Ready to give up…

[Drstimpy]

After 5-10 hours practicing and refining my position, I still feel unsafe on the road. I’m all over the place on the road and even when making super smooth circles with the pedals at 25 mph, every third pedal stroke, pulls me into the road. Maybe this isn’t going to work for me. I’ve attached a picture of me riding by if anyone has groundbreaking thoughts. PS retired ex road racer and former owner of a counterpoint Presto, which I did not have any trouble riding.

 

[Frito Bandito]

You likely need more wheel time Drstimpy. 5-10 hours is a good start but not enough. Make sure you don't have any "death grip" going on and you aren't doing a bunch of upper body inputs to keep her straight. My V20 settles down beautifully at 30kph (18mph) and just gets smoother the faster I go, and turning simply requires a slight head tilt or shoulder drop. To show how stable you can be, near the end of this video you can see me go through the first of a set of gates at 24mph that has only about 5" of hip clearance on either side.

 

[RojoRacing]

I would like to see your bars rotated up a bit more to straight out of your wrists, but that's not going to improve your wobbling much unless you are, in fact, suffering from ergonomic fatigue. As an active motorcycle rider/racer, 5-10 hours was nowhere near enough for me to feel stable enough to ride next to a line of cars or in a paceline. It probably took me closer to 20-30 hours on my own before I could ride with others and not scare them. It took me around 60 hours or more before I was able to be stable on a 5mph climb next to cars to escape into the next city and access the mountains.

 

[Henri]

PS retired ex road racer

You may think that's a headstart, but I think it's a problem. MBB is so different, you have vome very engrained old skill to "unlearn".

 

[Jeffers]

It probably took us a long time to learn how to ride motorcycles too.
But we were having so much fun we didn't notice.
Find a safe place a go out to just have fun.
And don't put any expectations on yourself.

 

[ecyor9355]

Drstimpy. I am exactly where you are at! Only 4 hours of wheel time, though. I'm still unstable and insecure like crazy! I've had my bike for 8 months now where I only have 4 hours of practicing in the parking lot once a week and attempt to ride for 10 to 15 minutes and then quit! This will not get me to where I want to be, but at the same time, I will not give up! My problem is I get frustrated because I'm not mastering this bike right away and I'm not comfortable and confident like I am on my Stand Up bike. Frito is 100%, ABSOLUTELY CORRECT AND ON POINT! The first problem I have is that I'm trying to control the bike TOO MUCH with my upper body like I do with my Stand Up bike. Next, I have to use slight tilts of head and shoulders for turns. Also, I need to stop wiggling my torso in order to put power into my pedal strokes, like I do with my Stand up. This is causing my instability and balance issues.... It's going to take a few weeks of consistent training for me and not escaping to my other bikes when I get frustrated. It is all mental.

 

[cpml123]

Drstimpy. I am exactly where you are at! Only 4 hours of wheel time, though. I'm still unstable and insecure like crazy! I've had my bike for 8 months now where I only have 4 hours of practicing in the parking lot once a week and attempt to ride for 10 to 15 minutes and then quit! This will not get me to where I want to be, but at the same time, I will not give up! My problem is I get frustrated because I'm not mastering this bike right away and I'm not comfortable and confident like I am on my Stand Up bike. Frito is 100%, ABSOLUTELY CORRECT AND ON POINT! The first problem I have is that I'm trying to control the bike TOO MUCH with my upper body like I do with my Stand Up bike. Next, I have to use slight tilts of head and shoulders for turns. Also, I need to stop wiggling my torso in order to put power into my pedal strokes, like I do with my Stand up. This is causing my instability and balance issues.... It's going to take a few weeks of consistent training for me and not escaping to my other bikes when I get frustrated. It is all mental.

Looks pretty good already!

 

[cpml123]

After 5-10 hours practicing and refining my position, I still feel unsafe on the road. I’m all over the place on the road and even when making super smooth circles with the pedals at 25 mph, every third pedal stroke, pulls me into the road. Maybe this isn’t going to work for me. I’ve attached a picture of me riding by if anyone has groundbreaking thoughts. PS retired ex road racer and former owner of a counterpoint Presto, which I did not have any trouble riding.

V20c is really hard to learn as the first Cruzbike. Take your time. A couple suggestions...
1. Post your picture with the crank at the farthest point. You don't want the leg to stretch too much. It's hard to tell with your current picture since the crank is not at the farthest point.
2. You can buy a wedge from Cruzbike to put it behind the seat cushion to raise your incline to about 30-40 deg. That will make the bike easier to control. You can then take it off after you feel comfortable with riding the bike and want to go faster.

 

[Drstimpy]

Drstimpy. I am exactly where you are at! Only 4 hours of wheel time, though. I'm still unstable and insecure like crazy! I've had my bike for 8 months now where I only have 4 hours of practicing in the parking lot once a week and attempt to ride for 10 to 15 minutes and then quit! This will not get me to where I want to be, but at the same time, I will not give up! My problem is I get frustrated because I'm not mastering this bike right away and I'm not comfortable and confident like I am on my Stand Up bike. Frito is 100%, ABSOLUTELY CORRECT AND ON POINT! The first problem I have is that I'm trying to control the bike TOO MUCH with my upper body like I do with my Stand Up bike. Next, I have to use slight tilts of head and shoulders for turns. Also, I need to stop wiggling my torso in order to put power into my pedal strokes, like I do with my Stand up. This is causing my instability and balance issues.... It's going to take a few weeks of consistent training for me and not escaping to my other bikes when I get frustrated. It is all mental.

