a.twiddler
Veteran
Three years with a HP Velotechnik Spirit 16/20
Oh dear, here we go again, you might think. Another rehashed "x years with an x” saga. That’s as may be, but if the information here helps someone make their mind up about buying one, or not, then it’s been worth it. Several of these popped up on that bay of e last year, one I think so far this year.
There’s also the minute possibility that someone might find it entertaining. So, here goes.
Three years have now passed since this beastie arrived as a box of bits from the previous owner. The seller sent comprehensive assembly instructions and it went back together with no major issues.
After the initial excitement, doubts, test runs and have-I-spent-my-money-wisely moments (especially after reading various lukewarm reviews from sport orientated reviewers) it has settled into the background of my cycling life. Not vastly sporty, but a usefully comfortable, reliable second bike to firstly the Linear, and now the Rans. Not a superhero, but a worthy sidekick. Dr Watson to Holmes. Etc.
What is it?
It’s a medium wheelbase or compact long wheelbase (take your pick) two wheel recumbent bike with a fairly upright seating position, over seat steering, full suspension and a 16” front, 20” rear set up. The bottom bracket is at the steering head. It has a SRAM Dual drive 3X8 rear hub giving 24 gears. It's a few cm shorter than my steel tourer so as train friendly as a conventional bike. Its upright style might lead some to describe it as an unfashionable Chairbike, Scooterbike, Semi recumbent bike, etc. The fashion, if indeed there is a fashion in recumbents, seems to be for SWB bikes, or nowadays, trikes. Whatever, it works for me.
Bridge 136 near Stoak, Cheshire
It fulfils nearly all the criteria which I was looking for.
1. Lowish seat. Adjustability to pedals suitable for a shorty, not too much seat recline or at least, enough adjustability.
2. Good gear range with room for experimentation.
3. Bottom bracket not too high, though feels high compared with the Rans.
4.Rear suspension.
5. Would have preferred USS. However, the OSS is very practical, easy to mount gadgets.
6.Luggage capacity -came with optional under seat pannier frames.
7. Made in the 21st century.
8. Versatile enough to be able to be ridden on unmade surfaces, with mudguard clearances.
9. Value for money! I had a very good deal when I bought this bike.
Also dual suspension, mudguards, rear rack, kick stand.
It’s extremely yellow, well finished and takes on an orangey tinge in evening or winter light.
It has plenty of extras. Disc brakes, SON hub dynamo with Supernova headlight. Underseat pannier frames, as mentioned above. The previous owner had done some tweaks to the chain line so that the chain tubes had a straighter run than standard. This hasn’t turned it into a rocketship but when you’re a relatively slow rider like myself, every little helps. The chainline on the 16/20 version is not too bad as standard, but still benefits from tweaking. The later 20/20 version has a much worse chainline as built, having a completely different frame. There’s information about all this on the German Velomobile forum. (Use Google Translate).
The chain and tubes have a very direct run
The previous owner lowered the gearing by fitting a smaller chainring. The standard was around 40” -100”, it was 16”-82”, a little too low, when I bought it. The previous owner told me he had a stiff climb at the beginning of his commute. It’s now 17.5” -89”. It’s not exactly long legged, but it’s a decent compromise, climbs everything, and spins out more rarely.
The original cranks were 160mm but despite myself being pretty short, after giving them a good trial I fitted 170mm to replicate the feel of the 170s on the Linear. Due to the design, there’s little danger of heel strike.
It came with some cheap general purpose pedals which I replaced with some MKS folding pedals as the trike I had then took up so much space in the garage. Once I’d sold the trike I fitted some MKS 303 BMX pedals to the Spirit which feel more direct.
It has a reputation as an “urban recumbent” but this is to undersell its abilities. My first longish trip in the first year, about 33 miles, included road, towpath and bridleway and it coped fine. I even passed an old guy going uphill on an upright bike in club colours! (very s l o w l y though). He asked me if it was electric! Never happened before or since.
In light of that off road experience I fitted a new Big Apple on the front with good effect as the original Cityjet had become hardened with age. It’s a similar set up to the Linear, with the front tyre being slightly wider than the rear. I’ve shortened the stem, fitted Humpert Englischer cockpit style bars. I’ve made adjustments to stop the side stand buzzing against its stop, and to stop the rear mudguard vibrating on rough surfaces. The suspension is very effective against larger bumps, and soaks up speed humps like a dream, but some surfaces do create a slight buzz.
