> Spinnaker's 390 mile GAP/C & O

Is this a supported tour? What are the daily mileages and expected pace? I presume if it is canal path, the climbs will be moderate. What is your current cycling experience and fitness?

Sometimes people with the most biking experience find adjusting to riding a recumbent more difficult than more casual riders. Some of this is expectations.

There are several issues regarding recumbent acclimation:

0) bike selection and adjustment (leg extension, handlebar reach, seat recline)
1) different muscles (more quadricepts)
2) different technique (spin, faster cadence helps)
3) handling (knowing how the bike reacts to steering input and road surfaces)
4) confidence (relaxed comfort on the bike)

It's tough to generalize, but I think if you feel confident that you could make this ride on an upright, your should be able to prepare for riding it on a recumbent in the time frame you mention.

Good luck,

Jon

Most 'bents should work fine for you. A Gold Rush, for instance, doesn't care whether you are sitting straight on the seat. You can pedal slightly off to one side or the other. On any 'bent you should check to see how much interference there is between your lower leg (between your knee and ankle) when the chain is on the big ring. Anyone who has track sprinters legs or toe-out (knee-in) is going to get black marks on the inside of their right leg where the chain passes by but you don't want the chain actually wearing through your leg like the Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

The best way to prevent wonky cycling on tours is to go lightweight. It's fatigue that leads to ungraceful cycling and the lighter your gear is the less likely you will become fatigued. I would forget trailers and any heavy gear and go with, for instance, a Ti Rush with a steel fork and the EX gearing and comfortable puffy tires like Marathon Racers which are a bit slow but cause less vibration fatigue on rough surfaces. Ti also absorbs high frequency vibration.

Re: scoliosis - some of the laid-back 'bent seats will want to straighten your spine. Make sure you try the seat first to satisfy yourself that it offers enough sideways freedom to get into positions that suit you comfortably.

Thanks. I know being seated for long periods of time is supposed to be a no-no with scoliosis, but it's never been a problem with me.

+1 for the SMGTe, I've ridden mine several thousand commuting & touring km. You sort of float along in an almost regal position. Have ridden is all sorts of road and trail surfaces with great success, have 47 mm Marathon tires on it; however it is not great on icy roads. Suggest disc brakes and the XT MTB gearing combination or Rohloff. Also suggest stiffer springs if you and your load are over 100 kg. Shorter cranks are a good option also. The combination of seat, handelbar and boom adjustment is quite adaptive and flexible; just takes a while to get it just right. I've carried 20-25 kg on the bike with no problems, it
handles and balances with weight well.

It's primarily 2 track on the C&O, which is half the trip Some areas will beat you up on a MTB, some are like riding on packed ground. 25 miles can be detoured onto a 25mi flat rail trail if desired (WMRT) Mud, rocks, tree roots not uncommon. Tour's scheduled early enough in the wear that you'll be dealing with what the vagaries of the winter bring.

Most generally accepted "perfect" bike is a cyclocross or hardtail MTB. Of course, like anything, there are those that will ride it on a road bike and 23's and scoff, just as there that will whine the whole way on a FS MTB that it's too rough. Reality is somewhere in between.

I'm not saying that a 'bent can't be ridden on it. It's just that it's the exception rather than the rule. That may be the riders that ride them, it may be the condition of the trail. It may be a combination of the both. I rode the GAP/C&O in April 2008, the GAP was soft and wet and a PITA to ride and the C&O was a mud pit. But in looking at Historian's post, he says he's not a strong rider on a regular bike, and has medical issues. I personally think that buying a 'bent in the early part of the year and expecting to be ready for a tour on what could potentially be a messy trail is a bit aggressive. I hope he can, I hope he's happy, and I wish him well. There are times I'm wrong and I'm hoping this will be one of them!

-R

Jonmein:

I was averaging about 65 miles/day until I got to the hills. Keep in mind there were hilly portions along the entire 1400 miles, but in Texas the hills became relentless and afforded no breaks or opportunities to recover. It was up (and down) one hill right after another. My mileage dwindled to about 40 miles/day.

