TADPOLE RIDER BLOG REBORN

Just a quick note here to say that I made the decision to restart my TADPOLERIDER  blog. I have all the tadpole articles I posted on this blog available on TADPOLERIDER now. And I will be adding more articles as time permits. So for those who are looking for this please bookmark TADPOLERIDER. Thank you.

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DID GOD CREATE EVIL?

Did God create evil? Sounds like a fair question. And after all does not God’s Word say in John 1:3 … “All things were made through Him (Jesus Christ), and without Him was not any thing made that was made.”? (Also other verses say this … 1 Corinthians 8:6 and Colossians 1:16) It sure sounds like God created evil if you go by these verses and don’t bother to look further and “rightly divide” (interpret, understand and apply) God’s Word. Man gets into all kinds of trouble by failing to do so. Many things are misunderstood and as a result we can get all messed up in what we believe. The answer to the question is … NO. No, God did not create evil … but what He created was the potential for evil to come about. He originally created angels as free moral agents with self will. They had the ability to choose to obey Him or disobey Him just like we humans do. All was fine at first as the angels obeyed God, but after awhile one angel became prideful and decided he was going to disobey. He thought he could take upon himself God’s glory and position. This angel persuaded a third of all the angels to join him in this rebellion and attempt to overthrow God’s rule … to exalt himself above God. A war took place in which this angel and all the others quickly discovered they were no match for God after all. You can read about it in various passages of scripture …

Isaiah 14:12-14

12 “How you have fallen from heaven,
O [a]star of the morning, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the earth,
You who have weakened the nations!
13 “But you said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God,
And I will sit on the mount of assembly
In the recesses of the north.
14 ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’ ”  New American Standard Bible (NASB)

This angel’s name was Lucifer. He was a special angel and was very pleasing to look upon. He was in charge of the worship of God in heaven. You can read more about Lucifer and how he became prideful which led him to rebellion which resulted in his becoming Satan (the devil). Some of the angels who joined him in this rebellion became demons and they serve him in carrying out his evil in our midst.

Ezekiel 28:12-19

12 “Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “You had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 13 “You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: the ruby, the topaz and the diamond; the beryl, the onyx and the jasper; the lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; and the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, was in you. On the day that you were created they were prepared. 14 “You were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire. 15 “You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you. 16 “By the abundance of your trade you were internally filled with violence, and you sinned; Therefore I have cast you as profane from the mountain of God and I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. 17 “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings that they may see you. 18 “By the multitude of your iniquities in the unrighteousness of your trade you profaned your sanctuaries. Therefore I have brought fire from the midst of you; It has consumed you and I have turned you to ashes on the earth in the eyes of all who see you. 19 “All who know you among the peoples are appalled at you; You have become terrified and you will cease to be forever.”’”  New American Standard Bible (NASB)

We find more concerning the story of how Satan (the devil) came about …

Revelation 12:7-9

7 “And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war, 8 and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”  New American Standard Bible (NASB)

This was the introduction of evil into God’s creation. When God created man and then woman Satan came in the form of a snake to the woman lying to her and deceiving her so that she chose to disobey God. She called out to man wanting him to join her in this disobedience. Man was not deceived but he did give into to the woman and went along with her disobeying God.

Genesis 3:1-6

3 “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 5 For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. ”  New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Upon disobeying God all sorts of problems began and continue on to this day. This comic book style tract tells the story well …

ONE WAY!

So did God know all this would happen? Yes, He did! You might be thinking “Then why would He do this knowing what was going to happen?” That too is a fair question. I will state upfront that God knows what He is doing and has a purpose in all that He does. And everything He does will ultimately bring glory to Him. So what is His purpose in this?  I just told you … to bring glory to Himself. “But how will allowing evil and all the horrible things which have happened, are happening and will yet happen in the future bring glory to Him?” He is in the process of proving to Satan and his fallen angels as well as to all of mankind that LOVE IS GREATER THAN ANYTHING ELSE. By this I mean He is showing that because He loves and first loved us there will be many who will love Him in return and live their lives in obedience to Him motivated out of love. Thus LOVE TRIUMPHS OVER EVIL! When we fully and truly understand His great love for us then we are greatly attracted to Him. We are all very special to Him.

