markciccio
Active Member
Hi to you all, I am Marco Ruga, the guy that made those tests.
I am very happy to see that you are somehow interested. Let me say that I always liked cruzbike Vendetta and Silvio, for me the better recumbents of all times.
The bike of the video is called "V", a 11,5 kg bike that was born two years ago from very cheap materials, insipired from the Silvio. I just aimed to a bike that could climb well, better than the classic RWD recumbents. In my opinion, the Silvio a nice climber, thanks to che TD MBB geometry, and the "vertical" Seat.
I have made many tests in these two years in all the configurations I could and at the end of all the better results was with a 30-35° vertical seat and, most important, a very low BB. Very low means not more than 2-3 cm higher than the lover part of the seat. With lover BB I noticed a much better control of the steering (so important at low speed) and , most of all, there is a much better blood circulation in my legs, that is to say I can push without any foot pain. On the other hand, when I approach +8% climbs I stand vertical with the spine, not using the back of the seat. This takes me to a +3-5% performance (and higher weight on the front wheel). I think that is because this takes to a more effective hip-spine angle.
You see this constant feature on my bikes. I want to set the BB as lower as possible, it is not a casuality.
At the moment I have built 6 "Revs" (that is the name of the evolution of the "V"). All those bikes where made for friends (only friends because I don't sell anything) who wanted to try something different from standard recumbents. They all are very happy, especially because they climb very close to classic road "DF" bikes perfomance.
But the special feature of all "Revs" is that they are made direcly from road bikes, cut and glued with carbon fiber. This means that I did not have to build from scratch but from "cheap" second hand bikes that no one wanted to use any more. The lighter of all was 9.5 kg, coming from a 8 kg road bike. But at the moment I am transforming a light 7 kg Bianchi Oltre and I hope that this new Rev will be a 9 kg recumbent, maybe near to 8 kg. This could take a great advantage in climbing.
I could write much more but I don't want to bore you. In any case, in the next week we will publish on my blog a lot of different comparisons between bikes. Different in lenght, duration and slope. Our goal is to find how near or far this recumbent could be form a DF bike in any condition.
On the other hand I just want to unterline that the Revs are quite good on flat roads too. There could be position that optimizes climb perfomance but, this better ability to push could partly compensate the higher aerodynamic drag.
If you want, I can try try to explain these test in this forum or translate in english in the blog pages for better understanting.
See you soon!
Mark
I am very happy to see that you are somehow interested. Let me say that I always liked cruzbike Vendetta and Silvio, for me the better recumbents of all times.
The bike of the video is called "V", a 11,5 kg bike that was born two years ago from very cheap materials, insipired from the Silvio. I just aimed to a bike that could climb well, better than the classic RWD recumbents. In my opinion, the Silvio a nice climber, thanks to che TD MBB geometry, and the "vertical" Seat.
I have made many tests in these two years in all the configurations I could and at the end of all the better results was with a 30-35° vertical seat and, most important, a very low BB. Very low means not more than 2-3 cm higher than the lover part of the seat. With lover BB I noticed a much better control of the steering (so important at low speed) and , most of all, there is a much better blood circulation in my legs, that is to say I can push without any foot pain. On the other hand, when I approach +8% climbs I stand vertical with the spine, not using the back of the seat. This takes me to a +3-5% performance (and higher weight on the front wheel). I think that is because this takes to a more effective hip-spine angle.
You see this constant feature on my bikes. I want to set the BB as lower as possible, it is not a casuality.
At the moment I have built 6 "Revs" (that is the name of the evolution of the "V"). All those bikes where made for friends (only friends because I don't sell anything) who wanted to try something different from standard recumbents. They all are very happy, especially because they climb very close to classic road "DF" bikes perfomance.
But the special feature of all "Revs" is that they are made direcly from road bikes, cut and glued with carbon fiber. This means that I did not have to build from scratch but from "cheap" second hand bikes that no one wanted to use any more. The lighter of all was 9.5 kg, coming from a 8 kg road bike. But at the moment I am transforming a light 7 kg Bianchi Oltre and I hope that this new Rev will be a 9 kg recumbent, maybe near to 8 kg. This could take a great advantage in climbing.
I could write much more but I don't want to bore you. In any case, in the next week we will publish on my blog a lot of different comparisons between bikes. Different in lenght, duration and slope. Our goal is to find how near or far this recumbent could be form a DF bike in any condition.
On the other hand I just want to unterline that the Revs are quite good on flat roads too. There could be position that optimizes climb perfomance but, this better ability to push could partly compensate the higher aerodynamic drag.
If you want, I can try try to explain these test in this forum or translate in english in the blog pages for better understanting.
See you soon!
Mark
