DropDeadFred

dude showed up on his recumbent on a group ride...and I've seen him on other group rides since with it.....you can't pull off him and he just seems like the mouse around an elephant, people are just skiddish around him. Not to mention the fact that when we got to the turn around point (top of a water tower hill) he bragged his "fast bike" and how we should see him on it...as if we were impressed that he kept up with us on something that has a fraction of the drag resistance we have.

should he be showing up to the group rides on this thing...or should he go bike with the other recumbent owners?


just thought I'd take some of the heat of the Tri guys

datlas 

If your rides are "social," live and let live.

If your rides are fast and/or for training, he doesn't belong.

I do club rides all the time and have yet to have a recumbent rider show up.

DropDeadFred

i guess our tuesday ride is social but theres the obvious split after the first mile...we ride together then the faster group takes off and rides much further than the rest but we all end around the same time. He definitely shot off well ahead of everybody else on the ride. I don't hate the guy or anything...the damn thing just kind of scares me around a pace line

banerjek

Rules are the same with 'bents as with DF -- set your distance based on what you know. Most recreational cyclists ride like idiots in a paceline. Bad riders cause trouble regardless of what they ride, and good riders stay out of it.

pallen

Does he keep up? Why does he scare you in a pace line?

DScott

Just drop him, then.

pmt

It *really* depends on the rider. There are recumbent folks that show up to the group rides in St Pete that are extremely experienced, have done a bunch of brevets and 24-hour rides, and can easily handle the pacelines.

At one point a couple months ago, a traffic light split the group (about forty riders) and the people that made it through didn't wait; usually they do. I was caught out in the back group, and heard a couple guys saying "I'm not going to try to chase up to that" and such. Well, my friend John pulls out on his Bachetta recumbent and tells me to jump on. I got as low as I possibly could, and he easily dragged me right up to the front group. Sure was glad he was there!

FactVord

Shouldn't be too hard. I've never seen a recumbent go faster than 21mph with tailwind.

jrobe

I remember a local, fairly casual race last year where a guy shows up on a recumbent bike with a covered shell over the top of it. The guy then butted in at the front of the starting line to everyone's dismay.

When the starting gun went off, he was immediately dropped by about 300 people including quite a few grandmothers on city bikes. Everyone is still laughing about that.

DropDeadFred

scary because if Im behind him and he brakes or moves for some obstruction I would have to swerve further out than i would for somebody that takes up 1/3 of the space one of those does.

He seemed to keep up pretty well...I have no doubt the guy is in good shape and a good rider...It was just my first experience being near one while riding...i've passed a few before going the opposite direction but never ridden with one.

EdIsMe

There's a guy that rides a Buschetta(sp?) that comes on our rides on Wednesdays sometimes. I've never had a problem with him in the paceline at all... and the bike isn't too short to pull off of. I'm sure if I was a 3rd person looking in, he may look a little out of place, but other than that he's just another nice rider looking for company.

I wouldn't overthink it too much, unless the guy riding is just an ass. The bike/sport doesn't make the person... it's the other way around.

FLvector

Sounds like this is your problem, not his. I've ridden with a few recumbents, some very strong riders and never felt uncomfortable. And yes, you do get a draft off of them.

Why all the whining?

big john

We have them in our club and they do lots of group rides, never a problem. It's the skill of the pilot, not the machine.

hhnngg1

Yes, it's true that in general, recumbent riders aren't competitive cyclists, so they SEEM slower on average. Same with tandems.

But don't let that fool you. Here in NorCal, there are a few ex-competitive cyclists who dabble from time to time on recumbents as well as tandems. I'd never cycled with a fast one until this year (never actually got to ride with one , ever, until moving here) and have a newfound respect for both.

As you all know, the recumbent and the tandem both have superior aerodynamics compared to a single road cyclist. (The tandem gets the power of 2 for the aero of 1.) Hence, the super-fast flat speeds.

On a fast ride about 2 months ago, I drafted a recumbent on a flat road for nearly 8 miles, after we'd dropped the rest of the group we started with (they caught up later when we started hitting traffic lights.) Average speed on a true flat was 25-26mph, with one traffic light stop. I nearly died with the effort, and was in full drops, and rode <8 inches off the recumbent's wheel just to stay on. I ducked my head so low it was basically touching the bars to get max aero. After the last turn into slower community roads, he just smiled and said that's a pretty typical hard pace for him on a flat. He also did really well on a super steep climb - right behind me the whole way, to my horror. Those things are legit.

The tandems are even worse. They invariably lead the fast groups around here when they show up, and I think the last two I chased had a male/female combo on them (in racing club kit) with a typical speed of 27-28mph on the flat. Again, took a draftline of 4 guys and all out effort to even hang with them.

Don't be discriminatory - if the rider's all over the place, exercise caution. But just because they're on a recumbent doesn't mean they're not good riders, and if they know what they're doing, they can really bring the hurt on the flats. I also doubt they take up significantly more room than a typical rider.

DropDeadFred

nobody is whining. I just said I feel uncomfortable around it. Yes it's my problem I guess, but it was obvious that others felt the same way. his sits VERY low...I'm not understand how I can draft off of something that is knee high....

justin70

The comments saying you can draft behind a recumbent cannot be made as blanket statements of fact. If the guy has a low recumbent you're not going to get much benefit from drafting.

AdelaaR

Recumbents are more difficult to handle ... this is a solid fact and based on simple physics.
On top of that they have less outlook on what is happening around them.
If I would be riding in a paceline I would refuse to ride with those things, for safety's sake.

AdelaaR

Of course the machine is different and so it has different handling possibilities.
Can a recumbent be thrown sideways as hard and as fast as a normal bicycle? No it can not.
Can a recumbent be jumped over possible extreme potholes? No it can not.
Is the turning circle of a recumbent as small as that of normal bikes? no it is not.
I do not understand why your club allows these things ... I do not have anything against recumbents but they shouldn't be allowed in the middle of other cyclists at high speeds.

gcottay

It doesn't take long for an experienced group to decide if a particular rider and bike belong. Everything else is just silly posturing from the always awkward position of ignorance.

Some recumbents are so low they won't fit well in a typical paceline. Others are plenty high enough to provide their share of pull. Some recumbent riders, like all riders, are lacking in paceline skills. Others mesh seamlessly.

As with most things in life the proof or lack of it is found in performance.

AngrySaki

I think some clubs allow them for same reason most clubs don't require everybody to ride a full suspension mountain bike (which is likely superior in all the points you brought up). With a competent rider, they might not be the safest possible bicycle, but they're safe enough.

DropDeadFred

this guy was really low...the distraction of the thing itself in front of you and throwing off my normal field of view is what made me uncomfortable.

Velo Vol 

Invite banerjek.

banerjek

You mean you get confused by actually being able to see a little bit ahead instead of having a view of nothing but ass?

DropDeadFred

yes...

but seriously...when in a paceline I tend to focus around the riders back...so I can see ahead as well as down...with the recumbent im looking more towards the ground THAT is what throws me off...my focus is somewhere I'm not USED to looking therefore throwing off something that has become natural to me.

Like I said...I'm not hating, just wondering how others feel about this and simply expressing how I was affected by it. I have nothing against other types of cyclists, on a social ride I get that there will be the roadies and the cruisers etc. but this guy put himself in the group with the roadies. My thought was maybe that wasn't the best place for him to be.

banerjek

Would you actually try to throw a regular bike sideways hard, jump, or make a sudden tight turn at high speeds -- especially when close to others?