rydabent

Do you feel threatened by recumbent bikes and trikes?

Do you get angry when a high racer passes you when riding into the wind?

Bottom line sticking to an 1890 style of bike is kind of dumb. Time moves on. Dont be an old fud new and better things do get invented you know.

rydabent

But people over here have already learned to diversify.

mdarnton

I didn't notice that! I found another list of safest American cities while looking for the one I used. Chicago was like #2 or #3, and Lincoln was #46 or so. I was pretty surprised. :-)

People have a hard time with the concept of incidents per 100,000 vs just raw numbers. Our raw numbers are high, but our population is gigantic.

tomato coupe

Do you realize you have responded to the same post (#62) three times?

Hey, maybe we agree on something:

StephenH

It would seem that recumbent bikes would be the ideal solution for randonneuring. And in the last dozen years or so, I can think of 11 recumbent riders in the local randonneuring club, plus one or two I'm overlooking no doubt. Exactly zero of them are still doing randonneur rides on a regular basis. One of them might sometimes, but he's just as likely to be on road bike or velomobile. I think four of them are currently riding upright bikes rather than recumbents (more gravel/mountain than road bikes).

rydabent

I hate riding on gravel. I was on the farm and had to ride gravel to school from the 3rd grade to the 10th grade. I got my fill of gravel. I might add that a fat tire trike would be quite safe on gravel.

Leisesturm

A Fat Tire trike, unless e-assisted ($$$) is NOT something I would need to be convinced to avoid. Haven't you noticed you don't see any fat tire bikes anymore on the roads? You didn't stop to wonder why that was? And while I am here I might observe that the likelihood of buying anything bike, trike or bike/trike related is very, very low for at least another year! About all that is left is the stuff nobody wants (for good reason) or niche products like cargo bikes and unicycles and frightuflly expensive factory e-assist roadbikes. Being in evangelist mode right now comes off as a bit tone deaf to say the least.

rydabent

Actually quite often I see and hear fat tire bikes on the hard surface trails here in town. Personally I couldnt stand the noise to ride one on hard surface trails.

BlazingPedals

Not necessarily a recumbent issue; but you don't need FAT (3-5 inch wide) tires to ride gravel. Most MTBs with 1.75-2.1" tires do gravel just fine. You don't need the fatties until you get into deeper snow or soft sand; and even then there's a limit to how much benefit they have.

PS this is a dead thread. OP has obviously moved on.

wgscott

Do they work in snow? There are still 28 days of winter left in Nebraska.

BlazingPedals

Back when I lived in town, I used to cycle-commute year around. Mostly on an upright. Even my mountain bike had problems when the snow got more than a couple of inches deep. Bents were fair-weather only.

Here in Michigan, we hope the groundhog sees his shadow so there's ONLY 6 more weeks of winter. Ice fishing on inland lakes usually runs until the end of March, and it's hard to define "spring" to be something before ice-out happens.

rydabent

Can you promise me that we only have 28 days of winter left?? That would be fantastic, but I see there is 44 days left till spring.

Harhir

I love my recumbents but I hate to ride them on slippery surfaces such as mud, loose sand/gravel or maybe even snow. Mainly because of the balance. I had two crashes on mud patches because I saw them too late and was not able to stabilize with my legs in time. On an upright bike you can use your legs as counter weight if you start sliding. At least to a certain degree. And with a straight stretched leg on an upright bike you have a better chance and more strength than with a bent leg on a recumbent. Fortunately we don't have snow where I live now. And I avoid gravel where I can and try to ride on pavement only. I really only ride recumbents because of my back problems. They work much better for my back than any upright bike. I am not doing it for speed. Just for comfort. And if we would have snow here in winter I would get a trike for winter to be saver on three wheels.

rydabent

Slick road surface's will quickly put any 2 wheel bike on the ground so fast you cant do anything about it, recumbent or DF it doesnt matter. Trikes under those conditions are much safer.

J.Higgins 

I can resonate with this. I have a high school friend, who after years of being a fat slug, finally decided to do something about it and convert to a whole-foods, plant-based lifestyle. I must say that he's very successful at it, but MAN what a pain in the arse he is about it. Constant bragging and holier-than-thou does not even begin to tell the story. So I can see why Rydabent's evangelism can really bug people. I for one am not anti-recumbent, having owned a few myself, but I have yet to find one that speaks to me.

Notso_fastLane

Mine is a 559 rear, 406 front and it took some getting used to the twitchiness of the steering, but now, I see it as being agile. I only wish it were under-seat steering (USS) instead of a tiller, but I don't care enough to try to modify it.

Velos are an entire different beast of recumbent, and I love mine...unless I'm climbing a big hill, since it does weigh 80 lbs.

Bent Bill

Well I can speak with experience about BENTS
I have ridden them quite a bit and no matter what style of a bent a person rides
They all have at least one sucky issue or more !
LWBs and SWBs are not stable at slower speeds and riding uphill is a real pain

Tadpole bents have numerous issues
1. I dont like being on eye level with a German Shepherd

2. I dont like being on eye level with the hubcaps of a 4x4 pickup

3. front end width on a tadpole is not conducive to narrow spaces such as a lot of mups

4. visibility is limited both for a rider or a car driver

5. Its real hard to jump a curb or bail off if need be (actually more or less impossible)

6. All bents are a PITA to transport in or on a vehicle compared to a "DF"

And last but not least there are a lot of complaints over on BentRideronline.com
About sore necks ,sore sweaty backs sore butts and numb arms just like on a DF bike
You must just skip past them posts over there ?
Bents are not the living room "sofa" for everybody contrary to what some people claim

I could go on and on but I think I made a few points

rydabent

Having ridden a LWB bent since 2005 I can tell you that I can ride an almost perfect straight line at 3 or 4 mph. BTW pickups like mine haul any kind of a bike or trike quite well.

Bent Bill

Lol !
Yeah and I can more or less track stand at 0.5 mph while waiting for traffic

how many Tadpoles or LWB bikes can you get on a Camaro , Mustang, or a Toyota Camry ?
, A lot more people own cars than P.U. trucks
P.U. trucks you also need either a strong back or ramps to load a Tadpole or LWB in

For a sit up bike or a drop bar bike all someone needs is a $ 50.00 bike rack that will work on just about any car
and it will haul more than one and they wont strain there back loading a 20 pound bike unlike trying to load a 45 pound recumbent

I dont have anything against Recumbents
I own a Cat Trike Dumont and a LWB Sun EZ Sport

But they are not superior to a regular bike and they are not more advanced/modern !

rydabent

The number one selling vehicle in the US is a pickup, and I think 2 and 3 might be too.

Im 82 and lift my tadpole trike into the bed with no problem at all.

Bent Bill

Im done
its a waste of time trying to rationally discuss this