a.twiddler
Veteran
Five years with an Iowa Linear
Ridin’ the Beam!
“Midsummer Madness” is what I subtitled the record I began when I bought the Linear in June 2000 thinking it might just be a passing salve to my curiosity. I certainly didn’t think that 5 years and 76 pages later I would have details of every thought and modification and adaptation that I’d done to the six recumbents I’ve had in that time, and views on the others I’d tried. Midsummer is looming, so time for a write up! Perhaps there are those who have one at the back of their garage gathering dust who might think Ha! only five years! Amateur! or might be motivated to dust theirs off and rediscover what a nice bike it actually is.
While other recumbents have come and gone, I find that I like it as much as I did when I first had it, maybe even more. It’s an American Iowa built long wheelbase tourer with underseat steering. Like many American LWB recumbent bikes of its era its geometry is based on the original Avatar 2000 LWB recumbent of 1980. It’s 88” long, comprised basically of an aluminium beam with bicycle equipment on each end and a garden chair on top. The seating position is quite upright for a recumbent. This has the advantage of making it relatively easy to learn to ride, and with a lowish bottom bracket it’s a steady, if leisurely hill climber. It’s not particularly “aero” for a recumbent but it’s all -day comfortable. The main difference between the Linear and these other designs is that they use conventional bicycle tubing and over seat steering.
It was originally part of a sideline to use up surplus stock of aluminium extrusions but became something more enduring.
Part of the Linear legend is that on the early ones at least, the seat mesh was hand made by local Amish women.
I have learnt that when the definitive Linear LWB design was finalised in 1986 (1986 Linear pic)
it had a number of firsts. It was the first recumbent to:-
Have an aluminium frame (which was much more of a Big Thing then than it is now).
To be made from custom tubing (well, a custom girder).
Fold
To have a seat with a cushion and a mesh back
To have a built in pocket behind the seat.
The Linear company has changed hands several times since its original production in Iowa but since a move in 2001 is made in updated form, still with under seat steering, by The Bicycle Man of Alfred Station, New York.
Most of my steep recumbent learning curve took place in the first six months but it can still surprise me. Most of the modifications took place in the first year as I found out what I wanted in a recumbent. To summarise:
I bought it during lockdown after unexpectedly selling a mountain bike for an unfeasibly large amount caused by “lockdown mania” when the shortage of new bikes pushed up the price of used ones.
I made an offer on it without a test ride or even seeing it. The previous owner had bought it pre owned from D Tek in 2001, used it for a few years, then bought a sportier recumbent bike. It had apparently spent the last ten years in the owner’s barn, which was believable judging by the amount of former insects that I dug out of the frame while sorting it out ready for the road. While adjusting some item on the frame there was an Indiana Jones moment when 20 or 30 tiny white spiderlings poured out through a mounting hole. I gave them a squirt with GT85 but many survived, no doubt adding to the biodiversity of the mini monsters that inhabit the garage.
It was a lucky buy. The previous owner was over 6ft tall yet the wide range of adjustment available made it possible to make it fit me at 5’5”. The seat was adjusted well back when I bought it and now is well forward. I didn’t realise at the time that this was a very unusual quality in recumbents and took it for granted that other recumbent bikes were equally adjustable.
If you bought a Linear new there was the option of an even larger frame, or an extra small with smaller wheels. With a SWB recumbent the adjustment tends to be in the boom, with perhaps a little in the seat too. There is not that much adjustment so like upright bikes they might come in more specific small, medium and large sizes.
I had a hairy time learning to ride it but at no time did I think, “this isn’t for me”. I carried on learning new things every ride, sometimes frightening the bejasus out of myself. Being a long term motorcyclist helped with learning to ride it. You could keep pedalling while leaning round corners -and at times when I though I’d overdone it, keeping pedalling would straighten the bike up and keep it under control.
