Carbon Unit

I was considering a Calfee Recumbant because the saddle on my bike was killing me. The lighest Calfee Recumbants are about 19 lbs which seemed light to me. However they are more expensive than an upright bike, are harder to transport and now that I finally found a saddle that works me, the need for a recumbant has passed.

Psimet2001 

Someday when you find that the topic of all of your coversations deals with things that you have passed and other bodily functions, you might feel the need to lay down while riding once again.

mattm

his doctor probably put him in that chair

unicyclemike

Flame on!

Psimet2001 

I didn't think people still used that. I haven't heard "flame on" since the old Compuserve days of playing that text RPG game they had while drinking crappy light beer and eating oreos.

unicyclemike

well at least I got the cheap beer right today...

SingleSpeeDemon

In my experience and style of riding, climbing is the only limiting factor--and merely for the fact that I cannot stand and pedal over steep climbs. However, if just spinning uphill, I noticed that I am more efficient on the recumbent and not all that slower.

Damn, now I want to get a 'bent again.

Retro Grouch 

That's leather, right? I'll bet it's a Brooks.

Might explain why he didn't have enough money left over to buy a full sized bike.

bbattle

This has been my experience. I've only seen one fast recumbent and he was doing laps on the greenway trail. Lot of guys ride recumbents because of back problems that keep them off a DF.

We have one recumbent rider that shows up on some group rides; he used to be a roadie but one of his arms got paralyzed when he was hit by a car so he now rides a trike recumbent that allows him to steer and brake with one hand.


I would like to see Boonen, Cavendish, McEwen, Bennati, Freire, etc. in a sprint finish all riding recumbents with fairings. Just once, then never again.

Imagine Contador climbing Galibier in a recumbent, slowly roasting inside the fairing as the sun beat down on him. Then he's zooming down the other side, will he be able to make that turn? What effect does a crosswind have on a recumbent fairing?

Bob Ross

I would buy a 'bent in a heartbeat if I had the room to store more bikes. And if I didn't have to carry my bike up several flights of stairs and/or around some narrow hairpin turns on a pedestrian access ramp just to get to any of the good riding in my area. I've seen plenty of lightweight 'bents, but never one that appeared remotely "nimble".

And I definitely agree with the observation that, while on paper 'bents might be faster, you almost never see a fast 'bent rider on the road.

Can anyone (I know, I should probably ask this question in the Recumbent forum to get a balanced perspective) explain why the inability to stand makes 'bents so slow for climbing? I thought the whole point of 'bents was that by being able to push agaisnt the seatback you eliminate the need to stand. Like doing leg-presses in the gym. Am I totally off base?

garysol1 

That is a pretty major factor ...except maybe in Florida and other pancake flat areas.

rsyb

Don't be too hard on us 'bent riders.

I was a DF rider all my life and enjoyed it thoroughly. But, age and disease caught up with me and my wife too. Around 35, I was diagnosed with Psoratic Arthritis. I could no longer spend hours in a road saddle as I used to. My wife developed Carpal Tunnel and her wrists no longer could bear her weight in any riding position with out severe pain.

Our recumbents have allowed us to continue pedaling around the countryside. We were never competitive, just enjoy the ride. Maybe the true difference isn't the configuration of the frame and components, but the heart and attitude of the rider.

Flame me if you will, but they sell them both in BIKE shops.

Doggus

You get a free pass.

It's the fools that troll White Rock Lake with a helmet cam showing they can smoke upper CAT riders (who are probably training zone 2) that we're after in here.

Who knows who I'm talking about?

kudude

+1

you seem like a decent guy. maybe it is the rider and not the bike? whodathunk?

merlinextraligh

+2. Anything that gets you out riding is a good thing.

chipcom 

Fixed

cod.peace

Let's look at the numbers...'bents make up what, maybe 1-3% of bike sales? Fast riders who want to ride with others (in a compatible fashion, i.e. ride pacelines etc) , race, do triathlons, etc all ride DF's because that's what everyone else rides, that what they owned as kids, and racing groups like UCI etc have rules to prohibit 'bents. There is also no $ in racing recumbents so the really fast riders have no incentive to be riding them.

