Advocacy & Safety - By special request here is a pic & a little write up about my bike.

http://freemasoncyclist.blogspot.com/2006/08/by-special-request-here-is-picture-of.html#links

A posting about my commute route is coming soon.

I am not sure why people here wanted a posting with a pic about my bike, but please tell me what you think about it.

Nice bike, and nice hardwood floors.Glad you named the sweatband. The only one like that I knew about before was the Halo.

Nice setup. I'm not a recumbent rider but I've ridden one, and definitly prefer a "regular" bike, but I have a few questions. Is your bottle easily accessible while riding? Looks like quite a reach, at least in the picture. Do you just drape the Camelback hose over your shoulder while riding, or do you have something to keep it from falling off to the side? And how do you haul it around if you travel with it? Looks like a few things like the seat could be removed but it's still pretty long.

This might be a question for the bent group, but it appears to me that you would be violating the law if you rode that bike in CA (and probably others). CA DMV rule 21201 states that the handlebars must not be higher than the rider's shoulders. Strange rule -- why should it matter?

Or am I misjudging, and your shoulders would come out above the handlebars?

I think the California bicycle handlebar law was written to match the one for motorcycles. I was told they didn't want people to use those "Monkey Bars" where you almost have to hang from the bars to hold them while riding.

Straightedge, Camelbak has clips that you can attach to your clothes with a plastic piece that snaps around the drinking tube. It holds the end of the tube in your desired location for a quick grab and sip.

Nice setup. I'm not a recumbent rider but I've ridden one, and definitly prefer a "regular" bike, but I have a few questions. Is your bottle easily accessible while riding? Looks like quite a reach, at least in the picture. Do you just drape the Camelback hose over your shoulder while riding, or do you have something to keep it from falling off to the side? And how do you haul it around if you travel with it? Looks like a few things like the seat could be removed but it's still pretty long.

I don't use a water bottle. The bottle cage is for my airzound bike horn. The bottle which is nothing more then a soda bottle goes in the cage with a tube that wraps around the steering tube to the horn which is on the handle bars.

The Camel Bak hose comes over my shoulder & is clipped to my jersey. I just have to remember to unclip it before I stand up, otherwise it can tear a hole in my jersey. On long trips, an hour or more I take the seat off of the bike, the water bladder is either on the seat in my Jeep or in a cooler so it stays cold. Trips that are less then an hour I leave the seat on the bike & either put the bladder in the bag, or inside my Jeep.

I also use the Vision Day Bag that goes over the top of the seat frame & covers part of the camel bak. Which means when I need to refill the water bladder during a ride I take the day bag off, loosen the camel bak bag to pull the bladder out. It can be time consuming, but it works, I'm used to it.

This might be a question for the bent group, but it appears to me that you would be violating the law if you rode that bike in CA (and probably others). CA DMV rule 21201 states that the handlebars must not be higher than the rider's shoulders. Strange rule -- why should it matter?

Or am I misjudging, and your shoulders would come out above the handlebars?

Wouldn't matter. The handle bars are not higher then my shoulders.

Nice bike, and nice hardwood floors.Glad you named the sweatband. The only one like that I knew about before was the Halo.

Thanks. I bought the sweatband at the RAGBRAI Expo. from the company that makes them, they were one of the exhibitors. The web site is http://www.sweatgutr.com/

"CA DMV rule 21201 states"

Blue blinking lights are also verbotten. Pedals must have reflectors. What is the deal with reflective tires? Do side reflectors really improve anything on a shiny metal wheel?

http://www.lmu.edu/publicsafety/VehicleCode/CaliforniaVehicleCode.html

The tires are not reflective. That is a reflection from the camera flash. I had my digital camera set to indoors & the light in the room was on too.

If you're talking about the orange dot reflectors on the crank arms & the front "fork" of the seat frame, they are there to help break up the profile of the bike when I haul it on my Sportworks bike carrier at night. It is so other motorists can see it better.

The same goes for blue blinking lights here too. The flashing tail lights I clip to my day bag are red. On a recumbent pedal reflectors would not do much good.

Nice bike. I thought you should show it because you mentioned you ride a recumbent and I wanted to see it out of curiosity. It looks a lot like my Lightning Thunderbolt, only a lot more leaned back and the handle bars look very high.

