Recumbent - Trike Questions - Pt.2

I entered the recumbent trike world today buy picking up a Sun EZ Tadpole. Got home, looked at it and a couple of questions came to mind. First, How does one align the front wheels? How do you go about making sure they're tracking parallel to the rear wheel or close to it? Second, any ideas on where to mount a cyclocomputer on it?

Thanks,
Garry

Gary, use a yard stick and measure inside of the rim at a 90 degree of the kingpin in front of kingpin and at the rear of the kingpin. You want either equal or 1 - 2 mm toe in (closer in the front then the rear. As for the mount of the commuter. Find a stem mount that will go into the front derailure tube. The sensor for the wheel is a little trickier. Buy a Minoura BH-95 (water cager stem mount) and mount it in the rear on the oppisite side as the chain for the sensor mount. You may need to extend the wires so make sure you buy a computer with twin wires (the Cateye Velo2 and Might 8 work well with the tandem extention kit.)

I just use a tape measure from 1 rim (not tyre) to the other (use the rear of the body of the tape measure on one side) at the back and front this must be done at the same height back and front and you want between 0-2 mm closer at the front, repeat this measurement a few times to guarantee accuracy.
Probaly for the first couple of rides have some toe in as it will help center the steering and stop it feeling twitchy, later on you will find as close as you can to zero is great as it cuts down tyre wear and allows a higher speed for the same pedal input or hill :).
There are a lot of different ways to measure this, but I've found as long as you repeat the measurement a few times to eliminate errors this is quick and easy.

BentKent & geebee,

Thanks for the tips. I got a ruler and tools and had at it. The intial measurement showed almost 2 inches of toe in. (Probably explains the tire squealing as I pushed it along the floor at the LBS.) Got it down to 1-2 mm. ALso found some not-so-tight bolts/nuts. One other thing I noticed while operating the brakes was the disk rotors would deflect some as the pads came in contact. Can't imagine this being normal but maybe it is.

Garry

Your one to two mm of toe-in is what my trikes are set at. I use a dowel with a screw in one end which gives extreme accuracy and makes it easy to re-check from time to time. Also, there is some frame (and other parts) flex so someone should be on the trike when checking this setting. On a new trike I do the first check on the bench and do a final check while sitting on the trike.

Many disc brakes move only one side of the caliper and do, in fact, rely on disc flex for the braking action.

Chip