VegasTriker

Too many misconceptions being posted here by those who scorn recumbents.

I do sit in a seat and do so precisely to eliminate weight on my hands, pressure on my shoulders, or on my neck. All of the weight is not centered on a small part on my butt because the trike I currently ride has a 25 degree seat angle. It is laid back enough to spread the weight out across most of my body, principally my butt and back. It truly is like riding in a comfortable lawn chair. Sometimes when I finish a long ride I sit in it to relax before getting up. Only one of my three trikes has a head rest and it does not create any discomfort on an extended ride. It positions my head perfectly to look through my progressive eyeglass lenses. I've never made any changes to a recumbent seat in order to make it more comfortable.
Somewhere I have a picture taken of me years ago about half way on a metric century ride on a very high quality road bike (Motobecane Le Champion). There's no smile on my face, just a look of grim determination. I think that's why it made it into the local newspaper reporting on the event. That's not how I feel these days after riding the same distance. By the way, my trike will climb hills quite well. I've never walked it up even the steepest hill in my area. They weren't fun at first but now that I have developed my "trike legs" I just consider them part of the ride and don't go out of my way to avoid them. Sure is fun going back down.

StephenH

When I first started riding as an adult, I bought a $100 mountain bike. The seat on it felt like sitting on a 2x4. I assumed it was because it was small. So I bought a $20 cruiser seat and stuck it on there and all was good, seatwise.
Then I went to a Worksman cruiser. Of course, it came with a comfy cruiser seat and all was good.
Then I bought a Raleigh Sojourn. It came with a Brooks pre-aged B17. It was a lot narrower than the cruiser seats but just as comfortable. Getting it, I realized the seat on that $100 mountain bike was uncomfortable because it was a piece of crap, not because it was narrow.
There seem to be plenty of people that are perfectly comfortable on conventional bike seats and also plenty of people that are convinced that no one could ever be comfortable on any bike seat. I see no way to reconcile the two groups. I assume a good many of the no-way-on-any-seat people just haven't tried the right seat, but there's not much of a way to show that.

One of our local recumbent riders occasionally has problems with knee pain on long rides.
One of our local recumbent riders occasionally has hot-foot problems.
So they are not necessarily a cure to every problem.

I know some fast recumbent riders and some slow recumbent riders. I only know two people that have switched from upright to recumbent, and they are both slower than they were on uprights. So I don't know if that's a general trend or not. If so, then the fast recumbent riders must have really been something on upright bikes.

BlazingPedals

I'm one of the ones who never found any seat fully comfortable; the best ones were *bearable.* While it's possible I never found the "right seat," it wasn't for lack of trying. I once heard someone (an upright rider, BTW,) describe how to find the right saddle:

"Put $600 in your new saddle account and start buying saddles. When you run out of money, add another $600. Repeat until you find one you like. It will be discontinued; so when it wears out you get to start the process all over again."

delcrossv

I've always been consistently faster on the bent than on the upright. With the latest bike, a lot faster. I think it has to do with when you started riding them. Not too many young folks on bents, but those that are are pretty fast in my experience. Also, the interesting effect that riding a bent will make you faster on a DF but not the other way 'round.

BlazingPedals

It took me most of the first year to get my former speed back. Then I got into fairings, followed by speedier bents. Some folks never progress beyond that first phase, and of course not all bents are speedier than an upright road bike. Bent speed capabilities run the gamut, from slow to fast -- just like upright bikes do. Comparing my best speeds from my Trek road bike (when I was 15 years younger,) and my current crop of recumbents, I am anywhere from 3 to 6 mph faster on the bents - without fairings.

Notso_fastLane

It took me two years, but I'm now about 2-5 mph faster on average than I was on my roadbike. The bent weight is slightly heavier than my old roadbike, but by the time I put all the stuff on for daily commuting, I suspect they are very close to the same weight, so I don't think it's that. My bent has consistently been faster on the flats and downhill, but I've just in the past couple months got to where my average is higher than my DF averages.

rydabent

Faster or slower really isnt the point. The question is are you enjoying a bike ride that is free of pain, especially on longer rides? Again IMO pain is for fools.

RL7836

Seat pain was rarely an issue for me on a DF, neck pain was sometimes an issue but I usually handled it.

For me it was/is. I love the increased efficiency. Where I used to cruise at 16-18 mph, I'm now consistently over 20. On hills where I hit 45mph, I now go over 50 - consistently. I actually had to buy new sunglasses to go over my small prescription glasses because the added speed made my eyes water & I had difficulty seeing the road. I totally love it.

Recumbents might not be for everyone as earlier comments demonstrate but I've been riding DFs for over 30 years (road & mtb) & my main regret is that I didn't try a bent sooner.

Retro Grouch 

I can agree 100% with that.

On the other hand, I have no idea how much tushie or neck discomfort other people are feeling. I can only assume that, if the pain got severe enough, they'd make some kind of change.

10 Wheels

What year did you ever ride 10,000 miles on a bent?

BlazingPedals

Did he say it was in one year?

10 Wheels

" bent riders have put tens of thousands of miles on DF our selves. From experience we know where of we speak."

rydabent

10

That is 10 of thousands of miles over the many years of riding DF bikes in my lifetime.

And that is right at 15,000 miles on bents since I began to ride them in late 2005.

chasm54

These aren't terribly high mileages. It isn't unusual for me to ride 10000 miles in one year on a number of DF bikes. I am extremely comfortable on them, or I wouldn't do it. Some saddles don't work for me, but many do - on my four current bikes I have a Brooks Swift, a Brooks B17, a Fizik Aliante and a stock Giant saddle that I think is a copy of a Selle Italia. All are fine for the riding positions on the different bikes. I do a fair bit of touring. On one tour I covered 2500 miles in less than two months on the B17 and can honestly say I suffered zero saddle pain on the whole tour.