God is bringing all of this to a close as we are living the the End Times. It won’t be long before some very horrific things happen as this age we are living in comes to an end. Satan knows his time is short and he and his demons are working hard to do all they can trying to thwart God’s plan and to accomplish all they can to deceive man and take as many with them to hell as they can. They will lose in the end and will admit defeat and that God is Supreme.

What about you? What have or what will you do with Jesus? There is nothing more important than this. Your eternal soul is at stake! There is no neutrality. We are either for Jesus or against Him. And being for Him is not just something we say from our mouths. Jesus Himself said that we must be born again. Otherwise we will all die in our sins and enter a Christ-less eternity in hell fire suffering torment and anguish forever and ever. It could not be anymore serious.

God’s plan of salvation

TADPOLE TRIKES …THEY HAVE MY VOTE!

Yeppur! I am sold on Tadpole Trikes …

Here is a picture of me on my current trike:

Steve Newbauer, Age 67

Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.A.

My first tadpole trike was one which I made myself. I then bought a factory made trike. My original factory made trike was a silver 2009 Catrike Trail but now I have a 2013 green frame as a result of Catrike replacing my original frame under warranty as it developed a hairline crack in the weld on the underside of the crossmember. I also renewed nearly everything on the trike when I got this new frame so for all practical purposes it is a 2013 model.

I started riding recumbent bicycles as a result of wanting comfort and painless cycling. I got into riding a trike as a result of wanting to be able to keep riding during the winter time. I made my first tadpole trike out of mild steel so it was heavy compared to my Catrike Trail which is made of aluminum. Here is a picture of it. I sold it to a guy who said he intended to motorize it.

Once I rode a tadpole trike I enjoyed it so much more than a bike that I prefer it now over a 2 wheeled bike. They are just so much fun to ride and far safer than 2 wheels. They are also more comfortable than a recumbent bicycle. They are like driving a sports car or go cart as they handle great. My 2 wheeled recumbent bike just sat around no longer ridden so I eventually sold it.

I thought I would mention further that most of my riding is on our local paved trail system. I first started riding on these trails on a mountain bike back in 2005 I think. In 2007 I made my first 2 wheeled recumbent bike and rode it on the trails followed by my factory made 2 wheeled recumbent bike and then my homemade tadpole trike in Nov. 2007. In late May 2009 I bought my Catrike Trail. From the start of it all in 2005 until now in May 2014 I have ridden a total of about 28,000 miles … mostly on the local trail system. I became a volunteer Greenway Ranger in Oct. 2010 for our trail system. I thought I might as well make it official since I was already heavily involved doing the job of a ranger. Here is a picture of a few of the rangers from last year. There is about 80 or so total.

The website for our local trail system is HERE:

We have excellent trails and they are hard at work expanding and connecting them together in a master plan which will be awesome. Of course, with the current economy and forced government cutbacks things are challenging.

Here I am riding along on the Maumee Pathway which is my favorite Ft. Wayne Trail.

I used to take our dog along with me sometimes. He would ride in the basket as well as walk and run alongside of me. He has developed a physical problem and can no longer go out with me like this. This picture below was taken by a local newspaper and was part of a FEATURE STORY in the paper. Much to my surprise it appeared on the front page.

And here is another local news coverage … channel 15 television (I appear about 40 seconds into the video)

And yet another newspaper story …

And one last one local tv news story where I was there and interviewed (about 45 seconds into the video) …

I like to have fun (that is one reason I ride a tadpole trike) and awhile back I did so with some photo editing …

My first moon ride!

I am back down to earth now though and will probably remain so … at least for now.  So if ever you are around the Fort Wayne area you might see me riding along out there.

