Cruzbikes Five Point Balance

[moose]

One of the great things I think it's important to understand about Cruzbike design is that it gives you back a lot of the five point balance that you get from riding an upright bike. On a standard recumbent, that is rear wheel drive, you only have one point of balance........your rear end. When you ride an upright bike you have 5 points of balance your rear and both hands and feet. The reason being that you shift weight around on your bike by moving your body back and forth while you ride. On your standard rear wheel recumbent you can not do this because your feet are passive and are only used to drive the bike forward. The great thing about the front wheel drive is that it gives you a lot of five point balance back when you activate botth arms and legs in the steering. The longer I ride the more apparent this has become. You can even lift yourself out of the saddle on really rough spots.......just like on an upright. I was showing some hard core upright riders some of the Cruzbikes strengths this morning on a ride and they were really amazed that a recumbent could keep up and do so well on a forest trail. They were really blown away by the hands off ability of the design.
Moose

 

[JonB]

moose wrote: One of the great things I think it's important to understand about Cruzbike design is that it gives you back a lot of the five point balance that you get from riding an upright bike. On a standard recumbent, that is rear wheel drive, you only have one point of balance........your rear end. When you ride an upright bike you have 5 points of balance your rear and both hands and feet. The reason being that you shift weight around on your bike by moving your body back and forth while you ride. On your standard rear wheel recumbent you can not do this because your feet are passive and are only used to drive the bike forward. The great thing about the front wheel drive is that it gives you a lot of five point balance back when you activate botth arms and legs in the steering. The longer I ride the more apparent this has become. You can even lift yourself out of the saddle on really rough spots.......just like on an upright. I was showing some hard core upright riders some of the Cruzbikes strengths this morning on a ride and they were really amazed that a recumbent could keep up and do so well on a forest trail. They were really blown away by the hands off ability of the design.

Good observation. As for lifting yourself out of the seat, i think this requires a sofrider style handlebar. How would you do it with a Freerider?

Couldnt you take some offroad riding video and post it on youtube or something?

 

[Mark B]

JonB wrote:

moose wrote: One of the great things I think it's important to understand about Cruzbike design is that it gives you back a lot of the five point balance that you get from riding an upright bike. On a standard recumbent, that is rear wheel drive, you only have one point of balance........your rear end. When you ride an upright bike you have 5 points of balance your rear and both hands and feet. The reason being that you shift weight around on your bike by moving your body back and forth while you ride. On your standard rear wheel recumbent you can not do this because your feet are passive and are only used to drive the bike forward. The great thing about the front wheel drive is that it gives you a lot of five point balance back when you activate botth arms and legs in the steering. The longer I ride the more apparent this has become. You can even lift yourself out of the saddle on really rough spots.......just like on an upright. I was showing some hard core upright riders some of the Cruzbikes strengths this morning on a ride and they were really amazed that a recumbent could keep up and do so well on a forest trail. They were really blown away by the hands off ability of the design.

Good observation. As for lifting yourself out of the seat, i think this requires a sofrider style handlebar. How would you do it with a Freerider?

Couldnt you take some offroad riding video and post it on youtube or something?

I could lift my butt off the seat on my old Vision. It's more a function of pressing against the pedals and the seat back. I do not recall being able to do it on my Strada.

Mark