Originally Posted by
Hermes
Great report, pics and ride.
How is it drafting other technology? It strikes me that the lower profile of the bent puts your body position lower than upright bikes or tandems.
Recumbent drafting is a whole thread itself. It's harder to draft on a recumbent, but because of its aerodynamics, you don't need to draft as much. Riding in a really fast paceline is tough, because a recumbent is a longer, heavier bike, making the precision adjustments required, tougher. There are a few recumbent riders who do it really well, but I can't claim to be one of them.
A recumbent's speed profile doesn't match uprights either (faster on flats and downhills, slower on uphills), so you end up riding the brakes down a hill, and blowing yourself up uphill, to stay in a paceline. You don't leave a very good draft behind you, either. For that reason, I usually ride off the back of a paceline, and move back to let anyone else in who wants in. Of course that last rider is the first one dropped, so I'm all too often having to bridge back up to the paceline. Since a recumbent's speed profile matches tandems closer, they're always the top choice to ride behind.
All that is why several of us in the rbent forum talked about doing a recumbent paceline, and four rbent riders did. If they hadn't been at too fast a pace for me early, I would have joined them. As it turned out, they slowed after their first stop at mile 30, and ended up with an average just barely faster than mine, so I wish I had made that stop and joined them. Maybe next year...