OUT OF SHAPE

For many of us who live where we have winter to deal with we either can’t or don’t get out to get exercise. I am talking specifically about riding a tadpole trike,

but it is also true of nearly any type of exercise one can name other than winter sports such as ice skating, snow skiing, etc. As a result we get “out of shape”( or out of physical conditioning) … to varying degrees depending upon what we do or don’t do in the way of other forms of exercise. As for me personally I have bad knee joints due to osteoarthritis and I can’t walk much. I used to walk a lot before this happened and wish I still could could as I know it is great exercise and I have always enjoyed walking. Anyway, with this past winter being one of the worst on record the only exercise I got was inside the house other than lots of snow removal outside. When the weather conditions finally improved enough I could get outside to ride my tadpole trike I quickly learned that I was extremely out of shape … far more so than any previous year. I mentioned it to my two friends I ride with. One of them spends 6 months out of the year in southern Florida. When I emailed him and told him about being out of shape he replied back “round is a shape”. He is going to get a knuckle rub on the old noggin’ when he returns up here to the north. 🙂 

All kidding aside, being out of shape is not a laughing matter. I am 67 years old and I am finding that the older I get the harder it is to try to lose weight and get in shape. About the first 2/3 of this past winter I did pretty good as far as maintaining my weight. I usually gain about 15 to 20 pounds over the winter. This winter I started off doing great and experienced very little weight gain. However, by the last 1/3 “all bets were off” as I started gaining back weight and ended up about where I usually am each winter. The only difference is I fell way behind in my physical conditioning since I was not able to get out and ride thru the winter. Yesterday was my longest ride thus far this Spring … about 30 miles. The thing I am most concerned about is I have noticed over the last 2 or 3 years that I am not nearly as motivated as I used to be. Just a few years ago it was not uncommon for me to ride 40 or more miles per day. Just two years ago I managed to ride the most miles of anyone in Fort Wayne signed up for the National Bicycle Challenge.

https://nationalbikechallenge.org/

I entered this national bike challenge but for me it turned into a competition trying to outdo those who were leading. I managed to do so but it became challenging indeed and no longer fun. So I don’t do it anymore even though there are some who want me to. I am just not interested as I know it would turn into another competition thing and I don’t care to do that. In order to take and keep the lead I was riding a lot of 65 to 85 miles days. That was just too much. Now I rarely ride a 40 mile day and most days are 25-35 miles when I am in as good of shape I obtain thru the riding season (Spring, Summer & Fall).  I have found that for me I need to do what I can to keep myself as motivated as possible. Part of that is keeping my riding fun. When it becomes work and drudgery then I lose motivation. A few years ago riding 40 plus miles a day was fun. Now it usually isn’t so I don’t do it anymore. What can I say?

TADPOLE TRIKE CONSTRUCTION – THE SCIENCE OF TADPOLE TRIKE STEERING

For those who want to build a tadpole trike it is imperative that they understand the science of the steering and ensure that they “get it right”. The “center point steering”, camber and caster settings, “Ackerman steering principle” and “toe in setting” all must be correct. Otherwise there will be “trouble in River City” and it could even lead to serious endangerment for the rider. At the very least handling will be greatly effected and tire wear will be a serious problem. When I first bought my Catrike Trail the dealer had the toe in off considerably and my brand new front tires wore out in only 30 miles of riding.

In the first video below this man says toe in should be 1/8 inch. That is too much for most trikes. 1/16 inch is preferable and is what is recommended by most trike manufacturers. Actually zero toe in maybe the ticket for some trikes including mine as with my weight on it I end up with about 1/16 inch toe in. There in lies another matter … it is best to set the toe in with the rider seated. This usually means a second person is needed as the mechanic to do the adjusting. It is not imperative that it is done this way, but it does work best. The more the rider weighs the more the toe in will change as the rider is seated on the trike. The closer you can get to zero toe in the better as long as the handling is ok. Never have toe out however as the handling will greatly suffer as a result.