I've ridden the C & O twice, once partially until I fractured a rib on a crash about two miles north of Cumberland, and the second time completely. I agree I'm not a strong rider. Just a determined one.

I almost gave up touring because of the discomfort I was experiencing on a tour I did on a DF 2 years ago after 40 years of racing, touring, mountain biking. I fell in love with trikes on my first ride and bought 2, a Trice T and a Catrike road specifically to see which one would work best for loaded long distance touring. After riding both for several hundred miles, I sold the Catrike even though it was faster and more fun to ride than the Trice, it is not nearly as good a touring machine IMO, and the 1200 mile tour I did this summer proved this out. The Catrike is a very stiff aluminum, unsuspended frame and very unforgiving on all but the smoothest pavement, and is very limited in rack space for panniers and I did not want to take my Burley nomad on the tour I was doing. The Trice floats over rough surfaces with ease, rides over curbs and down stairs with aplomb, and will handle not too narrow or technical mtb trails surprisingly well, but still have a couple of problems inherent with trikes.

The tour I did this last summer was from St. Augustine to Pittsburg following the ACA Atlantic coast route and maps. At least as far as DC where I picked up the C&O canal to the GAP trail and into Pittsburg. I used 2" Maxxis Ringworm tires and they performed really nicely in the dirt and pavement as I could vary the pressure between 50 and 100 psi depending on the surface I'm on. However they are quite heavy and slow down an already pretty slow machine on climbs. Problem number one with trikes for touring, they are slower. Not horrible but for me noticeable. I was still able to do between 50 and 100 miles a day and probably averaged about 80 on pavement. On the dirt I was doing 45 - 60 miles per day. My average speed was 12 -15 mph on pavement and dropped to 7- 14 on the dirt. There were were some very rough paved chip and seal back roads on the ACA Atlantic Coast route I took. Even the best on road touring routes frequently have some very rough pavement miles on them.

There are 2 problems with touring on unpaved surfaced with a trike. One, unless you want to go really slow in the rough stuff and be beat to death, you'll need some kind of suspension. This is the reason that Trice, HP Velotechnik, and several other recumbent manufacturers are coming out with FULL suspended trikes in 2009. Problem #2 with trikes in the dirt, as someone mentioned earlier is double track. On the C&O there is probably 70 miles of the trail that you have at least one wheel running in grass or rocks or looser dirt. Mostly grass though. Yuck. Not fun.

This brings to the point I'd like to make about how we (recumbent riders) here in the USA tend to think solely in terms day rides or touring on nice American highways, where as in Europe, many cycle tourist take recumbent bikes and trikes into 3rd world country expeditionary riding conditions. This I see reflected in the types of recumbents made here in the US. I have been giving this a lot of thought lately because I'm planning on riding the ACA Great Divide mountain route along the continental divide next summer. After using my Trice this summer on 350 miles of dirt, I have been looking for a recumbent bike for loaded touring so I no longer have to experience "the heartbreak of doubletracking on a trike". My criteria for this tour is essentially the same as for a long road tour on recumbent except with fatter tires and maybe front suspension. I want dual 26" wheels, a rear rack or racks that will support 2 sets of Ortlieb panniers, disc brakes, full suspension, Rohloff hub, and 3rd world country proven reliability. As far as my research has turned up, there are several recumbent bikes made in Europe that fit the bill and are advertised as "trekking/expedition" capable, but only 3 are available here in the us: Challenge Seiran E, HPV Scorpion Streetmachine GTE, and the Optima Orca.

I test rode the Orca today and it was an awesome bike. Meets all my criteria for the ideal offroad touring bike except for the Rohloff which I plan on building up. It had 35mm marathons on it and was so much faster than my Trice it was amazing. Could cruise a good 3-4 mph faster with the same effort. I even blasted down a rough gravel track for a few miles in it. I am planning on doing a crazyguyonabike journal and a podcast from the road on this trip for anyone interested.

