my Hase Kettwiesel Tour Recumbent Trike

Hase Kettwiesel Tour

Summary

This page is about my Hase Kettwiesel Tour recumbent trike and what modifications etc. I have made to it.

(See Hase Kettwiesel 1 for an introduction to the trike, along with pros/cons and further links.)


March 2020

Still riding a Kettwiesel every day to work (since March 2003). Still very happy with closer spaced cassette.

April 2018: new seat fabric

Fit new seat cover: updated from pure net design to padded multi-part. More comfort, but warmer in summer, and holds rain water !

November 2016: finally replace cassette (and chain)

Current cassette/chain almost unusablem so Finally remove cassette with a long arm torque wrench, mole grp on axle (some damage) to finally remove old one (11-34) and fit a closer ratio one (11-23).

November 2016: new tyres

Replace original Marathon Plus rear tyres with identical new ones: zero punctures in 8 years town riding :-) Front tyre still OK.

April 2015: fit hydraulic brakes

Water ingress, mainly into cables (looped down), means the BB7 cable brakes sometimes freeze in winter (but usually not both at same time). Easily fixed by hanging cable indoors overnight.

But decide to fit Avid Elixer 3 (2 rear to get long enough cables), use existing rotors and to reduce work do not trim cables but loop them around under seat and zip-tie them.

Fiddly to adjust but then they work great !!

October 2011: grinding axle

Grinding feeling in right axle fixed by feeding plenty of oil in over a couple of weeks !

June 2011: Fit Sun Tour ratchet friction lever (rear)

The indexing I guess is wearing out, so from my junk both fit an old (1980s ?) fit Sun Tour ratchet friction bar-end lever. Works great !!

August 2009 and again June 2011: fail to remove cassette

Failed to remove cassette, even with a long arm torque wrench (would like to fit a closer ratio one).

late 2010 or early 2011: Move GPS to main tube, and new mirror

What is says really: remove cut-off handlerbar extension, move GPS to direct fit on main boom and fit long stem Busch und Muller Cyclestar mirror to handlebar.

January 2011: New dynamo and tyres

Notice that the rear tyres worn through in places, so buy and fit Schwalbe Marathon Plus 47 mm tyres (lightly loaded front tyre still fine) (still going well, and no punctures, August 2012).

FER-2002 dynamo finally died, so buy a cheap Shimano Dynohub (3N30) 406 wheel on eBay. Fits no problem, and works great !!

September 2010: Fit short cranks

Following successful experiment on my Pashley PDQ fit Thorn 140mm short cranks. The PDQ just needed new cranks, but the Kett also needed a new bottom bracket (110mm) to fit standard square tapered cranks (my Kett had Shimano Hollowtech 2 originally fitted).

August 2010: Broken seat frame

Seat frame breaks whilst riding home from work: holds out till I get home (I only continued riding because I knew that even with a total seat collapse I would just drop a few cm onto the main frame tube, and no risk of falling off !!)

Contact Die Radgeber where I bought the trike from: they organise a replacement from Hase and offer to fit it, all free of charge (no questions asked). As they are some way away (Mainz), and the Kett is difficult to transport, and fitting a new seat frame looks easy I ask them to send the replacement to my home address.

Replaced seat frame without problem in 1/2 hour (the wire to rear light is zip-tied to the frame, so these need to be snipped, and then the wire re-fitted to the new seat frame.)

March 2010: Fit Sun Tour ratchet friction lever (front)

When cleaning the gear cable for the front derailleur I made the mistake of removing it from the Grip-Shift. No amount of experimenting, or Googling could fix it so from my junk both fit and old (1980s ?) fit a Sun Tour ratchet friction bar-end lever. Works great !!

February 2010: Fit BB-7 disk brakes

I bought and fitted BB-7 calipers as drop-in replacements. They work much better than the original BB-5s (see below).

February 2010: Reflections on Snow and Ice

The Kett has been very nice during the last 5/6 weeks of snow, ice and slush here in Darmstadt. It is great not worrying about falling off on the ice (a neighbouring cyclist fell on ice and broke a bone) but you still need to get the tyres through the snow, and with a trike that means 3 tracks instead of 1 with a 2 wheeled bike. Luckily the main cycle paths here are usually cleared quite well, and what was left never quite stopped me !! However I did slightly modify my commuting route to keep on some main cycle paths instead of quieter or shorter routes.

January 2010: Those disk brakes ...

Hase fit the Avid BB5 disc brakes which worked fine when I got them, but the pads wore out quickly and they are hard to adjust. This forum thread contains a discussion on the topic, the consensus seems to be to upgrade to the BB7s (currently Euro 50 retail).

If you are buying a Kett, I suggest paying the shop for an upgrade: the mounts points and levers are compatible so the shop should upgrade for only the price difference of the calipers (currently Eur 20-30) and it is only a 5 minute job for them !

(I just noticed on the Hase website that all the current Ketts use either BB7 or Magura brakes.)

October 2008: Fitting Garmin Edge 305 GPS

Note unit mounted on cut-off handlerbar extension and cadence sensor mounted on the steering rod: both fitted using the standard Garmin mounts.
Hase_GarminUnit Hase_GarminCadenceSensor

Although when you steer the sensor moves away from the magnet it works fine except going round hairpin bends. I guess you could use any magnet, and you could find a stonger one to work better, but the original is good enough for me.

(The cadence sensor also includes a megnetic wheel sensor which of course does not work: but I noticed it can easily be unscrewed from the cadence sensor mount exposing the wire that I guess could then be extended and the wheel sensor DIY-mounted on the front fork.)

Fitting computer: moved over from old Kett

(Cateye Mity: to come: photos of sensor mount and computer mount)

Or see computer mount and sensor mount (both in German, but photos are enough to get the idea !!)

Seat Comfort

As I rode the trike home from the shop in Mainz the main thing I noticed was how uncomfortable the seat was, after some time. I solved this partly just by riding more (did the seat fit for me, or did I fit to the seat !!) but also I did what I had on my old Kett. I re-routed the seat elastics to go under the main tube (taking care not to trap any cables). This avoids sitting on both the plastic clips that hold the elastic onto the seat fabric and also the elastic itself as it crisscrosses between the two sides. It is great now !!

May 2008: Buying it

Still riding the old Kett every day to work since March 2003, but now I fancy a new one (disc brakes would be a big plus: the hacked V-brakes on the old one are OK but...).

Spot an ex-test trike discounted and available 'locally' at Die Radgeber in Mainz: disc brakes, 27 gear, sober grey.

The old one will be passed down the family line and/or I will get a hitch to allow pickup/drop off of kids.

...


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