Here are a couple of video illustrating and explaining about these things.

HOME BUILT RECUMBENT TRIKE, DETAILED PLANS AND CONSTRUCTION STEPS

I came across this video and thought it might be of interest to others. As a retired weldor/fabricator who has made my own tadpole trike it interests me. As some of you reading this know I previously had another blog I called tadpolerider. I made the decision to end it and when I did I chose to entirely delete the blog. Now I am somewhat regretting it as I had put a lot of time and effort into it and had I left it available it would have provided resources for various aspects of tadpole trikes. But it is gone … history … and I can’t bring it back. All I can do at this point is go forward from here. I don’t intend to turn this blog into another tadpolerider blog but I do intend to include various things about tadpole trikes periodically. Without further ado here is the video entitled:

HOME BUILT RECUMBENT TRIKE, DETAILED PLANS AND CONSTRUCTION STEPS

CATRIKES IN FLORIDA

I ride a Catrike Trail recumbent tadpole trike and take a considerable interest in tadpole trikes. Here is a picture of me sitting on my trike …

I just stumbled across a YouTube video which I thought I would share here. It is of a few Catrike riders out for a ride down in Florida. Tadpole trikes are a lot of fun to ride and extremely comfortable. Since they sit so low to the ground they handle great. Some compare riding one to driving a go cart or sports car. I would not go so far as to say that, but they do handle great. Catrike tadpole trikes are manufactured in Orlando, Florida.

Every year Catrike sponsors a rally for Catrike owners. I would love to go and participate in it. It is open to everyone regardless of what brand of trike or even bicycle they ride. Here are some videos of the 2014 rally. They show many trikes  up close as they are gathering to go for a group ride on one of the local trails near Orlando. They also show the many trikes and bikes riding on the trail.

And here is another video of the 2014 rally. This one is considerably longer but well made and interesting …

In addition to the organized and unorganized rides there is also a factory tour available. Being a retired weldor/fabricator taking such a tour would greatly interest me. I built my own recumbent bicycle and tadpole trike before buying factory made ones. Here are pictures of both:

I never got the bike painted as I ended up cutting it up to use some of the parts to make the tadpole trike.

There is also an annual Catrike rally held in Austin, Texas . And there are a few other rallies held in various locations for other brands or for all brands. One is held in Oregon which is for “recumbents” … both bikes and trikes.

Tadpole trikes are also known as reverse trikes since there are two wheels in the front and one wheel in the back. This makes for a more stable design. Although they are becoming more and more popular and sales are up considerably they are still not all that common in many places so when people see them they often don’t know what they are seeing and show an interest in them. Certainly many people comment about how neat they are and that they really like them. Lots of questions are asked about them as people know and understand very little about them. A few of the most asked questions are:

“How do you steer it?”

“Is that comfortable to ride?”

“How fast will it go?”

“Does it have a motor?”

“How much do they cost?”

and the one that I am always amazed when I am asked …

“How do you balance it?”    …  Yes, I have been asked that a couple of times.

I highly recommend Catrike as I think they are one of the best made and designed tadpole trikes available and they are the only** brand name trike totally made in the U.S. Most come from China/Taiwan. Some come from England, Germany, and a couple of other European countries and from Australia.

Anyone interested in checking out these Catrikes further can view their website … http://www.catrike.com/

** There are a small number of trike manufacturers who also make their trikes here in the U.S., but their sales are quite low so I am not counting them as part of the factory produced trikes. TerraTrike manufactures one of their models here in the U.S. but most of their models come from Taiwan.

 

THE BEST BICYCLE TIRE MONEY CAN BUY

As far as I am concerned the very best bicycle tire money can buy is the Schwalbe Marathon Plus. I have been using them now for a couple of years and since I switched to them I have never had a flat tire. Before I used to deal with a lot of flats. I joke about these tires being nearly bullet proof and I think they come close. They are indeed quite amazing!