Recumbent riders have a much shallower talent pool due to a smaller # of riders, and the fact that a lot of people come to 'bents due to various physical reasons that prevent them from being comfortable on ass hatchets. This means that there will be few really fast riders, so you are unlikely to encounter them on the road. Of course you will also see far greater numbers of really slow DF riders due to sheer numbers. I personally have some carpal tunnel and ulnar nerve issues that made a DF very uncomfortable when I briefly owned one over the summer. My V-Rex is so comfortable and fun to ride that I have no desire to return to DF riding. I am slow on my 'bent but I was slow on my Trek 520 too.

When you stand you're using your body weight and gravity to provide more torque to the crank. On the 'bent you're still limited by your muscles and gravity can't help. I also doubt that many cyclists spend time squatting and deadlifting to help develop a lot of leg strength for pushing against the seat. There may also be a social factor: everyone says 'bents are slow climbers, so 'bent riders tend not to develop their hill climbing ability.

rizz

Excellent. Riding is good.

Not around here but I've only been to maybe 15 or 20 locations. I suspect the reason is that y'all are terrible pace line partners. Raise that thing up in the air and block some more wind for us if you don't mind.

jccaclimber

Look up IHPRA. I compete in a couple of those per year as part of a project at school where we build one each year. It's not quite as much like a crit as there aren't really pelotons and the speed range tends to vary widely from a couple folks putting around at ~15mph to a couple guys whizzing by at ~40 mph during the hour races.

I've done a couple of those, and a couple road bike TT's. The main difference as far as I can tell is that the recumbent guys are a lot nicer to each other than the roadies. Sort of like wrestling in high school vs. rock climbing. In climbing we helped our competitors, in wrestling we tried to make sure our stuff didn't get stolen.

As for fast guys also on recumbents, Rob English seems reasonably quick on a mtb, and he's a nice guy as well.
https://rob.bikerevuk.com/racing/creampuff07.html.

brianappleby

You know what else can "smoke" roadies on flats. descents, and even (gasp) hills?

Me.

I pass guys on road bikes all the time. Do I get a prize?

chipcom 

I love these threads for sharpening my editing abilities.

chipcom 

it's not its own reward?

rsyb

Might be able to mount a rear spoiler on the seat. That should help the paceline!

BlazingPedals

I really hate it when this cr@p gets posted. There is no free lunch, and gravity does not 'help' get you up the hill. If you want to use your body's weight to push down on the pedals, you first have to lift your body's weight. It would be more accurate to say that standing uses different, and presumably fresher, muscles than the ones you just tired out by sprinting across the flats; and also that 'springing' up by using your achilles tendon and calf muscles is more biomechanically efficient than pushing the pedals through the dead spot at the top of the stroke using your quads and hams.

Now, back to the fun. Bring on the pics!

StephenH

Using bicycles with different gearing, different aerodynamics, different weights, etc., changes the dynamics of riding. One of the consequences is that two riders on different bikes that ride the same speed on flats won't necessarily ride the same speeds on up- or down-hills or in head/tail winds. Another way to look at this is that recumbents are not slower on the hills, they're faster on the flats.

Suppose you're on an upright bike and the other guy's on a recumbent, and you're riding at the same speed on the flats. Assuming his bike is more aerodynamic, he's putting out less power than you are. If both of you are riding at your maximum speed, then it means he's not able to put out as much power as you are. When you come to the hill, he doesn't have a gravity advantage like he has an aerodynamic advantage, so he falls behind. Or if he could put out as much power as you do, then he would have already passed you on the flats and you wouldn't be riding at the same speed to begin with.

I notice this on the Worksman bike in the avatar over there. On group rides (IE, charity rides), I'll pass people on hills and in headwinds. Does that mean industrial bikes are better on hills than road bikes? No, it just means I'm slower on the flats on that bike, so when i get to the hill, I'm riding with a bunch of slower people, and I can pass some of them on the hill. If I rode a faster bike, I'd go up the hill at more or less the same speed, but I'd be riding with a faster bunch of people to begin with, so I wouldn't be passing anyone.