T50 seat advice needed

[Brad R]

Still working on getting my Thor seat mounted.

I cut the seat stays and got the angle to about 40 degrees (measured up from horizontal).

But my body parts are too close to the frame in front of the seat.

I am going to raise the seat base (another inch or two) and move it back (about an inch). This should give me more room and keep the angle at or below 40 degrees.

I'll post picks and report on comfort when finished. Hopefully tonight.

@Vicki C.

Have you made any progress on your seat comfort?

 

[defjack]

Seat is a lot better at 40 degrees I used a wonder gel pad on my Silvio 1.o and that helped a lot.

 

[Vicki C.]

Still working on getting my Thor seat mounted.

I cut the seat stays and got the angle to about 40 degrees (measured up from horizontal).

But my body parts are too close to the frame in front of the seat.

I am going to raise the seat base (another inch or two) and move it back (about an inch). This should give me more room and keep the angle at or below 40 degrees.

I'll post picks and report on comfort when finished. Hopefully tonight.

@Vicki C.

Have you made any progress on your seat comfort?

I can't say I have seen much change. I did push the back down as far as I could without cutting anything. And I removed the extra foam I put under the open cell as it seemed to actually make it worse. I am still squirming around more than I like and having to stop too often to take the load off. I keep hoping it is an acclimation issue. It is not stopping me from riding.

 

[Brad R]

I can't say I have seen much change. I did push the back down as far as I could without cutting anything. And I removed the extra foam I put under the open cell as it seemed to actuallyake it worse. I am still squirming around more than I like and having to stop too often to take the load off. I keep hoping it is an acclimation issue. It is not stopping me from riding.

What position do you have the middle (rear seat pan) mount adjusted to?

I found that raising it up one or two notches off the lowest seemed to help a bit. Too high makes you want to slide off the front. Too low concentrates more pressure on the seat pan.

If you haven't played with that adjustment yet, it might be worth a try.

 

[Vicki C.]

What position do you have the middle (rear seat pan) mount adjusted to?

I found that raising it up one or two notches off the lowest seemed to help a bit. Too high makes you want to slide off the front. Too low concentrates more pressure on the seat pan.

If you haven't played with that adjustment yet, it might be worth a try.

At the top. I have not yet played with that adjustment. I am not sure why but probably not understanding how the bottom and the back work together. I do slide a little but mostly it is pressure. Maybe if I didn't slide I would stay closer to the seat back. I did move the pedals a bit closer to help push back, but they are probably a little too close now. I will try changing the seat pan height.

 

[Doug Burton]

Okay. Up until November of 2014 I worked on and/or rode every Cruzbike that was made. I never had one that I couldn't make my hiney happy with.

Seat padding is more tricky than most folks think. You need support, but you can't make the pad so deep that it causes pinching.

You have a few tools to work with. Increasing the recline angle transfers your weight from your sit bones to your back. This is almost always an excellent thing. You may need some riding experience before you are comfortable with a more reclined seat angle, but it will definitely come with time.

For the seat base, you want something that will support your lower pelvis bones while not applying pressure to your tail bone. I've gotten there by doubling the Sofrider (Silvio, Quest, everything) seat pad and cutting a tailbone relief in the lower pad, so the sit bone area is doubled, but the tailbone is single-thickness.

The most effective change for relief is to increase the seat back recline angle. The other stuff helps if you want to retain more upright seating.

We all can help you fix this... don't give up!

Cheers,

Doug

 

[Brad R]

Okay. Up until November of 2014 I worked on and/or rode every Cruzbike that was made. I never had one that I couldn't make my hiney happy with.

Seat padding is more tricky than most folks think. You need support, but you can't make the pad so deep that it causes pinching.

You have a few tools to work with. Increasing the recline angle transfers your weight from your sit bones to your back. This is almost always an excellent thing. You may need some riding experience before you are comfortable with a more reclined seat angle, but it will definitely come with time.

For the seat base, you want something that will support your lower pelvis bones while not applying pressure to your tail bone. I've gotten there by doubling the Sofrider (Silvio, Quest, everything) seat pad and cutting a tailbone relief in the lower pad, so the sit bone area is doubled, but the tailbone is single-thickness.

The most effective change for relief is to increase the seat back recline angle. The other stuff helps if you want to retain more upright seating.

We all can help you fix this... don't give up!

Cheers,

Doug

Doug,

Have you built up a T50 for yourself yet? What tricks did you have to use?

I admit to trying more recline, but I was not willing to start cutting my Ventisit pad.

