Photos by MJ Klein
Today, Hui-chen and I went back to the TW-Bents warehouse facility to meet with Walter, the trike designer. I wanted to get a new chainring and have him check out the trike.
Walter also showed me some new products under development, and although I wasn’t permitted to take photographs of them, he said I could tell you about them. I’ll get to that at the end of our story for today.
[1]
Right away, the assembler began taking the crank apart to get the chainrings off.
[2]
I wanted to go with a smaller inner chainring to help with hill climbing. Recently, I rode up some hills that were quite steep and I wished I had a lower gear. The Artifice is built for speed mostly and the chainrings are 52, 42 and 32 tooth. I wanted a 26 tooth inner chainring.
[3]
[4]
This shot shows the relative size difference with the smaller (black) chainring.
[5]
While the assembler was working on the chainring changeout, I took a look around and noticed all these new trike frames waiting to be built!
[6]
There was also a mountain of shipping cartons that contained bare frames from the paint shop. They are really going to town on new trikes!
[7]
After the new chainring was installed, Walter (Left) and the assembler checked out my drive train and found that there was a problem with the shifting.
[8]
After a short time, they put my Artifice up on the assembly stand and went to work on it. These guys are perfectionists and the setup wasn’t quite right.
[9]
While they were working on it, I took this photograph, showing the new, smaller inner chainring. If you look between the inner and middle chainrings (where the chain is in this photo) you can see grease marks where the chain used to ride on the larger inner chainring. Now you can see how much smaller (and subsequently lower) this gear is.
[10]
Something wasn’t quite right. The drivetrain wasn’t shifting properly despite adjustments to the dérailleur.
[11]
[12]
Out comes the shifting cable.
[13]
Replacing the cable didn’t help.
[14]
Next, the dérailleur was changed out.
[15]
However, that didn’t solve the problem.
[16]
Walter discovered that there was too much play in the thumb shifters, so they changed out the shifter. After that, the system shifted perfectly.
[17]
After spending a considerable amount of time on my trike, getting it just right, they adjusted all the tywraps holding the cables to the frame, to make sure nothing was binding.
When they were all finished with my Artifice and it was running perfectly, Walter refused to let me pay for the work! Now that’s what I call Customer Service after the fact!
Walter took me into the prototype model area and showed me a beautiful aluminum framed 2-wheeled tandem recumbent! It looks fantastic! They are working on this model for the 2010 Taipei Cycle Show. I also saw a new folding 2-wheel recumbent with a long wheelbase. TW-Bents is constantly working on new models and Walter has some great designs that he is putting out. I’m looking forward to seeing them at the show next year!
Thanks for reading. Please feel free to leave a comment and to recommend this article to others.
Comments Disabled To "Artifice Equipment Update 091204"
#1 Trackback By MJ Klein On December 4, 2009 @ 16:26
Artifice Equipment Update 091204 | [18]
#2 Comment By JG On December 5, 2009 @ 00:38
Nice story and pics. I think you ought to be able to go straight up with that 26!
#3 Comment By thenhbushman On December 5, 2009 @ 00:45
hi JG. that’s just about what i need here in Taiwan! one of those hills has a near vertical climb! well not really but you know what i mean!
#4 Trackback By Taiwanderful On December 5, 2009 @ 02:27
(Best of TW) Artifice Equipment Update 091204 [19]
#5 Comment By Todd On December 5, 2009 @ 21:32
Cool! Now you can do some serious climbing!
.-= Todd´s last blog .. [20] =-.
#6 Comment By thenhbushman On December 6, 2009 @ 00:51
hi Todd. the 26 tooth chainring seems to work well. today i climbed some inclines and although my speed wasn’t significantly impacted (still slow but steady) the effort was a lot less due to the mechanical advantage. so we’ll see when i come to some serious hills! thanks.
#7 Comment By Brunty On December 6, 2009 @ 01:37
MJ, your legs will be flying, high cadence must make the legs a little tired. That is the one thing with the recumbent, not being able to get out of the saddle and push a bigger gear up hills.
That guy is a champ, no charge! Customer service like that, I thought it was dead.
Happy cycling MJ.
.-= Brunty´s last blog .. [21] =-.
#8 Comment By thenhbushman On December 6, 2009 @ 23:11
Brunty, yes the cadence will be higher, but i’d much rather spin than mash!
yes, i thought that kind of Customer Service was dead too. but TW-Bents is a great outfit!
thanks Brunty.
#9 Comment By Mel On April 9, 2010 @ 10:03
What is the brand and model of the mirrors on the Artifice? I have not had any success finding these on web sites.
Thanks
Mel in Texas
#10 Comment By thenhbushman On April 9, 2010 @ 11:25
hi Mel. that’s an excellent question. i have no idea, honestly. there isn’t a single mark on them, anywhere. not even a “made in” mark. my guess is that they are a home-grown Taiwan brand. did you try Actionbent to see if they carried them? they have stock on most of the accessories. if you did, then i suggest you contact Kevin at [22] and ask him about them. please let us know how you make out. thanks.
#11 Comment By Mel On April 12, 2010 @ 08:03
Looks like the CM311 mirrors from getitbent.com may be a close match. 24.95 for two in April 2010.
#12 Comment By thenhbushman On April 12, 2010 @ 14:03
Mel, glad you were able to find something close. the price seems not bad too. thanks.