Been reading all I can find on riding recumbents. Seems that starting and stopping are the hardest part. Would a set of training wheels from a little kids bike be of any help?

LOL, sometimes I think I should get some! Practice, practice, practice. And concentrate on losing the death grip. Once a day, when I get to a big hill, I put it in low low and try to get started while going up the hill. I'm getting better -- I can now start on about the 20th try. That's helped my starts on everything else, though -- they're now fairly straight.

I didn't think they made training wheels for bikes with 26" wheels. I assume you already ride some kind of bike? With my EZ Sport all I do put down my feet, while I'm still sitting. That bent has a 26" rear wheel. If you have a smaller rear wheel you shouldn't need training wheels. The only problem I would have starting out climbing up hill.

I just went for my first ride on a recumbent this afternoon. I am thinking of getting one, and a friend I ride with leant me his. I found an empty parking lot next to an outdoor running track at the local high school and spent an hour getting used to it. It was awkward at first--hard to balance, tipping easily to either side. It took several attempts to get going, and then it just happened. I was able to keep it going, and, by the end of the hour, I had some basic skill at manuvering it. My friend suggested a lawn, to minimize the impact of falling. But I didn't fall, and I am confident I can keep it up, at least in an open area without obstacles, until I am ready for the road.

I'd give it a whack and see what happens.

The way to learn balance on a bent is the same way you would on an upright, except you probably don't have to remove the pedals. The process is called 'draising,' (named after Baron Von Draise's pedal-less forerunner to the bicycle,) and it involves sitting on the bike and pushing with your feet. At first you walk it, and gradually progress to longer and longer strides. When you can push hard and sit back in the seat, coasting until you lose your speed, then you're ready for using the pedals.

I got a recumbent about 4 weeks ago. It took 15 minutes to get out of the driveway. At first I just sit on the bike with the feet on the pedals and keeping balance by taking hold of a bench in the garage. So I just sat to get a feel of it for at least 5 minutes. Then I pushed forward to exit the garage and get on the driveway.

Then I got off the bike and removed the car from the driveway ;-)

Going like this back and forth, from the garage to the edge of the sidewalk, only sliding, I finally started to crank the pedals and stopped after the sidewalk. Did that several times. Then I went past the sidewalk and onto the street while actually pedalling. I got to the corner and stopped and had no idea whatsoever how to get it going again.

I found out that by giving the first turns of the pedals not seated all the way back I can get it going easily. Actually now I can only give half a turn and then take a better position on the seat while the bike keeps going very slowly. It's amazing how slow you can get on such a bike without loosing balance. Quite the contrary of the first impressions I had when I tried it for the first times.

Unless you have physical impairement I do not think any type of 'training wheels' are needed. Only patience will do. And a quiet street.

Cheers.

You could always try a trike! No learning curve. Just need $$$$ to get a really good one.

Tale of three different 2-wheelers:
Some 2-wheeled recumbents are harder to learn on than others. My first, a horribly heavy and inefficient BikeE AT, is the perfect recumbent to get somebody hooked on recumbents but is not what I consider a bike for a serious rider. I let dozens of people have a try until the SACHS 3-speed hub gave out. Nobody ever fell off it even on the first try. It simply wasn't worth the cost to replace the hub or rear wheel. Once I moved on to a better bike I never again rode it myself. My old LWB Linear is just a little harder to ride. It has a low BB and easy reach to the ground from the seat. Most people are a bit wobbly at first but soon take to the bike. A couple minutes is all it takes. Not so with my Haluzak Horizon SWB. It suffers from heel strike and a bit higher seat though the BB is still low. I love riding it but it certainly isn't the easiest bike for a novice to try out. Talk about wobbly for a new rider!

Draising sounds great, I didn't know it had a name! Do that.

No to the wheels, unless you're on a trike you need to lean that thing over to make the turn anyhow.

Use your initial death grip to hold the brakes about half on so you can use a very high pedaling effort (which will make you feel better) while keeping your speed low (so you can stop when you jam upright and stick your feet down in a panic).

Use a parking lot or cul-de-sac and practice figure-8s in both directions until you feel comfortable. Reduce the size of the 8 as you can confidence. Slower is harder, once you're nice and slow, then let off the brakes and try to relax and go slowly.