My impression when I first had it was that unlike the Linear, which was like a template to which you could make alterations to mould it to your own purposes, it was a thing in itself, and not amenable to much change. Looking back over the last three years, it’s surprising how many changes I have actually made,
Since then I’ve done a couple of 55+ mile rides again covering some towpath and the Chester Greenway. The small wheels don’t seem to be a handicap despite the misgivings of those who follow the doctrine of biggest is best. I met a MTBer on the well surfaced towpath in Chester on one of my early trips. A meeting of two extremes. My 16” front versus his 29er. He said, “how do you balance with those tiny wheels?”.
On the towpath at Chester
I’d never thought about it before. I’ve actually accidentally ridden my Brompton with its two 16” wheels further than I have the Spirit (not quite so comfortably), and that included some towpath too. The answer is that I just do.
Wales Coast Path
Perhaps it’s one of those things that if you think about it too much you won’t be able to ride, as in my early days with the Linear. If you just set off, you can do it, but if you think about it too much, you’ll be paralysed into inaction. The phrase “just do it” helped me get over that.
The Linear seemed to have a tiny front wheel when I first had it, but with a Big Apple on it, the 20” wheel became unremarkable, with familiarity. Now that my only other recumbent has a 26”/26” set up, the Spirit looks even more odd, but the 16” front on the Spirit works and gives a low stepover for us shorter types. It’s like the Brompton where you can just hop on and off. It’s easy to do this even on steep hills and difficult surfaces, and it shares this characteristic with the Rans. It does feel odd after riding the Rans with its omnipresent front wheel to hop on the Spirit and not to be able to see it at all.
All Right! Who's nicked me front wheel?
The SON hub dynamo and Supernova front light work very well. After being late turning back, far from home as evening fell, during one of my rides I was very impressed by the way I could ride at fairly normal speed after dark. The beam is long and narrow but keeps its brightness even down to walking speed going uphill.
It climbs surprisingly well, though I find that it works best for me with the seat back in its most upright position. The seat cushion is well padded but curiously, the one on the Linear with less padding felt more comfortable. Perhaps a Linear cushion, if I can find one, might be an improvement. There’s definitely more scope for recumbutt with this one.
How does it roll? It has a 50-305 Big apple on the front, and 47-406 Marathon on the back. Given any sort of downhill, it picks up speed quickly and seems fast enough, but loses speed noticeably quickly too, on a corresponding uphill. On the flat the wheels feel quite busy beneath you even at moderate speeds though it accelerates noticeably faster than the Rans. Particularly noticeable in town traffic with a lot of stop/ start. The larger wheeled bike holds on to its momentum and freewheels better. On open road riding the Rans is noticeably faster. The Spirit is about the same height as the Rans but its small wheels are arguably more aero. Its disc brakes combined with the small wheels are very sharp without much lever effort. Regardless of the wheel size, it tracks well on mild off road even if muddy and feels quite positive considering it only has slightly treaded road tyres.
Spirit in the woods
The Spirit is reputedly heavy (a HP Velotechnik characteristic with the suspension and extras) but doesn’t feel it with the weight being concentrated low down.
The appearance of this bike changes a lot depending on the height of the rider it’s set up for. The rear rack is fixed to the seat base and slides with it so when set up for a tall rider it hangs out over the rear wheel together with any luggage attached to it or the seat back. This exaggerates the length of the frame tube protruding from under the seat at the frontgiving it an ungainly appearance. For a shorter rider with the seat well forward it looks more of a piece, especially with the Humpert bars I’ve fitted instead of the originals. It also puts more weight over the front wheel.
As you couldn’t fit lowrider panniers to the front wheel, the underseat pannier frames are a welcome bonus. I’ve been using a pair of vintage Carradice front panniers on them. The space between the seat base and the road is a bit tight for conventional depth rear panniers. I’ve since increased the carrying potential with some used Arkel RT40 recumbent specific panniers.
Spirit shopping in the rain with Arkel panniers
I’ve seen several Spirits on ebay since I’ve had this bike, all with a higher starting price than this one, and with lower specifications. For a HPV bike, they’re still relatively cheap.
If this bike had underseat steering… There’s always the wondering if there’s something that’s faster with less effort out there, even for a sloth like me, with the same level of comfort. A HPV Grasshopper came and went, seemed great on paper, even had USS, but I just couldn’t get it to go. It weighed about the same as the Spirit, but whether it was the seat recline combined with me being short, or just something else, I don’t know. The Spirit just was an easier ride, especially on hills, and the Linear was too. I reconciled myself to the fact that more upright recumbents suit me better.
My hopes of stretching the miles out towards the end of 2024 came to nothing, after a promising 88 miler on the Linear which I’d hoped to match on the Spirit. I went down with Covid then Pericarditis with “no strenuous activity” for a month by which time the clocks had changed and the riding day had shrunk.
