Fighting residual wobblies

[Vicki C.]

Thanks, everyone! I'll factor in that I might be overanalyzing it. I mean, the Sofrider is both my first short wheelbase recumbent and my first Cruzbike, and I felt like I wobbled on my LWB for a while. (Though how long, I no longer remember! After some point, it just became something I didn't notice.) And, of course, all bikes wobble. So, because it's a new kind of bike for me, I'm likely overanalyzing it.

Otherwise, relax, and learn to use the wobble to my advantage! That's mostly what I wanted to hear.

FWIW, I think that I am also right-leg dominate. When coasting, I find that my right leg is more upright in the pedals than my left, and when I try to replicate it with my left leg that I do wobble unacceptably. I know my legs are of equal physical strength - I also lift weights, and years of lunges have sorted that out - so it's not that. I've been working on coasting with both legs in any position, but I can also work on pedaling technique. A few hundred thousand more pedal strokes are likely to get that fixed.

I always end up coasting with my left leg up. I think it is because I unclip first on the right side with my right foot at the bottom of the pedal stroke. If I am coasting usually it is because I am turning or in a dicey spot or approaching an intersection and want to be ready to unclip immediately and put my foot down. I noticed I am doing it with the T50 even though I am not using clipless pedals. I want to keep the same practice and foot positions so that when I do clip in the muscle memory for unclipping and leaning right is still there.

 

[Vicki C.]

For best handling AND front wheel drive the Silvio and Vendetta with fixed seats have a 50% front 50% rear weight balance

My bike shop/Cruzbike dealer says that the Silvio and Vendetta are easier to ride than the utility bikes. Interesting that it may be the weight distribution. He said it was the tiller effect of the longer boom on the Silvio and Vendetta.

 

[Mathew Fy]

I'd like to consider my low speed skills to be quite good given the bikes quirks and at the risk of sounding arrogant I'd guess I'm maybe the best when it comes to high speed skills. I would like to make it to one of the retreats where we could setup an obstacle course and put on display just how good the wielder of the rubber mallet and the Parker family are at controlling these bikes. I'm not talking about a simple weaving between a few cones though, I'm talking a maze of 100 cones setup to make you put that foot down. Beside it giving most of us a good laugh, it would be cool to compare where some of are and where we could possibly end up with even more practice.

I think riding a drill course would be a fun challenge to have. I recently went down that rabbit hole following YouTube links. Like this one of a police officer skill course, and this Vespa agility course. Then I did a Google image search for "bicycle obstacle course layout". Some are geared toward motorcyclists, but they seem like they'd be awesome. Then I got off the computer and went for a ride.