DanWho

Well today I went out and bought another bike, but this time as my brother says I've joined the dark side. I went out and got an ActionBent Roadrunner. Its classified as a high racer. So the count is now 3 in almost as many months. Not sure I should be like my brother, like my mother or like I felt when I got it. My mom came by for a short visit and just glared at me. Her big comment was " How could you possibly use 3 bikes?"

Oh well, whats next, another N+1?

bigfred 

Pictures?

TrojanHorse

I imagine that would be a damn suitable bike for Iowa...

What does high racer mean though?

And of course, what are your other two bikes?

Erwin8r

I don't believe it unless I see photographic evidence...

DanWho

A highracer is supposed to be a recumbent that is designed for speed using the much reduced air resistance to go faster than the diamond frame upright bikes. A highracer sits fairly high up using your legs going straight down to balance when starting out. A low racer is one that you sit low enough that you can use your hands to balance at the start. This is how it was explained to me.

Sunday while riding around on the bike path I met a man riding a lowracer, he was taking a break and I stopped and started asking questions. He told me to take it out and give it a try. I told him I'd be back in a few min that I would run it around the block. He said no that to get a good feel for the bike take it for a nice long spin.

Right now on an upright bike I feel lucky to do 3-4 miles and my back starts to complain. I ran it and not only did I go quite a bit faster but, NO discomfort in my back at all. Sunday as soon as I got home I started looking on craigs list for recumbents. I didn't see a single lowracer but saw lots of short wheelbase and long wheel base high recumbents. New ones are too far out of range for me right now. Someday I think I will get one, maybe that will be the next N+1.

Photos will come sometime later today.

TrojanHorse

I see some of the low ones around here and yes - they can seriously get some speed going. It seems like some of them have fairings too... but (and this is why i made the Iowa comment earlier) they seem to really struggle on hills. They look fun though

cplager

Here's the biggest reason recumbent bikes seem to struggle on hills: we cheat the rest of the time.

On flats and downhills, if we are more aerodynamic, then we can keep the same speed as a DF bike using less power. Once you get to a hill where aerodynamics play less of an issue, we're just a bike with less power.

There are recumbent riders who do fine on the hills. The problem is you don't see them because they're going so fast on the flats...

DanWho

I feel like I'm relearning how to ride a bike all over again, and I only fell once. I haven't fallen on a bike since I was delivering news papers as a kid and hit a patch of ice while taking a corner at speed. My driveway is about a block long and has a few good jolts in it and on my upright bikes I have to avoid due to pain. I hit them because I hadn't figured out steering yet, I felt them but it didn't hurt. I have to figure out how to adjust the handlebars, right now I can only turn a long lazy circle.

The balance is way different than I'm used to, and turning is still something I have to make sure I can do right before I go out and challenge the 4 wheelers to a game of chicken with me yelling " GET OUT OF THE WAY! "

TrojanHorse

Get a nice big flag - all the cool bent bobos around here have flags.

cp - watch a few of Beanz' videos on SART and you'll see a collection of guys who are practically laying flat on the ground. Talk about cheating!

Hey Dan, maybe you can get one of those too!

cplager

She's a pretty bike, congratulations! It can take a while to get used to a SWB 'bent, particularly the steering. Keep us updated.

Erwin8r

What a cool looking bike! I'd like to give them a shot one day.

TH, one time I was getting smoked on a climb by a bent. The guy was unreal on the climb, and I felt even worse when I realized he was probably in his 70's... Then I noticed the battery pack... LOL! Was kinda cool seeing him speed uphill though.

DanWho

With all the rain we are getting I may not get much practice in on the bike for the coming week, we are supposed to have rain until Thursday at least.

Cycling is contagious. My mother was at my house and she was watching me on the bike and laughing the time I fell down, she said something like she wished they made a bike she could ride. I just so happened to see an ad in craigs list for a delta trike that should fit her. I showed it to her this morning and this evening we are going to get it. I have a feeling my mother is going to be spending many more weekends at my house from now on. She says where she lives in Des Moines is too hilly for her to take it down there. I wonder if I could build a velomobile while she isn't looking?

DanWho

Well we did get the delta trike. I showed her some of the videos on youtube of velomobiles and she thinks that would be a very neat thing to do and I told her about getting a small battery and motor to put on the trike so she could scoot up the hills with the press of a switch and she wants me to do that too. Then she said that maybe she should give me a time limit to get all this done, like next weekend so she could take it home with her right away. Wow, maybe I should learn to keep my big trap shut.

Oh well heres to some quick studying for the next week or 3.