I have not updated my blog in a couple of weeks but found some time today to do so.
Here is a picture of a highracer and two lowracers side by side on a country road.
You decide for yourself which bike you want to ride.
Speed difference between the platforms is negligible.
It's all about the truth and whats right. Low bikes on public roads are dangerous.
If you choose to ride one understanding the risks go right ahead with my blessing.
The purpose of my post is just to show the difference.
www.magillagorillakk.blogspot.com

Magilla Gorilla

Big difference in height, yes? Is it significant in rural road riding, though?

If the speed differences are negligible (and they seem to be), I'd prefer the higher bike for two reasons - I can see more of the traffic - and the traffic can see more of me.

Just my two cents...

Big difference in height, yes? Is it significant in rural road riding, though?

If the speed differences are negligible (and they seem to be), I'd prefer the higher bike for two reasons - I can see more of the traffic - and the traffic can see more of me.

Just my two cents...

On rural roads I don't think its that big of an issue but it's still an issue with the sise of some of the veicals that some morons drive and the speed which they travel on back country roads.
Let me put it this way that extra split second that the higher bike gives you might just make the difference between life and death.

MG

A Cobrabike (14 cm seat height) is not exactly a representative lowracer, but it at least serves as an extreme example of low vs high. Draw your own conclusions, but Ed Gin looks completely visible to me.

A Cobrabike (14 cm seat height) is not exactly a representative lowracer, but it at least serves as an extreme example of low vs high. Draw your own conclusions, but Ed Gin looks completely visible to me.

Also, imagine hittng some wet leaves at 20 mph and falling down. Which bike would you want to be on?

A Cobrabike (14 cm seat height) is not exactly a representative lowracer, but it at least serves as an extreme example of low vs high. Draw your own conclusions, but Ed Gin looks completely visible to me.

Precisely, the pic is of Seth on a large frame Volae (IIRC) which is without a doubt the highest highracer of them all vs. a Cobra which is lower than the typical lowracer. The Cobra is a very small bike and Keith is a pretty small guy.

I do like the pic though. :)

-Dennis

My rusty Rebike is high off the ground and cars try to run me over all the time. I throw rocks at angry drivers who get too close and sometimes I throw my rusty ReBike at them when they step out of the car to confront me. A rusty 75 pound ReBike flying through the air at an angry motorist will shut them up.

Every bike on the road can be run over by a big truck any day. High low new or used. Good thing my ReBike is not expensive. If it ever is in an accident I can replace any part I find on ebay.

God Bless All
Mooky

A Cobrabike (14 cm seat height) is not exactly a representative lowracer, but it at least serves as an extreme example of low vs high. Draw your own conclusions, but Ed Gin looks completely visible to me.

John I find your opinion absolutely astounding! But you are welcome to it.
I think my picture points out the lowracer risks.
BTW the Bacchetta Aero is just as fast as that cobra on an open road.
This is a good disscussion that needs to happen on this message board.
I have nothing against lowracers just that one has to know what one is getting into if they choose a bike like this to ride on real open roads and not a race track.
A better idea IMO is a bike like a Bacchetta for the road and a bike like the Cobra or NoCom for track racing.
It's not all or nothing. It could very well be both for a lot of folks.

Magilla Gorilla

Magilla, you seem to have a one-track (Bacchetta) mind! I understand you have a connection to the brand and experience with them, but they AREN'T the only manufacturer out there!

If Bacchetta has any real advantages over other brands, please state those advantages for me - I'm honestly interested in comparisons before I buy. If your preference is solely because of connection and personal experience, feel free to say so.

Magilla, you seem to have a one-track (Bacchetta) mind! I understand you have a connection to the brand and experience with them, but they AREN'T the only manufacturer out there!

If Bacchetta has any real advantages over other brands, please state those advantages for me - I'm honestly interested in comparisons before I buy. If your preference is solely because of connection and personal experience, feel free to say so.

