench, I don't even need it now.


Bryan J. Ball
Editor/Publisher
www.bentrideronline.com
  #3  
Old September 6th 03, 02:17 PM
'BentRider
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default 6 month / 6,000 mile Haluzak review

WOW!!! 12,000 miles a year is smoking! Most I ever did in one year
was 14,000 and that was when I was training 4-5 hrs a day days a
week. Very impressive. Keep it up!


On 6 Sep 2003 06:11:04 -0700, (m worth) wrote:

I bought my new first-time Haluzak Horizon last March
and wanted to share my experiences with it for the 6,000
miles I've put on it since.

First and foremost, I love it. This is no surprise to me since
I spent upwards of two years researching my first
recumbent purchase in general and Haluzak in particular (I
even visited their factory). The Horizon offered me
comfortable USS, a great seat, and a straight-forward
design. Six months and 6,000 miles later these features
remain a delight.

Putting on the Miles

Each day the first forty miles are the hardest. I've been on
the bike for awhile and yet have a long ways to go. By
the time I'm past 100 miles for the day I've been having
too much fun to notice. I may get tired but I don't get sore
or achy. It's a sweet ride though I keep even more of an
eagle eye out for potholes given the smaller diameter front
wheel. All the time I get attention, some more slack-jawed
than other. I encounter probably the same number of
harassing motorists as on a non-recumbent, certainly no
fewer.

Other experiential observations are that the bike has been
quite stable for me in high speed (up to 50mph) descents
and does well in the rain. I don't have them, yet, but
fenders are recommended along with a good rain suit and
booties if foul weather is a probability for you. I have not
tried one, but I think a fairing would be cool. The rear
wheel is easy to lock up under braking in the dry let alone
the wet so be advised and practice at what point it locks up
and recovering when it does. I've done a number of mile-
plus climbs with the bike; I can't see it as being any harder
or easier than any other bike. Sure, you can't stand up but
with the distance I do I can't see that I'd be doing stand up
climbs anyway (along with no need to give my butt a rest).
I have pondered replacing the inner chainring with a fewer
tooth one but never have so I guess the one on it works
okay. Over time the seat straps loosen so as to have to be
re-adjusted, which is a knack to get just perfect but not too
big a deal.

Suspension

In addition to its great seat, the Haluzak is most notable for
its labeled passive rear suspension. Everyone has an opinion
on it and I do as well. I like it though there are some quirks
for me to ignore. It works well along with the seat design as
smoothing out the bumps. However, there is undesired flex
under certain conditions, typically with the lowest gear
going uphill. Further, because the two chain stays can flex
independently, crowned pavement etc. can cause rotational
flex about the main tube axis. I take it in stride as just a
good reason to improve the smoothness of my cadence. The
one bug-a-boo for me it that this all can mimic a flattening
rear tire and with all the flats I get it sometimes distracts me
as to whether I'm getting yet another flat or it is just this
flex. Note that with me and my load I'm close to the 250lb.
maximum so your experience may differ.

Haluzak offers a front suspension fork that I got to test ride
during my factory visit. It was nice but my advice on this is
that if you have any doubts about purchasing it, you don't
need it. Unless your regular ride includes a lot of rough
pavement that calls out to you for a suspension fork, I'd say
your ride will be fine without it.

