My other bike: Mechashark!

I’ve given love to my fast bike, Emu, so it’s time to give some love to my slow bike, Mechashark!

It’s a 2014 TerraTrike Rambler.  I got it because, well, at the time I was nearly four hundred pounds, and there aren’t a lot of bikes that can hold a dude that big.  This is the bike that got me over the initial hump of weight loss so I could move on to faster bikes and longer rides.

Now, it’s the ride I use for more casual stuff and local errands.  I’m now a strong enough rider that this bike is useful so I’m not constantly champing at the bit, looking to go ahead of people, so it’s usually the bike I use when riding with other people!

Initially, it was named Shark, but I installed an FSA Metropolis Patterson front drive to increase the gear range:

Now, the front tooth serves both as a 28-tooth ring and a 45-tooth ring.  With the internally geared hub in back, I can spin up to about 20 miles per hour with favorable conditions – which is enough for most rides!

It also has a bike computer mount and a light mount in front.  It’s the bike I prefer to ride at night because of its stability:

Seen from the back, that’s where I put my water and groceries.  The bags hold about two plastic grocery bags worth of stuff, so I do much of our shopping on Mechashark!

The bike is also equipped with fenders for when it’s wet outside, making it my de facto all-weather bike.

While not as sexy as Emu, I’ll always have a fond spot in my heart for Mechashark because it started me on the road to cycling.  So I’m very happy to have found additional uses for the bike in my day-to-day life.

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