Other road users would give me unbelievable amounts of space which was a huge bonus. I rode it up unsuitable tracks and it coped. Due to its unconventional construction I carried a good selection of tools. I fitted an accessory bar to the front for lights. I fitted a large bell there, cable operated by a brake lever on the underseat handlebar. Later, I replaced the brake lever with a non indexed gear lever with the friction wound off, to save space.
In January 2021 I replaced the bottom bracket as there was a little play in it and I wanted to avoid any problems on the road. Not only did it turn out to be a threadless one but a previous owner had fitted it back to front! O what fun I had trying to get it out before I realised this. Once I got it out I found that the threads were still viable and was able to fit a standard bottom bracket. It did make me wonder about the previous owner’s mechanical skills and what horrors I might yet find as I replaced parts. It has held up fine to date.
I experimented with the gearing. It came with a triple chainset but no front changer. I made a derailleur post from a suitably sized cut down seat pin and found that a double would give me all the gears I needed. It has a 3 speed hub gear and a seven speed derailleur at the back. With the double chainring at the front, that totals 42 gears with a range of about 17.5 inches to about 110 inches.
The rear derailleur is operated by a Suntour barcon on the right bar end and the hub gear by a Sturmey bar end lever on the left. The front derailleur is operated by a thumb lever lower down on the left bar end.
During my first year of ownership I acquired a 406 rimmed hub brake front wheel which allowed me to fit a 406-50 Big Apple front tyre rather than with the original front wheel which was a 440, a vintage French size with only a limited choice of narrow tyres. This has made a big difference, and the bike feels really planted. This is despite the rear being narrower, a 700-42C Vittoria Randonneur which is actually nearer 38C.
Around the same time I updated the rear brake to an old school BMX one (Dia Compe Big Dog) which works very well.
Despite its age and unconventional design I had confidence that I could go anywhere on this bike so I planned a trip to Wales in 2021. Unfortunately I overestimated my fitness and carried too much gear so after getting off my route and climbing more hills than I’d bargained for on the first day I found that on the second my legs weren’t up to the hills I had planned.
Fortunately I had a plan B. I’ve done other trips since with better route planning.
From experience with this trip, I later experimented with a pair of lowrider frames (which I had in my bits box) on the front wheel and despite it being 20" they work well.
One of my main concerns when buying this Linear was the possibility of rear frame weakness as it’s a known problem especially if sometime in the past it’s had hard use. I inspected it minutely when I went to collect it, and again when I was getting it ready for the road and it seemed fine.
I‘d been thinking about fitting a frame reinforcing plate since I’d had it so when I found an aftermarket one from “The Bicycle Man” in Alfred Station, NY (Current manufacturer of the Linear), I bit the bullet and ordered it. This was an item fitted to the NY produced Linears while using up the stocks of Iowa Linear parts. Earlier models such as mine didn’t have them.
Current Linears have a revised rear frame and as far as I know, are no longer of a folding design. From time to time they have stocks of frame reinforcing plates in for the older designs. Worth fitting I think if you have an older folding Linear for the peace of mind it gives. I could have made one myself more cheaply but there was something satisfying about improving my US -made bike with a US part from the present manufacturer.
I had it welded on and the frame certainly feels more rigid. A bit of work was needed to trim it for the non standard 700C wheel to give enough mudguard clearance. It would be tempting to fit a 26” wheel if not for the cost of building on to the hub gear, so as to have the chance to fit a Big Apple on the rear, matching the front. Still, after quite a bit of fettling it works fine now. It’s probably the best an Iowa Linear can be, short of fitting one of the latest disc braked frames.
It’s probably not going to change much now, unless something like the SRAM hub gear breaks and has to be replaced. I had only the second puncture since I’ve had it last year, and that went down in the garage. I remade the side stand with a new, longer piece of steel tube and a rubber foot from a walking pole and it’s more stable now. I had the rear wheel trued as that’s something I’d been meaning to do since I bought it, and it had had a lot of use by the time I fixed that recent puncture.
