Going from standard to recumbent

[Kenneth Jessett]

I'd be interested in the experience of recumbent riders who used to ride standard bikes.

Speaking to a dealer yesterday, he was of the opinion that it takes a new recumbent rider 3 - 6 months before the muscles are retrained to ride a recumbent bike to the same speed as the standard. Is this a common experience?

The same dealer (the only recumbent dealer in Houston) also said that his recumbent business for the last 10 years has been poor, and although recumbent trike sales were showing improvement he had little expectation that the future of bike bents was anything but rosy and he was now concentrating on stocking standard bikes.

It is odd that although many racing pros have given their opinion that recumbents are the future of cycling, so few are actually being sold. It would seem that getting into the business of making and selling recumbents is and will remain difficult.

Ken.

 

[Alan]

I don't think 3 months, not for a cruzbike

I've just done that. I went straight to a vendetta.

My fastest normal (DF) bike is a £1000 cyclocross bike - and I usually ride a fixed gear (drop bar) bike 10 miles each way to work. The cyclocross is fast enough that I keep with younger friends when out on social fast rides, but I don't do any racing. I've never ridden a timetrial bike.

I wanted a fast road bike, and decided on the vendetta as being about as fast as you can go unfaired, sensible enough in traffic, and apparently reasonable at climbing relative to other 'bents. I couldn't care less for UCI regulations, so why buy a DF bike? It's a new vendetta 2.0 with mainly 105 and disc brakes. I love disc brakes in the wet, and plan to commute on it. I've done a few commutes on it now, so I'm reasonably safe. Following slow riders up hills (<6mph) with no space to overtake stops me, but otherwise I'm OKish.

It took me about 4 weeks to be confident enough to do road and urban riding, practicing in a car park. I found it pretty hard, it's my first recumbent, and it's low. I suspect even just a silvio would be significantly easier, but I don't know. It was hard to work out what was important, and I hurt my ankle in an early fall, which contributes to about 2 of the 4 weeks worth of delay.

There are subtly different muscles in riding a vendetta, but it's not that much different. Small aches on the top of the thighs are all I get (but I also get those on my full suspension mountain bike). Others have commented the same - but "normal recumbents" can be very different apparently. I'm faster down hill (one of my personal bests was achieved on the vendetta without pedaling, vs the cyclocross whilst pedaling like mad!). I'm just about even on the flats, sometimes faster, sometimes slower. I'm slower up hill at the moment, but gaining speed relatively quickly, and suspect I'll be there in a couple of weeks.

For some reason left hand tight turns are fine, right hand, not so much. I fell to the right (see ankle injury above), and think the fear is still there.

 

[1happyreader]

felt the same way

Alan, I felt much the same way about turns,

For some reason left hand tight turns are fine, right hand, not so much.

thought I was misjudging the lines because the front wheel was now at my knees.

I tried part of a post by a cruzbike rider named Ratz ,,,,, it changed everything for me!

1+ on the outside shoulderThanks,,,,,, Ratz,, 1+ on the outside shoulder at low speeds !
I was getting by leaning in but have a low speed uphill hairpin ( you are suppose to walk your bike on this foot bridge) that is a little less challenging now !

"6) Start doing shallow turns; when you turn "DROP" your outside shoulder; it should feel like a reverse shrug; just relax you shoulder muscle so the shoulder drops. This is the same thing you do on racing motorcycles and snowmobiles you have to lean OUT ever so slightly on the turn; this is the opposite of what you do on a road bike. This is the #1 thing DF riders do wrong; they want to lean in to the turn; and coast; at which point they start to fall into the ground. Took watching several struggle to figure that out. This was a hard learned lesson that Bill paid for with his ankle injury. Those that came later owe him one for that."

 

[chrisblessing]

Recumbents

Hi Kenneth,

I've been riding recumbent bicycles since 2000, and in the last year built a Cruzbike conversion. my first MBB. While I, and likely everyone on this forum, prefer recumbents, the dealer's experience probably mirrors that of dealers everywhere. Recumbents don't ever appear to have represented more than 1-2% of the total bicycle market. Reasons are many and varied.

How quickly you adapt to a recumbent is all down to you. I felt fully competent in a few days, with muscle adaptation in a couple of weeks. That's because I was out every day. When I started with my conversion the only real adjustments regarded pedal steer and more upper body involvement in my riding.

It's hard to imagine you'd be disappointed if you started riding a recumbent. I do hope you'll give it a try.

Chris

 

[KiwiGuy]

Learning to the power of 2

Hi Kenneth

I moved from a diamond frame bike (df) to a rwd recumbent 9 years ago.

My experience I think of learning to ride to the power of 2. Here's how it went:

#1. It took me 2 hours of riding around a school playground before I felt confident about going out on the road.

#2. It took me 2 weeks of road riding before I felt ok starting and stopping.