After that, it's going to take about 100 miles before you really relax and ride without stress. Start taking some easy 10-15 mile rides.

i heard it called fred flinstoning

mm

Dunno how you'd attach training wheels to an adult bike.
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What I'd suggest is finding somewhere that's a slight incline, so you can start off by rolling downhill.
The faster you roll the easier it is to balance but from what I have seen of friends trying mine, most people have problems getting enough speed because they want to dangle one foot in case they start to fall over.
~

I thought about training wheels too! However, the anticipation turned out to be lots worse than the actuality! I thought my first recumbent experiences a year ago might ease your mental burden a bit.

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09-13-2006, 11:19 AM

My new(used) Linear MachIII

My new (used) Linear MachIII arrived a few days ago, have been having a blast riding it, and I must say it was really easy to get the hang of it. I spent the first hour or so in a big parking lot practicing starting/stopping with both feet, uphill and down. I've been riding every day since Sunday morning, until my legs let me know they've had enough for the day. Other than being a little more tired, nothing is protesting too much to the new kinaesthetic of linear riding. The MachIII is really a nice light bike. It accelerates very quickly, banks and slaloms in a most satisfying manner. At times I feel like I ought to be buckling my seatbelt.

I experienced my first Arty Johnson this morning while making a slow, tight turn on wet grass. I didn't realize the dew was so heavy! Front wheel just slid out.

It took me about 10 minutes to get my feet onto the pedals the first day and then about half an hour to get comfortable starting and stopping. Already, after only about 8 hours of riding I am very comfortable with manouvering, getting started from a standstill both up and down slope. Steering and balance are very sensitive and responsive. The bike is quite stable even at very slow speed, like a walking pace.

The brakes aren't the best, but they do stop the bike eventually. Also, the chainline is not optimal and I'm going to get an idler and get rid of the plastic tube, probably put a guard around the chainring and upper half of the top chain.

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11-11-2006, 11:23 AM

Starting/stopping

As I mentioned then, it didn't take very long to get the hang of starting and stopping, just doing it again and again in the relative safety of a nearby parking lot. I attribute this probably to the relatively low bottom bracket of the Mach III. In fact, I had first tried to push myself around by my feet, picking them up to coast a bit. But I found that the low seat position made this difficult to do and I was wobbling all over the place. I figured I needed a little more speed to balance the bike. So after about 5-10 minutes of flopping around, I just rolled a little, picked up my feet and started pedaling. That was all it took! I was riding smoothly and stably from then on. I cruised around the parking lot for nearly half an hour without stopping, just getting comfortable with steering and shifting. I've discovered since that the bike is very stable at low speeds. I can move along through a mixed use trail at a slow walking speed without wobbling.

Then I spent about half an hour practising stopping and starting. Contrary to what others have recommended, I looked at my feet when starting. This did not cause me any problems. Maybe it's a peripheral vision issue, I can see the road ahead even while looking at my foot. Also, I began positioning my starting pedal just shy of TDC, rather than just past as others have recommended. It gives another 3-4 inches of thrust which combined with a low gear enables the bike to roll far enough to get the other foot up and begin pedaling.

The next real challenge, which I am dealing with now, is learning to use my Powergrips. They came with the bike and I figured I might as well use them to learn the "push/pull" of pedaling before spending more money on "clipless" pedals and shoes. When starting, I get one foot or the other into the stirrup and positioned just shy of TDC. I get rolling and usually start pedaling without getting the second foot into the stirrup until after a few strokes and I'm moving along comfortably. The reason for this is that I am finding it rather difficult to get the second foot into the stirrup. This because the stirrup is hanging down from the underside of the pedal and I have to rotate the pedal to get the stirrup into postion to insert my foot. Sometimes this requires repeated tries until I get the foot into it. And, yes, I have to look at the second foot to get it into the stirrup. This sometimes causes instability if I let bike speed decrease too much. Once I've got both feet in the stirrups I'm good to go. I have to say, however awkward it has been to get that second foot into the Powergrip stirrup, it's getting easier and more natural to recover from a failed attempt and just pedal a time or two more before trying again. Yes, I've experienced my first flop caused by not getting a foot out of the stirrup in time for a stop! I just wasn't expecting to have to stop and simply waited too long.

