Carbon Fibre Recumbent
 

Please excuse me if I missed other threads but I went through a few pages of posts and didn't see anything on using carbon fibre for recumbent frames.

I'm seriously considering a recumbent and am doing my early research to get a handle on what I need to know and do in the selection/rejection process. The immediate thing that struck me was that recumbents seem to be very heavy. In the diamond frame world that is taken care of by and large by using carbon fibre.

Is carbon fibre used in recumbents? Which ones? If not, why not?

Please educate me as I start this project.

Bacchetta Carbon Aero 2.0 - 21 lbs
Velokraft NoCom - 24 lbs
Lightning R-84 Super Light - 18 lbs

There are others. These were just the first few I could think of.

I'd add Carbents and Velokraft.

My M5 Carbon Highracer is 23.5 pounds. I could probably drop another pound or two if I wanted to spend lots of money. The Carbent and the Bacchetta Carbon Aero 2 both weight less, but I don't believe they're any faster.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ics/M5High.jpg

Velokraft also makes the VK2, which I believe runs closer to 21 or 22 pounds.

Not to be impolite to the fine entity that is BF, but you shouldn't restrict your research to recumbent threads on BF. To be a more direct about it, there aren't many 'recumbent-based lifeforms' on this planet.

Thanks. Those are some weird looking machines. But, in a lot of ways that is good. :)

The info brings up another question. How does that work with your feet higher than your butt? I would think that would inevitably lead to poor circulation to the feet and decreased performance. The recumbents I've seen seem to have their front crank at or below the level of the rider's heart. Of course that is a limited sample.

Oh yes, not limiting my research to any site. I'm in the very early stages of information gathering. I've found that with a couple of notorious exceptions what I get here is pretty civilized and useful.

High BBs work well enough that nearly all of the highest performing bents have that feature.

Spend some time on bentrideronline.com (the forum), recumbents.com and recumbentjournal.com.

What the hell gave you that idea? :)

Another contender, especially if you like your butt above your feet: http://www.easyracers.com/crush.html

As far as I know, Calfee still makes their carbon fiber EasyRacers knock-off.

Moving along; today I had a person tell me that the primary problem with recumbents is that bumps will shake your teeth out as compared to a diamond frame bike. Really???

Wow! $6500! The bike looks good. The specs look good. I'd be willing to try something like that. But, isn't that a bit expensive?

Like a DF, it depends on the bike. Wide tires vs skinny tires. Suspension or not. Frame flex (recumbents are usually longer, therefore flex a bit more).

Is $6500 expensive for a well-equipped, well-made, carbon-fiber DF bike?

I don't have any carbon bikes, but I have looked at pricing.

Which bike? Which recumbent?

Gross generalizations are of little use. If you are seriously considering a recumbent your best move would be to get out and ride some.

No, not really. If all things about two bikes were somehow made 'equal' with the exception that one was an upright and one was a bent of some kind, then he is sorta right. Sorta. The main reason he is sorta right is that you can't use body english on a 'bent to unweight over bad bumps like you can on an upright. BUT, not everything else is, in fact, equal between uprights and bents. Frame geometry differences, use of supension, and tire widths commonly employed are some of the other very significant differences that do exist between the formats that can eliminate the whole unweighting 'issue'. That's my opinion anyway.

As to the matter of tire widths best used on 'bents, here read this:

http://www.bruceerdman.com/recumbent-infomation.html

Not every bent rider will agree with Zach, although I personally do.

Well I have two Lemond(Trek) carbon fibre bikes from the last year they were made. One is Shimano 105 level and the other is Ultegra level. I bought one new for $2K and the other one year old for $1K. They aren't custom bikes but they are full carbon and are dreams to ride.

I think the most expensive carbon fibre bike I've seen in the stores is about $6.5K. Custom is a Katy Bar The Door price.

This recumbent is custom so maybe that isn't out of line even though it certainly is out of my affordability range.

OK, that all makes sense.

As soon as I can I will ride a couple. For sure there has to be a technique involved in getting a recumbent with high BB moving after stopping going up a steep hill. I suspect it can be done, with practice. But then that is true of a lot of things.

I still find it a challenge to get going again after stopping on an uphill. I avoid stopping when climbing hills. I'm five plus years riding 'bents and the three I ride all have moderately high BB's.

I've been building and riding 'bents for 30 years. ('Way back when: http://home.comcast.net/~jeff_wills/aerocoupe/index.htm ) If you don't want to worry about stopping and starting on steep hills, get a recumbent trike. If you still want to go fast, get a velomobile, which is a trike with a complete hard shell. There's a group of them riding across the U.S. now: http://rolloveramerica.eu/ One of them reported these stats from yesterday:
152.9mi
9:14 riding time
avg 16.5mph
max 71.1mph
Trip total 791.5

FWIW: I've never had an issue starting on slopes up to 15% on my two-wheel recumbents. You have to be careful about gear selection, though.

When I rode a red, white, and blue 2001 Trek 1000, even thinking about a bump, I felt it.

True, you can't get off the saddle on a 'bent. OTOH, that only helps for the occasional pot hole, which I go around. For rough roads, the roadies don't stand up all the time; they sit and take it in their crotch. I'd rather have my whole body shook a bit instead of getting hammered in my groin every 25 feet, which is about the spacing for expansion joints around here. Rougher roads call for thicker seat pads, is all. My V-Rex has 3 inches of upholstery foam on the seat, and rough roads don't bother it a bit.

+1. And I have only been riding two-wheel recumbents for a couple of years now.

You can buy a Bacchetta CA2 frameset for $2400 (needs a $250-$450 seat and an uncut fork)
the Cervelo S5 is $3500? can't remember, but I lust. I lust! Although, the CA2 is quite likely closer to being in my stable than an upright. UUUUUGGG! too many bikes, not enough time. mmm a P4. mmm an Avatar. Mmm a Go One. Kinda want Tim to build me a tilting delta trike, too. stay on target.
Carbent frameset is $3700? or so, but comes with a fixed seat.

T

+1 If I can climb a hill I can start on that hill with no fuss. In fact, for me, the "no fuss" is essential. For me at least, tension in an enemy of a smooth start.

Back to the original question, let me just add this one:
http://www.zockra-factory.com/

french made beautiful carbon recumbents...