I now know a lot about recumbents and fettling them, budget ones at least. Not so much about higher end ones.
There’s something rather ship like about the riding experience of this bike. You get aboard rather than mount it. You launch rather than casually get on and ride. It gets under way, until you reach cruising speed, then makes stately progress. Short as I am, it still seems a long way from the bridge to the engine room. You have to plan ahead as it gives the illusion that it has the turning circle of a super tanker. Perhaps I need to get a boat horn. It’s actually more agile than it looks.
It’s a different experience from a SWB recumbent. It’s a bike, but somehow more than just a bike.
Maybe it’s more of a Non Standard Human Powered Vehicle that just happens to have two wheels.
There’s also something akin to flying about it, although at a low level.
I vividly remember when first riding it, getting going, fumbling with the unseen unfamiliar controls under the seat, wondering how I’d got into this situation on a machine that seemed to have a mind of its own. Feelings of terror and elation wrestled with each other as I rode several alarming miles avoiding T junctions or changing speed or direction before daring to try and stop in case I lost control and slid down the road. The same road that was rushing by seemingly so close beneath my clenched buttocks, not beneath my feet, and the invisible ever present traffic behind me that I imagined was just waiting to flatten me when it happened.
I was paranoid about not being able to see behind. The saying “I’ve never looked back since I bought a recumbent” was literally true then, but with use of a decent mirror and learning to interpret auditory cues it’s hardly an issue now.
It’s such a contrast with the early days now, when I climb aboard and everything “just fits” like my more conventional bikes used to even when it’s a while since I rode it.
Over the last few years I’ve only had one instance of anything like a close pass which probably wouldn’t even have been remarkable if I was riding my upright bike. Everyone just gives you l o a ds of r o o m. Maybe the vehicle least likely to be involved in a SMIDSY is a recumbent bike or trike.
I’ve fallen over once into a handy patch of nettles when I stalled on a climb (before I adapted the gearing). Despite the initial scariness it has become a reassuring and comfortable ride.
It tends to attract attention, although when running it is very quiet due to having no chain tubes or rollers, so sometimes people are only aware of you when you are going away from them on cycle tracks or rail trails. Keeping the folding joints well greased helps too. It has raised far more smiles than hostile responses.
It can definitely go where a touring bike or hybrid can go as long as there are no awkward barriers. Even then it can be stood on its back wheel to get through “kissing gate” type barriers, though I wouldn’t like to have to pass too many in quick succession. It really is comfortable, and I’ve ridden much further on the Linear than I have been able to do since last century on an upright bike. Some aches and pains, certainly, but nothing like the excruciating neck and shoulder pain, and numbness and tingling in the hands and occasional foot pain that I used to get after a good distance on the upright bike.
Even though it is relatively upright your weight is spread out over what is effectively a garden chair, the only pressure on the bars is enough for fingertip control rather than supporting your weight, and similarly only enough pressure on the pedals to spin you along rather than support any weight.
You get a panoramic view of the world rolling by rather than staring at the road ahead of your front wheel, without even handlebars intruding into your view. In the right circumstances, pretty much zen on two wheels. It might look rather disturbing to onlookers, but it feels great.
Recently I’ve been concentrated on getting to ride it further with ultimately an 88 miler. I felt pretty good afterwards, and the next day, too. I kicked myself afterwards though as if I’d done another 6 miles on the outward journey then it would have been a Century ride with not much more effort. I’ll do it this year. My mileage stretching was interrupted by a spell of health problems towards the end of last year. I’m stretching the miles again now.
The Linear still holds the record among my bikes for my longest ride this century.
There’s still something a bit magic about getting on and riding this beast.
Transportation is the only issue where it falls down really, as going further afield would entail getting on a train or into a car. It does fold, but not quickly or easily like a Brompton. It’s the length of a tandem and unlikely to be allowed on a train. I partially folded it and took the seat off when I bought it, and it fitted into a Skoda Superb Estate, though the Skoda Superb has an unusually large luggage capacity. A suitably long van would be a better bet, as there would be no need to remove, replace and readjust things before using it.
