Linear Sonic Folding Bent?

[bobkat]

Anyone know anything about these bikes? I guess they must be made in St' Paul, Minn.
I've been looking for some kind of a folding bent for traveling in a small car. There is a picture on E-Bay but not with it folded. When I go to the Linear Sonic Web Site, the only folder I see is a long wheel base folder.
Thanks for any info. Bob

[bobkat]

Sorry, I'm pretty computer illiterate! Just looked at their website again. Apparently these bikes were made by the original company in Iowa, then the company was bought out by the present company in St. Paul. There are pretty good descriptions of these folding bents on their website.
Just curious if anyone out there has ever seen one, owned one, or has ridden one?
Thanks Bob

[Recumbomatic]

There is a small blip about Linear's change of ownership on the Wikipedia recumbent page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recumbent_bicycle


Is this the Linear website you were referring to?

http://www.linearrecumbent.com/

[BlazingPedals]

Linear was one of the recumbent 'price leaders' 10-15 years ago. Like Bike-E, they were not known for their performance, they were known for getting people into bents cheaply. Linears had a reputation for being creaky, due to their riveted construction. My analysis is that they had problems competing with the higher quality brands even considering their price. At any rate, they eventually went belly-up.

Then, several years ago, the rights to Linear were bought out by Bicycle Man in Alfred NY, who resurrected them. It appears that they will introduce a SWB this year.

[VegasTriker]

I've got two long wheelbase Linears and have two friends with both the short wheelbase and long wheelbase models. All of them were built in Iowa before 2003. The older one CA 1993) were made by Kann Body Shop and has a Kann label on the headtube and my other one (July 1997) was made by a different owner but still in Iowa. The dual 20 inch wheel model is reputed to be unstable compared to the other two. Yes they do squeek a bit if the quick release on the folding parts are not tight. Some people even had them heliarc welded to stop that. I've got over 5,000 miles on my newer Linear and that's not bad for a bike that cost me $500 third hand in 2000. It is way better than the horrible BikeE AT I started out on in 1999. I bought the second one for parts in case I needed something expensive like the underseat steering parts. Both bikes are still in one piece and usable. My two friends dearly like theirs and ride them often. They are an easy bike to learn to ride compared to some recumbents. There were so many of them made that you can often get them at a really good price compared to the much heavier entry-level recumbents on the market. I consider mine much better than entry level. BTW, if you have the USS handlebars, make sure the steering is tight or the bike will seem to have a mind of its own.

[bobkat]

Yes. Recumbamatic. That's the site I was looking at. I'd like to find a picture of the SWB folder folded. Love to ride one for the heck of it. Thanks everyone. Bob

[defjack]

Check out the Cruzbike Yahoo forums there are 3 folding bikes there all cost under under 1000$. I ride a Cruzbike -Downtube folder and its great. Jack