Did Someone say learning a Cruzbike/MBB is hard? Try a USS

ak-tux

Zen MBB Master
Came across this video of someone trying to ride a USS(Understeat steered) RWD recumbent for the first time. Looks harder than learning an MBB to me :D


I guess it all boils down to individual determination.
 

bladderhead

Zen MBB Master
I got my Grasshopper to replace a Hpvelotechnik Streetmachine which I lost to thieves. It had USS. It was the first 'bent I owned. I tried a lot of other 'bents but that one was the least wobbly. I had no problem balancing on that bike, but there was one thing. When I went to get on it, without thinking, I would sit behind the bars, and then get really confused. This was an astonishingly hard habit to break.

The trouble with USS is that the turning circle is big.
 

Robert Holler

Administrator
Staff member
Also for USS - when you are in a tight turn and have your hands nearly all the way under the seat and wash out... not good. Ask me how I know. Going down right on your hands is a design feature I will never understand.

I never understood USS and think it is 1. dangerous and 2. goofy.
 
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3bs

whereabouts unknown
Unicycles are also out. Now that I am older, I am comfortable with my inadequacies.
 

DocS

Guru
My first recumbent was just the same ActionBent model one she's on, but mine was yellow...
I thought it would be very hard to learn, but I took to it very quickly! The only "wreck" I had on it was when I tried to spray a couple of dogs that were coming after me with Pepper Spray... There was a crosswind and it blew the pepper spray back all over me. It burned and I screamed, effectively scaring the dogs away, but couldn't see and fell over...

LOL

Blessings,
DocS
 

Brad R

Well-Known Member
When I first went from a trike to a recumbent bike, I bought a used Haluzak Horizon. It had underseat steering, but with a linkage so there was no tiller effect.

I had tried and really liked the Linear Roadster at the RCC that was near Chicago.

I thought the Horizon would be similar. I was wrong. The Horizon was much harder to learn on.

The mesh seat was comfortable but the side rails restricted my freedom of movement to get a leg down at a stop. So, stops and to some extent starts we’re always a little challenging on that bike.

The hard shell seats make getting the feet down a lot easier.

Maybe because I was used to USS from riding trikes, I didn’t find the USS giving me any trouble while learning.

Learning to ride my T50 was at least as hard as learning to ride the Horizon.

The only falls I had while moving on the Horizon damaged the handlebar, but the handlebar took the brunt of it and protected me and the rest of the bike. Fell once when my rear inner tube failed suddenly and once when I was braking on bumpy road and my water bottle fell on the road and got trapped under braking rear wheel. Plastic on gravel covered asphalt has a very low coefficient of friction.

It was a fun video though.
 

Velocivixen

Well-Known Member
It helped me learn to ride my Longbikes Slipstream by coasting down the slight incline of my driveway, then gently placing my feet on the pedals. Off I went. Of course, it’s different for everyone.
 
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