I personally ride a Catrike Trail recumbent tadpole trike. Here is a picture of me on it.

It is a blast to ride and extremely comfortable. Many compare riding a tadpole trike to driving a go cart or sports car as they handle so well. I have ridden this trike over 23,000 miles. Before I bought this trike I made one similar to it although it was made out of mild steel. My Catrike is made out of aluminum.

Over the years I have tried various other Schwalbe tires on my trikes. All of the various types of Schwalbe tires are quite good … among the very best made in the world, but the Marathon Plus out does them all … flatless and long wear. I highly recommend these tires. I run the 20 X 1.75 406 size. They also come in 20 X 1.35 406 as well as larger sizes for those who have a larger size rear wheel. By far the best price I have found is ordering them online from a company in Germany. They offer excellent service. https://www.bike-discount.de/ Even with the shipping charges coming from Germany they are far cheaper than any other source I have found. A maximum of 3 tires can be ordered at one time for the flat rate shipping charge they have. And, of course, the best price per tire is had by ordering three at a time. Otherwise it probably would be as cheap or cheaper to order them elsewhere.

I will readily admit that these tires are probably the most difficult tires to mount that I have ever encountered. However, there are some secrets which once known and followed make it much simpler. Here is a video showing how to do it:

MIXED BAG, HUH?

Hello and welcome to my first posting on this new blog I am starting today. My name is Steve Newbauer. As I state in my About page I have had a couple of other blogs in the recent past … tadpolerider and midnightcryer. I chose to close both of them down  for personal reasons. I reckon writing a blog is “in my blood” though as I just can’t seem to get away from it. I chose this title because what I really want is the freedom to write about anything I decide to … whether it is about tadpole trikes, end time bible prophecy,  the weather conditions, or … well, I think you get the idea. I have various things going on in my life right now … some of which effect my writing a blog.

I just made a switch to using Linux on my computers so that has been quite time consuming getting things set up and working as well as my having to learn how to use Linux. I have tinkered around with Linux off and on over the years, but I have always used Windows as my main operating system having started off with my first computer in 1999 with Windows 95. I quickly upgraded to 98 and later to XP. I bought a new computer with Vista so I have used XP and Vista since then. My wife has a laptop with Windows 7 on it so since she doesn’t know much about computers I have had to learn Windows 7 so I can help her. I have found that I don’t care for anything Windows has produced since Vista. Learning and using Linux has been quite challenging and at times frustrating, but I am slowly learning and am really enjoying Linux. My biggest challenge thus far has been getting my printer working. I finally had success today (well, yesterday now as it is past midnite) so I am a happy camper.

With end of support of XP by Microsoft on April 8th I will be busy helping some others switch over to Linux on their computers.  In fact later this morning I will be starting on my first one for a family member. If you run XP on your computer(s) I highly recommend that you think twice about continuing on with it after support ends as hackers will really be going after those who are using it knowing that there won’t be anymore updates to fix those things which are discovered allowing attacks on the system. Antivirus programs and Malware programs won’t be able to protect against new attacks since they won’t be able to update their protection either.  Sticking with XP is inviting problems. Microsoft would love to have you spend your money upgrading to something newer they offer. That is what it is all about for them. As for me, they won’t be seeing any more money from me. They have seen the last of my money. Linux is free and superior to Windows. And it is the safest operating system available.

In case you are wondering I am using Linux Mint 16 on my main computer set up to dual boot with Vista. I am using Linux Ubuntu 13 in place of XP on my oldest computer.

Hopefully winter is almost over with and soon it will be decent enough weather conditions allowing for riding my tadpole trike. I usually manage to ride thruout the winter, but this winter has been so nasty and brutal that it was quite impossible to ride. I am raring to go. I had my first ride two days ago and quickly discovered I am much more out of shape than I figured I would be.

Well, I told you that my writing on this blog would be a mixed bag and as you can see it has been already. With that I will close before I start on something else. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by.