nascarzeke

i am going for a extended tour and want opinions on using a rans rocket for the tour, iam going ultralight gear,i was a thru hiker,i have the camping gear,thanks,zeke

nancy sv

What is a rans rocket? Where are going? How long are you planning to be on the road?

We have found that we pack differently for a really extended tour because we prefer durability over lightweight. We carry a few extra pounds in order to have a tent that will last longer - it's a pain in the rear to try and replace a tent in the middle of Bolivia!

Machka 

A rans rocket is a recumbent. Like this: https://www.ransbikes.com/Rocket07.htm

I've ridden one like that, and I'm not sure I'd want to do an extended tour with it, but then I was (and still am) new to recumbents.

Vik on the forum here has a website for recumbent riders so he might be able to help.

kayakdiver

https://www.bikeforums.net/recumbent/

These guys might be able to give you some good ideas as well. It's the recumbent forum on BF.

Canadiense

When I was putting my gear together for my current tour I looked very seriously at a recumbent. I really like the idea but had never ridden one. I spoke to Cambie Cycles in Vancouver (recumbent specialists) who were very enthusiastic until they heard where I planned to go. The point is that if you are staying on pavement the recumbent will do very well. I planned to go to South America and do the Careterra Austral so they counselled me against a recumbent for that portion only.

I have heard that recumbents are slower on the uphill portions but superfast on the downhills. I have been passed pretty regularly by recumbents on the flat too, especially on charity rides. Overall I am pretty impressed with them and will probably get one to add to the collection.

mev

Topics of recumbents can get religious , but there are also recumbents that can do better on non-sealed roads and people who will tour recumbent bikes in some pretty amazing places. I'm not particularly dogmatic, though do own two recumbents.

I did a nice tour from Fort Collins to Cedar Rapids, IA one fourth of July week on my EZ Racer long wheelbase recumbent. It was a mostly flat nine day, 850 mile ride and the bike worked very well for this ride through Colorado, Wyoming Nebraska, Iowa. I've also ridden long wheelbase recumbents on two Ride the Rockies (of 4 I've ridden) and a few other rides that weren't exactly flat. On average, I'm slightly faster overall on my recumbents than normal bikes: slightly slower on the up, but faster on the flat and more confident/faster on the downhills.

I seriously considered touring my ride across Russia on a long wheelbase recumbent and had a Lightfoot Ranger: https://www.bicycleman.com/recumbents...oot-ranger.htm commissioned for the ride. This bike is sold as a recumbent mountain bike. It would have done ok on the roads including some ugly unsealed roads in Russia.

The reason I rode another bike (Trek 520) instead on the ride across Russia was that in my shakedown ride and other ride itself, I started to figure that flying with such a large bike and bringing it into/out of small hotels and other places would have been much more awkward than my Trek. There are sometimes issues with bringing bikes in some of those hotels and a huge bike would only have made it more difficult.

So overall, I'll still ride most anywhere in developed world with a long wheelbase recumbent, but for flying or some third-world touring I've done and am dreaming of, I'll prefer a normal bike over my recumbents. But like I said, some of these topics can be religious and others will have different strains of that religion than I.