I bought a Madriver frame blank from my friends Al Krause and Rob Hitchcock who were making a go at recumbent bike production. I test rode another Madriver they had completed and was impressed with the handling and comfort. I had been thinking about getting or making a recumbent for years. I added the braze-ons, steering linkage, and made a seat of plywood, foam rubber, and nylon cloth. Later I added the mid idler because people kept asking if the droopy chain was a problem. It wasn't but the constant predictable question was. The idler allowed me to increase the gear range to a 53 46 24 in front without worry about which combonation of cogs I was in or whether the derrailler could take up the slack.

I started making my own fairings out of coroplast. In 1991 I made two fairings for the Madriver. The first fairing had too much side area which caused it to blow into the pedals, and affect handling in strong side winds and had a yucky paint job.

This picture was taken on a tour south of Arcata. I rode from Arcata to Willits CA then took a ride on the Skunk train to Mendocino and camped out at Van Dam State Park on the coast. On the second to the last day of the tour I rode this bike over 100 miles from Van Dam over Leggit Pass on Highway 1 to Highway 101 stopping to camp near Meyer's Flat. When I got home I thought it would be interesting to weigh the bike and all stuff I was carrying and found I was pedalling 100 pounds around. I'm glad I didn't weigh the bike before the ride. What kind of panniers are those?

Here are some pictures of the center stand I built for the Madriver. It operates just like a motorcycle center stand. To park the bike you stand on either lever behind the legs. That raises the bike onto the stand. To ride just push the bike forwards. The stand swings back and both tires are back on the ground. It's been in the "beta" stage for quite a while now. I will powder coat it black next time some fairing mounts go to the powder coater. Those rear levers on the legs also act as stops to keep the stand from pivoting forward too far. No stops needed at the pivot.

This center stand replaces a pletcher double legged unit. The problem with the pletcher center stand is that the bike must be lifted to deploy the stand. I often load this bike until it is very hard to lift, so the new center stand is much easier to use.