Recumbent - Bents are the fastest platform hills or no hills

My apoligies to you.
But what kind of 'bent do you ride?
It really will tell all of us here where you are comming from.
Folks here ride anything from a tricked out lowracer to a full body socked Easyracers product which all of these platforms are faster than DF bikes.

MG

I ride an Actionbent Road Runner with fat tires.

The original post seemed to make a generalization about bents being as fast as road bikes and I just wasn't seeing it on my end. But learning that you have a 22 pound Aero, I can understand how you're getting great performance. I don't have a "performance bent". My bike is heavier with fatter tires and I'm a relative noob to bents (as I pointed out previously), so I can't yet get the road bike performance I was accustomed to. Perhaps in time I will though. Currently I'm getting averages congruent with my old hybrid.

Currently I'm getting averages congruent with my old hybrid.

Keep working on those bent muscles and you'll get there. An Actionbent Road Runner should easily be as fast as most hybrids under all conditions.

and get rid of the fat tires!

unless it's fat tire beer. Man that stuff is the shiznit.

I ride an Actionbent Road Runner with fat tires.

The original post seemed to make a generalization about bents being as fast as road bikes and I just wasn't seeing it on my end. But learning that you have a 22 pound Aero, I can understand how you're getting great performance. I don't have a "performance bent". My bike is heavier with fatter tires and I'm a relative noob to bents (as I pointed out previously), so I can't yet get the road bike performance I was accustomed to. Perhaps in time I will though. Currently I'm getting averages congruent with my old hybrid.

I posted so if this shows up twice ignor...

Sorry to offend,
I have a blog which I just deleted a bunch of stuff amoung which was a review of the NoCom carbon Lowracer. This bike is perhaps the fastest lowracer or recumbent bicycle unfaired on the planet.
Its owner is beating all the pro cyclists on there DF bikes on time trial events which are pure races against the clock. Alan is an extrordinary athlete but he is 50 years old yet he is beating some of the best pro DF riders on there DF bikes. Something is going on here and its a story I will tell.
I just need a few days to get some information together and I will post where to check this stuff out.
You will find it very interesting and also inspiring.

MG

I posted so if this shows up twice ignor...

Sorry to offend,
I have a blog which I just deleted a bunch of stuff amoung which was a review of the NoCom carbon Lowracer. This bike is perhaps the fastest lowracer or recumbent bicycle unfaired on the planet.
Its owner is beating all the pro cyclists on there DF bikes on time trial events which are pure races against the clock. Alan is an extrordinary athlete but he is 50 years old yet he is beating some of the best pro DF riders on there DF bikes. Something is going on here and its a story I will tell.
I just need a few days to get some information together and I will post where to check this stuff out.
You will find it very interesting and also inspiring.

MG

I agree that a well designed low racer with a well-trained rider will beat the snot out of any DF you can throw at 'em. However, for the more casual riders such as myself, well... I think it will take me some time to get averages like I used to get on my road bike. Gotta build up the muscles. It would also help if I ditched the 1.5 tires and went with 23c's or a comparable road bike tire.

When I saw this: Bents are the fastest platform hills or no hills - I thought to myself that I wasn't getting those results so I'd better chime in. But, relatively heavy bike, wide tires and noob rider are probably the reason.

Please post your story. It does sound inspiring!

unless it's fat tire beer. Man that stuff is the shiznit.

I'm old. Give me a hint. Is "shiznit" good?

it's the bee's knees, the big cheese, and the daddy rabbit. I mean, it's swingin', man!

well, If I could figure out how to edit clips out of my 1 hour avi movies that I have been helmet camming all summer long, I could show you on video just how fast a bent can blow by a paceline. Hmm. That shall be my project for tonight. edit some smaller clips and post them.

That shall be my project for tonight. edit some smaller clips and post them.

Hurry up, I'm going to go pop some popcorn! :D

No $hit, Chris! BTW, when are we going to ride together again. I'm a WHOLE different rider from last year - I might even be able to keep up with you and john! I've been absolutely flying on the baron, but can use some of your tips on going faster.

