Advice please

[dave249]

I'm thinking of getting a recumbent. I initially became interested because I have a back condition that means that I get a very sore neck after about 1.5hrs on a conventional road bike. However, after doing a bit research I am also attracted by the efficiency and comfort factors.

My main concern is how good are they at going up hill and is there a limit to the gradient that they can handle? I live on the edge of the North York Moors and most rides are characterised by short, sharp climbs, typically of 10-15%

Also, is they any recumbent riders out there in the Teesside area and does anybody know of a recumbent dealer. Nearest I can find is Edinburgh.

Thanks

 

[byegad]

I live in County Durham and ride the Yorkshire Dales and NY Moors as well Weardale and Teesdale. I'm 61, Asthmatic, overweight and never the fastest climber even in my younger fitter days. So I ride recumbent trikes. On a trike you never can go slow enough and so with the right gearing 33% grades such as Rosedale Chimney are climbable, even though I stop/start a lot on anything steeper than 20%!

I rode an AZUB-4 recumbent bike before I got my first trike and there was a limit to the steepness I could deal with on two wheels before I stalled. Restating on a very steep hill on two wheels was beyond me.

How old and fit are you?

As to dealers I've bought two of my trikes online, one was posted to me and needed some set up by me, another was delivered in person by the dealer and he made sure ut was spot on for me before he left. The third was bought from dealler, now defunct who made a complete hash of assembling the trike! Luckily I'm a competent enough mechanic to do almost anything on a bike and recumbents are fitted with mostly standard bike parts anyway.

If you are under 5'10" (I'm 5'7") and want to try one of my trikes pm me and maybe we could meet up.

 

[arallsopp]

Hiya. I'm sure others will chip in soon enough. To address your main concern, they're cr@p at going up hill.... I've got 4, ranging from a heavyweight 30 kilo beast, to a superlight carbon racer, and you know what? If I don't pedal, every single one of them grinds to a halt.

...which is to say that much like any bike, if you keep pedalling, it will climb.

You can carry the fitness over from an upright, but 'bent legs take about 500 miles to really come in. Once you've got 'em, flat and rolling terrain is faster on a 'bent than an upright (for comparative effort), and climbs are mainly about technique. You can lie back and spin your way up (which is good on the knees and not much slower than a good upright) or you can charge it and hope to soar up before you lose momentum.

I'm a fan of the death or glory mode, and collect scalps daily on the local Cat 6 drag.

I've not yet met a gradient the 'bents won't climb. A nice wide range of gears will help save your knees. I run 30/34 on the bottom end, and 51/11 on the top. You need a nice long cage to take the slack out of the chain, and good balance to make use of a sub 3mph bottom end. I still spin out on the descents

On my upright, I'm good for 16mph rolling up to about 25 miles. I can probably hit 30mph and maybe hold it for 10 seconds.

A few months back, the 'bent took me from London to Devon at a rolling 18mph average. This suggests I'm faster on the 'bent than an upright.*

* I'll admit my pace had dropped to 16.5mph by the time I hit Lands End, but, fair on, that was a 300 mile non stop effort, overnight, carrying camping gear

 

[mrandmrspoves]

I'm thinking of getting a recumbent. I initially became interested because I have a back condition that means that I get a very sore neck after about 1.5hrs on a conventional road bike. However, after doing a bit research I am also attracted by the efficiency and comfort factors.

My main concern is how good are they at going up hill and is there a limit to the gradient that they can handle? I live on the edge of the North York Moors and most rides are characterised by short, sharp climbs, typically of 10-15%

Thanks

I am probably the most recent Bent rider on here at the moment as mine arrived on Friday - so my thoughts so far....

I purchased my Bent because of severe shoulder pain, like you, I also experience neck pain after about an hour on a standard bike. I chose a model with under seat steering so that my arms could rest with no strain on my shoulders. The recumbent position means my neck is not extended upwards as it would be on a road bike - so this should be more comfortable for you.
The seat means that my back and shoulders are supported and weight is distributed over a greater area. My Bent is a 1996 model so not exactly recent - the ride is smooth and comfortable but I can feel bumps transmitted from the road up my back. Many more recent Bents have some form of shock absorption on the back - but I cannot comment on how effective this is so will leave that for more experienced bent riders to comment on.

My Linear weighs about 15kg unladen so I didn't expect it to climb hills like my Triban does........and it didn't!
Hills for me (Norfolk hills - not Yorkshire hills!!!!) are at the moment, a case of pick up as much speed on the downhill as possible and as soon as momentum has been almost lost, engage granny gear and spin like crazy to the top. One difficulty with this is I find it very hard to keep the Bent steady at very slow speeds going up the hills.
It is important to point out that I have lost a good bit of my cycle fitness over the last few months as I couldn't cope with the pain - also I do expect that I will need to adjust to a different style of riding as it does feel that I am using different muscles on the Bent.
I have found setting off a bit difficult - but am getting the hang of this. I think starting off from a hill would be a definite problem...on a bike but not so if you went for a trike.
So to conclude, yes a bent will probably serve your needs well, it will be more difficult to get up hills quickly - but with the right gears this should not be insurmountable .

