It has taken a long time.

[Amanda P]

I've just (well, a month ago) moved my boom out about an inch.

Getting off the bent and onto one of my ordinary bikes, it seemed to me that the 'bent felt shorter. And it was giving me a pain just above the kneecaps after a long ride or a stiff climb.

It's a bit early to say whether this is going in the right direction, but it just feels more right at this stage.

 

[Andy in Sig]

I've just (well, a month ago) moved my boom out about an inch.

Getting off the bent and onto one of my ordinary bikes, it seemed to me that the 'bent felt shorter. And it was giving me a pain just above the kneecaps after a long ride or a stiff climb.

It's a bit early to say whether this is going in the right direction, but it just feels more right at this stage.

There's always one, isn't there?

 

[Amanda P]

I disagree, I've read the opposite, and found the opposite to be true. On recumbents you can have the pedals a bit further away

Two, actually.

 

[Andy in Sig]

You could get one of those tandems then that's recumbent at the front and upright at the back.

 

[Auntie Helen]

You could get one of those tandems then that's recumbent at the front and upright at the back.

Like this one?

I believe it's a Hase Pino. The chap on the back was working pretty hard most of the time but was clearly a very effective stoker as they overtook me going up some of the hills. (Spot the more traditional tandem in the background trundling up the hill).

 

[Andy in Sig]

That's the one. I've seen a few of them zipping up and down in Germany. They need a snappy ad slogan for it like: "Tandem riding wives and girlfriends of the world unite in buying one of these! You have nothing to lose but a permanent view of your husband's/boyfriends neck!"

 

[Auntie Helen]

The interesting thing about that tandem was that apparently the person at the front could freewheel whilst the stoker pedalled. So it's an ideal tandem for lazy front-seat passengers. They have to be quite brave, though, as they can't steer and are going to hit any obstacle first!

Here it is again with a different front-seat passenger:

Spot how red in the face the stoker is!

 

[xpc316e]

The guy on the back is the captain surely - he has control of all gears, brakes, & steering. I know he sits in what would normally be the stoker's position, but the stoker must be the person in front.

 

[Fiona N]

The bent/upright bikes I've seen in CH and Germany have mainly been occupied by (largish) kiddie on the front and dad on the back. Certainly gives the youngster a better view than the usual child seats and whatnot. Yesterday I saw a poor child in a child seat being assaulted by her father's rucksac which constantly clobbered her in the face unless she bent her body backwards in a pretty uncomfortable fashion. Don't these parents use their brains?

On the leg extension on recumbents, the Windcheetah as ever has solutions for all possibilities The 'continuous curve' seat means you can adjust yourself backwards and forwards over an inch or two according to how you're riding. For me this means that for high cadence powering along, I'll be slightly further back with less bend in the knee - about equivalent to an upright. For slogging up long grinds in bottom gear, I'll generally move forwards so get a more bent knee. I don't consciously think about this, it's just the pattern I've got into and certainly, compared to the very fixed position of the Speedmachine, I find it's both more efficient and powerful. Also, I've not had the knee niggles that I have with the Speedmachine and which were one reason I use much shorter cranks on the Speedmachine.

I certainly wouldn't want to go for a straighter knee on a recumbent with a hard seat as there's far too much potential for hyperextension under serious loading which is a real no-no, ergonomically

 

[Amanda P]

Funny you should mention those, Andy.

We borrowed this one from JD Cycles. The boom wouldn't go short enough for Mrs Uncle Phil, so they had to fit tiny short cranks to get it to fit her - but it did. We wrote lots more stuff about our day with it here.

 

[Andy in Sig]

That's a good review and I'm surprised after reading it that you didn't order one on the spot. Incidentally, I once saw somebody on one using it as a normal bike (i.e. without stoker) to do some shopping and it looked a lot niftier and handier than normal trikes do in those circumstances.

 

[Amanda P]

We were sorely tempted.

The large number in red in the centre of this page is the clue as to why we didn't.