I'm a DF rider and I must say in a week of RAGBRAI riding, I passed way more 'bents than passed me. Especially on the hills. Though it might be more of an engine problem than a bike problem. Most 'bent riders seem to be 50+ years old, and got into them cause they are easier on the back.

One other thing to add though.. One type of bent I got passed by several times were the Bachettas(sp?) The seemed to be faster, or just appeal to a faster type of rider.

No $hit, Chris! BTW, when are we going to ride together again. I'm a WHOLE different rider from last year - I might even be able to keep up with you and john! I've been absolutely flying on the baron, but can use some of your tips on going faster.


well, its kind of short notice, but I'll be doing brat again this year. Registration is still open. here's the link if you can do a ride of this sort in short notice.

http://state.tn.us/environment/parks/BRAT/

I'm a DF rider and I must say in a week of RAGBRAI riding, I passed way more 'bents than passed me. Especially on the hills. Though it might be more of an engine problem than a bike problem. Most 'bent riders seem to be 50+ years old, and got into them cause they are easier on the back.

One other thing to add though.. One type of bent I got passed by several times were the Bachettas(sp?) The seemed to be faster, or just appeal to a faster type of rider.


Yup, that's one reason for recumbent's rep as slow machines. The rest of that comes from the fact that so many of them are 35+ pounds. You put a fit, trained cyclist on a bent and it's GO time. I rarely get passed anymore by less than a ten man paceline, and I did just fine when I was in the line with Lance during ragbrai.

Most bachettas are performance machines - lightweight and optimized for speed. Just as a road bike passed mountain bikes easily, so do lighter bents pass the old folks with the 50 pound recumbents.

well, its kind of short notice, but I'll be doing brat again this year. Registration is still open. here's the link if you can do a ride of this sort in short notice.

http://state.tn.us/environment/parks/BRAT/

Man, I would love to, but it's too close to the beginning of school, and I teach in a small school with only 6 other teachers, so they sort of can't do without me a week. It's an 8 hour drive - I'd almost consider going for just Saturday and sunday and having my wife ride support for us.

I could have sworn John said y'all weren't riding it this year. Give me a shout if you're back this way anytime soon. I'm maybe thinking about the Horsey Hundred again next year. I could also use your advice on what to do about either upgrading my Baron to the hilt or just giving in and going with the VK2.

ok, good grief, its a lot of work to edit 1 gig avi files. I still have to sort through all my videos to pick out all the good paceline passes and such. Nothing special here, but you can see the video quality which is pretty good, although I see it looks a bit downgraded downloading it through youtube.

this video is shot from a sony 580 line bullet cam recorded with an archos av-500 30 gig personal dvr.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsQszBJS1PU

when I get some good action shots, I'll post.

Yup, that's one reason for recumbent's rep as slow machines. The rest of that comes from the fact that so many of them are 35+ pounds. You put a fit, trained cyclist on a bent and it's GO time. I rarely get passed anymore by less than a ten man paceline, and I did just fine when I was in the line with Lance during ragbrai.

Most bachettas are performance machines - lightweight and optimized for speed. Just as a road bike passed mountain bikes easily, so do lighter bents pass the old folks with the 50 pound recumbents.

I will post some pictures for you of my personal Bacchetta Aero. This particular frameset has at least 20000 miles on it and is recieving a drivetraine upgrade.
I will stick with 9 speed since it is cheap and high quality.
It is less than stock. I got the frameset in '03 when I was really in to ultra cycling.
This has been and continues to be a fine light weight super durable recumbent bicycle.
I don't like to build or putz! I like to ride.
Bacchetta builds nice bikes for guys like me.

MG

Bacchetta builds nice bikes for guys like me.

MG


I think that's what I said :)

I'm a DF rider and I must say in a week of RAGBRAI riding, I passed way more 'bents than passed me. Especially on the hills. Though it might be more of an engine problem than a bike problem. Most 'bent riders seem to be 50+ years old, and got into them cause they are easier on the back.

One other thing to add though.. One type of bent I got passed by several times were the Bachettas(sp?) The seemed to be faster, or just appeal to a faster type of rider.

