Leisesturm

The reason I wrote that post you are responding to had nothing to do with your post in this thread. It should be clear to which thread I was responding, and if you believe that I have to accept sarcasm or snark as the price of soliciting information in open forum... well I don't agree. But, to your advice and your opinions: I have owned the recumbent for some months. I could find the invoice and tell you exactly, but sometime around late August, early September should be about right. I could not even ride it for the first two weeks. Then I could coast down an incline and finally I could steer and get underway from a standing start on even a moderate incline.

I do in fact practice in a parking lot and over the months have met a variety of security personnel, most of whom ignore or provide active encouragement for my efforts but also a couple who threaten me with trespassing summons and in any case cut my practice session short. I always arrive at the lot at daybreak, and usually leave an hour later or when the barricades to allow vehicles to enter the lot go down. Clearly I am wearing out my welcome in any case and I am far from ready to mix it up with motor traffic.

Re: tire pressure. I am running the tires at 60psi. 20psi below max inflation. I was doing this for ride quality purposes. I don't dare go any lower. If anything I think going higher would make the front tire more stable and provide more secure handling. I would probably need a bigger section tire if I were going to lower the pressure any further and a new tire (pair?) and a steering damper look to be about the same in price. And with tires taken out of the handling equation, in the future even tires like I use on other bikes (Schwalbe Marathon) with even higher max inflation (100psi) become realistic as I also plan to use elastomer mounts for the hardshell seat to provide the shock absorbing vs lowering tire pressure and risking pinch flats once out on the road.