Travel

The two keys things I was looking for in my new bike were
long distance (100+ miles per day) comfort and travel
portability. I wanted to go long distances as well as take my
bike with me whenever I traveled. I wanted the perfect bike
that would leave me with no desire to seek out a future
replacement or companion bike. The Haluzak's straight
forward monotube design struck me as likely to be
modifiable for travel. Up to the last minute I thought a
single S&S coupling would do the trick until I was told the
manufacturer does not allow their couplings to be used for
monotubes. I still think that there must be some practical
way to split the single tube, after all tandem recumbent
tubes have a take-apart design. Until I find this way, I have
been using a reasonable alternative. I made a box of the
magic 26"x26"x10" dimensions and bought the longest
soft sided golf bag travel case I found. The single tube just
fits the travel case (actually being soft sided it can stretch
the needed extra 1/2") and the other parts fit pretty easily
into the box. Since there is not a golf bag inside the case, I
firmed it up and enhanced its protection by custom fitting a
box inside it, regaining the rigidity and protection a golf
bag would have provided. As my research indicated, the
airlines take the golf travel bag without a hitch although I
have found I have to keep its weight closer to 25lbs. than
the airline 50lb. maximum else it generates scrutiny. The
weight issue is not one of the bike but because of all the
camping equipment, tools, spares, etc. I pack in.

Repairs

I've been through what, four tires and who knows how
many tubes and patches but I don't see this as bike model
related. When the front tire goes flat, you have to stop now
since there's no moving forward. I've used tire liners with
indeterminate success and now have Kevlar lined front and
rear tires that do help. I have discovered that the front
spokes have a tendency to loosen so I often check them and
keep a spoke wrench with me. I had to replace a headset
bearing race, evidently I reinstalled it upside-down since
they are actually installed asymmetrically. Five mostly
minor spills have lead to the replacement of some bar end
and seat tube end plugs and some scratched metal but in
summary there have been no real problems.

Mods and Tweaks

Obviously I spend a lot of time and travel many miles on
my bike. Not surprisingly I have taken a good thing and
worked on making it better. Primary are changes to
haul my travel and bike repair items. For one-day or shorter
trips, I thread a waist pack onto the upper seat tubing. I
already had several of various sizes and found a medium
sized one works out well. I have also added one on the
lower seat tubing, resting on the main tube between the seat
and the seat angle support tube on occasion as needed such
as to hold cooler/wet weather garments. For multi-day trips
I use my old small (2,000 cu.in. each) panniers. I had put
them on a rear rack using the adaptor that connects to the
seat angle support tube. My experiences with this
arrangement were the same as those of others I had read.
Any significant load, say 10lbs. or heavier, flexes the
passive rear suspension and is felt while riding. As pointed
out by others, shifting weight to the seat back improves the
situation. Eventually the adaptor broke (no surprise given
the constant rear suspension flex) and I was even more
motivated to find another carrying approach. I discovered I
could actually mount the panniers directly to the rear seat
back. Each is as wide as the angled portions of the seat
back cross tubing and the angle tilts them away from the
rear wheel. I used small pieces of cord lashed to the tubes
to provide receivers for the pannier attachment hooks. It
works well although they can rub on the rear tire if the
mounting loosens or shifts and because of the angled
mounting the far edge of each sticks out a little beyond the
width of the seat. The load is now a little higher up than
with rack mounting and all the weight plus me are carried
by the seat. I have not noticed this resulting in anything,
though. My dream solution is a custom rear pack that has at
least the same capacity as I have now, provides an aero tail
and a rear fender function, and then can be removed and
unzipped into a large duffle bag that can store the whole
disassembled bike.

To make it easy to reassemble the crank boom to the main
tube as well as tweak its distance and angle position I put
punch marks on both the crank boom and where it meets
the main tube. Close proximity allows the chain to
sometimes rub on the water bottle in the rear mount. So I
took and re-drilled the cage mount holes a few millimeters
offset to give better chain clearance. I should have taken
copious notes on cable routing before my first disassembly
but I didn't so it now seems like the routing varies a little
each time I reassemble. I think regardless I've had to tweak
a little with a couple extra cable ties and some electrical
tape on rub points. A key area is preventing cable contact
with the chain in the vicinity of the take-up wheel. I have
trained myself to immediately stop and check out any new noise
regardless how subtle. Between the panniers
rubbing on the rear tire, a cable hitting the chain or take-up
wheel, or chain rubbing on the rear water bottle, any new
noise means something is up. I drilled a hole in the bottom
of the bottom seat angle adjustment tube since I found that
it often ended up filled with water since there is no way to
keep water from oozing in over time and no way for it to
drain out once it does (check your bike and I bet you'll find
this trapped water in it.) Oh, and of course I installed the
light/computer mount but I wish it was made of light
aluminum rather than heavy steel.

