scarry

Bents are slower on climbs mostly because they are heavier, have fat tires, complicated chain lines with idler wheels.

There is a new breed of recumbents called Hi-Races with dual 26 inch wheels. This allowes the use of standard road racing tires and very lightweight wheels.
https://www.bacchettabikes.com/b-aero.htm
My Aero is one of the lightest and fastest around. I do big climbs all the time. At 51 I'm still a little slower on the climbs compared to race ready young roadies, but am not far off the pace. I can pass lots of recreational club riders on climbs.
Climbing on a bent is done by gearing down and spinning. I've climbed grades as steep as 20%. Sonora Pass, which is comparable to the Alp D'Huez, 3800 ft in 9 miles up to 9700 ft above sea level.

steveknight

I am slower on t he climbs as my bent is 37# but overall I am about as fast as I was on my racing bike.

BlazingPedals

Mooger,
Think about having to climb a tough hill without standing. If you have low enough gears, just about anything is climbable. But you won't win any king-of-the-hill contests without the ability to stand. Just for a double whammy, the muscles you've been using before the hill are probably getting tired, and there's no relief for them - you have to use the same muscles for climbing, and on the next downhill, and on the next flat... etc.

That's what recumbent riders are up against when it comes to hills.

erik forsgren

I just returned from the Czech Republic after a trip on a lowracer around the whole country. If any of your friends are capable of handling those rough roads I would like to see them. As for their immature reaction to recumbents I would like to remind them, that recumbentists are only deviant in one respect. They are mostly people of above average intelligence highly educated and they don't need the approval of some primitive ignorant disrespectful people who don't even know how to ride a recumbent.

ivan_yulaev

I greatly admire bents as I view them as an inherently better road bike; they are much more aerodynamic and therefore more efficient. It is no suprise that for the brief period bents were racing, they rocked the upright bikes.

However, a few reasons kept me from getting a bent (and believe me, I was REALLY looking to get a baron or comparable bent)

1. Parts and such. Bents seem to be much more difficult to get parts for. Therefore, they are more expensive to maintain.
2. Manuverability in traffic. As a commuter, I often split lanes past stopped traffic. I would be hesitant to do this on a bent.

My next big-bike purchase will no doubt be a lowracer of some sort, though :-) Gotta finish college first.

steveknight

parts except for the seat and bars are almost always standard road and or mountain bike parts. the front wheel usualy bmx.
I have upgraded almost everything on my burley limbo and it was all regular parts. including the front wheel a velocity rim.
a swb is very manuverable. but it tkaes some getting used to on a bent for sure.

harlantk

Ok thats it
I am convinced I want one!!!
Tim

sbhikes

Most of the parts are the same. Only a few parts are different. This of course varies from recumbent to recumbent. I have mine serviced at an ordinary LBS that doesn't stock recumbents. They have no problem with it at all and charge me the same.

As far as traffic, your strategy simply changes. Traffic is still doable (but maybe a lowracer isn't too practical.) I do traffic all the time. I take the lane (when necessary) and everything. There are just a few situations that are difficult: Getting stuck behind cars with too much exhaust (tail pipe in the face), right hook situtations (some people in big SUVs can't see you even if they try), certain hill situations. I can't stop mid-hill and get going again. I have to get off and walk.

To combat the tail pipe in the face I stop behind cars, not to the side, and leave a lot of space. To combat the right-hook situations I never pass moving traffic on the right. I get in behind someone or time myself so nobody is next to me. To combat the hill situation, I either try to time it right or I accept the humiliation and walk.

Diane

Magilla Gorilla

People hate recumbents since they are different.
IMO they are faster and better machines. If you plan on riding with the fast crowd on a 'bent you better plan on riding alone. Very little tolerance for recumbents in fast pacelines. I know better riders than me like Blazzing pedals have different opinions than I do but at least its what I have experienced. I would love to ride where he does for fun with the DF people but where I live that is not possible.
Where I live you better dam well show up on a DF at a group ride if you know whats good for you....

MG

waltergodefroot

Wow, where does all this anger come from? Maybe you'd be happier on a...nah, I'm not going to say it.

erik forsgren

Who cares where it comes from? A much better question is why this anger? Because I can hardly tolerate intolerant ignorant stupid people who tell you a lot of nonense about things they don't understand. The same goes for cowards who hide and have the nerve to insult others with insinuations they do not even stand up for.

aikigreg

Who cares about pacelines? I like going on my own steam and keeping up, or blowing by them.

waltergodefroot

You've lost your way.

Olebiker

Every once in a while I take a look at the recumbent forum and read posts like this one where recumbent riders claim to be faster than roadies. If any of you folks are ever in Tallahassee, Florida with your recumbent, I would love to ride with you. I have yet to see anyone on a recumbent that was able to keep up with even a C-pace club ride.

I'm not claiming that those folks don't exist. I have never seen them on any ride.

aikigreg

As you please. Should you ever come to Fort Worth I'd be priveliged to ride with you. I'm quite sure that there are a lot of riders who can blow my doors off, especially if it's an extremely hilly area, and especially because I haven't been riding recumbent for very long. However, if it's small hills/rolling terrain, and especially if there's wind, I'll be pretty competitive, as I found out this weekend on a 45 mile race. The only people who passed me on the ride (and I admit there were likely many faster riders on the line ahead of me who I never had a chance of catching up to) were 2 pacelines. No lone road bike rider passed me for more than a 1/2 mile before being passed again by me.

