Spectre66

I am new to recumbents and I wanted to know what I should keep in mind when riding alongside traditional bikes. What difficulties occur with mixed traffic?

BlazingPedals

Make sure they know you're there. Otherwise, they tend to do a quick shoulder-check before zigging in or out, and guess who is there but not at their shoulder level?

Spectre66

Yeah, I have gotten advice to stay at the back of the paceline and to make room where needed. Also considering putting my flag on the front of my trike so it isn’t in anyone’s face and so it’s visible to folks rotating back.

VegasTriker

I occasionally ride with a group of mixed recumbents and DF bikes. There hasn't ever been a problem with the mixture. Most of the club rides in my area are way faster than my pace so I don't bother.

I think the idea of moving your flag to the front of the trike is a bad idea. I don't know of any flag mount for a trike that is designed for that purpose though I could easily come up with a DIY solution since my current flag mount is a DIY replacement for the crappy one that came with the trike. It would be a major distraction. Someone following you is far enough back so it is less of a distraction but it would be really close to you if mounted in front.

BlazingPedals

Flags and groups don't mix well. Anyone behind you has your flag in their face. If you're riding in a pack, leave the flag at home. The original question was bents alongside uprights. If the concern is simply riding with uprights, my advice would be to ask them how they want you to ride with them. Be considerate. In short, if you're no help participating in a draft line, stay out of the way.

Spectre66

Thank you for the feedback. I of course would ask them how they want me to ride and I would assume not in the paceline. That said, I suspect the groups I am going to ride in due to my own physical condition will not have a lot of experience riding with a recumbent trike or otherwise. My reason for reaching out to this group is to figure out the issues before I ride. If I ride with people Inexperienced with recumbents and something that I Amy not even be aware of happens the upright riders may say “ how about we do ... next time” or they might say “recumbents, no thanks”. I’m a fan of just being aware of the issue from the start and making sure it’s not a bad experience for anyone.

StephenH

Usually not a problem. One issue is, recumbents tend to zip down the hills and crawl up, so in a hilly area, it takes some effort to keep two different bikes together if you're trying to carry on a conversation (& true of tandems also). Otherwise, you can yo-yo back and forth quite a bit and still be in sight of each other, if not beside each other. The visibility issue is a minor issue, if you're coming up on somebody, just say "hello" and let 'em know you're there.

BlazingPedals

Whatever you do, don't do this to a friend/spouse/co-rider. Flagpole tip right in her face and he's totally oblivious to it.

Steamer

So she/he has no controle over where she/he rides? Not possible to follow a couple feet further behind the triker? A DF drafing a trike is silly.

Granturismonut

I always rotated my flag pole's mount a bit front of 90 degrees so at speed it would be vertical. Only problem I had riding with DF's on club rides was riders borrowing my flag to annoy other DF riders with lol, they always bought it back.

BikeArkansas

I used a little shorter flag this weekend on my first group ride with DF, six of us counting me, the only trike. Seemed to work out best with me at the back.

One note: I was riding my Scorpion FX, which sits up, unlike my Cat 700. My wife, which rides a size 48 DF told me that if she stays in the drops she can actually draft my trike. I found that odd, but useful to know.

BlazingPedals

There are several not-so-tall riders in my mostly-upright group who say they get a good draft off my M5CHR. One of them is always bugging me to 'motor'-pace for him. But drafting a trike? Weird.