New-to-me Silvio 1.0

[JO_CONNOR]

Allright Here we go...

Been soaking up info in these great Cruzbike forums for a couple of months. Long time DF rider, most recent ride is fine all cabon Wilier Cento. Been looking at recumbents for some time now as my aching body seeks the kindler, gentler approach to continue my cycling passion, and my need for speed .

Now moving boldly into the recumbent world with a Silvio 1.0 bought from contacts on this forum. I think I'm the 3rd owner, but hey, its like NEW to me. Bike came in OK shape, but has an older DuraAce 3x9 group. Not sure how they rode it without contacting the shifter cables as this is the version before Shimano made the DuraAce shifter cables hidden along the bars with the brake cables. Can't live with that, so I'm upgrading.

Me and my LBS wrench are looking at transferring my Campi 2x11 group from the Wilier to this Silvio. I've seen warnings in these forums about 11 speeds, yet I've read some testimonies that 11-speed groupos can be made to work fine, they say. Hence I'm on that final approach and I'll let you all know it goes.

BTW: is there a sticky or some info on how to post pix herein and how some of you frequent posters (Charles, Ivan, Eric W, ratz, and so many others) post outside links that show up as linkable blue text? How do you do that?

Stand by for more as I update this almost classic Silvio and report on my progress along the forewarned learning curve.

Cheers.

 

[Doug Burton]

My Silvio 1.0...

... uses a 3x10 Campy Comp Triple setup. Works fine.

My only concern for you is that the 11 speed cassette may be wide enough to cause some challenges.

I have some methods to get around these issues, contact me if you run into problems.

Cheers,

Doug

 

[Doug Burton]

truly...

... a good bike mechanic.

Hang on to that one; keep him happy.

Cheers,

Doug

 

[JO_CONNOR]

Thanks Doug

My wrench came up with a really good solution to get the existing DuraAce 3x9 setup working so I could use this Silvio 1.0 as a "proof of concept". Oddly, he couldn't get the drive wheel skewer to fit, so he used a tandem skewer and seems to be ok to me.

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He is a really good bike mechanic. Although he could have sold me a new groupo, he instead insisted that we try to get the as-delivered setup working to find out if I really like this FWD/MBB concept before spending $$ on upgrades. Now I have a rideable Silvio and believe me, I will be using it this entire weekend to check this thing out

More to follow..

 

[Ivan]

Look forward to hearing how

Look forward to hearing how you like the bike, especially coming from high end carbon DFs (like I did).

To post a pic click the PICTURE icon in the toolbar (next to the coloured "video" icon). Now you have a choice of pasting the URL a picture you have uploaded to a sharing site like Google Plus or Picasa. Or click UPLOAD to choose a file on your computer and send it to the server.

To create a link, highlight the text first, then click the LINK icon that looks like linked chain on the bottom left of the toolbar.

 

[John Tolhurst]

Cable friction, very

Cable friction, very basically, can be thought of as increasing exponentially in relation to the sum of the bends. Noodles help prevent a spongy feel, but the still contribute angles to friction.

 

[JO_CONNOR]

1st Ride report


First ride was this past Saturday morning! I watched all of the how-to videos I could find on the Internet. I live on a quiet street, with a slight hill at one end.

1st 15 minutes: what was I thinking?!! This is way too hard...could not get started. Would get a foot up, start rolling, foot would fall off. "Flintstone" 'ing worked better to get things rolling, but getting both feet up front like that was very foreign to this old dog. Did I mention this is my first recumbent? Persisted, and eventually -- it actually did roll but balance was wobbly, and even moreso with both feet on the pedals.

Next 30 minutes: hey, this thing might actually work afterall. OK, now I'm rolling, but not even close to a straight line. Starts and stops not smooth at all. Once rolling, I'm settling in and thinking I'm gonna like the reclined position, if I can ever keep it going in a reasonably straight line.

Next hour: starting and stopping getting better, but not for public viewing yet. Although unsure, I actually tried pedaling thru a few 90 degree turns, and a couple 180s. Pretty scary. Found I had to unlearn some habits: turning on an upright, I would extend my outboard leg so as to place weight, and of course to get the inboard pedal away from the ground. On the MBB, extending one leg straight out actually impedes my turning ability. So, I found it better to keep both legs at the mid-points, relax and thus allow the MBB assembly to pivot a little about the steering tube axis.

I can say that between turns I was keeping a basic straight line, most of the time.

So here's the key thing I learned that helped me the most: PUSH FOOT, PULL HAND. Meaning, when I push on the right pedal, a slight pull back on the right hand grip, and amazingly, I felt much more balanced! It's not really a "pull", but more of a slight rearward pressure to counter the induced yaw from the same-side pedal pressure.

I had to hang it up for the first day - other commitments, but more riding tomorrow.

Cheers.

