Recumbent - Speed!!!

Hi People. How fast have you got your recumbents going? The ones i ride, the trikes, go between
60-80 kms. Its great getting them going that fast but if you hit a corner to hard and roll its as scary as!!!
I nearly broke my arm doing it and i was only going 40kms. Anyone else had any good crashes or roll-overs. I'd like to hear about them.

I have been riding a Trice Micro since 2002. My first long ride with it was the Seattle to Portland Bicycle classic, a 200 mile one day ride. Starting in Seattle, there are quite a few hills and on the down slope on one of them (15 miles from the start line) I rolled the Micro going about 35 mph attemptinig to avoid a pace line. I did finish the ride - 15.5 hours for the 200 miles.
I'm keeping a blog on my training/rides for this year at www.tagworld.com/dougfoot and have photos posted of previous rides and of my trike.

Check some of the past threads for top speeds. There's probably some old threads on crashes too, but it's been a while so...

There was one incident on my front faired V-Rex. I was going down a good-sized 8-10% grade, in the rain. At the bottom was a small runout before an intersection with the main drag through town - 4 lanes and heavy traffic. Rim braking in the rain being what it is, I was applying more and more braking pressure but it wasn't doing the job. Slowly, the speed krept up from 35 mph to 40. By then my rear lever had bottomed out on the handlebar and the front brake lever was nearly there too. 41... 42... 43... At 44 mph, the front brake finally squeegied enough water off the rim to get a good bite, and the front wheel locked up. I was instantly on the ground, sliding down the hill on my back, with the handlebars still in my hands. Luckily for my skin, the rain that was the root cause of the problem had also lubricated the pavement, so I didnt' get the major case of road rash that might have happened. Amazingly, there was no blood. The total damage was a hole in my shorts where I impacted the ground, and two broken zip ties on my coroplast fairing. Even my cheapie plastic rain jacket was unscathed. I carry spare zip ties, so that wasn't a problem, and I was back on the road in the time it took me to reattach the zip ties and straighten the fairing again.

Call me silly, but I think I should have brakes that are reliable whether they're wet or not. I've since added a rear disc to the V-Rex, and my lowracer has dual disc brakes.

I had mine up to 45mph downhill before I got too darn scared. I had a bug hit my hand and at that speed if left a giant bruise. So I applide the brakes. I have no doubt I could have hit 50-55 easily.

Check some of the past threads for top speeds. There's probably some old threads on crashes too, but it's been a while so...

There was one incident on my front faired V-Rex. I was going down a good-sized 8-10% grade, in the rain. At the bottom was a small runout before an intersection with the main drag through town - 4 lanes and heavy traffic. Rim braking in the rain being what it is, I was applying more and more braking pressure but it wasn't doing the job. Slowly, the speed krept up from 35 mph to 40. By then my rear lever had bottomed out on the handlebar and the front brake lever was nearly there too. 41... 42... 43... At 44 mph, the front brake finally squeegied enough water off the rim to get a good bite, and the front wheel locked up. I was instantly on the ground, sliding down the hill on my back, with the handlebars still in my hands. Luckily for my skin, the rain that was the root cause of the problem had also lubricated the pavement, so I didnt' get the major case of road rash that might have happened. Amazingly, there was no blood. The total damage was a hole in my shorts where I impacted the ground, and two broken zip ties on my coroplast fairing. Even my cheapie plastic rain jacket was unscathed. I carry spare zip ties, so that wasn't a problem, and I was back on the road in the time it took me to reattach the zip ties and straighten the fairing again.

Call me silly, but I think I should have brakes that are reliable whether they're wet or not. I've since added a rear disc to the V-Rex, and my lowracer has dual disc brakes.

Would a brake booster on the v-brakes be just as good as disc brakes?

I've since added a rear disc to the V-Rex...


Was it a major deal to add a disc tab to the V-rex?

Was it a major deal to add a disc tab to the V-rex?

I'd rate it as major. At minimum it would have meant stripping the area and having the area repainted after the tab was brazed on. I coordinated the tab installation as part of a complete repaint/rebuild.

PaPa is right. I had a booster on the frame before, and although it helped noticeably, the disc brake is MUCH stronger.