Tom Bombadil

I took the plunge and got Bent.

After riding a few more recumbents while in Florida, I decided to take up a local seller on their offer and purchased a Sun EZ-Rider AX. This is kinda a "super cruiser" bent. Built for comfort & absorbing bumps - Sun advertised it as an off-road/road vehicle, designed to take on dirt & gravel trails as well as roads. They made it in three versions, the SX steel version with lower-end components, CX cro-moly steel with mid-level components, and AX aluminum with higher-level components. The AX is still heavy at 40 pounds, but it is about 5 pounds lighter than the CX. The heavy shock and seat definitely contribute to the weight.

Major components include SRAM X.9 derailleurs (which Trek & Cannondale use on their $2500-$3000 mountain bikes), Avid ball bearing disc brakes, Shimano Deore M475 wheel hubs, and an adjustable load A-Pro Tough Shock.

Original list price was $1500. The person I purchased it from was a 40+ woman who thought she would be able to ride a bent, but crashed it on all three rides she took. The bar end mirror was crushed and there are a couple of hard to see scratches. She only put about 12-15 miles on it. The tires still have the tire nubs on them - no perceptible wear on them at all. It had a few extras on it, like a rear rack & basket, dual water bottle holders, and the cracked mirror. She got it as a close-out special for $1300. I took the foul beast off her hands for $800.

I think one of her problems may have been in the seat adjustment. She had it leaning forward - at its maximum forward position on the seat back and the maximum lean forward position on the seat, which is a bit awkward.

It's definitely not a speedster or a beauty queen. But I think I'm going to enjoy it. Stock company photo & actual photo (w/Wisconsin snow showing) below.

Beverly

Nice looking and I hope you enjoy it. I really would like to try one but I'm afraid I might have the same problem as the previous owner

Blackberry

Cool, Tom. Hope it brings you much pleasure.

When I was on a weeklong group ride, I switched off with a bent-rider for quite a few miles several times (She rode my Bike Friday). I almost crashed the first time I rode it, but when I got the hang of it it was a heck of a lot of fun. We decided we would make a million bucks marketing a line of bent-specific biking togs under the brand name of "My Butt Feels Fabulous." Fortunately, that little venture never went any further.

Ride on and keep us posted.

centexwoody 

I think 'bents are pretty cool but I haven't found one long enough for my legs yet.

The one I'd REALLY like is: https://www.hasebikes.com/ens/tagun/index.php
but it comes in at about 3000 euros...

Our long rolling hills would be perfect for a recumbent & there is a guy who whizzes by our house every so often on a conventional-wheel 'bent.

Enjoy!

scottogo

Enjoy the bento!

bkaapcke

Tom, congrats on trying a bent. I switched 2 years ago and have never looked back. I've ridden DF's a few times since and can't remember what it was I liked about them. It takes a while to get used to LWB bents and condition your leg muscles. Once this is done, you can fine tune seat position & angle, as well as handlebar position. Then you will enjoy pain free riding. Definately the thing for the over 50 crowd. bk

SSP

Now you'll need to grow a really big beard, and buy a pair of Birkenstocks.

SSP

At 54 years of age, all of my riding (typically 4000 miles per year, with about 200,000 feet of climbing) is pain free on my "standard" bike.

Tom Bombadil

I know some have reservations about the handling of the LWB bents - although there are veteran bent riders who take opposing positions on this issue. In my case, that's almost irrelevant. The only road riding I envision for it is the half mile I need to ride through my subdivision (on typical 25 mph subdivsion streets) to get to the bike path. I have no plans at all to ride it on city streets or 50+ mph highways. It is unlikely that I will even ride it on roads with designated bike lanes. When I want to ride on other bike paths, I will transport it to them.

For example, the nearest town to my home is 5 miles away. They recently constructed bike paths throughout the village. I expect to ride on those paths, but I will transport my bike to town to do so. I'm not going to ride the 5 miles each way on the 50 mph county road.

Thus I estimate that about 98% of all the mileage put on it will be done on bike paths.

The bike path that runs from my subdivision does go to a small town (<2000 people), where there is a grocery store. I'm thinking that I just might run down there once in a while to pick up a few things, that I can throw in my new basket. It's a 16 mile round trip. (Even via car, the closest place to pick up bread and milk is a 12 mile round trip.)

I do look forward to conditioning my leg muscles - while not fighting as much hand and butt pain.

Digital Gee

Tom,

Now that you have this new bike, you can get a paper route!

Tom Bombadil

Obviously the Avid ball bearing disc brakes are not going to get much of a workout when riding on rail trails!

Tom Bombadil

You have a keen eye, DG. This bike is well suited to that application.

But it lacks a heated enclosure. The prediction for these parts are lows in the -7 to -13 range over next several days. Standing wind chills are supposed to be below -20. On a bike, they might reach the -30 to -40 range.

The new bent is not coming out of the garage for a while.