As many of you know from my previous postings. I recently purchased an Allegro recumbent here in China. I have already written about my impressions and riding. I have well over a thousand Km on it now and it is still satisfactory. Is it the best recumbent I have ever ridden? No. Does it seem to be a good value, considering all? Yes.

This is not about the bent directly. It is about the manufacturer. Be aware, this in not any form of spam, I have no interest in this manufacturer other than that I have purchased on of his bikes. That being said, I can probably get you more, business related, details if asked (I mention this because the information I eventually got was not easily obtained).

I was in Shanghai earlier this week and I had a morning free; so, I took a cab to see where it is “made.” It was a rather long trip to a distant suburb of Shanghai. I also phoned in advance to insure that someone would be there (be aware Liang Sheng 梁胜, the owner, does not speak English). While it turned out that they were not, they arrived shortly after I did.


The shop, the suspension bent in the back is an older model


He showed me some of his new ideas and we discussed the Allegro recumbent. In the discussion I directly asked him about a comment made on a forum upon seeing one of my pictures. I asked him if it was based on the Taiwanese Performer product. He said it is not and stated that he uses a larger tubing diameter than Performer. He stated that his design is based in some of the European models instead.

The frames are not made in his shop; in fact, none of the parts are. He develops and submits a design to contract manufacturers and then performs assembly in his shop.


Frame tubes

He went on to show me a new chain-line that he is starting to work with that goes away from using any chain tube. As you can see, he does this by adding a new idler. It is clear that this is part of a longer term plan because the mount point for the idler is in the existing models. In fact, he offered to update my bent if I bring it by his shop (not an unrealistic idea, I live 198Km from his shop).



The new chainline; also, you can clearly see that these guys ride their bents

I also commented on the seat being one of the heaviest parts on the bent. He showed me a new Carbon Fiber seat that is almost ready for production. Unfortunately the sub-manufacturer got some dimensions wrong so the CF seat is not ready; but it is coming. I was also shown a new “cool” seat pad for summer riding. It looks a lot better than the camping mat foam that the current seat pad is made from and will certainly be cooler.


The new CF seat, I didn't get a picture of the new seat pad

I was also shown a new bike that is almost ready. As you can see, it is a bit more of a low racer, having a smaller wheel on the rear as well as the front. This new model further reduces weight by using a CF front fork.



The new model

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CF fork for the new model

In all, it was a good visit. It really is a small shop operation; but everyone was nice and I am definitely glad I went.



Me and my Allegro on a 110km ride last week, the usual, recumbent, pain free riding; but, the heat was brutal