Love my road bike, but it ain't as fast and ain't as fun as my lowracer. I'd probably never train on it if they allowed recumbents into triathalons, but they shy away from that, for some reason. Why do you think that is?

lowracer1

I got done doing a 40k time trial this summer on my lowracer. A time of 58:12

This is right up there with the cat 1 times.

https://www.lmb.org/wsc/newsletters/2...0kByTimeR4.PDF

and also this last years results from a different time trial. I hold the recumbent course record and 3rd overall on the course.
https://www.lmb.org/rapidwheels/Ada_TT/weeklytt2004.htm

I'm sorry, but I can't imagine any Florida pacelines being very difficult to pass and stay ahead of solo. Being as florida is very flat, in a 30 mile club race ride, I would be finishing at the very least 2 miles ahead of them.

If I'm ever down that way though, I'll look you up if you need the proof.

Olebiker

I take it you have never been to the Tallahassee area. Yes, once you get south of town and onto the coastal plain it is quite flat. Climb up the Cody Escarpment where we ride and you might be surprised at how many hills you are faced with. I have yet to see a recumbent rider who could respond to an attack on a hill from a wedgie.

Magilla Gorilla

Love the trash talk from the 'bent folks. But lots of very tough DF riders out there but yet a good speed bent will be much faster on a flat to rolling course. I just do not see any debate on the issue. Look at John Schlitter in the race across Florida and of course the RAAM performance of there top of the line Aero.
But as always head to head competition has been banned by UCI rules. But club rides? Any good rider on a bent can do well without a problem. Plenty of people around the country doing that every day. Me? My club banned 'bents on group rides. To fast. Don't fit in well in pacelines. Never rode in a paceline on the bent. Always off the front.
Enough said....

MG

sappho1949

I had an unpleasant experience this past sunday, when I arrived to join an advertised group ride with a group I had never ridden with before. I was on my Tour Easy recumbent, and was the only one of the group who was not riding an upright. An older man, who was a long-time rider took one look at my bike and said, "those contraptions are the most dangerous things on the road". I told him I thought that they were like any bike and no more dangerous than the person riding them but he would have none of it, insisting that he had read an article written by a cyclist who had ridden a recumbent for 2 years and then wrote that they were all inherently unsafe. He did not know what particular bike the guy had ridden and if he had sought any advice or done any research before selecting which one to ride. I gave up trying to convice him as it became obvious that he was not going to be swayed. But I was quite put off by his attitude toward someone who was new to the group, as I have ridden with any number of groups, and had always felt very welcomed. He also made some disparaging remarks to another woman, very new to cycling, who had arrived on a nice, but heavy mountain bike, insinuating to her that she was welcome to join the group again when she had a "real bike". I was shocked and dismayed by his boorish behavior and arrogance. Thank god the vast majority of cyclists are not like that, and take joy in celebrating anyone's discovery of cycling, no matter what they ride.
Whew, thanks for listening...that's been eating at me for days.

scarry

Sounds like an opinionated, stubborn, old man. I'm sure his wife is so fond of him.
There is a word for him but I can't spell it. Cumrudgrin.

I'm sure he is just as boring in other circles.

skookum

Curmudgeon
I'm one. Well sometimes.

I think I see the problem here.
DF riders, especially roadies, see recumbents as cheating. Fat old guys who could never hack it in a pace line show up on a 'bent and blow the group away. Or at least thats what they claim on bike forums. But they can't really, at least not in Florida, the wedgies always take them on the hills. So 'bent riders are posers. (or is that poseurs?). All talk and no action. Its perfectly clear to me now.

I just bought a Recumboni.

lowracer1

I would like to see some elevation profiles of tallahassee. Maybe all the bent riders in Florida are old and fat. I'm good for holding off pacelines for a good 60 miles on flat or rolling courses. Beyond 60miles and the pack can gain some ground seeing as most of them aren't even working hard the entire time. 20 to 30 second pulls at the front of the paceline and whoopss.........all tired out and back to the rear they go for the free ride.

megaman

Welcome to the bent world!
Many bents aren't that fast. And my bent is not considered fast. I don't ride for speed, but I've been finding that I'm not usually passed by ordinary recreational riders.
But then I don't really care if they do pass me.

skookum

I'm with you mega-man. I don't really give a darn anyway.
Still I was a bit surprised by the reactions when I told people I was even thinking of buying a 'bent. So how do I break the news to my upright friends?

Magilla Gorilla

Young top shelf Cat 1's do 40k TT under 50 minutes tricked out in the latest Lance gear. Real hard to beat without a good motor. On most TT courses a fast recumbent with a very well trained rider would be faster but most Cat 1 people will not ride recumbents.
Umm we have a ride up here in Wisconsin. Lots of young Cat 1/2 guys. 27mph plus average speed for a training ride! I only know of one guy on a recumbent that hangs with these guys and that is the owner of the shop! Tom kline of the Bicycle Doctor bike shop the sponsor of the Saturday training ride. He rides an Aero. Tom is 53 years old and hangs on most of the climbs but those pesky young punks just whip on him in the hills! Well, I see few well trained athletes on recumbents. But I am sure there here on this group...

Magilla