Finally, I did a few things to facilitate on-the-road repairs. I
bring an Alien RX that covers most of the tool needs for the
Haluzak and one additional tire lever. (I contacted Topeak
to get a second tire lever of theirs that I would substitute for
an Allen wrench I don't need but they said no way, no
how.) I got a nice small and light Craftsman 4" adjustable
wrench for the couple nuts and bolts on the bike and
modified it so it will open wider to work on the outer cone
nuts as well. I also got a wide mouth 6" adjustable wrench
for the other end of the one bolt-nut combination and also
modified it so that it will open real wide to fit the 32mm
outer headset nut along with shortening the handle and
drilling holes in it to lighten it up. I drilled a second hole in
my inner cone wrench and mount it under the water bottle
cage alone with a compact Park headset/cone wrench that
was designed already for such mounting. (This has turned
out to be the one Park tool I've come across of poor quality
and unfortunately has not worked well.) On one airline trip
they lost some of the bike's small parts so I took the
opportunity to replace the seat angle adjustment tube to
main tube bolt with one with a metric Allen drive, thus
eliminating the need to bring two wrenches (I don't know
why I did not do this earlier). As much as I liked the cute
4" adjustable wrench, I don't even need it now.


Bryan J. Ball
Editor/Publisher
www.bentrideronline.com
  #4  
Old September 6th 03, 04:07 PM
Chris Crawford
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default 6 month / 6,000 mile Haluzak review

Mr. Worth - thank you for the extended review. I like your
travelling/packing solutions.

Regards
Chris

  #5  
Old September 6th 03, 04:07 PM
Chris Crawford
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default 6 month / 6,000 mile Haluzak review

Mr. Worth - thank you for the extended review. I like your
travelling/packing solutions.

Regards
Chris

  #6  
Old September 6th 03, 11:39 PM
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default 6 month / 6,000 mile Haluzak review

'BentRider wrote:
: WOW!!! 12,000 miles a year is smoking! Most I ever did in one year
: was 14,000 and that was when I was training 4-5 hrs a day days a
: week. Very impressive. Keep it up!

He needs to make up for those 2 years of research... )

That was a nice narrative, I read all of it =)

The bonk-before-40-miles is something I've seen too. On my long
rides on the upright I often started to feel Mr Bonk approaching,
only he didn't come closer no matter how long I rode... On my
trike 100 km goes just like that, easy stuff nowadays.

My total this year is going to be just about 3000 miles.

Do you like the Haluzak USS steering? Some claim it's the best in
the industry :-)

--
Risto Varanka | http://www.helsinki.fi/~rvaranka/hpv/hpv.html
varis at no spam please iki fi
  #7  
Old September 6th 03, 11:39 PM
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default 6 month / 6,000 mile Haluzak review

'BentRider wrote:
: WOW!!! 12,000 miles a year is smoking! Most I ever did in one year
: was 14,000 and that was when I was training 4-5 hrs a day days a
: week. Very impressive. Keep it up!

He needs to make up for those 2 years of research... )

That was a nice narrative, I read all of it =)

The bonk-before-40-miles is something I've seen too. On my long
rides on the upright I often started to feel Mr Bonk approaching,
only he didn't come closer no matter how long I rode... On my
trike 100 km goes just like that, easy stuff nowadays.

My total this year is going to be just about 3000 miles.

Do you like the Haluzak USS steering? Some claim it's the best in
the industry :-)

--
Risto Varanka | http://www.helsinki.fi/~rvaranka/hpv/hpv.html
varis at no spam please iki fi
 




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