Challenge Hurricane - Refurbishment

Challenge Hurricane Sport, soon after first purchase in 2005
 

Having ridden my recumbent for nearly 10,000km since I bought it second hand in March 2005, and with many tough commuter miles in London, the bike was in desperate need of a whole lot of tender loving care.  I realise this isn't such a great distance on a bike, but the bike was second hand when I bought her, and had already done quite a lot of mileage.  All sorts of things were either worn out or not working properly any more, such as the rear shock absorber, broken teeth on the 57 tooth big ring, creaky bits, worn paint, wobbly tiller due to worn bushings, etc.

I'd also lusted after a Novosport tailfairing for some time, so this was the perfect opportunity to get one and re-do my whole bike in one go.  I ordered the tailbox at the end of April, and received it in early June, exactly as promised.  In the meantime, that left me free to work on the rest of the bike and prepare it for the arrival of the tailbox.

Step one was to disassemble the bike completely, and take the parts off to Mario Vaz Cycle Finishes for a respray in glossy black.  Mario has a good reputation for value for money amongst cyclists in London, and did a good job on my Hurricane bar some minor delays and problems.  It was a long time since I last dismantled my bike, but it all went very easily, so easily that I was slightly worried about getting it all back together again!

In the meantime, I was busy ordering parts a plenty for the bike:

Once the bike was back from Mario Vaz's, it was time to start the re-assembly.  Again, this went relatively quickly, though I did have to enlist the help of Bigfoot Bikes with the headset and BB.  Annoyingly, the Shimano 105 headset I'd ordered had too low a stack height and didn't fit on my frame/forks, so I've had to put the old one (well worn) back until the Stronglight A9 I've ordered arrives and can be fitted.

About a week later, the tailbox arrived from Germany.  Ulrich from Novosport had sent some lazer cut metal strips to mount the box by strapping it over the Challenge seat, but after some thought I elected not to mount it this way.  That's because the box fits a Hurricane seat very well, and I felt I could get a neater and more hidden away mounting by using the seat and rack mounting bolts instead.  The box is attached via 5 bolts - the two upper seat mounting bolts, which are roughly at the lower front bits of the tailbox, then two of the rack mounting bolts, about midway up the seat, and lastly via a single bolt just below the headrest.  Given that the box is made of relatively thin fibreglass for strength and weight saving, I made up some large brass washers from brass strip in order to spread the load and prevent damage to the tailbox.

Almost finished now, just need the new headset fitted, as well as the sign writing.
Lots of riders don't like mirrors, but they are nearly essential on a low recumbent like this one because it's so hard to look behind yourself to check for traffic.  The red/grey item on the left is the AirZound, and the black mounting on the right is for my Garmin eTrex Vista Cx GPS.	I love that Nazca tiller - it's beautifully made and works brilliantly.  I'm also chuffed with the cable routing inside the tiller, as that makes for a much neater and cleaner look.
I think I would like to change the rear lighting a little, but I'm not sure what/how yet.  Perhaps a Dinotte?	Showing the width of the box from the front, it fits pretty closely to my body.  You can also see the light and camera mount at the front of the bike, by the chainrings.
Parked in Kensington Gardens.

The Ride

Wow was I pleased after the first test ride!  The whole bike feels so new and tight, everything works properly and all the old rattles and squeeks were long gone.  I can't wait until I've fitted the new headset, as that will almost certainly make some additional improvement.

The new rear shock is better on two counts over the old one - it's a much higher quality item, and of course is new rather than old and worn out.  Ride quality is massively improved and much more comfortable over rough ground.  Despite only having done a few hundred km on the recumbent this year, I was immediately as fast as I am on my other bike, and the bike just keeps accelerating on the flat and downhill.  A barely noticeable downhill will usually take me to 25-30mph with minimal pedalling effort.  As I get back my recumbent fitness after another thousand kilometers or so, I would expect to be considerably faster still.

The tailbox is great for several reasons:  It's excellent at carrying the shopping with it's 55l capacity, and is a lockable boot space.  It makes the bike a little faster due to better aerodynamics, I'm guessing perhaps 1-2mph at 20mph, and lastly it will serve as advertising space when I get around to sorting out the vinyl sign writing.  Given how eye-catching the bike is, advertising for my skating lessons should be quite effective!

I'm also very pleased with the Look road pedals.  Whilst they aren't very convenient for walking on, they are overall much better than my old SPD pedals/shoes for my purposes.  I noticed an easier clip in, a much bigger and nicer pedal platform to push against, and no releases under sprinting load, and that all works well for my relatively long commute.

Links

Bike website: Challenge Bikes Netherlands.  There are some new and very nice bikes out by Challenge now, though I was sad to report that my contacts with Challenge left me feeling distinctly unimportant as a customer, and rather disappointed.  Perhaps they are a victim of their own success?

Novosport.de - suppliers of tailfairings and other recumbent parts.  Thanks Ulrich for the great customer service, answering so many of my questions.  I can highly recommend this company, and the build quality of the low rider box I ordered was excellent.

Laidback Ligfiets - lots of help with ordering the Ventisit seat pad and a replacement Nazca tiller.  David gave superb customer service as well, really helpful.  I wish other recumbent shops had the same sort of approach, because some of them seem back in the dark ages of service.

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