1st 100 Miles

[bikeaholic]

This is my 1st recumbent and I love it! I did a lot of research before I made the big purchase.

When I took my 1st ride I thought, oh no, I made a mistake. But after some practice I had it down in about 10 miles. I find myself riding with the chain on the large ring in the front, which never happened on a upright bike for me unless I was going down hill. I don't dread hills at all as bad as I did! The bike climbs awesome.

I changed out the grips. Comfort 1st! And later on down the road I will upgrade the front rings to a triple. I also plan on disc brake on the front. I ride more often on this bike just because it is more fun!!!! I have completed 100 miles and can't wait to put more on it.


Enjoy the pictures below.

 

[OleBent1]

Congrats on what sounds like a rapid transition to the moving bottom bracket. I too am just getting my first rides in on my Sofrider, but haven't quite gotten past the occasional weaving that's keeping away from high traffic areas just yet. Judging by the black color on your bike, I suspect yours is a newer model than my used Sofrider.

Sounds like you're pretty happy with its hill-climbing ability, which is encouraging to me. I hope to be commuting with mine on a semi-frequent basis, but that will eventually include getting up a fairly nasty hill within the last mile back to my house. It's something like a 15-20% grade for a little less than a 1/4 mile, and I suspect I'll have to go to a triple chainring to succeed on that hill without walking. I'm contemplating going to shorter cranks in the process of that change (for all the reasons I've read about from other Cruzbikers and 'bent riders in general), but I'm worried about how that might make this hill a bit harder because of the shorter crank arms (I have 170mm cranks right now).

How steep are the hills you're climbing and what crank arm length and chainrings do you have? Are you running into any front wheel slip, and are you using pedal clips of any kind to help smooth out your pedal strokes ("spinning" instead of "mashing"; I only see basic platform pedals in your photos)?

 

[bikeaholic]

Hi OleBent1

I have the original 2 rings up front and platform pedals. I am no mechanic so whatever is posted on the website is what I currently have on the bike. I am going to install clipless shimano pedals eventually, but I still want some miles to get comfortable on the bike before i attach my feet to the pedals. I do weave every once in a while, but I ride mostly back roads. I haven't had any wheel slip yet. But I purposely stay away from any gravel or lose dirt on the road if I can. My average speed is only 11-12 mph. But it is much better than on my upright. I don't know how steep the hills are, not sure how to tell. One of them I consider really steep. Probably at least 15% grade.

 

[OleBent1]

That sounds similar to my hill, so that's even more encouraging.
For what it's worth, there's a website that allow you to plot your bike route and offers elevation information.

http://www.mapmyride.com/create_new

Once the route up your hill, select "Settings" and turn on the "Display Elevation" option (you can download the data for the gory details). My hill works out to a 150 ft climb in just under a 1/4 mile (1300 ft), so an average grade of about 150 / 1300 = 11.5%. But I know the middle section has steeper bits.
Once I get more "anti-weave" dialed in, I'll have to give this a try.

Cheers!