How was your suspension?
The rear suspension – with a vertical load of more than 60kg working through it – was magnificent. I inflated the rear pressure bottle to a static 60 psi and shut down the damper valve a little. This gave a ride that was quite amazingly good – I wouldn’t even feel the bump when the trike’s rear wheel met it; I only knew there'd been a bump when I felt the tug as the tag-along wheel passed it.
The front air reservoirs needed about 22 psi in them – slightly more in the right-hand one to counter an asymmetry in the pannier loads (water was in the right-hand pannier RT60 – 10kg). I varied the position of the damping valves for different road surfaces. On bumpy sections I opened the valves right up. However, on smooth sections taken faster this damper setting allowed the trike to lean – with the extra weight up high and the lowish roll centre, the trike could then feel tippy-toed – best characterised by flopping from one side to the other. So on smooth surfaces I positioned the damper adjustment so fluid flow was only just occurring, which stiffened roll damping.
Alexander stood on the pedals, knees flexed, for any large bumps I warned him about, and the tag-along’s large 20 inch tyre was set very low in pressure. The Nomad trailer’s tyres were also set low in pressure, but on bigger bumps it hopped around a bit. The trailer carried only sleeping gear so it was fairly light.
On this route I’d score the suspension at probably 8/10. Next time, with a similar high-mounted load, I’ll reduce the volume of the front spring pressure bottles from 600ml to 300ml (the same as I run on the back); this will give a faster rising front spring rate and so better control body roll.