The Grasshopper was a distraction which kept me off my other bikes until I sold it in January last year.
I was just getting going again with these, enjoying the space in the garage, when another distraction emerged in the form of a Rans Stratus XP which I had the chance to buy.
Having got used to the idea that LWB is the way to go, after several years searching for the “one” SWB that would do it all to maybe replace the Linear, here was something even lengthier to evaluate.
The Spirit is definitely one to keep, for its general handiness. I don’t really worry about its speed any more. It’s definitely nippy round town and on nadgery trails, but The Rans has shown itself to be the fastest recumbent I’ve owned so far, particularly over distances. It’s all relative of course...now if only I was actually a fast rider!
The Spirit has taken a bit of a back seat in the last year with the arrival of the Rans Stratus XP, the pressure to complete the bucket list for the Linear and the unexpectedly quick sale of that bike. If not for that, I would have expected to have stretched its maximum daily mileage to more than 55 by now. Nevertheless, the Spirit remains, even as the old order changeth.
I was a bit overawed by its specification in the beginning compared with the plain functionality of the late Linear. It’s just “the yellow one” or “the Spirit” now. It’s part of the background.
Sometimes, it’s good to ride something else to get a bit of perspective as you can get too involved in navel gazing. The imagined faults or virtues of a particular bike grow out of all proportion until you ride something else -someone else’s guest bike or as in my case the Grasshopper which shed a new light on the type of bike best suited to me, compared with all the positive reviews and write ups of it as something I had never previously ridden. Having since owned one, and looking at all those glowing reviews in retrospect, I still find it hard to believe it’s the same bike, while the long discontinued Spirit often seemed dismissed with faint praise.
The difference was not just a matter of splitting hairs. It was pretty obvious. It was the difference between being able to ride a reasonable distance with a few hills and getting home feeling good, and doing the same ride and getting home feeling wrecked. This didn’t endear the Grasshopper to me.
The Spirit has seen the passing of the Sinner Comfort trike, the Grasshopper, my last diamond frame bike (Revolution Country Explorer), and now the Linear. The Linear was my most travelled bike with the Spirit coming up behind. The Rans has now overtaken the Spirit having assumed the mantle of the Linear for longer trips.
Nevertheless, the Spirit remains a very under rated bike.
Oh dear, here we go again, you might think. Another rehashed "x years with an x” saga. That’s as may be, but if the information here helps someone make their mind up about buying one, or not, then it’s been worth it. Several of these popped up on that bay of e last year, one I think so far this year.
There’s also the minute possibility that someone might find it entertaining. So, here goes.
Three years have now passed since this beastie arrived as a box of bits from the previous owner. The seller sent comprehensive assembly instructions and it went back together with no major issues.
After the initial excitement, doubts, test runs and have-I-spent-my-money-wisely moments (especially after reading various lukewarm reviews from sport orientated reviewers) it has settled into the background of my cycling life. Not vastly sporty, but a usefully comfortable, reliable second bike to firstly the Linear, and now the Rans. Not a superhero, but a worthy sidekick. Dr Watson to Holmes. Etc.
What is it?
It’s a medium wheelbase or compact long wheelbase (take your pick) two wheel recumbent bike with a fairly upright seating position, over seat steering, full suspension and a 16” front, 20” rear set up. The bottom bracket is at the steering head. It has a SRAM Dual drive 3X8 rear hub giving 24 gears. It's a few cm shorter than my steel tourer so as train friendly as a conventional bike. Its upright style might lead some to describe it as an unfashionable Chairbike, Scooterbike, Semi recumbent bike, etc. The fashion, if indeed there is a fashion in recumbents, seems to be for SWB bikes, or nowadays, trikes. Whatever, it works for me.
Bridge 136 near Stoak, Cheshire
It fulfils nearly all the criteria which I was looking for.
1. Lowish seat. Adjustability to pedals suitable for a shorty, not too much seat recline or at least, enough adjustability.
2. Good gear range with room for experimentation.
3. Bottom bracket not too high, though feels high compared with the Rans.
4.Rear suspension.
5. Would have preferred USS. However, the OSS is very practical, easy to mount gadgets.
6.Luggage capacity -came with optional under seat pannier frames.
7. Made in the 21st century.
8. Versatile enough to be able to be ridden on unmade surfaces, with mudguard clearances.
9. Value for money! I had a very good deal when I bought this bike.
Also dual suspension, mudguards, rear rack, kick stand.
It’s extremely yellow, well finished and takes on an orangey tinge in evening or winter light.
