A Little Recumbent Love Over on Global Cycling Network

[jond]

Access would help. There are hardly any bike shops around here, let alone 'bent shops. When is the Ilford branch of Rose City opening up?

I thought the first GCN video when he rode the bikes and smiled a lot was good. The second one was daft. They are seriously informative about stuff like Ti, but not 'bents. Why did they bother at all? Take the mick out of the weird crusty blokes who drink beer with bits in it.

Exactly. Totally agree. South Australian beer coopers has floaters but it’s very nice.

 

[jond]

For ed.

From gcn tech show. Paraphrase Ollie and John.

Advantages of recumbent

Faster fun comfort lower centre of gravity . I would add inclusiveness safer cargo carrying capacity stability variety and appearance.

Disadvantages

1.trikes are unstable and no suspension is an issue Wrong tadpole trikes are not unstable and many feature suspension. No research before opening mouths.

2.high chance falling off easier to fall off further to fall off clumsy contraptions. Pff how would they know this without riding one. And it’s simply wrong.

3.more expensive. Wrong heaps bents are reasonably priced. Brevet m5 vendetta etc

Cheap bents available new too from performer etc.

4.smaller numbers correct and slower up hills generally right.

5.cant surge in power. Wrong you can push so hard as to destroy your knees leverage against a seat. Or mbb push pull goodness

6. Saddle sores. Laughable stupid ignorant comment

7.vulnerable. I’d argue a recumbent is safer than a df in an accident though visibility in city can be an issue but is overcome easily with lighting and awareness.

8.velos are fragile and hard to get in and out of. Partially correct.

Wrong rotovelo is indestructible . They seem difficult but practice brings familiarity

I would add despite fat trikes and Azub max etc not great off road on tough technical terrain. And extra weight.

 

[bladderhead]

More expensive? Some people pay more for one DF than I paid for two 'bents. Including getting all the bits for the Silvio separately and getting the wrong ones.

Power by pushing into the seat? For the users of this forum it is bar-pulling. Seat-pushing is for the Grasshopper.

I thought I heard them say something about saddle sores. I thought I was misunderstanding. Of the two types, a 'bent is the one you get when you are fed up with saddle sores.

Fragile? On the one and only occasion when I went to a race I saw a velo that was absolutely bombproof. The shell was the frame. Monocoque. Bloke said he had crashed at 60mph and slid for miles. Only scratched it.

They are not GCN, they are GDFN. Or GUCIN.

 

[RojoRacing]

As far as more expensive goes if your taking frameset to frames set the Alloy V20 cost about as much as a nice name brand carbon frame. If you get a shimano 105 equipped V20 it'll cost at least a grand or more than a 105 equipped Alloy DF bike.

Sprint power is only less if you want to consider 5% a notable con. It's funny how many times someone has asked me if I'm actually on a bent after I outsprint them to the line of a zwift race because they thought bents couldn't sprint.

 

[jond]

Hi rojo

My point Relative Expense is in the eye of the beholder.

regarding expense I think expense is also all relative to which brand bike and your currency conversion rate .

The bikes in this years tdf ranged from 5k to 16k American for complete bikes. That’s a big range and makes the vendetta etc cheap to me compared to that upper end and possibly expensive compared to the lower end.

 

[super slim]

The COMFORT outways the COST!!!!!!
Even for the son of a Yorkshireman!!!

Pity Dad is not alive, so I could stir him about AUSTRALIA winning the Ashes!!!!

 

[Osiris]

Sprint power is only less if you want to consider 5% a notable con. It's funny how many times someone has asked me if I'm actually on a bent after I outsprint them to the line of a zwift race because they thought bents couldn't sprint.

That's just you. You are the one in a thousand who makes the same power on a bent as you do on an upright. The other 99% of us don't, so what Ed wrote is perfectly accurate. From my own tests: on my roadbike, I can max out at 1300 watts in a sprint. On any given recumbent, it's hard for me to even hit 1000 watts. That 300 watt difference matters when trying to keep up with a pack of strong upright riders off the line. It's made all the more difficult by the fact that you're accelerating significantly more mass, and that you can't use your body weight to turn the pedals as you can on an upright.

 

[3bs]

Real teenagers riding real bents in the real world. They go to my shed and they choose to ride these over everything else. (Standard uprights, mountain uprights, tandem uprights, and bent 2 wheelers. They buzz along chatting, with music playing on a phone, or they race.
But, I am keenly aware this is not the best exemplar. my shed is not a normal bike shed, and we live in the country. But they do choose them.

 

[Osiris]

Hi rojo

My point Relative Expense is in the eye of the beholder.

regarding expense I think expense is also all relative to which brand bike and your currency conversion rate .

The bikes in this years tdf ranged from 5k to 16k American for complete bikes. That’s a big range and makes the vendetta etc cheap to me compared to that upper end and possibly expensive compared to the lower end.