I cannot say I am a total convert yet - but I can say that my 2 rides so far have been great fun and for me at the moment it is a Bent or nothing. While out on my ride yesterday, my friend asked me how my shoulders were coping and I honestly replied that they were more comfortable at that moment on the bent than they are when I lie down in bed.

 

[dave249]

bygad said

On a trike you never can go slow enough and so with the right gearing 33% grades such as Rosedale Chimney are climbable, even though I stop/start a lot on anything steeper than 20%!

Respect, I only just got up Rosedale Chimney on my MTB. Was literally seeing stars at the top! I am looking more towards a two wheeler. Mainly because a trike is too far from what I'm used to and also I would be nervous being so low I was below the window line if I'm sat next to a car at the lights.

arallsop said:

Hiya. I'm sure others will chip in soon enough. To address your main concern, they're cr@p at going up hill.... I've got 4, ranging from a heavyweight 30 kilo beast, to a superlight carbon racer, and you know what? If I don't pedal, every single one of them grinds to a halt.

I take your point that it is the rider not the machine that gets you up the hill! My main concern is that on very steep hills, the sort where you are out of the saddle struggling to keep the cranks turning, can a recumbent cope without stalling or lifting the front wheel? This is obviously a rare situation but I would like to be able to ride with people on conventional road bikes wherever they go. Enjoyed your book by the way.

Any recommendations for what bent I should be looking at? I know that this is a very personal thing and I need to try out first but as far as I can tell the nearest dealer is over 150 miles away so any suggestions to narrow down the choice would be appreciated. I am 47yrs, 5'9", 75kg and fairly inflexible in the hamstrings and quads. I'm looking for something suitable for commuting,long day rides and very light touring. I have been looking at the Raptobike Midracer and Challange Furai.

 

[Scoosh]

I am also a recent owner (2 months; maybe 10 rides) of a 'bent bike and find it more comfortable and, at present, more wobbly than an upright - not totally surprising, as I have been riding uprights for longer than 2 months ... I have probably only done about 75km in total on the 'bent.

I use a system when the road goes a bit upward:

• incline - hardly even noticeable
• slope - need to change down quite a bit
• hill - granny ring and in 3 lowest gears
• vertical

Currently, I have managed to convert two upwardly-inclined bits of road from 'hill' to 'slope' , while still having a number of local 'hills'; these 'hills' would be 'inclines' when adequately fit on my upright.
I'm less wobbly than I was at the beginning but still hanker for my L plate on the back at times ...

How steep a hill can a 'bent bike go up ? The first hill on the Snow Roads 300k audax is apparently an average of 6.8%; average, maybe but I know it is 15% in some bits (having been up and down it and seen the road signs). There are a few 'bent bike riders who do the SR and most manage it without stopping but I know one experienced rider who usually hops off and runs the last few hundred metres, as it's a bit quicker ! They all manage the rest of the ride OK (well, as OK as is going to happen on a 300km audax with 4800m of climbing. ) They are very, very quick down the hills, though !


I still [always] wobble when starting and usually because of the 'torque steer' which is almost inevitable when pushing with an extended leg on a pedal on the end of a boom which is out in front of the front wheel. My current solution is to try turning my heel in towards the centreline, so I am almost trying to push 'out' rather than straight. This does seem to reduce the 'torque steer', so I will try to do this more often to see if it helps when starting from rest.

I'm still learning and, during my last ride, I found that I was really enjoying just being out for a ride. Not specifically 'going somewhere'; not specifically 'training'; not doing anything other than having fun on my bike.

Dave Gardiner at Laid Back Bikes is an ace bloke . If you do come up to Embra, he'll get you well sorted (= hooked ).

Let us know how you get on and how your thinking progresses.

 

[Scoosh]

Any recommendations for what bent I should be looking at? I know that this is a very personal thing and I need to try out first but as far as I can tell the nearest dealer is over 150 miles away so any suggestions to narrow down the choice would be appreciated. I am 47yrs, 5'9", 75kg and fairly inflexible in the hamstrings and quads. I'm looking for something suitable for commuting,long day rides and very light touring. I have been looking at the Raptobike Midracer and Challange Furai.

Dave McCraw does some tests and reviews for Dave Gardiner, which can be found here. Obviously, he is only testing the bikes sold at Laid Back but it's a good starting point.

 

[byegad]

Bents use different muscles from DFs so expect to spend 500-1000 miles gaining the fitness in those 'new' muscles. Starting and stopping on a two wheeler is a 'different' experience. After 2000 miles on my AZUB-4 I was reliably doing both, and then my Specialist told me to stop riding two wheels because I have an intermittent balance issue! If I could do it so could anyone else.

Expect to climb slower than a DF, if this is really important to you maybe a bent is not the answer for you. There are exceptions, I know two bent riders who climb alongside DFs (One is a trike rider!) and then toast them on the flat! Down hill, nothing except a Velomobile, will keep up unless it has a motor!

