How many Recumbents have you owned? Was there a logical progression? Which ones have you kept? What have you learnt from the experience? Should I get out more?
Perhaps I’m just being self indulgent, but maybe putting down these thoughts might convince someone teetering on the brink to have a go, or a fellow recumbentitis sufferer to recognise some of these themes in themselves.
Six in five years. That’s quite a turnover compared with the 11 diamond frame bikes and folders over the last 47 years, though many of them overlapped.
I liked to do longish rides, tours, etc with no great speed. Over recent years due to neck stiffness I’d been finding my comfortable distance becoming restricted. I’d become resigned to doing shorter rides, thought it was just the way of things as you got older. My upright bikes had gradually developed higher and higher bars.
I knew about recumbents, had seen one or two in passing over the years, had read about them but never been close enough to touch or have a test ride. So I thought I might try one.
No logic with the first one, the Linear.
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A random choice. No test ride. I knew nothing. (Fools rush in?). It was cheap. It was local. Whatever recumbent gods there might be, smiled upon me with this one. If I’d bought something different, and had a bad experience, I might not be riding recumbents now. It has a likeable character. It’s been very upgradeable. It taught me a lot. Still got it. Every time I think about selling it, I go for a ride and come back thinking, this is great! Gotta keep it!
Once I’d got the hang of it, I hankered after something that had its strengths, but was more portable. So along came the Dawes Low Rider.
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No test ride. Not so lucky this time. Alas, not enough adjustment, so it went.
Meanwhile, I’d had a hankering for a trike. This turned up. Sinner Comfort Delta.
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Local, cheap, small frame size, tried for size before buying. Good spec. I made many mods, learned that I was more a 2 wheeler rider, so that too went eventually.
HPV Spirit 16/20.
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Has many of the strengths of the Linear, but also train friendly, easy to get on and off. Nice to ride. A good foil for the Linear, not a replacement. It makes me smile.
HPV Grasshopper FX.
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After reading many positive reviews, believed that this could be the One to do it all. Local, not cheap, but well priced. Tried it for size. Coincided with some health issues, took a while to evaluate it. Alas, too much designed -in non reducible seat recline. That went too. Surprisingly, sold for more than I paid for it, allowing me to unexpectedly buy:-
Rans Stratus XP.
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Still evaluating this. Looks promising. Seems a bit faster than the Linear for the same effort on local trips. Longer trips pending! Despite my thoughts of a Linear replacement, going to be n + 1, I think.
Still got the Linear, still got the Spirit. Still got no room in the garage. There’s a Brompton in there too, but at least it folds to a small size.
What have I learnt?
If you get the recumbentitis bug, you never end up with just one recumbent bike or trike.
You will know why you need so many bikes, but partners and others will never understand.
I need a bigger garage!
There definitely isn’t one that does it all...yet.
Not being in the average size range severely limits your options when it comes to recumbents. I’m not freakishly short, but short enough, apparently. Being tall gives riders different problems.
My creaking bod works better with something fairly unreclined with a lowish BB, and it’s significant that what’s in the garage is all of a longish wheelbase persuasion.
Also, maybe coincidentally, the adjustment for them is all in the seat. Perhaps I’m developing an aversion to bikes which require you to mess about with adding and subtracting chain links to accommodate changes in boom length.
Given the right recumbent, I can ride all day, at my own pace, with no adverse effects.
I’m never going to be a BHPV record breaker.
I’m most likely not a trike person, though maybe it would take experience of several trikes to do the trick? Though for some posters, just a test ride is all it took, so I’m a bit dubious about my convertibility.
So, I’m definitely a committed recumbentist, even if I’m not one of the grand horizontals.
Should I get out more? Definitely!