Good question.
I was a team bacchetta rider in ultras. I am now retired from that sort of thing.
The pic on my blog is of a Volae and two Cobra lowracers. Very fair considering where I come from.
My personal opinion and that is just what it is a personal opinion is that there are two really good companys out there in Bent land one is Easyracers and the other is Bacchetta.
But there seems to be a melding of the two with the introduction of some of bacchetta's new models.
I am not in either market as a consumer of high end bicycles. The Aero and now the Ti Aero or a carbon NoCom would appeal to a rider like me. Hardly your average recumbent rider I dare say.
So as a filter down consumer Bacchetta and Easyracers is the place to look for a good consumer recumbent bicycle.
I don't know how else to reply to you. It is hard to filter down to where the average rider of bicycles is at be it a DF or a recumbent mountain or road bicycle.
My bicycle experience has been at the high end ultra end of the sport of cycling. I have moved into slow touring and trail riding as I have aged beyond competive ultra riding.
So any comments that I have made maybe dated and irrevelant. The next generation of fast 'bent riders I guess must take over.
Just the way life is Fast to slow and strong to weak but the elders of sport should pass on what they have leared to the young in sport.

MG

What make/model are those lowracers?

What make/model are those lowracers?

They are Cobra Bikes. I'm not sure if that's supposed to be one word or two. They are made in Belgium, and the company makes two models - the Lowracer (shown on MG's blog) and the Royale, which is more of a quasi-lowracer.
http://users.skynet.be/cobrabikes/English/Intropage.htm

No mention on the Kevin Magilla Tom Swift blog that the rider on the Cobra was recently hit by a car on his Bachetta Basso commuting to work. He was never hit by any car on his low bike or his Baron when he commuted in the city.

Kevin Magilla Tom Swift and his theory of what is a safe recumbent is foolish like both of his blogs.
http://www.magillagorillakk.blogspot.com/
http://highracers.blogspot.com/


Buy a used ReBike with a flag and mirror if you want to be safe on the road. Wear a football helmet if you want to protect your head.

God Bless All,
Mooky

No mention on the Kevin Magilla Tom Swift blog that the rider on the Cobra was recently hit by a car on his Bachetta Basso commuting to work. He was never hit by any car on his low bike or his Baron when he commuted in the city.

Kevin Magilla Tom Swift and his theory of what is a safe recumbent is foolish like both of his blogs.
http://www.magillagorillakk.blogspot.com/
http://highracers.blogspot.com/


Buy a used ReBike with a flag and mirror if you want to be safe on the road. Wear a football helmet if you want to protect your head.

God Bless All,
Mooky

Is there any safety data on lowracers? Has anyone been hit while on one or know of a fatality?

John Foltz rides a lowracer and he has not been killed riding it.

No data with low racer recumbents because no one has died riding one. There is an article on the death of a cyclist that rode a recumbent like the one Kevin Magilla Tom Swift rides. Kevin Magilla Tom Swift will never talk about people that get killed or traffic accidents on recumbents like his due to vested interest in his favorite recumbent company.

http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-126042.html

Go Bless All,
Mooky

Is there any safety data on lowracers? Has anyone been hit while on one or know of a fatality?

To be fair though, Mooky, it appears that he was hit due to the auto driver being blinded by sun glare. In such a case, the type of bike didn't play a role in what happened...

That is correct. The bike never plays a role. If people do not use a mirror and pay attention they will be road kill. It makes no difference if the bike is high low big tall or rusty like my steel ReBike.

Use a big mirror and live another day.

God Bless All,
Mooky



it appears that he was hit due to the auto driver being blinded by sun glare. In such a case, the type of bike didn't play a role in what happened...

That would be Keith.
I hope he is well and not hurt to bad. Chicago is a tough gig for any bicycle rider and I know how Keith feels about commuting and not burning gas in a big ole suv.
He practices what he preaches thats for sure.

MG

Um, as a more than occasional cage driver I can envision multiple reasons why I would not see a bike of any type while driving. That being said, I can envision many more instances where I would be unaware of those low racers as pictured. Flags would help of course but the low racers would enter my blind spot more quickly than the high bike even with the flag.

Why all the mud slinging?

Yeah, if you ride up on the right side of a car, you're just asking for a right-hook to happen. I would ride a low bike in traffic, but I would never filter through traffic on it.