Maybe you could help Cruzbike develop a kit that could be included with stock seats or sold for a nominal price to help new riders. If the purpose of the T50 is to get more people to buy, like, and ride Cruzbikes, then it shouldn't be a difficult, confusing, and possibly expensive project to get the "all day comfort" that is promised in the advertising for the T50.

 

[Vicki C.]

Doug,

Have you built up a T50 for yourself yet? What tricks did you have to use?

I admit to trying more recline, but I was not willing to start cutting my Ventisit pad.

Maybe you could help Cruzbike develop a kit that could be included with stock seats or sold for a nominal price to help new riders. If the purpose of the T50 is to get more people to buy, like, and ride Cruzbikes, then it shouldn't be a difficult, confusing, and possibly expensive project to get the "all day comfort" that is promised in the advertising for the T50.

I appreciate your comment as it echoes my sentiments exactly. I have shared some of my experiences, not only to help myself, but maybe others who are not mechanics and had not worked on bikes except in the most minimal way. I want to help spread the word about the Cruzbikes and how much fun they are, whether for the most experienced cyclist in a racing mode or someone like myself who can ride a bike all day but not at race pace or someone who just wants a local commuter/bike trail bike. My green T50 does get attention and I am asked questions and I promote it. But some responses regarding the "all day comfort" have been contrary to the advertising that I relied on. I am still convinced that I can find "all day comfort" on my T50 without needing to modify the bike to an extreme. One issue may be that the native seat angles available are just not comfortable angles, as most people seem to want to get down to 40-45%. That gets us more onto our backs than our tailbones, from what I can tell, although I have other recumbents that don't angle back any further than my T50 and there are no comfort issues.

I have not pinpointed my issues yet, but continue to work on it.

 

[NeaL]

I am near the weight limit for the bike. .

Just out of curiousity, what is the weight limit for a T50? Are weight limits stated anywhere for all of the bikes?
I just got a used Sofrider so if anyone knows what its weight limit is... well, I'm probably over it until I get to riding enough to lose the weight. If the bike survives that long.

I saw posts where Bachetta. . .

Watch the language! This is a family forum, sir. We don't use the "B" word around here.

(just an example of my odd sense of humor. fuhgeddaboudit)

 

[Vicki C.]

Just out of curiousity, what is the weight limit for a T50? Are weight limits stated anywhere for all of the bikes?
I just got a used Sofrider so if anyone knows what its weight limit is... well, I'm probably over it until I get to riding enough to lose the weight. If the bike survives that long.



Watch the language! This is a family forum, sir. We don't use the "B" word around here.

(just an example of my odd sense of humor. fuhgeddaboudit)

I believe the weight limit is 250 for rider and cargo.

 

[NeaL]

I believe the weight limit is 250 for rider and cargo.

In researching recumbents, I came across a couple articles addressing the elephant in the room regarding bikes, in general: Bicycling is a perfect low-impact exercise for people who are excessively overweight, but no one seems to make bicycles strong enough to endure heavy riders, nor bikes which are comfortable for overweight people to ride. I'm over 325lbs and I hope the Sofrider holds up long enough while I burn it off.

That could be a great idea for Cruzbike's next Kickstarter campaign after the T-50, if they're up for it.

 

[trapdoor2]

In researching recumbents, I came across a couple articles addressing the elephant in the room regarding bikes, in general: Bicycling is a perfect low-impact exercise for people who are excessively overweight, but no one seems to make bicycles strong enough to endure heavy riders, nor bikes which are comfortable for overweight people to ride. I'm over 325lbs and I hope the Sofrider holds up long enough while I burn it off.

Very generally, it is the wheelset, not the frame that is the limiting factor. Having been thru this (starting at 375lbs), I simply went with very robust wheel builds (32 spoke, minimum, etc.) and haven't had any issues with pretty hard use of my V2/ks. It helps that they have full suspension. I wouldn't subject my V20 to that kind of weight, but I've been riding it at 275 and don't expect to have any issues (still using 'heavy-duty' 32-spoke wheels/hubs though).

The T50, from a structural POV, is a 'stick bike'. That is, the frame and rear stays are all a single structural member. There is no 'triangulation' of the rear stays to offload stresses from the weld-joints of the rear stays. The seat stays, since they are not 'fixed', do not appreciably add strength to the main structure, they simply keep the seat back in position.

That said, the rear stay weldments appear quite robust. If I had to guess though, I'd say the design of the Softrider & V2/k is better suited for carrying heavy loads. Just my opinion, of course. I have no data to back that up.