I'd guess I have 50-60 hours and 500-600 miles on the bike so far. Aside from the few design problems associated with the drive train which I mentioned in my original post I've been enjoying the bike immensely and find it a very nice bike to ride. I'm a bit large for the bike and consequently had to position the seat almost all the way back, so most of my weight is on the rear wheel. One consequence of this has been repeated flats. I've just replaced the original Primo Comet with a Primo Comet Kevlar in the hopes the kevlar makes for a tougher tire. I understand that Schwalbe is coming out with a new tire with some super tough fiber in Jan or Feb of 2007 and I will probably go with that if the Comet Kevlar doesn't hold up better than the plain Comet.

One final thing. The bike has USS which at first I thought might be a problem getting used to, but that was not the case at all. It already seems like the most natural place to put my hands on the bars and I can't imagine going back to either the "chipmunk" or "superman" position for OSS. I also find the handlebars positioned well to lift my weight off the seat when going over a bump or when I just need to get the weight off my butt for a second.

Michael

FWIW, before I bought the Mach III I had riden a Sun EZ1 for about half an hour over at Cambie Cycles here in Vancouver back in June. Prior to that I had not ridden any bicycle for at least the past 5 years. Although in previous years I had ridden a DF extensively, I stilll have one hanging in the bicycle room of my apartment building. I'm 61.

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I've been riding my linear for the better part of a year now and loving every minute of it. It was the best investment in fitness I've ever made. Go for it! You won't regret it.

Michael

Training wheels would be great for learning how to ride with training wheels.

My very 1st experience with a recumbent was on a Easy Racers (now Sun) EZ Sport some 5 years ago. At the time I was 55 and had not been on any kind of bike in more than 15 years. I sat on the Sport, relaxed, and pushed off on my stronger foot. I wobbled for about 20 ft and settled in, having a blast for there on. If you've never been on a bent and are looking for that 1st time ride, I strongly suggest you find a Sun dealer and try out a EZ-1 or a Sport. The low bottom bracket makes it really easy to quickly get used to the new style of riding. And you won't need training wheels! After the initial few rides, you may want to try a more agressive style of bike with a higher bottom bracket.

Same question years later; Sun EZ, which I "inherited" from younger family members (I'm mid-60s) in hopes I can ride without exacerbating carpal tunnel. All fine except starting uphill. That's where I'd like retractable training wheels -- or even an easily retractable pair of skids, props like kickstands. Streets are too narrow for the "start downhill and U-turn" and I haven't found an electric boost that would be good for the three or four seconds I need to get the thing moving.

No problem spinning fast in lowest gear to keep moving uphill -- once I'm moving fast enough even up a moderate hill I'd have the half second I'd need to 'retract' an outrigger of some kind.

Yeah, I know, get a trike. Or move to less hilly neighborhoods.

Just surprised there's no solution to this, and I haven't even come across anyone who describes trying to make it work -- just people saying why it won't or can't or needn't work.

Starting uphill is a LOT easier with clipless pedals. Put the bike into a low gear and pedal one footed until you have enough speed to lift the other foot.

Oh lord, after bicycling for more than 50 years using toe clips ...

PS, I did find a thread from someone who has built the sort of thing I imagined, once I searched for likely typos(!) instead of exact spellings:

This thread:
https://www.bikeforums.net/recumbent/10265-lading-gear-recumbant.html

led me to this discussion with illustrations:
https://www.wisil.recumbents.com/wisi...andinggear.htm

Old thread! I've plopped dozens of test riders onto my V-Rex, most with no recumbent experience. Only one couldn't figure it out in about 30 seconds and go off doing circles in the parking lot. You don't even need to draise/flintstone. It helps to put the seat as upright as you can make it. Also, models with low pedal positions work best. Highracers and lowracers are the toughest to learn.

1. Put pedal of dominant foot at 12:00
2. apply brakes and put dominant foot up on pedal.
3. take deep breath and let it out, relaxing your upper body as you do.
4. simultaneously take your hands off the brakes and push hard with the dominant foot.
5. keep relaxing the upper body! Don't push on the handlebars to steer, instead let the weight of your hands hanging there gently pull them back.

Ankh, the landing gear you're looking at on the WISL site is meant for 2-wheeled streamliners. Streamliner pilots have no way to put a foot down when they stop. The landing gear isn't meant to be training wheels, it's strictly for stopping and it goes up once they get rolling. And, it's used by some very experienced 'bent riders.

The term, 'training wheels' is an oxymoron. They don't train you; in fact they actually impede the learning process.

Amen.