Advocacy & Safety - VC and recumbent bicycles

I have ridden using VC techniquews for years now and am a believer in the soundness of this method. However, now that I am riding a quasi-lowracer recumbent, I am less confident that VC is the best way to proceed. My head is now about the same height as the seat of my roadie. Many of you are pretty skilled in dealing with traffic on your bikes. Put on your thinking caps, how would you tackle traffic situations if your bike was mcuh lower than it is now. How would YOU alter basic VC recommendations in dealing with things like left turns in multilane traffic or taking the lane?

I'll bet signaling is much more in order on a recumbent. I've never riden one in traffic, so I don't know for sure. Also mirrors.

I wonder also if it is as easy to accelerate a recumbent as it is a road bike. I accelerate to merge into traffic and I put a high value on acceleration. Over the short range (up to 10 or 20 meters), I can accelerate faster than most drivers are willing, which has helped me a lot on the road. Recumbents are heavier, and there seems to be no way to "stand up" on the pedals like on a road bike.

If I were riding a recumbent, I think I would put more premium on mirrors and hand signals than I do now with a road bike.

I ride a "Hi-racer" which puts my head at the same level as a car driver. Since going bent, I've been more 'VC' as curb-hopping and other tricks you can pull on a road or mountain bike are out of the question. My Aero will accelerate pretty quikly, but at a cost to the knees.

A good mirror is important.

I ride a regular recumbent, but have a trike on order, which is as low as a low racer.

People say they get a wide berth when riding trikes and that drivers are a lot more considerate around them. I really would like to use my trike to commute, since that's the majority of riding I do, but I just can't get my head around how I would handle a few of the stickier situations I have. I might have to just try it to see how it goes, but for now I'm thinking that I'll have to use some other techniques.

Overall, I ride very vc and am much more law-abiding on my recumbent than on a regular DF bike.

In a left turn situation using a left turn lane, I don't know if I would feel comfortable doing that on my trike. Being so low, the first car would see me but the car behind me wouldn't. If the first car whizzed around me, the second car might run me over. Being wide, I couldn't go side-by-side with a car at the front. You could do that with a low-racer, though.

I don't think I would feel comfortable doing the 2 corner left turn on a trike, at least on one of my intersections. I actually think I might fare better to use the sidewalk and do a 2 corner turn using the cross-walks (and then I can pick which 2 corners, couldn't I?) After all, with a trike I can go VERY slowly. You can't go very slowly on a low racer.

Then I have a very steep, narrow, winding hill I take every day. I honestly don't think I can do it on a trike. The issue I think is less my height than my width. I think you could do it ok on a low racer, especially if you are pretty fast. I think I'll need to pick the trike up and put it on my head and hike up the adjacent horse path. Or else, I'll have to take the 101 freeway, which is legal in this spot, but a bit out of the way for me. Basically, that's a situation I think I have to avoid entirely on a trike.

Good question, though. Most people don't recommend low racers in city driving situations because of the lack of visibility around intersections. People can't see you down there. And it's not comfortable being down around tail pipe level. But some people do it and have no problem. You should try the BROL (bentrideronline) board and see what they say.

Great question. I think all the posts so far have been very illuminating. Even though I never ride a recumbent, I have thought about it quite a bit. As others have noted, the key problem is the lack of you being visible - that's a tough nut to crack. Frankly, I don't think I would ride in traffic that low to the ground.

Never ridden one, but friends who have say that, funnily enough, drivers seem to notice them more - presumably because of how unusual they are.

They also say that they ride i much the same way, altho' their field of vision is less at junctions because they're sitting further back.

From the recumbent forums I've been frequenting, 'bents don't accelerate as quickly as DF bikes. When I get my 'bent, I'll be putting a bright yellow seat bag on on the back, as well as some type of neon yellow reflective triangle. I've already got extra blinkies from this week's sales, so I'll have 3-4 of them on the back, and one white blinkie on the front next to my headlight.
I've got my fingers crossed, Mars and Diane. If all goes well this weekend, I might have the Lightning Phantom in the garage by Sunday evening. :beer:

One of my friends rides 'bents exclusively, but he is a bit nervous about riding his very low-to-the-ground ZOX in fast traffic. When he rides his homebrew 'bent, his head is not alot lower than mine when I am in a full racer's crouch, but he is about 6 inches / 15cm taller than I am.

'bents enjoy a big safety advantage in some situations, such as a wheel-swallowing grate, but they sacrifice some maneuverability and acceleration. In a collision with a motor vehicle, I would far rather go over the bonnet than beneath the undercarriage.