#3. It took me 2 months of road riding before I entered my first event on the recumbent (80 km event).

#4. It took me 2,000 kilometers of road riding before I felt fully at one with the recumbent.

Yes it does take some time to acclimatize, but (assuming that you are out on the road four or so days a week) once you get through the first couple of months you ought to be all good.


Alan - that is an impressive move going from a df to a Vendetta. I am sure that it is the amount of seat recline which has been the major contributor to the time it has taken you to acclimatize. I certainly wouldn't have found it easy to move straight from a df to a recumbent with a 20 degree seat angle.

Kind regards...

 

[Alan]

Thanks happyreader (and Ratz)

Thanks happyreader (and Ratz) for that idea. I had read it a while ago, but forgotten it. I did badly dislocate my shoulder a year ago and had shoulder surgery on that shoulder in March. It's the left shoulder, the one I need to shrug for right hand turns. Maybe the weakness there is partly to blame for the asymettry.

I forgot to say how much fun it is. Still nervous, but when the road is clear ahead the bike does feel great.

 

[LarryOz]

DF to Cruzbike with no other receumbent history

Hi Ken,
Here's my 2 cents on learning to ride a Cruzbike (Silvio 2.0) straight from a DF. (A hybrid Specialized - Crosstrail)
Up to about 3 months ago I had been a DF rider since I was about 5! haha. 50 years worth - wow.
I always rode to school, in college, and as a professional to work pretty much my entire life.
I raced Criteriums for one year back about 30 years ago, but nothing since - commuting mostly
...
Recent history:
Up to about 3 months ago (when I got my first Cruzbike - a Silvio 2.0), I was commuting to work regularly. About 10 miles each way, and maybe 20-30 mile ride on the weekend if I had time.
I would not say that I am really "strong" rider, but I probably would class myself as above average.
..
My results:
The first week (June 14-20) I just rode around my neighborhood as I could not even hold a straight line and was scared to go on the main highway. On Sat 21st, I rode on the main highway for the first time (still scared to death!! ), and rode in the park.
Feeling pretty confident and really tired of riding my DF to work now, on June 23rd, I made my first trek to work and back.
Here are my distances and average speeds:
last ride to work and back on my DF (June 20th)
?to work: 10.27 miles 39:04 - avg=15.8mph
to home: 12.1 miles 41:45 - avg=17.4mph
first ride to work on my Silvio on June 23rd
?to work: 10.2 miles 32:51 - avg=18.5mph (almost 3mph faster!)
to home: 20.7 miles 59:41 - avg 20.8mph (more than 3mph faster)

* My Silvio is setup with a Q-rings now,a nd 150mm cranks (which I like better than the 170mm), but no other Aero help. The figures about though are with regular round rings, and 170mm cranks. Pretty much a stock Silvio 2.0
........
My personal experience has been that as soon as I felt confident enough in traffic (to not swerve into a car!) I was able to easily exceed my DF speed. Now, I do not have experience riding a conventional recumbent, although I have read many reports of how terribly slow rear-wheel drive recumbents are going up inclines. Given that knowledge, I would have to agree that it probably will take significant time (months) for average speeds on a non-front-wheel-drive recumbent to approach that of at DF. Obviously this will vary with the amount of hills that are in the equation. Cruzbikes are very different. In my humble opinion, you will have no trouble at all matching and exceeding your DF speed!
..........
It has been 3 months now, and I just love riding the Cruzbike so much, that I regularly ride 20+ miles both to and from work. I can generally average about 20mph with medium effort, even with 1000-1500' of climbing in a 25 mile route.

I will have to say though, that it has taken me about 3 months or so riding like this to feel "truly" comfortable enought to relaly push it. And that is about after 3000 miles. That means I can really push myself to max heart rate (about 200bpm). I was initially frustrated after riding only a month that I could not seem to push myself much above 165-170. But I think just was not acclimated to the Cruzbike very well. Now I can push myself harder and harder and am learning to really climb the hills faster. On relatively flat ground I can ride a 40K in under an hour now.
....
I really love riding my Cruzbike and am such a speed junkie now, that I wanted to get a Vendetta. I was lucky enough to find someone that got a new Vendetta and could not ride it due to some neck issue and we are trading. I am getting it today actually and will be switching out all our components and sending my bike back to hi (Good Luck with the S2.0 John if you are reading this!)
......
Recommendation:
Start out with a Silvio if you are fairly serious and avg to strong rider.
The Vendetta seat incline is pretty severe for starting out if you have never ridden a recumbent before. (it is basically a Time Trial bike) I think it would take more time to learn to ride a Vendetta comfortably than it would a Silvio. 20% is really laying pretty flat. I would suggest starting out with the Silvio which is 28%. It will still get you way out of the wind, your speeds will be fantastic, and you will not believe how much time you want to spend on the bike! Then if you love it and want more,
...
Larry

 

[Peder Torgersen]

First time I rode a Vendetta

First time I rode a Vendetta I was able to ride it straight and with speed!
That seems very impressive but I was not very impressive on my first ride on a Sofrider.