There sure are a lot of recumbent riders who hang out in the A&S forum. Out of curiosity, do you think you get more abuse than other cyclists because of your recumbent? Or that you are harder for motorists to see or any of the other things like that people often ask?

Nice bike. I thought you should show it because you mentioned you ride a recumbent and I wanted to see it out of curiosity. It looks a lot like my Lightning Thunderbolt, only a lot more leaned back and the handle bars look very high.

There sure are a lot of recumbent riders who hang out in the A&S forum. Out of curiosity, do you think you get more abuse than other cyclists because of your recumbent? Or that you are harder for motorists to see or any of the other things like that people often ask?

I can adjust the seat to be more forward, I have it reclined back as far as it will go, found this is more comfortable for me. The handle bars are not all that high, they are just below my shoulders, with just enough clearance to prevent my knees from hitting them.

If you mean abuse from my fellow club members or other cyclists, no. I have yet to be made fun of, etc by any other cyclist. I explain to people being hard to see on a recumbent by motorists is a myth, plain & simple.

I explain to people being hard to see on a recumbent by motorists is a myth, plain & simple.
A myth? You want to explain that to me?

I've never ridden a bent but I would imagine that the driver of a large van/truck/SUV wouldn't be able to see you if you were riding just to the right of it.

Recumbent riders are way lower to the ground than regular cyclists and you don't even have a flag or anything on your bike! Your head is also in the perfect place to be turned into puree by an SUV's bumper.

They are not "WAY" lower. Just a little lower. About the difference between a tall person and an short one. On my recumbent bike my head is level with people driving sedans, and I'm a short person. People can see sedans just fine. And with my head always in a level, straight-on position, I can see much better than on a regular bike where I must crane my head upwards to see.

Trikes ARE very much lower and it is harder to see and be seen. That is why we use flags much of the time.

A myth? You want to explain that to me?

I've never ridden a bent but I would imagine that the driver of a large van/truck/SUV wouldn't be able to see you if you were riding just to the right of it.

Recumbent riders are way lower to the ground than regular cyclists and you don't even have a flag or anything on your bike! Your head is also in the perfect place to be turned into puree by an SUV's bumper.

Any other 'bent riders want to help me with this?

As someone who has never ridden a 'bent you are making assumptions or educated guesses. Until you do ride a 'bent you will not fully understand.

The plain fact is recumbents are just as easy to see as a wedgie bike.

Here is a link explaining why:

Scroll down to where it says Recumbents to read it

http://wonkity.com/~wblock/Bikes/Bikes.html
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nice! recumbents look crazy cool. there are a couple of guys in the neighborhood that have them.

One of my friends, a fanatic 'bent fan, owns two: a Zox and a homebrew. He loves the performance of the low-slung Zox, but admits that even he worries about visibility in traffic. When he rides his homebrew, which is a short wheelbased affair comprising a pair of 20" wheels, a steering mechanism, and two parallel tubes, I find that my head in full racer's crouch position is not alot higher than his.

I ride a BikeE AT semi-recumbent after having ridden standard upright bikes, choppers and cruisers for the past twenty-four years and, in my opinion, I am definitely not as visible on my bent as I was even on my beach cruiser. With my seat height currently at about 2 feet off the ground, my head is level with sedan drivers and above the low-slung rice-rockets, sports cars and performance sedans, but below the windshield line of most SUV's, pick-ups, vans and large trucks. That is why I have erected a bright orange flag at about six-feet high. I believe it helps other users of the road see me, particularly when they are approaching from behind through heavy traffic and they can't see beyond a car or two in front of them. Some may think it's a myth that 'bent riders are less visible, but I think it's both irrational and unreasonable to accept that position. Common-sense says the lower you are, the less visible you are.

I appreciate the attempts to dispell the "myth" as well as the fact that I've never ridden a recumbent, so I obviously wouldn't know firsthand, but my gut still agrees with EnigManiac.

I've also thought about all the times that I've been able to stand myself up on my pedals, allowing myself to see over the cars in front of me and allowing them to see me as well. How safe I feel on the road is directly proportional to how visible I am to the drivers around me. You can't get any lift when you're riding a recumbent, can you?

It kinda reminds me of those tiny motorcycles all the kids were riding around last summer... Made me nervous when they drove by my car (and I drive a sedan). Just being able to see the top of some guys head next to your car doesn't make it easy to gauge how close he is to the vehicle, or see which way he's signaling, or be sure that his legs aren't under your tires...