Just bought a Sofrider

[gaje48a]

Hi All,

Just to introduce myself - I am predominantly a mountain bike rider (dual suspension) interested in cross country riding and I also commute 6 km to work on my hardtail MTB every day. I’ve ridden bikes since I was a kid, but just recently, after my motorcycle died, I took to commuting by bike and I found that I actually prefer it – even in -5C winters. I live in a university town of 25,000 people (in NSW, Australia) so it’s easy to get out of town and enjoy the countryside. I like mountain biking coz its fun and traffic free. Now that I’m nearly 50 my body is starting to complain about the off-road abuse it’s been put through and I’ve started to add to my MTB rides with some road riding (and just put up with the traffic). I’ve found though that I struggle to do more than 40 kms coz of the pain in my nether regions, hands and wrists. So what to do…

I’ve been interested in recumbents for a long time, borne out by the fact I created my cruzbike account 2 years ago (!) and I have avidly read the posts while doing research on recumbent bikes in general. The great thing about recumbents (I read) is the comfort thing and DF bikes just aren’t that comfy for me. Dual suspension on DF bikes does help but I still find it too painful past 40kms or so. Last year, while visiting Canberra, I made the opportunity to test ride some recumbent bikes. It was just riding around a large industrial carpark but it was enough that I quickly mastered the new riding position. It did feel weird lying on my back, exposed even, but weird in a nice oh-so-comfortable way. I tested a Bacchetta Giro 20 and 26, a TW Bents Attack and a European dual suspension machine whose identity escapes me. Suspended or not they were all very comfortable, especially the Giro 20. I was very interested. Only 1 problem – sticker shock. A bit out of my price range unfortunately.

More lurking on the cruzbike website / forum followed and while I looked at price, quality, features, gearing, etc, I paid particular attention to the MBB issue. Was this a deal breaker? Plenty of posts advised to just get ‘one and ride through it’. I quickly learned to ride recumbent in Canberra so how hard can this MBB thing be? My long term biking future needs to be recumbent based and so I’ve ordered a Sofrider. It'll be here in the next few days - can’t wait...

Cheers

Gavin

 

[Mark B]

Congratulations! You're in for a treat, just take your time and like you said, "ride through" the learning curve.

Keep us posted on your progress.

Mark

 

[gaje48a]

My Sofrider arrived last Friday from Geelong. Took 5 days by courier. I spent my Friday lunch time getting it out of the box and putting the wheels on, but then back to work. As luck would have it, instead of spending Friday night working on it, we spent the next 2 days visiting relatives, so I didn’t get back to it till last night (Sunday) but today was a public holiday. So…last night it took about 3 hours of assembling, including re-watching the YouTube seat assembly videos (did the spacer go above the seat pan or below?) and getting more cups of coffee, but finally it was together. A more organised person would have it together pretty quickly as the videos attest. I did remember what I was told in the YouTube V-brake videos so the pad adjustment and cable swap around were easy. All the parts were there, they all fitted together nicely and the end result is a very good quality bike. The icing on the cake was the supplied Mirrycle bar end mirror, which has saved me that extra expense.

This morning I slung a couple of tie-down straps up in the carport to suspend the front wheel off the ground and adjusted the gears and then tweaked the brakes a little bit.

Riding…….my first attempt around the block was semi-successful – successful in that I didn’t crash; unsuccessful in that I didn’t end up going round the block because instead of shifting to an easier gear to go up the hill, I shifted the wrong way, so I lost momentum and sort of veered into the gutter. I’m used to levers. So at this early stage I’m having more trouble with the grip-shift direction than with the steering, so I’m quite happy with that. I couldn’t start uphill in the wrong gear so I turned around and pedalled home the way I came. Even though I had a concentrated look on my face I was enjoying myself on the inside.

Attempt 2 (15 minutes later) saw me riding all the way round the block, a bit wobbly, but more or less in the correct direction. Still had a concentrated look on my face but I was smiling on the inside.

Attempt 3 (30 minutes after attempt 2 – had to tighten the handlebar clamp) saw me ride about 5kms, changing gears correctly, staying within the painted cycle lane and thinking ‘all is right with the world’. Smiling inside and outside now.

After a break, Attempt 4 was a ride out of town (picking the quiet, flat roads), and staying generally straight but with some random veering which happened when I actually thought about what I was doing. It’s a bit like touch typing in that when you just let your mind do it subconsciously, it works, but when your conscious mind gets involved, it gets ugly. I know I haven’t quite ‘got it’ yet but I know ‘its’ lurking there somewhere and with more riding it’ll click. What a great excuse for another ride.

Just a couple of things to sort with the bike. I have enough knee / handlebar clearance but some of the cables scrape my legs so they need to be dealt with. The rear suspension is too stiff and after backing off the spring I think the spring may be too hard for my 74kg (165lb). I’ll check the specs. Pedals…don’t know whether to fit my PowerGrips or use spd’s – might try the spd’s first. On the whole though, not bad for the first day - couldn’t be happier.

 

[Mark B]

Great report!

I agree with what you say about the body getting it, but the mind interfering. I had the same experience when learning to ride. You are progressing nicely and will be up to speed in no time. You can expect to see minor improvements in technique for several months, but you will get the bulk of it dialed in right away.

Mark

 

[gaje48a]

Thanks Mark.

I rode to work on my mountain bike yesterday - boy did that feel weird! I think it'll take me longer to get used to the recumbent position than it will to get used to the legs inputing into the steering.

I could feel that I was quite tense during my 4 rides, I tended to hunch forward a bit and I had to make the conscious effort of leaning back into the backrest every so often. When I get more used to the bike I'll naturally lean back and reap the benefit of the comfortable recumbent position - the reason I bought it in the first place. I will be practising my starts so I can feel 'in control' at intersections.