Mike Labreche wrote:
> Good Morning,
>
> I had E-Mailed you a number of months asking about your trike. I
have >a Greenspeed GTR that is similar to your trike. It has a dark
green >frame with a yellow mesh seat. I have it set up almost like yours
with >the headrest, fenders, fairing,pedals, and the Arkel RT-60
panniers. I >did change the crank to a Shimano XT mountain crank with a
small granny >gear and even then dropped it to at 22 tooth ring. This
has certainly >helped climbing any long steep hills. I also have also
replaced all the >small hardware (nuts, bolts and screws) with stainless
steel allen >bolts.

I've got most of my hardware replaced with stainless. I'm currently
using a suntour crank, but the key feature is 175mm arms and 110/74 bolt
circles. I've several brands of those around. My gearing is currently
24-38-50 driving a 11-34 cassette on a Sachs 3X7. That combo gives me a
gear inch range of 10-118 gear inches with the Greenspeed kevlar
scorchers I'm currently running. Top speed on the flat of a little over
25mph, I'm a diesel truck rather than a hummingbird on crank rpm. I had
been running 24-40-52 which gave me a top speed of close to 30mph, but
slowed the spin more than I liked. I'm looking for a 51 tooth ring to try.

Also recently the original Sachs front derailer broke and I had a lot of
fun as current derailers don't have cable stops. I had to machine a
cable stop and am using a Ultegra front derailer, one of several that
have the same shape. Most of the original parts on my GTR were Sachs,
but I've changed most of the drive train now. The original gearing was
not as wide range as my current gearing.

My biggest problem with hardware right now is pads for the Sachs disc
brakes. I'm out and hunting more with little luck. I like the brakes,
don't want to have to rebuild to something else.

When riding locally I don't use the RT60's much, have a pair of small
panniers I made for front low riders on my upright tourer that I use
instead.

> I ordered a rack from Greenspeed for my trike but they sent one that
>would fit some other trike. I don't have the dimensions with me right
>now since I am at work but the rack they sent is wider than where the
>existing allen bolts are on the frame by about a 1/2 inch on each
side. >The vertical picture of the new rack if attached to the allen
bolts by >the axle would place this rack about an inch lower than the
existing. I >wanted this rack because it is suppose to be carry the
extra weight. >Was curious where you got your rack in the photos.

That's a Surly "Nice Rack". I had the same experience with the
Greenspeed heavy duty rack, it did not fit my older GTR at all. My GTR
came originally with a Blackburn MTN rack. The Surly is fully adjustable
for height, front mount width and reach, and is a heavy duty cromo steel
rack. Easy to fit on. I got mine off ebay, but it's a current product:
http://www.surlybikes.com/parts.html
I like the Surly as it's wider than most racks which fits the Arkel
tailrider better.

Walt