Apologies for any repetitions to those who have read my previous “n years with a Linear” but maybe newer members might read this and be tempted to enter the weird and wonderful world of recumbent riding. As you can see, there is a lot of my blood, sweat and gears in this Linear but it has given me a very good idea of what works for me in a recumbent.
It’s seen off a few possible replacements in the hope that a more portable bike might give a similar ride experience. A HPV Spirit has stayed as a sort of sidekick as it has a nice ride, is touring capable and is train friendly. Even though I tend to use the Linear for just about everything, including shopping, the Spirit is useful if I'm going somewhere a bit nadgery where the Linear's length might not be so easy to get through spaces.
The Linear has been a well loved bike, not through being endlessly polished, but through the positive experiences I’ve had on it. I’ve gradually adapted it to be the best an Iowa Linear can be, with the reinforced frame, bar end gear changers and modern tyre sizes.
A surprising side effect of the design is that most of the frame is high enough not to get dirty through wheel splash.
After my recent experience with the Grasshopper, which was the most expensive bike I’ve owned so far, and the one with the greatest expectations, and ultimately the greatest disappointment, I’d come to the conclusion that the Linear and the HPV Spirit between them, both being of the longish wheelbase persuasion, catered for my needs better than something with a SWB.
After the rollercoaster of stress involved in buying, evaluating, trying to get the Grasshopper to fit my needs and failing, then surprisingly being able to sell it for more than I paid for it, I was looking forward to a bit of respite from the search for something that would do it all, as well as the extra space in the garage.
I unexpectedly had the chance to buy a Rans Stratus XP which is the closest yet to being a successor to the Linear. It certainly is the sharpest and speediest bike I’ve got, a bit uncompromising. The Linear is like a cosy pair of slippers in comparison. Aargh! More stress! A bit more evaluation yet. Time will tell. One thing is for sure, there’s not enough space in the garage, and one of them will have to go eventually.
Ridin’ the Beam!
“Midsummer Madness” is what I subtitled the record I began when I bought the Linear in June 2000 thinking it might just be a passing salve to my curiosity. I certainly didn’t think that 5 years and 76 pages later I would have details of every thought and modification and adaptation that I’d done to the six recumbents I’ve had in that time, and views on the others I’d tried. Midsummer is looming, so time for a write up! Perhaps there are those who have one at the back of their garage gathering dust who might think Ha! only five years! Amateur! or might be motivated to dust theirs off and rediscover what a nice bike it actually is.
While other recumbents have come and gone, I find that I like it as much as I did when I first had it, maybe even more. It’s an American Iowa built long wheelbase tourer with underseat steering. Like many American LWB recumbent bikes of its era its geometry is based on the original Avatar 2000 LWB recumbent of 1980. It’s 88” long, comprised basically of an aluminium beam with bicycle equipment on each end and a garden chair on top. The seating position is quite upright for a recumbent. This has the advantage of making it relatively easy to learn to ride, and with a lowish bottom bracket it’s a steady, if leisurely hill climber. It’s not particularly “aero” for a recumbent but it’s all -day comfortable. The main difference between the Linear and these other designs is that they use conventional bicycle tubing and over seat steering.
It was originally part of a sideline to use up surplus stock of aluminium extrusions but became something more enduring.
Part of the Linear legend is that on the early ones at least, the seat mesh was hand made by local Amish women.
I have learnt that when the definitive Linear LWB design was finalised in 1986 (1986 Linear pic)
it had a number of firsts. It was the first recumbent to:-
Have an aluminium frame (which was much more of a Big Thing then than it is now).
To be made from custom tubing (well, a custom girder).
Fold
To have a seat with a cushion and a mesh back
To have a built in pocket behind the seat.
The Linear company has changed hands several times since its original production in Iowa but since a move in 2001 is made in updated form, still with under seat steering, by The Bicycle Man of Alfred Station, New York.
