Low rider front racks on Longbike

[grldtnr]

Just asking,how do bags on a front of a LWB recumbent affect things?
It may come to nothing ,but I hope to look at a Peer Gynt' on offer, seems all the luggage I may need camping will have to go over the rear wheel ,, which I'm not that keen , the Gynt has 'bum' steer so underseat racks won't be any good.
I 'll not get ahead of myself ,as it might not be what I am after, but any pics I've seen of a Gynt ,has all the luggage over the back wheel.
Not that I would ,if I am doing a grand tour, I 'll use my trike

 

[a.twiddler]

Just asking,how do bags on a front of a LWB recumbent affect things?
It may come to nothing ,but I hope to look at a Peer Gynt' on offer, seems all the luggage I may need camping will have to go over the rear wheel ,, which I'm not that keen , the Gynt has 'bum' steer so underseat racks won't be any good.
I 'll not get ahead of myself ,as it might not be what I am after, but any pics I've seen of a Gynt ,has all the luggage over the back wheel.
Not that I would ,if I am doing a grand tour, I 'll use my trike

I can't give any input re Peer Gynt but this set up works well enough on the Linear and with rear panniers would help to spread the load. These are fairly standard sized front panniers and lowrider frames but work fine with a 20" front wheel.

Obviously you wouldn't want to transport your vintage anvil collection in them but they're OK with a sensible load equally balanced both sides. As you can see, it's USS, and hasn't caused any issues with the steering rod or joints.

 

[grldtnr]

There isn't much room to put racks on a longbike with 'bum' steer, on my trike I have a double decker rear rack, panniers over the rear wheel, and a rack under the seat ,all well and good, possible to put bar bags on brackets of the seat, but effectively ball the weight is bourne by the rear wheel, not a problem for a tadpole trike , in fact it's likely a good thing.
I'm just wondering if it will affect the Gynt, .
By the way I haven't got an antique anvil collection, so that's a good thing.
Untill Monday, then I'll know if i'm a Gyntster or not....I'll post here ,if I buy, but it looks good,but a bike from the '90',s who knows !

 

[a.twiddler]

How much do you need to carry?

Not as much as this, I hope! If I'd had the lowriders at the front I could have carried even more, or more sensibly, redistributed some of the stuff from the back.

I did 73 miles the previous day, up more hills than I'd bargained for, and my little legs were complaining a bit but the handling was surprisingly good. Once I'd got over the initial low speed wobble starting off the bike felt very steady and predictable. It was just low speed manoevreing in car parks with loose surfaces, and being wary of using the side stand as the weight distribution when parked meant that leaning the panniers on something was more secure. You can see that the side stand is a long way forward. It's on a sliding block, and I now have it further back.

I expect that the Peer Gynt geometry is very similar to the Linear as most LWB designs can trace their ancestry back to the U.S. designed Avatar 2000 of 1980, whatever handlebar arrangements they have.

This Linear is a 1990s bike and it's been very good over the last five years. I had my doubts about its durability when I bought it being it's aluminium but it's been fine. I might have preferred steel but it is what it is. Of course, YMMV.

 

[grldtnr]

I refer my learned friend to my Avatar, bike was loaded for a week's trip to Suffolk, believe or not ,I did a few off road bridleways with all that,Grims dyke to bypass Colchester, I was camping mind you.

 

[a.twiddler]

I refer my learned friend to my Avatar, bike was loaded for a week's trip to Suffolk, believe or not ,I did a few off road bridleways with all that,Grims dyke to bypass Colchester, I was camping mind you.

Well, there you go.

To return to the original point, low rider front panniers could work perfectly well on something like a Peer Gynt, if my experience with the Linear is sufficiently comparable. Not having tried a Peer Gynt, which might be better or worse for your purposes, ultimately it's a step into the unknown. Sometimes we have to be our own test pilot, and experience things ourselves. I've previously come across photos of vintage LWB recumbentists with front panniers, so it's definitely a thing, but I've not been able to find them with a quick search. It's unlikely that a PG would have mounting eyes on the forks, but universal fittings are available from SJS and elsewhere.

If you like what you see when you see it, hopefully there'll be a review of it in due course!