 

[JO_CONNOR]

2nd Day, making progress



2nd Day: How could I be so sore from the such a short ride?! You really do use those leg muscles differently, eh. Also, starting out uses abs and obliques a lot more than starting out on a familiar DF - another muscle group I had been ignoring. I followed suggestions about not clipping in at first. Started out today the same as the 1st day with running shoes even though I had installed my SPD road pedals. I brought my MTB / SPD road shoes - just in case.

Well I started out and quickly found that keeping my feet on the pedals was using a lot of physical effort and brain-bytes that seemed to hinder my overall pedaling progress. Hence, I changed out one shoe and practiced starts and stops with the starting foot clipped in. I liked being clipped in! So I loosened up the spring tension on both cleats, and I put on the other MTB/road shoe. Major improvement in getting the bike going! Having that first shoe clipped in allowed me to push and pull thru more of the pedaling arc, keeping forward momentum, thus enabling me to find and clip into the second pedal, all in about the first 10 feet of roll out.

Much smoother pedaling circle clipped into the pedals! I spent about 1 &frac12; hours riding around a parking lot of a virtually unoccupied strip mall, so virtually no traffic. I could ride a bit, make some adjustments to the boom length, and go a bit more. Eventually, I got the setup dialed in and was doing figure 8's around light poles, riding along parking lines to try and stabilize my steering and follow a line I wanted to (not that Silvio wanted to) and otherwise getting to know the MBB quirks.

This parking lot had a gradual slope to it, so I also learned the differences in pedal forces uphill and downhill. I also learned about that high-cadence wobble others talk about. Seems to be more accentuated with less load, high cadence (e.g., rolling downhill) then going up a grade with some resistance on the pedal stroke.

Al in all - I am progressing up the learning curve! Later the same day, after leaving the parking lot, I took a short ride thru the neighborhood. Good thing there were few cars, as I was using the whole lane. So obviously, more practice required!

More to follow...maybe even some short video clips like Ivan did. And by the way, thanks to Ivan for cluing me in on how to add links with blue text.

Later.

 

[Charles.Plager]

Sounds like you're making

Sounds like you're making wonderful progress! Keep riding and keep us updated.

cheers, Charles

 

[Jeremy S]

Agreed, sounds like

Agreed, sounds like impressive progress! Riding in traffic can be scary at first but soon you will be riding much straighter and hugging the edge of the lane with no problem.

 

[Robert Holler]

Don't hug the edge of the

Don't hug the edge of the lane too much - thus inviting cars to "brush pass" you as you take the "I am not worthy" position along the white line. No matter how good of a rider you become.

Take the lane if you at all feel like you need to, and people can wait. Or pull off the road and stop entirely until all is clear.

 

[Charles.Plager]

Don't hug the edge of the

Don't hug the edge of the lane too much - thus inviting cars to "brush pass" you as you take the "I am not worthy" position along the white line. No matter how good of a rider you become.

Take the lane if you at all feel like you need to, and people can wait. Or pull off the road and stop entirely until all is clear.

From this blog post:

 

[JO_CONNOR]

Love these encouragements

Thanks Charles, Jeremy and Rose City! Love the cartoon post.

Only a short ride on the Learning curve today before darkness prevailed. I'm scanning these forums and bentrideronline for solutions to getting my rear flashing light mounted. Long term, probably some rear rack that can carry hydration and also provide a descent mount for the light.

I was bugged by the older DuraAce 3x9 that came on the bike; good attempt by LBS to try and get the shifter cables moved out of the way. But as I was going thru these first learning steps, my knee hit the protruding shifter cable noodles too many times, especially as I became more confident in turns. In fact the right shifter cable is now sort of crimped and of course that affects the shifting of the rear (ok I get it, no longer a "rear" cassette), the drive cassette.

I got this used Silvio as kind of a 'proof of concept' before I poured more $$ into something that was not right for me. Although still a long way to climb up the learning curve, I'm past that proof of concept and I'm now in the hunt for a better groupo. I really like the Campy 11 spd on my DF, so I've been checking out the posts herein regarding 11-speed groupos.

That new Ultegra 6800 11-speed Grey sure looks good, and its getting good reviews. My existing Campy could be transferred from my DF, then I could sell my Wilier frame. Not sure SRAM22 is actually here yet, lots of talk around the Internet. I'm thinking of getting a new Ultegra 6800 and putting it together myself.

10 speed or 11 speeed?? I read some posts back in September and August about the 11-speed issues on the existing Silvio/Vendetta frames. I suppose the Silvio 1.0 frame is of the same dimension regarding the wheel hub clearance. Hoping the technical solution is in this forum someplace by now, some 5 months since those discussions occurred. Basically, Doug B said that we are all in this together and he wanted success stories to help figure out a way to get 2x11 drive trains working. I'm still looking...might just opt for Ultegra 6700 10-speed if we just can't get the ole classic Silvio to accept the 11-speed.

More later...