Most of my steep recumbent learning curve took place in the first six months but it can still surprise me. Most of the modifications took place in the first year as I found out what I wanted in a recumbent. To summarise:
I bought it during lockdown after unexpectedly selling a mountain bike for an unfeasibly large amount caused by “lockdown mania” when the shortage of new bikes pushed up the price of used ones.
I made an offer on it without a test ride or even seeing it. The previous owner had bought it pre owned from D Tek in 2001, used it for a few years, then bought a sportier recumbent bike. It had apparently spent the last ten years in the owner’s barn, which was believable judging by the amount of former insects that I dug out of the frame while sorting it out ready for the road. While adjusting some item on the frame there was an Indiana Jones moment when 20 or 30 tiny white spiderlings poured out through a mounting hole. I gave them a squirt with GT85 but many survived, no doubt adding to the biodiversity of the mini monsters that inhabit the garage.
It was a lucky buy. The previous owner was over 6ft tall yet the wide range of adjustment available made it possible to make it fit me at 5’5”. The seat was adjusted well back when I bought it and now is well forward. I didn’t realise at the time that this was a very unusual quality in recumbents and took it for granted that other recumbent bikes were equally adjustable.
If you bought a Linear new there was the option of an even larger frame, or an extra small with smaller wheels. With a SWB recumbent the adjustment tends to be in the boom, with perhaps a little in the seat too. There is not that much adjustment so like upright bikes they might come in more specific small, medium and large sizes.
I had a hairy time learning to ride it but at no time did I think, “this isn’t for me”. I carried on learning new things every ride, sometimes frightening the bejasus out of myself. Being a long term motorcyclist helped with learning to ride it. You could keep pedalling while leaning round corners -and at times when I though I’d overdone it, keeping pedalling would straighten the bike up and keep it under control.
Other road users would give me unbelievable amounts of space which was a huge bonus. I rode it up unsuitable tracks and it coped. Due to its unconventional construction I carried a good selection of tools. I fitted an accessory bar to the front for lights. I fitted a large bell there, cable operated by a brake lever on the underseat handlebar. Later, I replaced the brake lever with a non indexed gear lever with the friction wound off, to save space.
In January 2021 I replaced the bottom bracket as there was a little play in it and I wanted to avoid any problems on the road. Not only did it turn out to be a threadless one but a previous owner had fitted it back to front! O what fun I had trying to get it out before I realised this. Once I got it out I found that the threads were still viable and was able to fit a standard bottom bracket. It did make me wonder about the previous owner’s mechanical skills and what horrors I might yet find as I replaced parts. It has held up fine to date.
I experimented with the gearing. It came with a triple chainset but no front changer. I made a derailleur post from a suitably sized cut down seat pin and found that a double would give me all the gears I needed. It has a 3 speed hub gear and a seven speed derailleur at the back. With the double chainring at the front, that totals 42 gears with a range of about 17.5 inches to about 110 inches.
The rear derailleur is operated by a Suntour barcon on the right bar end and the hub gear by a Sturmey bar end lever on the left. The front derailleur is operated by a thumb lever lower down on the left bar end.
During my first year of ownership I acquired a 406 rimmed hub brake front wheel which allowed me to fit a 406-50 Big Apple front tyre rather than with the original front wheel which was a 440, a vintage French size with only a limited choice of narrow tyres. This has made a big difference, and the bike feels really planted. This is despite the rear being narrower, a 700-42C Vittoria Randonneur which is actually nearer 38C.
Around the same time I updated the rear brake to an old school BMX one (Dia Compe Big Dog) which works very well.
Despite its age and unconventional design I had confidence that I could go anywhere on this bike so I planned a trip to Wales in 2021. Unfortunately I overestimated my fitness and carried too much gear so after getting off my route and climbing more hills than I’d bargained for on the first day I found that on the second my legs weren’t up to the hills I had planned.