It has plenty of extras. Disc brakes, SON hub dynamo with Supernova headlight. Underseat pannier frames, as mentioned above. The previous owner had done some tweaks to the chain line so that the chain tubes had a straighter run than standard. This hasn’t turned it into a rocketship but when you’re a relatively slow rider like myself, every little helps. The chainline on the 16/20 version is not too bad as standard, but still benefits from tweaking. The later 20/20 version has a much worse chainline as built, having a completely different frame. There’s information about all this on the German Velomobile forum. (Use Google Translate).
The chain and tubes have a very direct run
The previous owner lowered the gearing by fitting a smaller chainring. The standard was around 40” -100”, it was 16”-82”, a little too low, when I bought it. The previous owner told me he had a stiff climb at the beginning of his commute. It’s now 17.5” -89”. It’s not exactly long legged, but it’s a decent compromise, climbs everything, and spins out more rarely.
The original cranks were 160mm but despite myself being pretty short, after giving them a good trial I fitted 170mm to replicate the feel of the 170s on the Linear. Due to the design, there’s little danger of heel strike.
It came with some cheap general purpose pedals which I replaced with some MKS folding pedals as the trike I had then took up so much space in the garage. Once I’d sold the trike I fitted some MKS 303 BMX pedals to the Spirit which feel more direct.
It has a reputation as an “urban recumbent” but this is to undersell its abilities. My first longish trip in the first year, about 33 miles, included road, towpath and bridleway and it coped fine. I even passed an old guy going uphill on an upright bike in club colours! (very s l o w l y though). He asked me if it was electric! Never happened before or since.
In light of that off road experience I fitted a new Big Apple on the front with good effect as the original Cityjet had become hardened with age. It’s a similar set up to the Linear, with the front tyre being slightly wider than the rear. I’ve shortened the stem, fitted Humpert Englischer cockpit style bars. I’ve made adjustments to stop the side stand buzzing against its stop, and to stop the rear mudguard vibrating on rough surfaces. The suspension is very effective against larger bumps, and soaks up speed humps like a dream, but some surfaces do create a slight buzz.
My impression when I first had it was that unlike the Linear, which was like a template to which you could make alterations to mould it to your own purposes, it was a thing in itself, and not amenable to much change. Looking back over the last three years, it’s surprising how many changes I have actually made,
Since then I’ve done a couple of 55+ mile rides again covering some towpath and the Chester Greenway. The small wheels don’t seem to be a handicap despite the misgivings of those who follow the doctrine of biggest is best. I met a MTBer on the well surfaced towpath in Chester on one of my early trips. A meeting of two extremes. My 16” front versus his 29er. He said, “how do you balance with those tiny wheels?”.
On the towpath at Chester
I’d never thought about it before. I’ve actually accidentally ridden my Brompton with its two 16” wheels further than I have the Spirit (not quite so comfortably), and that included some towpath too. The answer is that I just do.
Wales Coast Path
Perhaps it’s one of those things that if you think about it too much you won’t be able to ride, as in my early days with the Linear. If you just set off, you can do it, but if you think about it too much, you’ll be paralysed into inaction. The phrase “just do it” helped me get over that.
The Linear seemed to have a tiny front wheel when I first had it, but with a Big Apple on it, the 20” wheel became unremarkable, with familiarity. Now that my only other recumbent has a 26”/26” set up, the Spirit looks even more odd, but the 16” front on the Spirit works and gives a low stepover for us shorter types. It’s like the Brompton where you can just hop on and off. It’s easy to do this even on steep hills and difficult surfaces, and it shares this characteristic with the Rans. It does feel odd after riding the Rans with its omnipresent front wheel to hop on the Spirit and not to be able to see it at all.
All Right! Who's nicked me front wheel?
The SON hub dynamo and Supernova front light work very well. After being late turning back, far from home as evening fell, during one of my rides I was very impressed by the way I could ride at fairly normal speed after dark. The beam is long and narrow but keeps its brightness even down to walking speed going uphill.
It climbs surprisingly well, though I find that it works best for me with the seat back in its most upright position. The seat cushion is well padded but curiously, the one on the Linear with less padding felt more comfortable. Perhaps a Linear cushion, if I can find one, might be an improvement. There’s definitely more scope for recumbutt with this one.
