Originally Posted by
Doohickie
I'll second the recommendation of Trinity. Great guys, real bike geeks. They're apparently great with wheel building from reports I've heard. I think they'll be selling CC's bikes on consignment, including the bents. I kind of hope they see the promise of the bent market and decide to sell them on their own. I get my generator lights from them. And Trinity is not too far from work for you... or have you retired?
Mike said he'd be working out of his garage once he gets set up there, probably in the spring. If you don't have his number but want it, let me know.
By the way... that route you showed me parallel to Westcreek is now my regular route.
I haven't retired. But that trip to Trinity is the opposite direction from home. Mike gave me his number already. I still take that route we rode going home, but now use the MUP across Westcreek Park, then Duringer Road, going to work.
The best comparisons I've seen between recumbents and road bikes have come from guys that own both, and have power meters on both. They always say that they can't generate as much power when they're reclined on the recumbent.
Recumbents do end up being slower going uphill, but faster on flats and downhills. Whether or not that ends up being faster overall for you depends on the ride. In hilly terrain, they don't usually gain enough on flats and downhills to make up for what they lose uphill, so on a very hilly ride, the road bike is likely to be faster. On the other hand, if it's a fairly flat ride, the recumbent will be faster.
As Hermes noticed, you can draft most of the dual big wheel recumbents, but not as well as an upright bike. And the longer length of recumbents makes it tougher to become good in a precision paceline, although there are a few recumbent riders around who are very good at it. For most though, if precision pacelining is your thing, a road bike is better choice.
Like they're fond of saying over on the Bacchetta forum, ride what you like!