Fortunately I had a plan B. I’ve done other trips since with better route planning.
From experience with this trip, I later experimented with a pair of lowrider frames (which I had in my bits box) on the front wheel and despite it being 20" they work well.
One of my main concerns when buying this Linear was the possibility of rear frame weakness as it’s a known problem especially if sometime in the past it’s had hard use. I inspected it minutely when I went to collect it, and again when I was getting it ready for the road and it seemed fine.
I‘d been thinking about fitting a frame reinforcing plate since I’d had it so when I found an aftermarket one from “The Bicycle Man” in Alfred Station, NY (Current manufacturer of the Linear), I bit the bullet and ordered it. This was an item fitted to the NY produced Linears while using up the stocks of Iowa Linear parts. Earlier models such as mine didn’t have them.
Current Linears have a revised rear frame and as far as I know, are no longer of a folding design. From time to time they have stocks of frame reinforcing plates in for the older designs. Worth fitting I think if you have an older folding Linear for the peace of mind it gives. I could have made one myself more cheaply but there was something satisfying about improving my US -made bike with a US part from the present manufacturer.
I had it welded on and the frame certainly feels more rigid. A bit of work was needed to trim it for the non standard 700C wheel to give enough mudguard clearance. It would be tempting to fit a 26” wheel if not for the cost of building on to the hub gear, so as to have the chance to fit a Big Apple on the rear, matching the front. Still, after quite a bit of fettling it works fine now. It’s probably the best an Iowa Linear can be, short of fitting one of the latest disc braked frames.
It’s probably not going to change much now, unless something like the SRAM hub gear breaks and has to be replaced. I had only the second puncture since I’ve had it last year, and that went down in the garage. I remade the side stand with a new, longer piece of steel tube and a rubber foot from a walking pole and it’s more stable now. I had the rear wheel trued as that’s something I’d been meaning to do since I bought it, and it had had a lot of use by the time I fixed that recent puncture.
I now know a lot about recumbents and fettling them, budget ones at least. Not so much about higher end ones.
There’s something rather ship like about the riding experience of this bike. You get aboard rather than mount it. You launch rather than casually get on and ride. It gets under way, until you reach cruising speed, then makes stately progress. Short as I am, it still seems a long way from the bridge to the engine room. You have to plan ahead as it gives the illusion that it has the turning circle of a super tanker. Perhaps I need to get a boat horn. It’s actually more agile than it looks.
It’s a different experience from a SWB recumbent. It’s a bike, but somehow more than just a bike.
Maybe it’s more of a Non Standard Human Powered Vehicle that just happens to have two wheels.
There’s also something akin to flying about it, although at a low level.
I vividly remember when first riding it, getting going, fumbling with the unseen unfamiliar controls under the seat, wondering how I’d got into this situation on a machine that seemed to have a mind of its own. Feelings of terror and elation wrestled with each other as I rode several alarming miles avoiding T junctions or changing speed or direction before daring to try and stop in case I lost control and slid down the road. The same road that was rushing by seemingly so close beneath my clenched buttocks, not beneath my feet, and the invisible ever present traffic behind me that I imagined was just waiting to flatten me when it happened.
I was paranoid about not being able to see behind. The saying “I’ve never looked back since I bought a recumbent” was literally true then, but with use of a decent mirror and learning to interpret auditory cues it’s hardly an issue now.
It’s such a contrast with the early days now, when I climb aboard and everything “just fits” like my more conventional bikes used to even when it’s a while since I rode it.
Over the last few years I’ve only had one instance of anything like a close pass which probably wouldn’t even have been remarkable if I was riding my upright bike. Everyone just gives you l o a ds of r o o m. Maybe the vehicle least likely to be involved in a SMIDSY is a recumbent bike or trike.
I’ve fallen over once into a handy patch of nettles when I stalled on a climb (before I adapted the gearing). Despite the initial scariness it has become a reassuring and comfortable ride.