Thanks I’m glad I’m not alone!

 

[Drstimpy]

After 5-10 hours practicing and refining my position, I still feel unsafe on the road. I’m all over the place on the road and even when making super smooth circles with the pedals at 25 mph, every third pedal stroke, pulls me into the road. Maybe this isn’t going to work for me. I’ve attached a picture of me riding by if anyone has groundbreaking thoughts. PS retired ex road racer and former owner of a counterpoint Presto, which I did not have any trouble riding.

Oh! And I forgot to include I’ve been riding my Q 45 for about six months and don’t have the same problem. In fact, I’ve actually taken it off road and had some fun with it.

 

[Greg S]

4 hours? I'm at 46 hours on the V20c as of my last ride (238 hours distributed across the 3 recumbents I own) and there are still situations where I'm not as smooth on it as I'd like.

Relax!!! Nearly every time I'm not smooth it's because I'm gripping too tight or have significant tension in my upper body.

Don't be too hard on yourself, 4 hours isn't nearly enough time to master it. I suspect most of us don't remember when we first learned to ride a bike (I know I don't) but I'm pretty sure I was all over the place after the training wheels came off

 

[CruzRider]

Oh! And I forgot to include I’ve been riding my Q 45 for about six months and don’t have the same problem. In fact, I’ve actually taken it off road and had some fun with it.

I have several Cruzbikes. I have 100 plus hours on my v20, but it is like riding an unruly steed. It is fast, fun and risky. I have gotten comfortable on it. The trick is to know that it will deviate from the line seemingly at will, unless you keep pulling it to the opposite direction. The keyword being pull. I always pull to correct rather than steer. Admittedly, I don’t have the smoothest pedal stroke or good body English. I say, don’t overthink it, pick some quiet roads and just enjoy the speed.

 

[chicorider]

All good advice. It took me about 1000 miles on my V20 before I realized I didn't have to think about what I was doing anymore. The learning curve was hard, and I wondered if I had made an expensive mistake, but with enough repetitions, practice, and stubbornness, I got there. The V has been my favorite road bike ever since, even after ten years on it.

 

[Rolling Along]

You did not say how many sessions your 5-10 hours was. It takes several day's sessions to build muscle memory. I also recommend focusing on just the V20(c) and not changing between bikes. And of course, be patient and give it more practice and time.

 

[Drstimpy]

Here is a video for reference

 

[Boreen bimbler]

I have done many years of BMX riding and am even back to doing a bit of flatland now at 55yo after a longish break. So I am used to trying to learn and probably more than most BMX'ers as I've never been that good at it. But it took me quite a while to get comfortable on an S40. I initially got the hang of it quite quickly in the car park but wasn't comfortable for at least 1000km. So I fully agree to just keep at it. Learning to keep my torso still took a while. I nearly crashed a few times trying to itch my back on the seat for instance.
I also ride motorbikes, road bikes and MTB but dont feel any of that is really relevent to riding a cruzbike IMO.

 

[CruzRider]

Here is a video for reference

Recumbent Bicycle Fit | CRUZBIKE

Proper fit on a recumbent road bicycle (as with all bicycles) will greatly enhance your riding experience, optimizing both comfort and performance. We've put together tips for Cruzbike recumbent bicycle fit and adjustment here that will help you get started.

cruzbike.com

If you have not already done so, See above video for the fit guide.

Hard to tell from a few seconds of video, but compared with my own fit, looks like your boom is a bit shorter and the handle bars a bit lower.

The guy to talk to is Larry Oslund at the Cruzbike Museum.

 

[LarryOz]

Recumbent Bicycle Fit | CRUZBIKE

Proper fit on a recumbent road bicycle (as with all bicycles) will greatly enhance your riding experience, optimizing both comfort and performance. We've put together tips for Cruzbike recumbent bicycle fit and adjustment here that will help you get started.

cruzbike.com

If you have not already done so, See above video for the fit guide.

Hard to tell from a few seconds of video, but compared with my own fit, looks like your boom is a bit shorter and the handle bars a bit lower.

The guy to talk to is Larry Oslund at the Cruzbike Museum.

Larry here - please send me still shots of you on your bike where I can see your leg positions at end end of the pedals stoke and also how your head and hands are positioned.

 

[Drstimpy]

Larry here - please send me still shots of you on your bike where I can see your leg positions at end end of the pedals stoke and also how your head and hands are positioned.

 

[Robert Holler]

Your fit looks pretty good IMHO - but you can move the slider back a hair to get your elbows a slight bit more inline with your torso. I would rotate your bars forward a hair as your wrists look cocked over a bit and not "neutral" to your forearm.

Those small changes will allow your arms and wrists a relax a bit more.

These are very small changes and at this point you should only do small changes to your fit and maybe even just one at a time - if you make a bunch of changes all at once (especially big ones - which arent needed IMHO) then you wont know what worked and what might have made things worse.

That and also just putting the miles on and getting that confidence - your line was looking really straight in the video.