Two C's, Two T's. http://www.bacchettabikes.com yes, they're getting a rep as a good platform to go fast on the road with. Lowracers haul butt, but if you're sitting next to a car in traffic, they can't see you. I drool everytime I see JV's nocom, it's such a nice machine. However my budget doesn't allow for one, so I've got a Bacchetta Corsa, and for christmas I'll buy my 5'2" wife a large Carbon Aero. :)

I'll buy my 5'2" wife a large Carbon Aero. :)

I think Bacchetta is coming out with a Aero 24 with 24 inch wheels. Someone on BROL was posting about it this week.

yes, but if he buys the larger bike, his wife will be unable to ride it at all! Why on earth would he want to let his wife ride his shiny new bike? :)


I think Bacchetta is coming out with a Aero 24 with 24 inch wheels. Someone on BROL was posting about it this week.

yes, but if he buys the larger bike, his wife will be unable to ride it at all! Why on earth would he want to let his wife ride his shiny new bike? :)

Maybe because he loves her. Bikes don't kiss back or love you when your sick. It's just a cold piece of metal framing with wheels. Cmon guys; grow up. Love your woman more than yourself.

Oh yeah? well you can't ride your wife...oh wait....:eek:

Maybe you should take the stick out of your ass and realize the guy was trying in a funny way to say he was buying himself a new bike. No reason to get bent out of shape because you didn't get the humor. Now if he had been *****ing about his wife, maybe you'd have cause for complaint. Otherwise, since I presume you don't know how he treats his wife, nor how I treat mine, perhaps you shoudl grow up yourself.

And even though it's none of your business, for my wife's birthday this year she got a new v-rex and a ticket to RAGBRAI, where I spent 480 miles pedalling at 13mph when I really wanted to be in the 19mph range, just so I could spend the time with her.


Maybe because he loves her. Bikes don't kiss back or love you when your sick. It's just a cold piece of metal framing with wheels. Cmon guys; grow up. Love your woman more than yourself.

Oh yeah? well you can't ride your wife...oh wait....:eek:

Maybe you should take the stick out of your ass and realize the guy was trying in a funny way to say he was buying himself a new bike. No reason to get bent out of shape because you didn't get the humor. Now if he had been *****ing about his wife, maybe you'd have cause for complaint. Otherwise, since I presume you don't know how he treats his wife, nor how I treat mine, perhaps you shoudl grow up yourself.

And even though it's none of your business, for my wife's birthday this year she got a new v-rex and a ticket to RAGBRAI, where I spent 480 miles pedalling at 13mph when I really wanted to be in the 19mph range, just so I could spend the time with her.

Sorry, I misunderstood. I had a bad time at work. A guy had been neglecting his wife, and it got to me. The lady hurt her back and could even walk straight. The jerk wouldn't even take her to the emergency room. buuuuuurrrrrn.

You never know what a person has been going through, and online you can't see the "everyday" stuff going on in ppl's lives. The emocons don't always express what the person means. Sometimes ppl insult you and then stick a :) on it and it's supposed to be funny. Anyway sorry, it was my fault for misunderstanding. And I should've read the thread thourghly. I should have kept my freakin mouth shut. Err, fingers away from the keyboard.

I think that's what I said :)
www.thekettlemorainebiker.blogspot.com
My Blogsite has some pics up of my personal Aero of last year.
One thing I have to say is that the only Lowracer that I feel is faster than an Aero is a properly set up NoCom. JV needs to come down to chicago for some speed advise.
Barons, jesters and all the other stock heavy metal lowracers are slower in my opinion.
The VK-2 has a seat height that is higher for climbing effeciency and speed wise is a wash with the Bacchetta products.
I just am telling it like it is. Bacchetta builds fast bikes if set up with some good Aero wheelsets. The rest is provided by the engine. No magic pill for speed other than vigorous training and a monkish lifestyle.

MG

ok, good grief, its a lot of work to edit 1 gig avi files. I still have to sort through all my videos to pick out all the good paceline passes and such. Nothing special here, but you can see the video quality which is pretty good, although I see it looks a bit downgraded downloading it through youtube.

this video is shot from a sony 580 line bullet cam recorded with an archos av-500 30 gig personal dvr.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsQszBJS1PU

when I get some good action shots, I'll post.


you have your own thread !
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=227305