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Windcheetah Wheel Covers and modifications...
By now you have probably noticed the black covered wheels...
These covers were made out of lycra and have velcro attachments. This makes it easy to take them out for washing if you must or for getting some pressure into your tyres.
 
There are plenty of velcro adhesives replacements as some of them tend to become lose sometimes. They are supposed to be water proof adhesives but the ocasional puddle can cause bad coesion.
These wheel covers were added in an attempt to eliminate the drag that happens when the wheel spokes try to deal with the wind at speed. To be honest I believe my flat terrain riding speed improved by 2 mph.
I'm also convinced it improved the look of the tricycle.
PEDALS...
It will go to you with these double-sided pedals from Shimano. I believe these are quite easy to get hold off and were chosen as they are easy to use on the trike.
LIGHTS...
I've installed a Cateye Stadium Light 3 which is severely powerful.
 
In fact, at 84 watts it's more powerful than a car's legal 75 watt dip beam! You'll find that it does a great job of iluminating the road in front of you during the darkest of nights.
The power switch sits on the central beam out of the way of your legs and still easy to operate.
Please note I've attached an Elite bottle holder. It's using the Velcro of the Light switch to stay on the trike. I didn't drill any holes into the aluminium frame and I wouldn't recommend you do so, unless you know something I don't. Also note this cage is for smaller bottles. (Can't remember the exact size)
The headlight unit was attached using velcro as this has many advantages allowing you to adjust the light at any time and isn't the heaviest of materials.
This Cateye unit comes with a Bottle shaped battery that has some velcro straps for attachment. I've chosen to use the seat mounting to place the 12V rechargeable battery just under the seat. And believe it, it fits nicely and doesn't touch the wheel!
The coil-shaped power cable will go under the seat to the plug at the front. This set up is easy to use as it allows you to remove the bottle and take it indoors for charging. Average battery charge lasts about 3 hours.
The rear light is a Cateye with 5 red LEDS. At the time it came out, seemed to be the brightest thing you could point at other drivers! The 1.5 volt batteries will last for 100 hours or so.
(The rear light unit in this picture seems to have tape on it, this was my attempt to convert one of these devices to switch on everytime you use the brake lever. Unfortunately, this idea was dropped.
CYCLE COMPUTER...
For monitoring of speed and mileage I opted for a Panoram TOPEAK cycle computer that seems to have all the info you can see on a car's dashboard. In fact I've seen this light-weight device used in ultra light racing cars like the Caterham. It's been calibrated to the Windcheetah and I dare you to beat my maximum speed of 42.7mph!!!
Pressing the centre button will cause the backlight to come on for 5 seconds making it possible the read your speed at night.
The computer was mounted on the control joystick so it would stay visible and close to you without getting in the way of normal operations like braking, turning, or gear changes.
 
CARGO...
Ok don't laugh but I've put a little pouch attached under the seat so I could put stuff like house keys or an energy bar or even a mobile phone. It's proven useful manytimes as there isn't much room for storage on this trike. It's meant for sport, it's meant to go, and not to go shopping. (Cars are for that!)
 
And that's IT! These modifications have improved what is already a great Windcheetah trike without increasing too much the overall weight.
Check out...
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