Is it true that the primary advantage of recumbents is comfort and the main disadvantages are speed and efficiency?

Is it true that the primary advantage of recumbents is comfort and the main disadvantages are speed and efficiency?

No, you are only partially right. Many modern recumbents are very fast and efficient besides being comfortable. I ride with a sport group of middle aged ex-racers and racer wannabes and have no trouble keeping up. Our rides always include intermediate sprints and high-speed rollouts. I always place in the top 3 in the sprints.

I refuse to accept the notion that recumbents are slow and inefficient. Those that feel that way haven't seen or ridden the right recumbent.

The only thing that an upright rider has over me is a sore butt. :D

...

The only thing that an upright rider has over me is a sore butt. :D


And that's probably not what you want to see, at the best of times. :eek:

It depends on what recumbent you are trying to compare to a hybrid. I don't know any recumbents however that wouldn't be faster than a hybrid. If you ask me, a roadbikes main disadvantages are speed and efficiency and comfort. Any lowracer recumbent can smoke a lone rider on a wedgie any given day of the week. It doesn't matter if there are hills or not. I'd still place my bets on the lowracer.

My buddies and I have all done solo centuries close to 4 hours with no breaks. Add a couple hours of time on to that if you were to use a hybrid.

hey Trsnrtr, we are getting a good group of fast recumbent riders together to do the BRAT tour this year. The ride is in September. Are you interested? Brat is in Tennessee. John Foltz, myself and some other faster riders are going down to put a good smacking on the roadies again this year. John and I had quite a crowd of roadies last year that kept challenging us. They got the recumbent demo every day. What a blast. 10 mile downhills in the 40+ range. bye bye mr roadie. If you are interested, I'll send you a link to the ride.

"Hybrid" bikes are not efficient, fast or comfortable. They are merely more upright than racing bikes.

People always want to post threads comparing recumbents to DF bikes. Are they faster? Do they climb hills as good? Blah blah blah. Being faster or climbing faster is not the only measure of the quality of a bicycle or the cyclist.

The fact is, on my recumbnet I am faster and more comfortable, and more efficient because I hardly feel those headwinds anymore. Meanwhile, I'm riding it almost every day because it's a joy and not a workout; it's fun, not medicine I have to take to stay in shape. I can enjoy a fast ride, a slow ride, a shopping trip or a commute to my job, and at the end of my ride I'm not sore. Tired maybe, sore muscles maybe, but no pain.

Hey Chris. That guy on the green Bianchi sure learned his lesson, didn't he? It was funny, watching him get smaller and smaller behind us every time we topped the next hill. Didn't he say his top speed was only 30 mph on the downs? No wonder we dropped him - we were doing that at the top of a few.

hey Trsnrtr, we are getting a good group of fast recumbent riders together to do the BRAT tour this year. The ride is in September. Are you interested.

I might be. I'm retiring this Spring and a trip to TN in the Fall could be a possibility.

-Dennis

Cool, I hope you can make it with us this year. Here is a link to keep checking up on for the ride. It was very reasonably priced last year. This year I'm going for the meal option for sure. John and I didn't pay for the meal option last year. Too bad ......... those guys ate real good food everywhere they went.

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

It looks like it will be some awesome scenery this year. I hope I have a few minutes to check it out. It depends though on how many wedgies are crawling up my tail. lol

I hope he shows up again this year. He was pretty cool.

Here's a pic of the guy that John was talking about. This was just after he chased us for about 7 miles on some incredible rollers.

http://groups.msn.com/BicyclingForumPicPost/trainingsetuppics.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=9614


here is a link to John's writeup on 2004 BRAT

http://www.biketcba.org/TRICORR/rides/brat2004/brat2004.html


here is a pic of Danny, our fearless leader of BRAT. Any miles ridden on the route that exceeded the stated miles given on the sheet were called Danny Miles. hmmmm A couple hundred Danny Miles for the week?
http://groups.msn.com/BicyclingForumPicPost/trainingsetuppics.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=8898


The venerable lowracer team parked.

http://groups.msn.com/BicyclingForumPicPost/trainingsetuppics.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=9347



Johns yellow short steed

http://groups.msn.com/BicyclingForumPicPost/trainingsetuppics.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=9346

Thanks for the input.

