megaman

Oops. Missed that post. See I'm not the only tadpole person here.

Tom Bombadil

When I rode the Cannon Valley Trail, MN, last weekend, I passed five recumbents. Four ridden by men who looked to be 50+ and one woman who looked like she was in her 30s.

Dogbait

I bought a RANS F5 Enduro this summer. I try to get in a ride or two in between hospital stays. I have only logged 310 miles since June 21st.

Tom Bombadil

So where are you doing all of that riding around Tomah?

deraltekluge

Sun EZ-3 AX

Sandwarrior

I have a Bacchetta Agio. I have a rack on it, my backpack mounted behind the seat, paniers, a lighting system, Astral 8 Cateye computer. I have just over 4000 miles on it since April of last year (2006 = 1162.8, 2007 = 2843.4)

bentnail

I've owned 3 recumbents. The first was a trike (Scarb trike) the second was a LWB Tour Easy which I put on 6000 miles, and now own a SWB Barcroft Dakota which I've had a little over a year.

SabreMan

I have a Burley Koosah and a TET tandem trike for which my wife, Joanne, acts as stoker. I am too embarrassed to put how many (few!) miles we have done compared to some of you guys.

Glenn in Omaha

Jerry F

Age 60. Got EZ Racer GRR in late June. Have put a little over 1K miles on it so far and lovin' it.

Leigh_caines

I'm not a bike nut as I only have 3 recumbents and 5 other bikes.
Put 6000ks on the recumbents in the last year.
2 homemades and a Speedster Sun AX....
Spend more time on the short folding home made... this is the one that fits me best but the Limo Long is fun as well.
When I'm old [only 61 as yet] I might even go for 3 wheels but that is a long way off

FlyingAnchor

Bacchetta Agio in blue going on a cross country tour in 08, really wanting a tadpole soon though. Steven

John Lewis

I have Logo trike, Home built Bentech SWB and a Toureasy clone LWB. Wife has a Logo trike.

I've built 6 all up for self and friends

I'll post some pictures when I find out how

oilman_15106

Decent article in Forbes about bents and went to Bentrider.com to check it out. Found the MetaBike link and a bent I might like. Anyone comment on a bent with 700c wheels? https://www.meta-bikes.com/

Bud Bent

Wish I could make it up to your neck of the woods in a couple of weeks for the hpv event. It looks like fun.

Bud Bent

Wheel size discussions are known to fuel many arguments among recumbent devotees. Here's my take: On a bike where speed isn't a priority, small wheels are fine, as long as you run wide tires. On a road bike where you would like to be able to maintain good speed, bigger is better. Skinny small tires just ride too rough (especially on the too frequent Texas chip seal roads I find myself riding) and holes or cracks in the road represent a greater danger to a small wheeled bike with skinny tires.

That's why my two main bikes are dual big wheel bikes (650c x 650c on the Corsa, 700c x 700c on the Nimbus). There are a limited number of recumbent designs that can be done with dual big wheels (lowracers pretty much have to have small front wheels, as do bents with lower bottom brackets). A highracer like the MetaBike design is one that works with dual big wheels. The only thing I didn't find on the MetaBike site that I wanted to know about their bike is the wheelbase. In my experience, too short a wheelbase on a highracer makes it too twitchy. Something on the order of a 45 to 47 inch wheelbase, like the Bacchettas have, makes a much more stable highracer, I think.

I have probably started several arguments with these remarks, but there's my .02.

Trsnrtr

From today's foo-foo coffee shop ride - Recumbent OCP

Trsnrtr

With all due respect, there must be some pretty crappy seal coat roads in Texas. I've ridden thousands and thousands of miles each on dual 650 bents (Volae Team and Bacchetta Aero) and on 650x406 bents (Fujin and Baron) and on a 700x406 bent (VK2) and the dual big wheel argument doesn't hold water when it comes to speed on chip seal. Then again, I've never seen your roads...

I'll agree to riding bents any day over uprights, though...

eldenh

Bachetta Agio for dry conditions and a Leitra for wet weather.

Bud Bent

We'll agree to disagree on that one, then. Your comparison is apples to oranges, btw. Lowracers tend to be faster than high racers, except when rough roads even them up. Take bikes of equal speed, then look at what happens to the ones with small front wheels on rough roads.

Trsnrtr

Fair enough.

Bud Bent

I wouldn't want anyone to think I'm badmouthing lowracers, though. In fact, when you decide you can't stand that Fujin any more, please make me a deal on it. Lots of folks brag about that bike's ride, aikigreg is trying to get hpv racing started around here on a track, and I bet I could find a few roads to ride it on, too. I doubt that I'd ever keep up with his TiCa on it, but I'd have fun trying.

Dchiefransom

2007 Stratus Le, although the rear derailer has been replaced with the top of the line SRAM X9.

Tom Bombadil

Smart move. When I looked at one of these last year, I was very surprised by RANS putting the low end SRAM 3.0 on a $1200 bike. That's not even a good derailleur for a $300 hybrid.

I love the X.9 on my bent. Very precise shifter.

Dchiefransom

Actually, I was downshifting to the big cog coming up to a red light, and the chain dropped off between the cassette and spokes. The spokes grabbed the chain and dragged it down around the hub until there was no more chain to pull. It ripped the wheel out of the dropouts, jammed the derailer hanger into the cassette, and bent the upper half of the idler bracket. It cost less to fix everything than the shop and I thought, so instead of waiting on an X7 to come in, they had an X9 in stock.

Rans spec'd the Stratus with better parts, but that cost $1,700, so they put on less expensive parts and sold the LE for $1,295.

springnr

Burley Koosah
K2 Big Easy Deuce