Recumbent - New Recumbent owner!

Well I took the plunge and bought a recumbent yesterday. I ended up with a Vision R44 with OSS. The guy I bought it from gave me the USS handle bar and some sort of stem looking thing attached to it. I am not sure if this can go directly into the headtube? I thought the Visions with USS had a special fork with a tube in it. Someday I will have to look deeper into it. For now I have my hands full with trying to ride this squirrly beast! It seems like a lot of fun though especially after I figured out how to put the seat on properly. Just wanted to make an entrace into the forum here.

USS is just not right!
I don't know anything about Vision bikes but someone here or on Bentrideronline.com should be able to give you some advice or point you in the right direction for Vision USS setup.

General advice for calming down twitchy short wheelbase handling is to just relax. Try not to move your arms, shoulders, hands so much.

Welcome to the world of recumbents. As janMM said, relaxing does help the twitchy factor, but I don't think you will ever get your bent to be as maneuverable as your DF. But comfort is likely the reason you went the bent route in any case.

Yes, the Vision fork had a tube at the back of the crown that accepted a quill stem for USS. If it doesn't have the tube, then either it was removed or it's not a Vision fork. The OSS flavor uses a riser stem, probably 15-17 inches long, that the handlebars attach to. Standard hamster bar setup.

Welcome and congrats!! Yep, it's REALLY hard to make your "upper body" totaly relax, don't GRIP the bars, just "place" the hands on them. I ride a CLWB and if you GRIP the bars it's VERY twitchy, if you just place your hands on top of the grips, ( to start with, don't curl your fingers over the grips, especially UPHILL!), this helped me not put to much pressure on the bars a lot! It's a new world but after you really let the upper body relax and use the legs for power, it just seems normal. :) ENJOY!

It takes several rides and a lot of start and stops to get rid of the nervious feeling. Then suddenly you wont notice it any more.

USS is just not right!
I don't know anything about Vision bikes but someone here or on Bentrideronline.com should be able to give you some advice or point you in the right direction for Vision USS setup.

General advice for calming down twitchy short wheelbase handling is to just relax. Try not to move your arms, shoulders, hands so much.
For some maybe, but I would never buy a bent without uss. Different strokes, right?

For some maybe, but I would never buy a bent without uss. Different strokes, right?

I would be afraid that if I rode a bike with USS that people would stare and point at me and children would shout "Look at that bike!"
No, wait, that happens with OSS, too! Different 'bent strokes for different folks, indeed!:D

A friend of mine was riding his Longbike USS along a rail trail and heard a youngster whisper to his parents "Look, there's one of those bikes for handicap people!"

Ok folks. This bent newby need your help. What is OSS and USS about? And is there a short word, like trike, to describe my newly acquired LWB bent? 2 wheel bent seems a bit verbose.

Pics. Need pics. Without pics, it didn't happen.

If you want to confuse the hell out of some people, go with the USS. You get that puzzled look and the question, "How do you steer that thing?" My second recumbent, a Linear LWB came with the horrible ape hangar handlebars but included the USS parts in a box. I installed the USS and had both on at one time so I could compare how I liked each. After two weeks, I switched the controls and dumped the ape hangar bars. From then on, all of my recumbents have USS.
In order of purchase: BikeE AT (OSS), Linear folder LWB, Wizwheelz 3.4, Greenspeed GTO, Haluzak Horizon SWB

Ok folks. This bent newby need your help. What is OSS and USS about?

OSS - Over Seat Steering. = handlebars in front of the rider, in the "normal" (er...most common) position.

USS - Under Seat Steering. = handlebars that rise up from underneath the seat/frame.

OSS - Over Seat Steering. = handlebars in front of the rider, in the "normal" (er...most common) position.

USS - Under Seat Steering. = handlebars that rise up from underneath the seat/frame.

#1 is sometimes referred to as "Above Seat Steering"... but that acronym is even tougher to explain to newbies.

Twinsfan: I'm pretty sure Hostel Shoppe bought up the inventory when Vision went under. I think the mesh seats for Volae bikes directly interchange with Vision in case you need a replacement.