carcassonne

Since the SWB recumbents seems to have a lot of coverage while some LWB are remaining, I'd like to know what would be the advanatges of a LWB recumbent.

From my point of view of a non-recumbent rider (so far) I do not see any. Takes a lot of place on the road, seems akward to steer. I'd really like to see the good aspects of these recumbents.

Cheers.

BlazingPedals

Long wheelbases can have more places to hang panniers, which makes them better for touring. The longer wheelbase gives a naturally smoother ride. A fairing tends to have greater benefit, due to the more upright position and the rider's body being in closer proximity. LWBs tend to be better for short people, because they don't require the rider to stretch his/her legs in front of the front wheel to reach the pedals. Finally, LWBs tend to have lower seat heights than SWB. Dang! I'd better shut up before I start thinking I need one!

Dchiefransom

They are not awkward to steer at all, they just have a larger turning radius than a SWB. I have a month old Rans Stratus LE, and it soaks up road bumps like no bike I've ever been on. While I was trying to get used to a Lightning Phantom, I noticed every single bump, but the type of seat still made it much better than my upright road bike.
The other thing that I found different is that my heel doesn't hit the front wheel while turning. I understand that you get used to this on a SWB, and learn to work around this.

World Tour

While I'm riding my LWB I look at it in amazement. It's like the cadillac of bicycles. Granted it does have a large turning radius but it's a pure pleasure to ride. My Seat's 15" off the ground which I like. There seems to be no wind resistance. I feel like I cut through the wind like a hot knife through butter.

World Tour

I love my LWB.

bobkat

I agree with Worldtour that LWB bents are probably the cadillac of bikes. They are extremely comfortable, have almost no learning curve. ride great.
Downsides - longer turning radius, a bit heavier and longer to transport, but these are all the possible negative things I can think of. None are a big deal at all.
LWB bikes are reasonably fast with the average rider, but their claim to fame is more comfort than speed, although they are sure no slouches, either.
All bikes are great and we all have our favorites.

Land Surveyor

What I did not like about the SWB was the peddles puts your feet higher than your butt. which may be hard to get use to. I bought a LWB with USS. the ride is great.

Doug5150

SWB's are usually lighter but have very "touchy" steering, especially in gravel or over broken pavement. Higher pedals can contribute to numb feet.

LWB's are the opposite of this--but then they can be tougher to transport and store.

My first recumbent was a SWB, the second is a LWB. I greatly prefer the LWB.
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Some people think the quick SWB steering is really great, but I never found much practical use for it. All it did for me was make it seem like I was always doing steering corrections every 2-3 seconds, all the time.

And I don't know how much more practical maneuverability a SWB would have over a LWB.... I rode on some bike paths that had gates to slow riders down before entering streets. These were gates built so that you had to ride through in a "Z" pattern. These gates are pretty easy to ride through on any upright bike, but I tried a couple times on the SWB and got the pedals hung up halfway through, and so just gave up and walked it through from then on (and stopped going to those riding trails, besides!). -And there's even less chance I could have rode the LWB through them.
~

Katysax

LWBs have a cushier ride unless your SWB has suspension. I own both LWB and SWB:

LWB:

More comfortable
Feet lower - easier to start and stop
More places to carry things
Ride has a certain LWB "feel" that is very nice

SWB

Lighter
Faster
More aerodynamic
More stable at low speeds
Easier to store
Easier to transport
Climbs better

Still, I like both. The ride qualities of the LWB in some respects trump every positive of the SWB. If I were doing a multi day tour I'd think hard about bringing the LWB if there were a reasonable way to transport it.

JanMM

The low seat on my Rans Tailwind (with 20x20 wheels) contributes, along with a fairly low BB, to very comfortable moments relaxing in the Comfy Chair, with feet flat on the ground, at red lights. Uphill starts from a standing stop were tricky, at first, but are no longer tricky after 10 months of riding. Turning radius is a bit less of an issue than with larger-wheeled LWB bikes, but still you gotta be careful making a u-turn. This bike fits on a rack on the back of a Ford Escort-barely.

Opedaler

Since I'm in nearly the same situation as yourself, I've asked the same thing to a number of people and I've come the the conclusion that more than anything it is the size of the machine and not the performance that influences most in their decision to go with SWB/LWB bikes.

All the above are the same answers that I recieved, but when it really got down to it the the performance advantages of the average SWB, excluding lowracers, are not that significant to the average rider. Speed difference for the average rider can be minimized on a LWB by fairings, a high BB and a few other mods if you feel the need. Turning radius also was not all that different, excluding cruz/front wheel drive bikes, when all was said and done. And if hill climbing ability was very important then high BBs on LWBs seemed to level the playing field.

This was not to say that riders did not feel that there weren't real advantages for standard SWB bikes as most felt there were. It's just that most didn't feel that performance advantages were all that great or that they offset the comfort of most LWB bikes. The real reason boiled down to size....ie transportation for one. Without something like a draftmast carrier, it is more hassle to get a LWB to the riding site..... and Draftmasters run about 700 for a true LWB carrier. Storage for another. They take up more room in the garage, basement or storage shed and don't even talk about apartments. As one friend said "you can take them (LWBs) up an elevator but make darn sure the ceiling is higher than the length of your bike".

For most it boiled down to the pleasure of riding a LWB vs the hassle of handling one while not riding. For some it was worth it for others it was not.

