Looking for a recumbent
 

Hi everyone. I would love to buy a recumbent as my next bike. Unfortunately I cannot find a decent bike shop that sells bents. I know of only one dealer nearby and all they have is Sun. If anyone here is from Northern Indiana (I'm not far from Notre Dame) knows of decent shops that sells recumbents please let me know. I'm at the point where I'm going to start asking around about Amish bike shops, since bents are very common with them.

I responded on BROL.....http://www.bentrideronline.com/messa...ear#post737301

Good Hunting!!

The image in my mind of the stereotypical 'bent rider is merging with that of the stereotypical Amish man (or woman). Interesting image!

Wish I could help with Indy 'bent shops but even the LBS where I bought two RANS bikes special-ordered those and seldom has more than a couple of 'bents on display in the shop - usually Sun bikes.

Valley Bikes, in Carmel, used to be the recumbent shop for the area. Don't know much about them, though.

Honestly, I recommend making a road trip to a recumbent specialist dealer.

Diamond frame riders talk about handling and ride differences among bikes with only slight geometry variations. Recumbents have gigantic design variations so I'd expect the differences in ride and handling to be much greater.

Then there are the practical considerations: How are you going to transport the recumbent with your car? Where and how are you going to store it? Do you do your own mechanical work?

A bike shop that specializes in recumbents will be able to help you work through which recumbent design will work best overall for you. A bike shop that has only a few recumbents as a side line will be less helpful.

Hey Retro, that's precisely what I'm trying to do. Test ride that is. I can both store and transport the LWB that I "think" I want. I'm just trying to find the closest places that I can to test ride....

Thanks to you and everyone else who responded.

Jerry

Hmmmmm. Even in bike country (Portland) bent dealers tend to be bent dealers and bike dealers tend to be bike dealers. I asked by LBS bike dealer why they didn't carry any bents and he said "congratulations, you are the 2nd person this year to ask me that" It was probably November when I asked so I got his point. I would LOVE to live in a city that has a "Utah Trikes" or "Hostel Shoppe". Not even Portland (TMK) has a dedicated trike shoppe. I have to think Chicago would have somewhere the o.p. could get to to do some test riding.

H

The key word is 'used to be'. I understand one of the principals operates a downsized Valley Bikes out of his residence on the West side of Indy. Contact info is on the website: http://www.valleybikes.com/contact.html