The fact that you have been uncomfortable on DF bikes does not mean that everyone suffers similarly. The fact that some find it difficult to find a saddle that suits them does not mean that others are hiding a secret pain. The fact that you dislike riding a drop-bar road bike in a flat-backed aerodynamic position does not mean that I cannot ride upwards of 120 miles in a day in that position, and like it.

I feel no hostility or sense of superiority to those who ride recumbents. If that's what they like, that's fine with me. You ride your bike, and I'll ride mine. But kindly don't project: I'm perfectly comfortable, thanks very much.

cplager

I have tried (on numerous occasions) to explain this to him.

rydabent

chasm

Casual observation of DF riders at sag stops indicate that the ave DF rider does expericence at least discomfort. Add to that all the talk about buying many saddles and what brand is best reinforces the fact that many people are never really comfortable on DF saddles. Im happy that you say you are.

Duane Behrens

Brooks B17. Your logic is based on fallacy.

streetstomper

This whole thing reminds me of the Mac vs. PC debate. There will be Mac users/recumbent riders on one side and PC users/DF riders on the other. PC users say Macs cost a lot more for comparable components, likewise DF riders point to recumbent prices. They'll say Macs have more limited software selection and recumbents climb more slowly. They'll be defensive about their systems and bikes, saying they're perfectly comfortable and have no problems. The other side will argue that Macs and recumbents have the far better user experience but often take their argument to the other extreme, claiming there's no discomfort whatsoever (look up "recumbutt" or see various threads about alternative padding, memory foam, Ventisit, etc.) or problems using OS X (Apple has made their share of blunders and seems to be more arrogant about the user interface after Steve's passing).

The truth of course is somewhere in the middle. Nothing is perfect. Although on balance, Macs and recumbents are far closer to the ideal.

osco53

I can ride my Tour Easy casually all day long pain free....
I will never part with it.

I can do 20 hard intense miles in the woods on my Hard Tail Mountain bike for a very extreme workout,,,
Because my EZ-1 then my Tour Easy got me back in the saddle.

I just bought a cheap Single speed...
I am having a blast on my brand spanking new $69 Walmart single speed,,, I am not nor will ever be a bike snob.
It looks cool hanging above my multi thousand dollar Bent and my Hydraulic brake equipped mountain bike.. buwhahahaha.

Life on two wheels is good,

There is no debate on what's better IMO, It's all just bored people who should try riding different kinds of bikes, troll's they are called ?

"My bike Is better than your bike, Yada yada yah !"

The horrible burden of self importance,,,,
What eva,

CharlyAlfaRomeo

Even if my DF was really uncomfortable I wouldn't notice.

The discomfort I put myself through doing intervals, hill repeats, threshold tests and racing far exceed the mild discomfort that an ill fitted bike or poorly chosen saddle would get me (my fit and saddle are great though tyvm) and so the bike truly does disappear from beneath me.

All I feel is the ache in my legs, the burn in my lungs, the thumping of my chest in my ears and a little voice somewhere deep inside that tries to convince me that maybe for once I should take it a bit easier. But I ignore all those things, push on harder, suffer more and am happier for it.

Carbonfiberboy 

I'm comfortable on any of my DF bikes. 400k in the mountains? No problem. The really weird thing about recumbents to me is that they look fast, they should be fast, yet even though I'm an old, slow geezer, I've never been passed by one while on one of my singles, on the flat, up hill, or descending. I usually go by them like they are standing still. Except for the special case of fully faired HPVs, though I've passed those by the side of the road on really long rides, never to be seen again, I think because of the lack of ventilation. They overheat, dehydrate, or something.

Now that I'm almost 70 and only ride tandem with my wife, we've been passed by a couple of 'bents, but passed more. I mean, really! 134 y.o., and a watts/kg of 1.54 and we go by them? I really, really don't get it.

On the first half of the recent one-day STP we were just barely passed by two 30-something athletic-looking men on (in?) a recumbent tandem trike. We could outclimb them, but they could outrun us on the flat. Like I said, really? We saw them stopped at the midway point but never saw them again, so maybe they were doing the two-day. They looked quite uncomfortable. The thing's frame had like no give in it so every little bump jarred them badly. Shaken baby syndrome. When we see a big hit coming, we just stand and don't feel a thing.

Did I mention that we're very comfortable?

streetstomper

I guess I can rest my case. Here came a couple of DF riders into the recumbent subforum not to discuss recumbents but to dismiss them. And to write up suffering as if that's something wonderful. Just like many Windows trolls visit Mac sites just to put down Macs. How defensive is that?

CharlyAlfaRomeo

If I'm one of the DF riders you're talking about I'd like to know where I dismissed recumbents?

Who's the troll?

streetstomper

You are. I think lowriders and chopper bikes are stupid, but you would never find me posting in that subforum. I just don't feel a need to go out of my way to put down those bikes and their owners. That subforum is for those interested in those bikes, not those who don't like them. Likewise, only those DF riders who have some kind of inferiority complex go into the recumbent subforum to say they don't need recumbents, recumbents are slow, recumbents look stupid, yadda yadda.

duopar

Yes, the fact that it's the perfect saddle must explain why absolutely everybody has one on their bikes. How much market share does Brooks have again?