It tends to attract attention, although when running it is very quiet due to having no chain tubes or rollers, so sometimes people are only aware of you when you are going away from them on cycle tracks or rail trails. Keeping the folding joints well greased helps too. It has raised far more smiles than hostile responses.
It can definitely go where a touring bike or hybrid can go as long as there are no awkward barriers. Even then it can be stood on its back wheel to get through “kissing gate” type barriers, though I wouldn’t like to have to pass too many in quick succession. It really is comfortable, and I’ve ridden much further on the Linear than I have been able to do since last century on an upright bike. Some aches and pains, certainly, but nothing like the excruciating neck and shoulder pain, and numbness and tingling in the hands and occasional foot pain that I used to get after a good distance on the upright bike.
Even though it is relatively upright your weight is spread out over what is effectively a garden chair, the only pressure on the bars is enough for fingertip control rather than supporting your weight, and similarly only enough pressure on the pedals to spin you along rather than support any weight.
You get a panoramic view of the world rolling by rather than staring at the road ahead of your front wheel, without even handlebars intruding into your view. In the right circumstances, pretty much zen on two wheels. It might look rather disturbing to onlookers, but it feels great.
Recently I’ve been concentrated on getting to ride it further with ultimately an 88 miler. I felt pretty good afterwards, and the next day, too. I kicked myself afterwards though as if I’d done another 6 miles on the outward journey then it would have been a Century ride with not much more effort. I’ll do it this year. My mileage stretching was interrupted by a spell of health problems towards the end of last year. I’m stretching the miles again now.
The Linear still holds the record among my bikes for my longest ride this century.
There’s still something a bit magic about getting on and riding this beast.
Transportation is the only issue where it falls down really, as going further afield would entail getting on a train or into a car. It does fold, but not quickly or easily like a Brompton. It’s the length of a tandem and unlikely to be allowed on a train. I partially folded it and took the seat off when I bought it, and it fitted into a Skoda Superb Estate, though the Skoda Superb has an unusually large luggage capacity. A suitably long van would be a better bet, as there would be no need to remove, replace and readjust things before using it.
Apologies for any repetitions to those who have read my previous “n years with a Linear” but maybe newer members might read this and be tempted to enter the weird and wonderful world of recumbent riding. As you can see, there is a lot of my blood, sweat and gears in this Linear but it has given me a very good idea of what works for me in a recumbent.
It’s seen off a few possible replacements in the hope that a more portable bike might give a similar ride experience. A HPV Spirit has stayed as a sort of sidekick as it has a nice ride, is touring capable and is train friendly. Even though I tend to use the Linear for just about everything, including shopping, the Spirit is useful if I'm going somewhere a bit nadgery where the Linear's length might not be so easy to get through spaces.
The Linear has been a well loved bike, not through being endlessly polished, but through the positive experiences I’ve had on it. I’ve gradually adapted it to be the best an Iowa Linear can be, with the reinforced frame, bar end gear changers and modern tyre sizes.
A surprising side effect of the design is that most of the frame is high enough not to get dirty through wheel splash.
After my recent experience with the Grasshopper, which was the most expensive bike I’ve owned so far, and the one with the greatest expectations, and ultimately the greatest disappointment, I’d come to the conclusion that the Linear and the HPV Spirit between them, both being of the longish wheelbase persuasion, catered for my needs better than something with a SWB.
After the rollercoaster of stress involved in buying, evaluating, trying to get the Grasshopper to fit my needs and failing, then surprisingly being able to sell it for more than I paid for it, I was looking forward to a bit of respite from the search for something that would do it all, as well as the extra space in the garage.
I unexpectedly had the chance to buy a Rans Stratus XP which is the closest yet to being a successor to the Linear. It certainly is the sharpest and speediest bike I’ve got, a bit uncompromising. The Linear is like a cosy pair of slippers in comparison. Aargh! More stress! A bit more evaluation yet. Time will tell. One thing is for sure, there’s not enough space in the garage, and one of them will have to go eventually.
