Originally Posted by
kingston
My understanding is that recumbents don't accelerate, handle or climb as well as bikes.
Last year during the Assenmacher 100 tour, I had some young kid running his suck saying the same thing. "It's just that recumbents are so slow, blah blah blah".
So, I gave the young buck a 1/8 mile lead on me. THEN DECIMATED HIM!!
It wasn't even close. I did see him make a futile attempt to keep up. But, that didn't last long at all.
Near the end, I found myself in a paceline of uprights. We made a left turn for the last 1/2 mile of the course. Everyone made a sprint for the finish. From the back of the paceline, I found myself passing the leader, to which he commented about being amazed at the acceleration of my lowracer.
Now, I'm not gonna poo poo the uprights. I own, love, and still ride my mine. I couldn't imagine taking my lowracer up Whiteface in NY or to Clingman's Dome in the Smokies. My uprights are my climbing bikes. Though, if I were descend with the lowracer from said routes, I'd easily be 3-5mph faster.
I also find my uprights to be easier for railtrails, where stopping/starting every mile is the norm. Easier to see over the grass at road crossings.