Hey! I was riding a ten speed in the US in the late '70s and I resemble that remark!

UCI is keeping me down by refusing to let me ride my recumbent in the TDF!

I remember reading a two paragraph article in the December 1979 issue of Bike World that announced Hinault won the Tour de France that year. I told my only bike riding buddy, who replied, 'What's the Tour de France?'

It was a different era.

Near here ther is a small velodrome and they sometimes have events which are not restricted to track bikes. My friend entered the time-trial type event with his recumbent and took second place in the 60-69 age group. I don't remember the distance but it was a lot of fun for him.

[QUOTE=rydabent;14721156]altamont

I am not a bent dealer. I am just older and wiser (74). As a life long engineer I had looked at bent ads off and on for years. I thot they looked really logical. Finally in 2005 I bought my first bent. After that my road bike and mountain bike hardly turned a wheel. I have since sold both. My only regret is that I didnt start riding bents 15 or 20 years earlier. And yes they are that good.


too bad you are so inflexible that it hurts you to ride a real bicycle. it doesn't hurt me. in fact, riding actually makes my bad SI joint feel better. guess its your way or the highway, huh? I will defer to your age and forgive your cranky inflexibility (both literally and figuratively)... do you know Mr Burns?

Darn trikes !!!!

A pic that I took in 2007:

altamont

I dont see how you can say I am inflexable. I only posted that I have found that bents are more logical, for me at least.

What did the high wheel riders say to the first person to show up at a group ride with a chain drive bike?
"Hi Fred."

What did the single speed riders say to the first guy to show up at a group ride with a derailleur to change gears?
"Hi Fred."

What do diamond frame riders say to anybody who shows up at a group ride with a recumbent bike?

WOW!!

That's a GREAT bike.

GET OFF MY LAWN!!!!!! crazy kids...

Maybe if you didn't go around calling people fools and stupid because they don't have the same experience that you had you wouldn't get those responses...just a thought.

I usually say "Good morning" or "Which ride are you doing?" or "Hi".
This morning there were 4 recumbents at our group ride, along with 25+ df bikes and one fixed gear. I told the fixed gear rider to go hang out with the recumbent riders because they are weird like him. This got a laugh out of everyone.
Later one of the 'bents was leading the group and he slowed a bit and someone yelled for the "lawn chair" to pick up the speed a bit. Only good natured kidding and they give it right back, too.

Go back and read what you posted. It's a recurring theme.

+1, You keep calling any DF rider a fool. Life long engineer here, too. Did a ton of research and rode recumbents to know what they offered. I have prosthetic devices in my back that keep me out of the type of seating on a recumbent. My DF provides me a lot of relief when I am hurting from the surgeries and injury. Don't lump us into one big pile, please. I have many friends with recumbents, one deceased now, but he was one of the first in our area back in the very early 80's. Rode his USS and it was okay, just not for me.

Bill

I haven't seen many bents in my area, but I did see one the other day...neat looking machine...oh, I said "Good morning."

To the point that it gets very old, very fast. If recumbents were for everyone, everyone would have one and cycling would be pretty dull. Who really cares what others ride as long as they're riding something. It's reality, get over it!

This post needs to die a natural, merciful death. I ride recumbents and even I am a bit tired of the attitude. Ride what you'd like, like what you ride, keep the rubber side down, and it's all good.

Actually with the majority of cyclist riding wanna be DF racers, cycling is boring. Check out all the different configurations of recumbents and recumbent trikes. Recumbent designers are not under some arbitrary "rules" so they can produce any type of design they want to. That my friends is freedom.

I've had a pretty good year on my recumbent. If I could ride a diamond-frame, I pretty certain I would say the same thing! I can't however but....

Life is still good - I ride a mf'n bike. (NSFW)

I'll be commuting on my SWB Volae recumbent on Friday, and on my Trek 820 in the rain on Saturday. I certainly hope I don't get into recumbent / upright bike arguement with myself .....I just couldn't deal with the stress at this point in my life.

If you had a sock puppet, you could do that right here on BF. Except that you could get banned and then how would you spend all the free time that will be coming your way soon........

You could look at it this way, when someone asks you if you're arguing with yourself again you can answer "yeah, but he started it!"

I don't think so. Compare a beach cruiser to a carbon fiber TT bike. I'd think the ride quality differences would be significant. I think that recumbent design is evolving more rapidly because it hasn't been idealized yet. I'd like riding my SWB even more if I could eliminate heel strike.