Thread: Bike-E Tandem
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Old 07-13-13, 01:30 AM
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Silicon Valley, CA
Posts: 15

Bikes: BikeE recumbent, Bridgestone MB

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I love my BikeE tandem!

I've had one for many years, and overall, have been very happy with it. It's big and heavy, but fun and easy to ride. There is a slight learning curve in learning to steer the reversed front fork, but I figured it out in maybe 30 minutes of riding. (Solo at first, then with a stoker.) It's a good bicycle theft deterrent since anyone who jumped on the bike without a little bit of practice would probably crash in about 10 feet.

I haven't had any problems with front tires blowing, I have 100 psi Hookworms on both front and back. The shock is still going strong after almost 10 years and really the bike has been fairly maintenance-free. My partner and I don't ride long distances, we usually go out for about a 10 to 15 mile ride. I have to disagree with blazing pedals, as I've done plenty of avoidance maneuvers and can even do fairly tight U-turns on it.


There are couple of caveats though. It is definitely a relatively slow bike, although this might be because of the fairly heavy hookworms on it. It is extremely comfortable, and has a very good upright position that makes it very easy to be seen and to see other cars. It gets tremendous amount of attention wherever we go. I haven't had any problems with the seat supports breaking, although on my other BikeE RX, one of the aluminum seat supports will need to be re-welded before long. I am a 200 pound 5'8" guy, I have typically ridden the bike with women in the back who weigh less than 130 pounds. There is a limit of how tall the back rider can be, it works fine with my brother about the same size as I, but does not work with a friend who is 6' 1".


I have no other tandem recumbent to compare it to, but have been quite happy with it. I bought it around the time when BikeE was going out of business, from one of the owners of the company. It has dual disk brakes, and a front kickstand. I paid about $1400 for it at the time, which seemed like a great deal back then. It is also very helpful to have the shock, as otherwise the person in the back really suffers when you hit a bump.


If you have any questions feel free to ask me.
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