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Photos by MJ Klein

As some of you may recall, when I visited the Taipei Cycle Show, my friend Kevin Kao showed me a new bracket for the headrest on the Artifice recumbent trike.  I asked Kevin to send me a bracket so I could install one on my own Artifice.

This photo illustrates the issue.  There is a quick release (QR) lever in the center of this photograph.  This QR is for unlocking the seat back for folding down.  There is a rectangular hole in the aluminum mounting bracket for clearance for the QR.  The hole isn’t large enough, and the headrest mounting bracket isn’t adjustable.

In fact, I had to bend my bracket to get the headrest where I wanted it to be.  Notice the slight curve in the aluminum bracket to make it go further forward.

This shot shows the QR opened and ready for the seat back to be folded down.  I’m going to remove the aluminum headrest bracket now.

It was a bit difficult getting a set of Allen wrenches in there to remove the 2 bolts, but I managed to do it.

Now the bracket comes out easily once the 2 bolts are removed.

This is a crappy shot of the new bracket which I have placed into position prior to tightening up.  You can see that the area around the QR is now totally clear.

You can see the clamps that hold the bracket to the bar behind the seat.  Behind the clamps are 2 bolts on each side that allow the bracket to slide up and down.  In addition to that, there is an angle adjustment at the top for the headrest.  So being able to adjust the angle that the bracket clamps onto the bar, the sliding height adjustment and finally the angle adjustment at the top means that you can fine-tune the position of the headrest to get it just how you like it.

At first I thought this new bracket solution was a bit over-engineered, but now I can see that it would fit quite a few trike models and be a good solution to a simple problem.

Here it is, all tightened up, and with the QR properly secured.  In reality, this is not a headrest, but rather a neckrest and I found that with the new bracket, the foam pad felt better mounted upside down.  The curve and bulge of the foam pad fits my neck perfectly in this position and will greatly enhance the pleasure of riding the trike over long distances.

Now, if it would only stop raining….

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