Recumbent - Does the Road bike forum header bother you guys?

The road bike is the most efficient machine known to man. There is nothing like riding a nice road bike, on a nice road. Chat it up with other roadies in our road cycling forum.

It is my understanding that the most efficient form of human transportation would be a recumbent, not a road bike. Does this quote rub you guys like it does me? I don't even have a recumbent. :)

Nevermind that either is not the most efficient machine I'm sure, but the most efficient human transport machine. "Known to man" is kind of an odd phrase too, unless there are aliens in an adjacent galaxy that are for some reason making better bikes to transport human beings... ;)

Thoughts on a Friday...

It doesn't bother me. After all, most recumbents are road bikes. They're made to go on roads, right? :) As far as the rest goes, we could chop the words, but a bicycle is up to 98% efficient at converting energy to motion. Maybe you could claim that a simple lever is more efficient, but AFAIK bikes as a genre really are the most efficient form of locomotion on the planet.

Does this quote rub you guys like it does me? I don't even have a recumbent. :)
I smell a troll. Be afraid, be very afraid.

No troll, just curious. I have thought about getting a recumbent before, particularly for a long commute, since the wind resistance is quite a bit less. It seems to me that the "most efficient machine known to man" quote should head this forum, not the road bike forum, that's all.

A two-wheeled recumbent with a fairing is probably the most efficient human transport most of us could buy, excluding the fully-enclosed rigs.

I consider myself a roadie in that my bent won't go offroad anymore than my roadbike will. As for raw speed my bent is much faster on the top end on the roads. So yeah, it is a road bike, having 2 (bi) wheels (cycle), it's just a different flavor of road bike.

No problem here .....

They can all think whatever they want ....... and we can know....

Well, it's all true. Don't be hatin'.

:D

Koffee

No problem here .....

They can all think whatever they want ....... and we can know....

+1

A recumbent IS a road bike, but with a more comfy seat. ;)

I don't have a bent, but I do respect them for being an inherently more efficient and all-in-all superior machine. However, diamond frames have cheaper and more accessible parts, hence why I chose a DF over a recumbent. I don't have the kind of money (yet) to put down for a nice lowracer...but maybe after college...

I don't have a bent, but I do respect them for being an inherently more efficient and all-in-all superior machine. However, diamond frames have cheaper and more accessible parts, hence why I chose a DF over a recumbent. I don't have the kind of money (yet) to put down for a nice lowracer...but maybe after college...

You're a rare one - a young rider who objectively appreciates the benefits of a nice lowracer. It's a shame they are priced out of range for college-aged riders like you - the recumbent world needs more young riders instead of more FOGs.

Don't believe what you may have heard about cheaper and more accessible parts for DF over recumbent, though. The same components are used on both - SRAM, Shimano, Campagnolo, Chris King, Phil Wood, etc. - you can go cheap or expensive as your budget allows. Most bents require three chains, unless its FWD, so there is that extra expense, and they don't use saddles, of course, but generally more expensive seats of various manufacturers' designs. The frames are the killer, though. They are so varied in design and size, being typically more complex to manufacture than a simple 4-tube/4-stay diamond frame that they are almost custom-made. They don't enjoy the economy of scale that mass-produced DF frames have.

On the plus side there is a tremendous amount of imaginative engineering and design innovation going on in the recumbent world. Recumbent designers have no artificially-set limits or forbidden design restrictions like the UCI regulations that shackle the DF world. DF designs have pretty much reached their pinnacle with improvements being only incremental or cosmetic and largely due to new composite materials, not radical thinking about the overall design. How many more ways can the double-diamond layout be tweaked really?

Imagination requires freedom. Freedom leads to joy. Which bike will you choose for your future ride?

I chose a bent because I'm sick of sore palms, wrists, butt and numb crotch. Don't bent people call DFs an arse hatchet or something like that?

You have a point about the efficient machine tagline though. Road cyclists seem to hate us. I think they're jealous.

Depends on terrain. I've been riding both 50/50. In very hilly terrain my DF is 5% faster than my B. Aero.

Both are both road bikes.

You have a point about the efficient machine tagline though. Road cyclists seem to hate us. I think they're jealous.

I would disagree. Those is the know are threatened, not jealous, because they have a lot invested financial and emotionally into a different platform. Those outside the know are simply expressing age-old tribalism, whereby anything outside the tribe is hated the the principle that it's different and outside the tribe.

But most of this "hate" we speak of is, in my experience, found only in these forums. In real life, DFs are very friendly to me on the bents.

I got tired a long time ago of bikes being overly categorized. Race, touring, tri, TT, recreational, MTB, recumbent, etc., etc., etc. I am a cyclist. I ride strictly on the road so my bikes are road bikes. So one's a 'bent and the other was a MTB at one time. Neither could go off road.




Road cyclists seem to hate us. I think they're jealous.I haven't seen this. Not as a "road bike" rider or on the 'bent. In fact I get more waves and "hey's" from the fast guys when I'm on the 'bent.

SS

just for my own curiosity how's the bike riding around okc?

Road cyclists seem to hate us. I think they're jealous.

That's it, I can't take the provocation, I will never let a bent draft me anymore! :mad: ;)


Do you seriously think we hate bent riders? :(

Probably the most efficient way to move about would be to walk.

Bikes, recumbents, and any other vehicles have embodied energy in their manufacture, far less than cars, trucks, and buses, but more than a pair of shoes. (and you could always go barefoot!) ;)

The wording is poor... but then again, 50% of what I read here needs to be taken with a grain of salt.


Aliens probably have their own quirky way of transporting themselves about. I'm sure we'd laugh at them as much as they'd laugh at us...

Cycliste,
I think most cyclists don't care, but there's a certain population of racer-wannabees and Cat4/5 types who feel threatened by bents and give us a hard time for not riding 'real' bikes.

I consider myself a roadie. My recumbents just happen to be my main conveyance when riding on the road.

just for my own curiosity how's the bike riding around okc?In town is a mixed bag. There are ways to get almost anywhere you want on secondary streets but the main streets are just barely wide enough for four lanes, have a lot of gutters and cars tend to drive 50 or 60 in 40 mph zones. Just outside of town in any direction is great. Lots of trees and hills to the south and east, lots of flat open land to the north and west. Lots of very good rural and country roads too. The city is also about 1/4 finished with a 120 miles or so of trails weaving all around the city. They are fairly wide, not too crowded so far and go through some of the prettiest parts of town.

SS