From the recumbent forums I've been frequenting, 'bents don't accelerate as quickly as DF bikes. When I get my 'bent, I'll be putting a bright yellow seat bag on on the back, as well as some type of neon yellow reflective triangle. I've already got extra blinkies from this week's sales, so I'll have 3-4 of them on the back, and one white blinkie on the front next to my headlight.
I've got my fingers crossed, Mars and Diane. If all goes well this weekend, I might have the Lightning Phantom in the garage by Sunday evening. :beer:

That is awesome! I just love my bent, it's just so much fun to ride! I bet that you will feel the same, the Phantom is very cool indeed. :D

I would use a flag and blinking lights set at drivers eye level or slightly higher, to help cars see that I am there through the windows of intervening cars. Generally I think the recumbent configuration forces them to do VC without weaving through heavy traffic like many DF cyclists do.

If all goes well this weekend, I might have the Lightning Phantom in the garage by Sunday evening. :beer:
A Phantom is a good bike. I know a lot of happy Phantom riders. It's relatively high, too (compared to low racers), and the upright seat angle (in comparison to other bents) is a good advantage on hills. I have a Thunderbolt, which is almost the same just not as nice, and I have no problem commuting on it.

As for crashing...I can't see how I would ever go under a car in an accident. I'm only about 6-12" shorter than another short rider would be. I can't see flying over the bars--that's simply not possible without USS. I do wonder where on earth I'd go, though. Most people report they simply fall to the side and the seat takes most of the scraping.

I put a slow vehicle triangle on my seatbag and find I don't get honked at nearly as much. I ride just as VC as I do on my road bike but find drivers are a little more accepting of me on the recumbent for some reason. Maybe it is because I move faster on my hi racer than my road bike? Maybe it is because they don't know what I am right away and don't know how to deal with it. Acceleration isn't that much of an issue I find.

I ride my Rans Stratus long-wheelbase recumbant almost every day in traffic, and have had very few problems. I find it easier to monitor the drivers than on a diamond frame bicycle, as I can see them and am not looking through the top of the car.

I cannot comment on a trike, as I have never ridden one.

I can say that the acceleration which Brian talks about is not there, but I'm not so sure that it's the bike or the ol' man in the seat (LOL). I don't think I could stay with Brian on a diamond frame bike either. That being said, acceleration is not the mainstay of bicycling safety. It does give a bicyclist in top condition an advantage in VC situations where you want to establish position in a lane, but other than that, there are a lot of other factors.

One is the respect of the car driver for the bicyclist. Last weekend my wife and I were bicycling (I was on my DF Schwinn LeTour), and came to an intersection (Evergreen and Cornelious Pass Road, Brian). There is no bike lane there, so we took the lanes. I was stopped behind a car, with my wife behind me about 15 feet, when I noticed a car pull around my wife, and cut in front of me within two feet of my bike. His window was open, so I said, "What are you doing?" He informed me that he was going in front of me. I told him he should be behind us, and he asked in a rather obnoxious voice, "Who do you think you are? Lance Armstrong? You're a nobody." My wife at that time shouted to me to let him go, and I said that of course, I would; he was insisting on it.

It is precisely these people, who regard bicyclists as "nobodies," who endanger our existence. All the vehicular cycling in the world will not negate their effects on bicycling safety.

Concerning the recumbant, it was interesting to note that I was riding a diamond frame when this occurred. Would he have reacted differently to a recumbant? Who knows. But it seems that there is some positive effect.

Cycling on a recumbant does allow me to see the road. I am in the same position that a car driver is in for sight, and so what a car driver can see, I can see. But that does mean that an SUV can cause a blind spot, which is an inditement about the SUVs rather than a statement about recumbants. I do fly a flag, which is about as visible as a bicyclist in a rear-view mirror.

I ride the recumbant vehicularly on many roads, the ones without bike lanes. I do ride the bike lane when it is available, except at intersections I know to be hazardous or when conditions keep me out of the bike lane. For example, I took the lane this morning on my way to work when a man edging the lawn was right next to the bike lane, with the edger creating sparks against the curb. I signaled a left turn, then took the lane until I was past the man with the edger. I did the same down the road with a riding lawn mower that was also against the bike lane. Those machines can throw stuff quite a ways, and I don't feel comfortable near them.

I was going to post this last evening, but got called half-way through composing it to dinner and never got back. 'Sorry if the discussion has gone another way in the meantime.

John

Don't ride one, never have. But from time to time at club and other rides there has been a contingent of recumbents show up. Every time it is quite noticable that most if not all have one or more red or visual yellow flags flying in back at what would be head height or a little higher for a 'normal' bike rider. I'm inclined to think there is a good reason.