Originally Posted by
VegasTriker
With the exception of setting the toe-in on a tadpole trike, the rest of the common maintenance items are the same or quite close to what you do with a DF bike. You can learn these procedures on sites like Park Tool or the late Sheldon Brown's website. There are no recumbent dealers closer than Phoenix or SoCal and I wouldn't trust any of the LBSs with my Catrike 700. If you buy a cheap bike tool kit for around $25 on eBay you will have most of the tools needed for normal maintenance. That plus a few nice-to-have tools like a master chain link opener finish off my toolbox. The upside is that if you know how to repair your trike, you can do it at home rather than haul it off to a shop and wait for them to get around to working on it. BTW, I assembled two of the three trikes I owned over the past 14 years from boxes of components sent from the manufacturer and I have set the toe-in on all three. You can get good information on how to do it at the manufacturer's websites or ask at
www.bentrideronline.com. It might seem a bit daunting at first but really doesn't take that long to do it.
Also I never bothered to build a strike stand. Might be nice but not essential.
+1 on your post. Contrary to the opinion of some here on the forum, a bike or trike is really a very simple machine. As you say there are a hand full of special tools you need, but the rest of repairs are straight forward simple mechanics. Knowing how to do these simple repairs mean you will save a lot of money, and that you probably will never have to walk home.