Originally Posted by
Doug5150
First off I would point out that this general idea isn't new; I've seen online where a number of people have basically built the same thing by converting a womens'/low-step-over tandem to a recumbent, where they add a recumbent seat in the rear step-through area of the frame. This way it was possible to sit in the rear recumbent seat or the front/upright seat, while still pedaling and steering.
I wish you luck but this is a type of bike that is a tough sell because it doesn't seem to have much of an interested audience. Upright riders can't understand why you'd want the recumbent part, and recumbent riders wouldn't want the upright part except maybe for climbing
very steep hills. And
nobody touring can clime steep hills all day, they end up walking.
What brand of padded shorts were you wearing?
You can say that you like it--but a real recumbent would have been more comfortable, and (depending on what bike you chose) might have been faster as well, if that mattered.
Recumbents certainly have their disadvantages but their main consistent advantage is
much greater riding comfort than any upright bike will get you. The butt pain, neck pain and hand numbness typical on upright bikes doesn't really happen at all with most recumbents, and recumbent shorts don't even have padding in them.
Threads like this are sad to me. Way too many people think that there is a mechanical fix for fitness. If they just had the right bike or the right fit or the right components everything would be fine. The problem in cycling is that there is a little truth to this: you need the right saddle and the right gearing. But everything else is fitness. Yes, you can climb steep hills all day on your touring bike. Yes, you can ride 750 miles in under 90 hours. Yes you can ride a diamond frame bike long distances day after day without neck, hand, or arm pain. Leg pain if you ride hard enough and long enough, yes, but I would hope we expect that.
Recumbents are a good case in point. As some people age, they want things made easier for them and get a recumbent. I'm not talking about those who must ride a recumbent because of injury. I'm so happy they're still riding! I'm talking about all the recumbents I've passed, many of them going very slowly. I've never been passed on my diamond frame by a recumbent that wasn't a fully faired HPV. No, they are not faster. Look at the course records for the 508, for instance:
Furnace Creek 508 Course Records or RAAM results. They're slower, usually much slower, which is the reason that most roadies ride right by them.
My wife and I tour on our tandem, team age now 138. During one of our fully loaded tours, we passed 2 young fit-looking men touring on recumbents on a long relatively shallow climb. They looked to be going as hard as they could, one of them gradually dropping the other. We never saw them again.
So don't give up and get a recumbent or an electric-assist bike. Instead, train and stay healthy and strong. Pedal on! My motto: you can keep doing it as long as you keep doing it. Never give up.