When it comes to price, you need to be careful to make an apples to apples comparison. Yes, the top end road bikes can cost a mint, but a big chunk of that expense comes from the set of $3000 wheels they're equipped with and the $2000 SRAM eTap electronic shifters. Take those out of the picture and you've cut the price of the bike in half. Consider aluminum frames instead of carbon fiber and you've cut the price in half again. You can also find uprights in excellent condition on the used market for a fraction of their original price. That's what all the young riders without a lot of money or those who just want to try bicycling to see if it suits them are going to be looking at when making a purchase. They're not going to be forking over $4000 for a new recumbent, assuming they even know what a recumbent is.

 

[jond]

When it comes to price, you need to be careful to make an apples to apples comparison. Yes, the top end road bikes can cost a mint, but a big chunk of that expense comes from the set of $3000 wheels they're equipped with and the $2000 SRAM eTap electronic shifters. Take those out of the picture and you've cut the price of the bike in half. Consider aluminum frames instead of carbon fiber and you've cut the price in half again. You can also find uprights in excellent condition on the used market for a fraction of their original price. That's what all the young riders without a lot of money or those who just want to try bicycling to see if it suits them are going to be looking at when making a purchase. They're not going to be forking over $4000 for a new recumbent, assuming they even know what a recumbent is.

Good points Osiris. Yes value is a moveable feast . Okay carbon fibre frameset time.....

Pinarello dogma f12 frameset $9300 aud. Pelso Brevet carbon fibre $4800 delivered to my door a month ago. That’s apples for apples. Albeit a cooking apple v a tasteful Jonathan
I would love a pinarello really but can’t afford their value.

I know a Giant is a lot cheaper but if you want a “nice name “brand eg.time look etc you pay varyingly for a nice name since all carbon fibre is manufactured in three factories. Ps I own a giant hand laid carbon and love it. Just not as much as the recumbents. I own five df and five bents for reference

 

[cpml123]

They buzz along chatting, with music playing on a phone, or they race.

They are probably thinking they are racing go-karts!

 

[bladderhead]

apples to apples

My Grasshopper is apple coloured but it has banana bags.

And some Cruzbikes are orange.

 

[super slim]

My Grasshopper is apple coloured but it has banana bags.

And some Cruzbikes are orange.

And what type of bag does an Orange Cruzbike have?

 

[3bs]

clearly we are on our way to a fruit salad.

 

[Osiris]

Good points Osiris. Yes value is a moveable feast . Okay carbon fibre frameset time.....

Pinarello dogma f12 frameset $9300 aud. Pelso Brevet carbon fibre $4800 delivered to my door a month ago. That’s apples for apples.

More like:

The people I see on Pinarello's are the same ones driving their Porsches and Lamborghinis below the speed limit. Complete wankers. You're paying a ludicrous amount of money just for the name "Pinarello", whereas Pelso has no name recognition, and appears to be just a variant of my trusty Bacchetta CA2. Nothing special about it, although on a functional level I'm sure it's a superb bent. A better comparison would be between the Pelso and any mid level carbon frame uprights, which can be had for a song on the used market.

 

[3bs]

@Osiris since i do not own a pinarello, i will not be offended by the fact that i drive my porsche under the speed limit on occasion. i drive mine 365 and have done so since the late 1980's. sun rain snow. on the road, on the track, dirt roads, everywhere, all the time. with roof racks when needed. they are in fact quite good every day cars, and i get my money out of them. i even try to wash mine once a year whether its needs it or not.
perhaps a pagani would be a better example. and it still starts with a p and ends with a vowel. LOLOLOL.

 

[McWheels]

To be applauded. I also note you have clocked on to the value of removing the seat cushions prior to take-off.

 

[jond]

More like:

The people I see on Pinarello's are the same ones driving their Porsches and Lamborghinis below the speed limit. Complete wankers. You're paying a ludicrous amount of money just for the name "Pinarello", whereas Pelso has no name recognition, and appears to be just a variant of my trusty Bacchetta CA2. Nothing special about it, although on a functional level I'm sure it's a superb bent. A better comparison would be between the Pelso and any mid level carbon frame uprights, which can be had for a song on the used market.

Nice bike photo

Actually you’re paying a shed load more for the story of pinarello . Since all diamond frame top end bicycle frames are much the same apple in different skins. The gcn story revealed that price range differential and its huge but the lower priced apple story is just as fast etc as the high priced apple story. I compared new framesets to make my original point. That value is in the eye of the beholder. As I said Giant is cheaper than pinarello .

No recumbent has name recognition because today the open market is fragmented so much that you have to sell a story to sell pretty much anything of perceived value these days. The recumbent story is screwed down by the uci.

If people purchased bicycles from an objective view in a true open market the recumbent design would be commonplace with its manifest advantages and be further along the development line. The uci is a terrible greengrocer offering only Granny Smiths.

 

[jond]

And what type of bag does an Orange Cruzbike have?

A very very very smart bag.

 

[bladderhead]

UCI do not like 'bents. Sour grapes.