Opedaler

OK, one other thing to confuse you (hey, they've got me twisting in the wind so you might as well join me). Trikes, don't rule out trikes. Just got off the phone with a dealer who said that trikes (his brand is WhizWheelz) are a blast. They're selling trikes like nobodies business. To get more info on trikes read the threads on this site especially one on bent speed. Jeff-o cummutes on one and averages a pretty decent speed. Stable and fun I'm told. Also WhizWheels is coming out with a double trike carrier for about 450.......So much info.......so little time(and money).

bkaapcke

I had an interesting experience on my LWB. I was riding the local paved trail, and was chatting with my ride buddy instead of paying attention. I went off the pavent into soft gravel. Instantly I knew I was going to lose it. I planted my left foot, let the bike go out from under me and then planted my right foot. I was ready to plant both hands on the ground, but didn't need to. I had literally stepped off the bike and was left standing. Not a scratch, this sealed the deal for me. LWB's are the thing. BTW, it's so comfortable, that the only things missing are a beer and a meatball sandwich. bk

MaxBender

I primarily ride a Rans Rocket SWB, and had loaned out my Rans Wave LWB for a few weeks.

When I picked the Wave back up, I hopped on and instantly remembered how sweet the ride is.

teamcompi

I bought a lwb uss bent just before the snow showed up....I want to ride....now!

World Tour

LWB is very long. Mine lives in the garage along the side of the car. And it does fit across the back of my Jeep on the low hitch-mount rack. But half the wheel sticks out on each side. It's probably just barely within 8' width. I just don't get too close to other cars when transporting it.

I've been thinking of a way to put the bike parallel with the tow vehicle by having the rear wheel low on the low rack and lifting the front wheel up and having some sort of bracket go across the roof racks to hold the front wheel up. It would look funny but should work. Then nothing sticking out the sides.

BlazingPedals

You're describing a Draftmaster rack.

Opedaler

I think I'll be staying on topic without starting a new thread............What about wheel size on LWB.

a) Tour Easy uses a 700 back tire....how important is this to the average rider?

b) Rans has gotten away from 26/20's and gone to 26/26's......sales identity for Rans or performance reasons?

c) CLWB often use dual 20's............is the reason to contain bike length or another reason?

Doug5150

Easy Racers use "odd" 451/700mm size wheels, and this is an issue for tires because there's certainly some decent tires, but not a lot of variety in these sizes. Most other companies use 406/559mm, 406=BMX 20" bike size and 559=MTB 26" tire sizes. Hostel Shoppe carries a good variety of tires but you can see yourself, there's only a few in 451:
https://www.hostelshoppe.com/recumbent_catalog.php
(you see there are two [20"] sizes. 451mm is also called "20"--so most places use the mm designation to avoid confusion)

-Also there is not many 700 tires listed--but this is only because Hostel Shoppe specializes in recumbent-popular items, and 700mm tires are so common, any bike shop will have a bunch on hand anyway. The rear wheel issue is that there's not a lot of wider sizes common in 700--because it is made for road bikes, and road bikes aren't made for fat tires. You see the tires at Hostel Shoppe in this size are only either 25mm or 35mm wide. Over at Bike Nashbar, in the [700x28 - 700x45] tire size range, they only list five models--and only one is available in 1.75" wide. One other is 1.5" or so, and all the rest are 1-3/8" or narrower.
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My opinion is that particularly for a bike you may be touring on--you would be better off getting a bike with 20/26 (406/559) wheels, because ANY bike shop anywhere will probably have tires and tubes in these sizes on hand. Maybe not the exact brands that you want, but they will have something that fits. Even Wal-Mart carries these sizes of tires and tubes. If you're off in the middle of Podunk, Nowhere and you gash your last front/rear tire, you shouldn't have to get too far to buy another one.

...The 700 rear on a Tour-Easy is common (it's the normal size for upright road bike tires now so any bike shop will have it) but the 451mm front is not. There's a few brands of folding upright bicycles that use it, I think some smaller wheelchairs too but not much else. You're not going to be able to stop by any bike shop along your tour and just pick another 451mm tire or tube up.

I don't know if RANS was the first to do this, Surefoot has had a dual-26 LWB out for a while too. And home-builders have been doing it for ages, just so they could cut up a regular upright bike and re-use both wheels. ---- People do say the larger-diameter tires do have slightly lower rolling resistance over rough roads than smaller tires do. And we note that it is more convenient for touring, to only have to carry one size of tire and tube. I do not have a dual-26 yet, but I have pondered it.

Yes, so that the seat can be lifted a bit, and the rear tire can be pulled up partway under the seat. The main drawback of using 20" wheels is the bike ends up with a more-complicated drivetrain--either running larger ~60T chainrings (that you can't get as much gear range out of, because a front derailleur is limited to a "tooth count range" that it can reach across), or running a mid-drive setup, which some feel adds too much weight and complexity. ....The [possible] advantage of a dual-20" bike is that a lot of them have dual-suspension; you will not find that on many big-wheel recumbent bikes.
~

bkaapcke

The steering on a LWB takes very little time to get used to. Two good rides and you are in tune with your wheels. Because of continuing forearm tendon pain, I had new h-bars made for my EZ Sport. The bars are 4 1/2 inches longer than stock. This increases the 'tiller effect' quite a bit. Yet after a few rides, it is second nature to me. So, don't even worry about this "problem". bk