I got my first recumbent about 7 years ago a Phantom Lightning.
I liked it and was able to ride it on my first ride but it took some rides to be comfortable.
My second recumbent was a Sofrider.
It took me 4 rides of 50 km before I was able to increase speed because then the Sofrider would not go straight.
I found the Sofrider to be more practical on dirt roads and commuting to and from work.

I'm a recumbent dealer and sell different recumbents.
After I learned to ride a Sofrider I decided to learn to ride a unicycle.
That took much longer time to learn.
I got a Vendetta 2 years ago I was able to ride it on my first ride but handling it well took some rides.

On a ride yesterday I passed an older rider climbing a hill but this was a long hill and he eventually passed me again and said he was cheating he had an electric bike.
My main objective with the Vendetta is being able to keep up with average club riders climbing hills and I'm able to do that.
I'm getting older 58 years old I ride often but don't have time for many long training rides.
If you ride slowly on your first rides and do that on consecutive days your brain will figure out how to coordinate your legs and arms.
I hope you soon will enjoy your riding.

 

[Ivan]

I'm probably the one here who

I'm probably the one here who rides in the heaviest traffic. Took me 4 weeks before I was comfortable commuting in my urban environment. At 4 weeks I was similar speed to my DF riding. I had transitioned from a Cervelo S2 (high end road bike) to a Silvio 2, my first recumbent. By week 6, I was significantly faster on Silvio.

 

[Robert Holler]

The experience will vary from

The experience will vary from everyone. My 10 year old daughter never could get a handle on riding a Bike E and never did like it. She got on a Q 26 and in four minutes was riding figure 8's and doing 18 MPH 200 meter running sprints.

I have had customers try the bikes and have trouble on a Q but take off like a pro on a Silvio - and vice versa.

Robert

 

[castlerobber]

Slow learner, I guess

I've had my Quest 451 for a little less than 4 months. I'd been riding a recumbent tadpole trike (two wheels in front, one in back) since 2006, as well as my standard road bike. I'm not sure how much, if any, the trike helped build the recumbent muscles.

In spite of the urgings of the local recumbent dealer, I had never tried a two-wheeled recumbent before buying the Cruzbike. As I'm only 5'5" and have never had great balance, the idea of riding a recumbent with a high bottom bracket made me nervous; and the considerable length of long-wheelbase recumbents just didn't appeal to me.

I got the hang of pedaling the Q fairly quickly, but it took a good two months for me to start feeling comfortable. I practiced nearly every day for a half-hour or so during the summer, first in parking lots, then on quiet residential streets. I made the mistakes of trying to ride in traffic too soon, and attempting to ride with my clipless pedals too soon. No harm done, no crashes, but I wasn't enjoying the Q under those conditions, so I backed off.

I have only about 300 (slow) miles on the Q to date. I'm much less uncomfortable around traffic now, including bicycle traffic on a local trail. I've done several 20-mile organized rides in the last couple of months, at 12 to 12.5 mph. Even managed a 29-miler on the Natchez Trace last weekend. I still don't clip in--I guess it's time to retreat to the parking lot to practice that skill.

I'm hoping that by spring, my speed will be closer to the 13.5 to 14 mph I was managing on the road bike.

 

[Lief]

Kenneth says Thank You

To everyone on this thread that has answered Kenneth's original query - he's having trouble logging into and/or successfully posting to the forum.
He just wanted to say thanks.

[Thank you to] all the kind people who responded to my post about going from a standard to recumbent bike and I don't want them to think I'm being a prick for not doing so. If you can please post that I've tried several times to write an answer but am now giving up on the forum, I'd appreciate it.

and now from myself.

Kenneth,
Don't truly give up on the forum just because of a technical difficulty!
That might be like giving up on a better type of bike because the first one you tried didn't fit! ( wink wink )

Someone here can probably help you out?!
Can you send Personal Messages to people once you've logged in?
If so - try sending one to me with what you are experiencing (screenshots help) and I'll see if I can ferret out the problem for you?

We have a lot of good help on here and it would be a shame to isolate someone so thankful as yourself.

Lief

 

[Alan]

Clipping in

I'm getting more confident now, with a few more miles under my belt. This morning I had 6 new strava personal bests, and got some genuine pedal power in at higher (>25mph) speeds. I'm still slower up hills though, and have various bits of traffic related discomfort, but getting better.

At some point I need to get clip-in pedals on. I already dislike having to hold my feet in place, and put pressure on the pedals when I'm coasting to hold my feet there. I'm very comfortable in them on a DF bike (even off-road) but still nervous that I will have to pay a sacrificial offering of gravel in my knees or elbows when it comes to learning.