Bents seem to encourage a different kind of riding style. I can set out in the morning and pootle along all day, and be perfectly happy to have averaged 9mph on a hilly run. In fact two of my trikes have no computer attached and the one that has a computer will not have one when the present one dies of old age.

 

[BlackPanther]

I've had a couple of 2 wheeler 'bents, a Bacchetta Strada, and an Optima Baron. The Strada (a high racer) was much easier to ride, and I claimed quite a few uphill scalps of roadbikers. The Baron (a low racer) was a heck of a lot harder when setting off, and not as good going uphill.

I then bought an Ice Trice, (sold the Strada) and then a Catrike 700 (sold the Baron.) The Catrike is almost as quick as the very fast Strada, but has the advantage that it can climb any hill I'm ever likely to come across. You can ride up a very steep hill at 1 or 2 mph on it, whereas on a 2 wheeler, if you drop below 5 or 6 mph you're verging on having to put a foot down. I could crawl on the flat on the high racer at walking speed, but not on the lowracer which was a lot more twitchy.

Having sampled 2 and 3 wheelers, I would recommend considering the trike route. They're more fun, almost as fast, are a lot more fun to ride, and almost uncrashable. Plus you'd keep up with df bikes on the flat, and completely destroy them on the downhills!

Finally, if you buy from a dealer (especially new) then recumbents are ridiculously expensive. All 4 of my 'bents were 2nd hand, and if you buy this way, you won't lose much money (if any) when you come to sell (to buy your 2nd bent.) This forum/CTC Forum/BritishHumanPower Forum/Ebay have a few 'bents for sale. I bought the Strada for £1,000, sold for £980 4 months/2,000 miles later. Not bad.

Most 'bents riders (if not all of us ) are a pleasant bunch, and I'm happy for any one interested in getting into 'bents having a look/go on my machine.

bygad said
a trike is too far from what I'm used to and also I would be nervous being so low I was below the window line if I'm sat next to a car at the lights.
arallsop said:

This issue has been raised many times. Trikes (and lowracers) look low down, so people assume they aren't seen . Nothing could be further form the truth though (after all drivers see road markings). I get far more room from passing motorists than I ever did on a df bike as it's so unusual. I went from 3 or 4 dangerous passes every week, to one every couple of months. You really need to try and blag a go on one.

If you watch my commute vid from around 2m30s you'll see just how much room I'm given on the Trice.

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOSvAV1hy9c

Same respect given on the Strada.

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNNwF23kusg




Carl.

 

[Night Train]

I can't comment on 'bent bikes as I can't ride them. I literally can't move off without falling over, even downhill.

However, on a trike I can climb 5" kerbs from a standing start and spin up hill down to a couple of MPH. The limiting factor is rear wheel traction when gears can go really low without the risk of falling off.

The speed of climbing depends on fitness and the trike. A good trike will climb hills easily, a bad trike will be a pain in the arse knees.

I've not done many trike miles so I haven't got the proper legs for it yet but equally I don't like spinning much either and prefer, on my bike, to sprint a hill and then rest at the top.

 

[starhawk]

"Bents use different muscles from DFs"
This thing has been up before, many people argue that there is no obvious difference in the usage of muscles in a trike/bent to a DF, and I totally agree with them, I had no adaptation period at all when I changed from my mountain bike to the tadpole. The only difference is that the position of the rider is rotated aproximately 90 degrees around the lateral axis, how could that be so different?

Climbing a hill in a trike is a tedious but not as wearyingly experience as in a DF. You get up but it takes a little longer time, but you are not exhausted by the experience as you might be in a DF. Many finds it very tedious to go up, I did. So I got myself an e-bike kit and fitted it to my bike, so now I go up much faster then before.

 

[riggsbie]

I have a love/hate relationship with my 2 wheeled recumbent (Catbike Musashi) - I get really apprehensive riding it but once on it, I love it.....

And it's fast..... The cars in Oz do not give you much space, they treat you as a normal DF bike and leave you not much space......

The trikes are more fun for me, the Vortex is just brilliant..... And car drivers give you loads more space and respect, probably the WTF factor ??

I have a Mango velomobile as well, and I can climb faster than some unfit DFers......much to my surprise on a 250km Around the Bay ride - 200km into the ride......and if you like speed a Velo is the way to go......

You definitely develop Bent legs.....I was really sceptical about that but after 3 months my recumbent speed really improved a lot and now I am quite fast on my DF road bike too ;-)

 

[Night Train]

The thing I found with my legs was numbness in my feet, and possibly circulation. Also I found it 'unusual' supporting my weight against gravity that was now in a 'different' direction to what I was used to then pedaling.

 

[starhawk]

"You definitely develop Bent legs.....I was really sceptical about that but after 3 months my recumbent speed really improved a lot and now I am quite fast on my DF road bike too"
That proves the point, you are faster on your DF too! That wouldn't be the case if it was Bent legs. You are in better shape which affect both rides

 

[Recycle]

A recumbent has now been my primary mode of transport since August. Before that it was DF's but I switched because of neck pain. No regrets. I still have my DF's and I use then occasionally but the bent wins as the bike of choice. I could list many reasons but I think the main one is purely subjective. I think the correct term is fun factor.