What model do you use. Also, what would you recommend for me. I would like to pay less than $1000.

Bud

I'm not sure where you would find a lowracer for under a grand. maybe you'll have to stick to a hybrid.

you might be able to find a used lowracer though. maybe an m-5 or the taiwanesse steel one. can't rembember what that one was called though.

There's no getting around it, recumbents are more expensive than comparably-equipped DFs, and a thou doesn't get you into even a mid-range bent. China Mascot had a lowracer on the board, but as far as I can tell, Actionbent doesn't import it. The fastest looking bike I see on their site is their highracer 2 (http://www.actionbent.com/HiRacer2.html) Bear in mind that these are cheap as well as inexpensive, and you can expect them to need some work when you get them. For instance, I'd lose that riser/handlebar assembly immediately in favor of a RANS or Bacchetta setup! Wouldn't hurt to ask them about the lowracer, though, if you're interested.

FWIW, the proprietor at China Mascot seems genuinely interested in recumbents, but still on the lower part of the learning curve.

Hey Chris, I MAY be able to hit this ride, depending on where it falls in September. BTW, the silver baron arrives two weekends from now.

awesome! where did you end up buying one from? Your recumbent muscles should be up to par by september to do brat. September 17-24, is the dates for brat this year. You should be preety adept at handling the baron after a 100 miles of riding or so. You will find yourself being able to push it faster and faster as you ride it and get accustomed to the handling.

Hey Aikigreg, where do you live? Chris and I would LOOOOOOVE to have another lowracer in the group.

To answer Bud's question, Chris has a VeloKraft VK2 and I have an Optima Baron. Sub-5 centuries are no big deal on a lowracer, it's just a matter of not stopping for the donuts every 15 miles. By comparison, my front-faired V-Rex can do a century in 5:20 and my hybrid, if I ever dared to try, would do one in about 7:15

I also have an optima baron as well as the carbon vk2.

I aLSO have a catrike speed with rotor crank.

my two lowracers also have rotor cranks

Hey John. quit surfing and get back to work already!

Also aikigreg, if you can't make it to BRAT which I hope you can, there is also DALMAC which goes from lansing to the mackinaw bridge end of august. we are doing the 5 day west route this year. I'm really looking forward to Tennessee though. A small lowracer pack on those long downgrades would be pretty awesome. The roadies just can't believe the speed those bikes pull by themselves, never mind a small pack.

I'm working on Denny V. to do DALMAC.

Denny? who's denny is he fast enough to hang with you?

I live in Fort Worth Texas, actually, but I grew up in Lexington, Kentucky and still have family and friends there and visit often. I certainly don't mind a drive if it puts me in such fine company. I'm hoping to pick up the baron the first weekend in March, and have my bent legs ready for a 55 miler at this race: www.echt.com

I talked to your friend at promocycle, and he was supposed to email me some info to buy a new baron, but he never did. That's ok though, becuase I happened to find someone near me selling one that seems to have some upgraded components on it anyhow. It has Shimano Deore Rapid Fire shifters which I love, Julie Disc Brakes, Ultegra 9 speed.
1600 bucks - hard to pass up. For that money, I'm considering having the fram powdercoated in a different color, like that cool burnt orange you seen on the new nissan 350z :) I'm such a geek.

Blazing - thanks, and I hope I get ride with you guys at some point, even if it's not a scheduled tour. I teach so I'm off all summer. Also, I've also got a hybrid, and am hesitant to think about doing a century on it. The wind KILLS me on that thing.

The disc brakes are a great addition especially for the hills in Tennessee. My vk2 didn't have disc brakes, but now I have one only on the rear and use a caliper in front. John has discs front and rear. I use the avid mechanical disc on the rear.

You'll have to keep us posted if you can do BRAT with the rest of the gang. Its such a joy to have friends help put a hurtin on the roadie crowd.

Denny? who's denny is he fast enough to hang with you?
I figured he'd ride with Don. Until Don's pills kicked in.