 

[1happyreader]

but no one seems to make bicycles strong enough to endure heavy riders

1. The Day6 Samson is rated @ 400lbs.
I rode a Day 6 dream @285 lbs.

2. lots of spokes 4 your wheels,,,, see if you can scrounge up or custom build a 40 spoke tandem/touring set.

 

[defjack]

Heres my latest seat mod cut a total of 3 inches off both struts. This is as far back as I want to go no butt pain and high enough for riding in traffic.

 

[Vicki C.]

Heres my latest seat mod cut a total of 3 inches off both struts.View attachment 5336

Did it change the handling of the bike, since I assume your arms are straighter? I am going to have my seat struts shortened tomorrow but probably not quite that much, although I understand I would still have the option of sitting a little more upright. I don't know how long the stays are.

 

[defjack]

Yes my arms are straighter but bike still handles great. The struts are quite long here they are bottomed out so I could bring the seat back to 45 degrees or so.

 

[Gary123]

What angle now? Looks like it might need a headrest.

 

[Doug Burton]

Doug,

Have you built up a T50 for yourself yet? What tricks did you have to use?

I admit to trying more recline, but I was not willing to start cutting my Ventisit pad.

Maybe you could help Cruzbike develop a kit that could be included with stock seats or sold for a nominal price to help new riders. If the purpose of the T50 is to get more people to buy, like, and ride Cruzbikes, then it shouldn't be a difficult, confusing, and possibly expensive project to get the "all day comfort" that is promised in the advertising for the T50.

I have a T50 in progress now. I have a day job that I love very much, and it's seriously interfering with the other stuff I like to do right now. One of the things I'm doing is trying to work out a solution to the "steering column too tight" problem, as I don't want to put this together such that I can't take it apart easily, because I'm always modifying things (none of my bikes is ever finished, sad as that may sound.) Right now I have 0.05 inch clearance between the steerer tube and the steering column tube, and it still gets very tight when the steerer passes the end of the compression relief slot. I think it's because the stress relief hole (at the end of the slot) has a drilling burr on it. It's just a little too far for me to get at with my tools that I currently have. I'm planning to get a 1.125 inch ball-type cylinder hone (they are used to resurface the bores of brake master cylinders and small engine cylinders) and see if I can clean-up the inside of the steering column and get the clearance right.

In general, if the seat is causing pain to your tailbone, try moving it as far forward as possible and then reclining the seat back angle as far as you can. I am working on some other easy seat pad ideas, but other life obligations are slowing me down a bit.

Cheers,

Doug

 

[defjack]

Cheap Harbor freight angle gauge reads around 35degrees no headrest needed so far.

 

[Brad R]

I have a T50 in progress now. I have a day job that I love very much, and it's seriously interfering with the other stuff I like to do right now. One of the things I'm doing is trying to work out a solution to the "steering column too tight" problem, as I don't want to put this together such that I can't take it apart easily, because I'm always modifying things (none of my bikes is ever finished, sad as that may sound.) Right now I have 0.05 inch clearance between the steerer tube and the steering column tube, and it still gets very tight when the steerer passes the end of the compression relief slot. I think it's because the stress relief hole (at the end of the slot) has a drilling burr on it. It's just a little too far for me to get at with my tools that I currently have. I'm planning to get a 1.125 inch ball-type cylinder hone (they are used to resurface the bores of brake master cylinders and small engine cylinders) and see if I can clean-up the inside of the steering column and get the clearance right.

In general, if the seat is causing pain to your tailbone, try moving it as far forward as possible and then reclining the seat back angle as far as you can. I am working on some other easy seat pad ideas, but other life obligations are slowing me down a bit.

Cheers,

Doug

Doug,

I had trouble getting my steering column (= extension tube?) to go on all the way (even with a mallet). To get it back off steer tube I (1) slid the boom clamp up out of the way (2) spread the extension tube slot a little with a slotted screwdriver (3) applied a little WD40 and (4) kept the handlebars on.

After I got it off, I used sandpaper to smooth out the scratches on the outside of the steer tube and the inside of the extension. I also made sure to smooth out the cut edge of the steer tube. With sandpaper wrapped all the way around my finger to protect it from getting scratched, I was able to smooth the inside far enough up and well enough so that the extension tube would slide into place on the steer tube without too much force.

I guess this was a long way of suggesting that you try sandpaper on both sides of the joint.

Good luck. I am glad that you have so many things to do that you enjoy. That is surely the goal for most of us.