DarkHorseSki
New Member
I got my Sofrider V2 Cruzbike in March (it arrived during a week of very nice biking weather, but all that time was squandered as the bike shop I had assembling it was backed up!) When I finally got a chance to get on it and do some riding in April, it certainly was very scary for me to learn to ride at first. It wasn't until I adjusted the front out to an 11 that I was able to ride comfortably though I was still not much more advanced than either of my kids were when they first learned to ride a bike. I'm better now, but still have scary moments here and there. I've actually fallen once when turning right I started to fall over to the right and when I put my foot down to stop the fall I actually bounced myself over onto my left side!
On most nice days I pedal into work (I've done so for years, even on my old mountain bike, and I purchased a recumbent street bike primarily to make this ride to work easier on me.) So that's about just over 4 miles each way, which takes from 18-25 minutes depending on traffic, lights and the wind.
I'm still hassling with the front derailer (brought it back to the bike shop a few times for this) and think this might be the weak spot on the bike for me. I notice that the front sprockets actually flex outward when my right pedal is being pushed hard though it took me quite awhile to be sure that was not some optical illusion.
I'm still working on the other adjustments, I get the feeling they should be easier to manipulate (for instance if I wanted to adjust the frontwheel distance to a much shorter length to let my 11 year old take a try on the bike.)
Speedwise the bike is a few MPH faster for travel purposes, though I can carry far less cargo than with my mountainbike, even after getting the Topeak milkcrate looking storage. View wise the road is much easier to see and I have zero neck and back pain (one of the main things I was hoping to get by switching to a recumbent) from my rides. I can now start pretty fast (I expect to be much better at getting going once that front derailer issue is solved, an issue that is so annoying I have considered moving to a single sprocket at front and if I do so, something larger than the 48 tooth gear that the bike came with.) I can turn pretty comfortably, though small radius turns are still scary for 90 degrees and beyond me if I need to turn much farther than that. So far my top speed is just over 21 MPH and I think I am limited by the gearing on that more than anything. The worst thing is dealing with sharp bumps, particularly at speed. With the mountain bike, you can popup the front wheel to reduce the impact. There just is no such remedy for this bike and that leads to some very scary moments. I'd also note that the kickstand might be a bit too long to work properly on the bike.
Of course the bike draws looks everywhere I go and people are always asking questions.
In the future, I would like to look into getting larger tires which might help with the speed and with the bike being able to sit better on the kickstand. Then eventually onto a much faster recumbent, perhaps a used Silvio or Vendetta.
On most nice days I pedal into work (I've done so for years, even on my old mountain bike, and I purchased a recumbent street bike primarily to make this ride to work easier on me.) So that's about just over 4 miles each way, which takes from 18-25 minutes depending on traffic, lights and the wind.
I'm still hassling with the front derailer (brought it back to the bike shop a few times for this) and think this might be the weak spot on the bike for me. I notice that the front sprockets actually flex outward when my right pedal is being pushed hard though it took me quite awhile to be sure that was not some optical illusion.
I'm still working on the other adjustments, I get the feeling they should be easier to manipulate (for instance if I wanted to adjust the frontwheel distance to a much shorter length to let my 11 year old take a try on the bike.)
Speedwise the bike is a few MPH faster for travel purposes, though I can carry far less cargo than with my mountainbike, even after getting the Topeak milkcrate looking storage. View wise the road is much easier to see and I have zero neck and back pain (one of the main things I was hoping to get by switching to a recumbent) from my rides. I can now start pretty fast (I expect to be much better at getting going once that front derailer issue is solved, an issue that is so annoying I have considered moving to a single sprocket at front and if I do so, something larger than the 48 tooth gear that the bike came with.) I can turn pretty comfortably, though small radius turns are still scary for 90 degrees and beyond me if I need to turn much farther than that. So far my top speed is just over 21 MPH and I think I am limited by the gearing on that more than anything. The worst thing is dealing with sharp bumps, particularly at speed. With the mountain bike, you can popup the front wheel to reduce the impact. There just is no such remedy for this bike and that leads to some very scary moments. I'd also note that the kickstand might be a bit too long to work properly on the bike.
Of course the bike draws looks everywhere I go and people are always asking questions.
In the future, I would like to look into getting larger tires which might help with the speed and with the bike being able to sit better on the kickstand. Then eventually onto a much faster recumbent, perhaps a used Silvio or Vendetta.