How does it roll? It has a 50-305 Big apple on the front, and 47-406 Marathon on the back. Given any sort of downhill, it picks up speed quickly and seems fast enough, but loses speed noticeably quickly too, on a corresponding uphill. On the flat the wheels feel quite busy beneath you even at moderate speeds though it accelerates noticeably faster than the Rans. Particularly noticeable in town traffic with a lot of stop/ start. The larger wheeled bike holds on to its momentum and freewheels better. On open road riding the Rans is noticeably faster. The Spirit is about the same height as the Rans but its small wheels are arguably more aero. Its disc brakes combined with the small wheels are very sharp without much lever effort. Regardless of the wheel size, it tracks well on mild off road even if muddy and feels quite positive considering it only has slightly treaded road tyres.
Spirit in the woods
The Spirit is reputedly heavy (a HP Velotechnik characteristic with the suspension and extras) but doesn’t feel it with the weight being concentrated low down.
The appearance of this bike changes a lot depending on the height of the rider it’s set up for. The rear rack is fixed to the seat base and slides with it so when set up for a tall rider it hangs out over the rear wheel together with any luggage attached to it or the seat back. This exaggerates the length of the frame tube protruding from under the seat at the frontgiving it an ungainly appearance. For a shorter rider with the seat well forward it looks more of a piece, especially with the Humpert bars I’ve fitted instead of the originals. It also puts more weight over the front wheel.
As you couldn’t fit lowrider panniers to the front wheel, the underseat pannier frames are a welcome bonus. I’ve been using a pair of vintage Carradice front panniers on them. The space between the seat base and the road is a bit tight for conventional depth rear panniers. I’ve since increased the carrying potential with some used Arkel RT40 recumbent specific panniers.
Spirit shopping in the rain with Arkel panniers
I’ve seen several Spirits on ebay since I’ve had this bike, all with a higher starting price than this one, and with lower specifications. For a HPV bike, they’re still relatively cheap.
If this bike had underseat steering… There’s always the wondering if there’s something that’s faster with less effort out there, even for a sloth like me, with the same level of comfort. A HPV Grasshopper came and went, seemed great on paper, even had USS, but I just couldn’t get it to go. It weighed about the same as the Spirit, but whether it was the seat recline combined with me being short, or just something else, I don’t know. The Spirit just was an easier ride, especially on hills, and the Linear was too. I reconciled myself to the fact that more upright recumbents suit me better.
My hopes of stretching the miles out towards the end of 2024 came to nothing, after a promising 88 miler on the Linear which I’d hoped to match on the Spirit. I went down with Covid then Pericarditis with “no strenuous activity” for a month by which time the clocks had changed and the riding day had shrunk.
The Grasshopper was a distraction which kept me off my other bikes until I sold it in January last year.
I was just getting going again with these, enjoying the space in the garage, when another distraction emerged in the form of a Rans Stratus XP which I had the chance to buy.
Having got used to the idea that LWB is the way to go, after several years searching for the “one” SWB that would do it all to maybe replace the Linear, here was something even lengthier to evaluate.
The Spirit is definitely one to keep, for its general handiness. I don’t really worry about its speed any more. It’s definitely nippy round town and on nadgery trails, but The Rans has shown itself to be the fastest recumbent I’ve owned so far, particularly over distances. It’s all relative of course...now if only I was actually a fast rider!
The Spirit has taken a bit of a back seat in the last year with the arrival of the Rans Stratus XP, the pressure to complete the bucket list for the Linear and the unexpectedly quick sale of that bike. If not for that, I would have expected to have stretched its maximum daily mileage to more than 55 by now. Nevertheless, the Spirit remains, even as the old order changeth.
I was a bit overawed by its specification in the beginning compared with the plain functionality of the late Linear. It’s just “the yellow one” or “the Spirit” now. It’s part of the background.
Sometimes, it’s good to ride something else to get a bit of perspective as you can get too involved in navel gazing. The imagined faults or virtues of a particular bike grow out of all proportion until you ride something else -someone else’s guest bike or as in my case the Grasshopper which shed a new light on the type of bike best suited to me, compared with all the positive reviews and write ups of it as something I had never previously ridden. Having since owned one, and looking at all those glowing reviews in retrospect, I still find it hard to believe it’s the same bike, while the long discontinued Spirit often seemed dismissed with faint praise.
The difference was not just a matter of splitting hairs. It was pretty obvious. It was the difference between being able to ride a reasonable distance with a few hills and getting home feeling good, and doing the same ride and getting home feeling wrecked. This didn’t endear the Grasshopper to me.
The Spirit has seen the passing of the Sinner Comfort trike, the Grasshopper, my last diamond frame bike (Revolution Country Explorer), and now the Linear. The Linear was my most travelled bike with the Spirit coming up behind. The Rans has now overtaken the Spirit having assumed the mantle of the Linear for longer trips.
Nevertheless, the Spirit remains a very under rated bike.
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