rydabent

Out on my usual ride on my Stratus getting near home a guy flags me down to ask a bunch of questions about my recumbent. It was the usual story, he wants to cycle for exercise, but because of a bad back he found out riding his sons DF bike hurt too much.

Getting stopped like this seems to be getting more frequent. More and more older people seem to be interested in biking, and when they see me riding both my bent and my trike, it looks like im having fun. BTW I am. Like the guy mentioned above, many tell me they have back, neck, or hand problems, and wonder if bents or trike riding would hurt as much as a DF. Any more I am stopped so much that I have taken to carrying the business card of our local bent shop.

Northwestrider

I agree, there is a lot of interest in Bents for the reasons you mention, affordability being the major obstacle to popularity.

BlazingPedals

Just be glad you're not riding those velomobile thingies. Guys in the velomobile forums often report multiple traffic stops in the same ride, just because the cops don't know what it is, and don't know how to deal with it when they find out.

rydabent

blazing

Yes I have read and was able to watch go-pro equipped velomobile riders getting stopped by the cops. Some spent quite a while trying to find the engine he just knew had to be there.

dippitydoo

How are recumbents when it comes to steering? Is it precise and sharp or is more wide and lax.

rydabent

dippitydoo

If you have never ridden a bent, the first time you ride it, it feels nervous. Anyone that can ride a bike can ride a bent, but they just feel different for the first few miles. After just a few rides all of that goes away.
Now with thousands of miles on a bent, IMO they are the only way to ride. Comfort is a given, but sitting up and leaning back give you a view of the world that you cant get on a DF.

wbuttry

That is exactly rite I love mine. And so does the people who see it they always yell nice bike my wife always gets mad cause when we ride there is always at least 5 people saying that they like it and she say nobody says anything about mine well she rides a df what can I say those are normal.

Artkansas 

+1
When I bought my Giro 20, the handling felt vague and treacherous. But I decided to go for it anyway. What I discovered was that it felt scary because every little input from my hands goes right into the steering. It's not damped as it is with drop bars. It was vague because I didn't know how to steer it. I learned to keep my arms still and steer the bike accurately.

Move forward a few months, I'm riding in nearby mountains and I find that I'm riding what seems like the coolest sports car with amazing handling on high speed tight mountain turns. The low center of gravity means I'm fast in the turns and the high pedals let me keep pedaling all the way through the turn.

flatlander_48

I would also add deciding how you want to transport it. My wife is considering a trike and since we both have small cars, a lightweight trailer would seem to be the thing to have. Transporting it on the roof is a non-starter...

cplager

TerraTrike has a nice roof carrier. I (1) admit that getting two on there seems tight and (2) I wouldn't want to drive a great distance like this. But for an hour or so, I would do it.

There are several nice folding trikes that are about to go into production. These will fit in quite small, but certainly don't fall into the cheap​ category. (I'm not at all saying it's not worth it.)

delcrossv

Folding trikes (E.G. a Greenspeed Magnum) get really small.

flatlander_48

Let me explain further. It would be physically difficult for me to put 30-40 pounds on the roof of either car. I also have NO DESIRE to put a roof rack on my car even if I could get the bike up to the roof.

Further, with a folding Anything, the weight goes up compared to the same bike without the folding feature and these bikes are not light to begin with.

JanMM

My stoker and I get a lot of attention on our 'bent tandem but have never been stopped by The Man.

delcrossv

Check on the manufacturer's sites, but I think you're only talking a couple of pounds. If your wife is looking to just cruise around, that couple of pounds doesn't count for much.

delcrossv

The kid is looking forward to his first traffic stop while riding a velo. Hee, hee, hee.

BlazingPedals

What velo does he have?

cplager

O.k. I've got no problem with you not wanting to put it on your roof.

I will point out that folders generally do not add that much weight compared to a non folder.

All that being said, if you want a trailer, get a trailer.

flatlander_48

While a folding recumbent would probably fit in my car (close, though), the recumbent AND my regular road bike won't. It's either or...

MikeWMass

get a short wheelbase 2 wheeler, which will fit any rack that holds the bike by the wheels, and put training wheels on it.

flatlander_48

Do they give out points here for being a smartass?

delcrossv

He's saving for a Quest

Shahmatt

Sounds like a nuisance. I wonder what would happen if the word "BICYCLE" or if a stick figure man on a bicycle were printed on the velo walls.

StephenH

So, a couple of friends are riding along out in the country, and spot a zebra. Now, this is north Texas, zebras are just a tad bit uncommon around here. So they stop, gawk at the zebra, take some pictures, and ride on.

Later on, one of them, Peggy, is riding a little ahead when a car pulls up beside her, the guy in the passenger seat whips out his camera and snaps a picture of her, and they zoom on off without saying anything. (Peggy's riding a Bacchetta, by the way.)

The other friend catches up to her, says "Wasn't that really odd? Doesn't it bother you?" And Peggy says, "On no, I'm just the zebra!"

So this story is 2nd or 3rd hand and I may have some details confused. But it is the effect mentioned.
Same holds true for tandems and unicycles by the way.
On the unicycle forum, there was a whole LONG thread about "Stupid things people say when they see you on the unicycle". The basic problem there is that people feel obligated to comment on the oddity of your choice of wheel(s) but don't really have anything to say, either, so they blab out something stupid.
Common question on the tandem is how much it costs, or who works harder.

On the flip side, I was riding with Vickie, who was on her Bacchetta, a couple of weeks ago. I think we were in Bluff Dale, Texas, small town in the middle of nowhere, at the convenience store. A man and a boy about 8-10 years old came walking up to the store, and I heard the man explaining to the boy "It's called a recumbent bicycle, etc" I would have figured that nobody within 20 miles knew what it was, but he did.