Oh and for anyone that thinks you can't ride a bike like this offroad, do a youtube search for : azub + recumbent + off road. Go there, you'll see.

Shorter cranks are a no-no for me. I have extenders on my upright bikes. My 7.5 would be unrideable without them, and my Navigator could only be ridden with difficulty. I assume longer crankarms or extenders won't be a problem on most 'bents.

Well, there's a reason they call that part of the state the "Hill Country". %^)

It's a challenging area to tour regardless of bike geometry. 40 miles a day there especailly on a fully loaded touring bike would be quite respectable in my book. And 1400 miles is a good long tour. Sorry it didn't work out to make it all the way across country.

I have three very different recumbents when it comes to hill climbing unloaded. No surprisingly, the lightest one is easiest to climb on, at least for shorter hills. But when doing long uphill climbs loaded for touring, I think I'm limited more by my ability to spin at moderate to high cadence than I am by the bike. I spent a good bit of time going up mountains at 4 mph in NM.

Jon

Sounds like you're likely right about trail conditions. I can deal with tree roots and rocks, somewhat, on my suspended recumbent, but nothing like an experienced rider on an MTB can, not anything approaching "technical" level. The C&O webpages mention people (few) doing the trail on narrow-tired road bikes. Sounds like perhaps some sections would be approachable on a recumbent.

I missed the "not a strong rider" aspect. The trail sounds challenging, bike geometry not withstanding. Consulting a good sports medicine professional and physical therapist is a good idea when considering and training for such a potentially challenging ride. Calibrating expectations is good. Training for a ride could be good motivation, though.

The term "bike touring" has a lot of different inflections. Recumbents are good as a personal choice for many of those flavors of touring. Technical MTB trails, less so, certainly.

Jon

I'm kind of confused why some here keep referring to the C&O as "technical". Technical from my point of view means porcupine rim in Moab, or the Kokopelli trail in Colorado. The c&o is fairly flat with some sections a bit rougher than others but when I triked it this last July only encountered one short(100 foot) section that was rocky enough to cause the guy I was riding with to get off and push (trike made it through). If you would call the C&O technical, I find it hard to believe you have ever ridden technical. Little old ladys were on it riding hybrids when I rode it this summer.

Back in the early days of Mt. biking ('79/'80) we tried to ride technical singletrack out in the rockys with a full touring load and ended up pushing more than riding. There is a reason the Great divide mountain bike route the aca established follows mostly smooth public dirt roads, if it were technical you would be better off backpacking it. Real technical trails and loaded distance touring as I have found in my experience, don't mix.

Yeah, I don't understand this either. The C & O is hardly a 'technical' trail. If anything the on-road detour south of Williamsport was what gave me the most trouble, and that was because of the climbs.

Sorry, I didn't intend to imply the C&O was technical. I yield to people with direct experience on the trail. But there seems to be quite a difference in description of the trail conditions,-- tree branches, rocks, mud pit, etc,... vs. mainly flat with a few difficult sections.

Jon

Reality is very much a relative experience, and if your experience is somewhat limited in off road riding, in this case the C&O may seem kind of challenging. I was challenged by it to a certain degree by my choice of triking it over biking, and really only in the sections that had grassy doubletrack. Aside from that though, it was beautiful, quiet, shady, almost off pavement cycling paradise as there were campsites and water pumps galore over the whole length! I loved it. It still was the highlight of my east coast tour this last summer. The couple that owns the store that let me test ride my next recumbent touring bike last weekend told me they did it last summer on Rans XPs and they did 30 miles/day and had a ball. They were definitely not athletes, nor even in very good shape and they were fine. If I could still ride a DF bike, I would not hesitate to take my 700c touring bike with 35mm tires.

here's a recumbent that might work really well for a canal path

https://www.bikeforest.com/cb/cb12.php

Ok, but will it fit in a bike lane? %^P