The "Learning to ride a Vendetta" diary

[Jeremy S]

First of all, I have a problem with my helmet and the headrest. Peder has mounted a bag over the headrest, and the padding only covers the neck area, not the actual bend where my head rests. This is a bit uncomfortable, and it is not made any better by the fact that the helmet neck adjustment insists on placing itself between my head and the rest.

Get some proper padding on there! I wouldn't be comfortable with an unpadded head/neck rest, especially the top part where you have none. I checked on my ride today and the gear adjuster on the back of my Bell helmet is in fact right between the base of my head and the headrest, but because of the padding I can't even tell.

In that last video the head/neck rest looks a bit too far in, but it's hard to tell. Adjust it a bit at a time and you should be able to tell when it's in the sweet spot. Even a few mm can make a big difference.

 

[Tor Hovland]

All right, today is a new day of Cruzbiking. I must admit I cheated a bit yesterday. I was going to put in some "boring parking lot practice," but I only did the necessary posing for the Youtube video. But today there will be no cheating. I did the rest day so that I could go on an 85 km ride today. First, though, I needed to do something about that neck rest. Some padding behind my head would be wonderful. I had some ingredients in mind, and I was able to source them by checking the garage:

I cut the foam in pieces and mounted a test piece:

That certainly improved things, but this foam is very light and compresses too easily. I needed more layers:

Now it felt right. Next task was to make it a little bit less ugly, so I wrapped it in some dark fabric and reattached it:

It still isn't going to win any beauty contests, and I wouldn't use this as a permanent fix. But I needed a temporary improvement to the neck rest, and this is to be considered an experiment. My original idea was to let the pillow only support the area below the helmet band, but it turned out that it felt best when the pillow went all the way up to the helmet itself.

Now I was ready for the ride. And the padding worked incredibly well! So well, in fact, that I had absolutely no painful jolts to my head, and I no longer consider the Vendetta too harsh. But the padding did not fix the sunglasses issue. My head is still reclined too far. I fixed that by simply putting the glasses a little further down my nose. It felt odd at first, but after a couple of minutes I thought nothing of it.

A few km into the ride, I was passed by three DF riders. Good, I had been waiting for an opportunity to compare myself with some of them. So I hung on to them. That turned out to be no big deal, but to their defense, they were only going at an easy pace. We reached a short hill, and I thought they would leave me. Climbing is my major weakness, and I certainly don't have the proper Cruzbike technique yet. So at the bottom of the hill I put some good force into the pedals. The surprising result of that was that I almost accidentally passed them. A little later we parted ways. But only for a short while, apparently. I approached a junction, and I saw them pass in front of me. I was then maybe 50-100 meters behind them, and I was able to catch them without much effort. Then I rode behind them for quite a while. At the 21 km mark we came to a hill. It was 50 meters in height and the incline was 7-8 %. I had to push hard to stay with them, and I had left a gap when we reached the top. But I quickly caught up with them again. One of the riders turned and saw me, possibly a little surprised that I was there. Shortly after, we reached a hill twice as big. I did not feel like pushing hard again, and let them go. They did get a pretty big gap, and eventually disappeared from view. That was that, it was fun while it lasted. Who am I fooling, thinking I can make up for my lacking abilities by buying a well-climbing recumbent?

Anyway, I climbed the hill at my own pace, and what did I find at the top? The three riders, and one of them was laying on the tarmac, apparently to get his breath back! I cruised past them, not taxed at all, and we all greeted each other. I continued my ride, expecting the other riders to soon catch up with me. But I didn't see them. Perhaps they were just out to climb that hill and head back home. I continued another 20 km, to the small village of Herefoss. There I was planning to turn right and start the second half of my trip on a different road back home. This would be the toughest part of my ride. During planning, I had noticed a climb 200 meters in height, with an incline up to 10 %. The road constructors had put up a sign to confirm that they meant business:

As it turned out, the road was equally unsuitable to lightning fast bicycles. It was unpaved! I asked a couple that were out walking if the road was unpaved all the way, and it was, at least for the 7 km until the next junction. I quickly decided I had to adapt my plan, and the best option would be to just return the same way I had come. That would make the ride only 5 km longer than planned. While contemplating this, some guys cycled past. The three riders from before! I had indeed kept ahead of them all this time. That certainly felt inspiring.

The return trip went without much incident. I did have to climb a 100 meter hill that I had enjoyed going downhill half an hour earlier. The left knee bothered me a little there, which is strange, because it is the right knee that has caused me problems in the past. It is possible that I should have the cranks just a tad further forward. Anyway, the pain luckily went away for the rest of the ride.

At times I was able to just relax in the seat and put some real power into the cranks. I really enjoy the stiff, quick response of the bike, and I can see how this is a record-setting bike. At one point I caught a serious-looking mountain biker, but I easily passed him and he eventually disappeared in my mirrors.

I was hoping to improve my average speed, and I am happy to say that I shattered my previous best average speed of 22.2 km/h with today's speed of 26.6 km/h. I also posted a new max speed of 56.5 km/h.

The ride is available on Strava here.

 

[Lief]

This is my current incarnation/adjustment on my headrest.
I cut down, and down, and down - the padding that I used until I've sorta settled on this - just taped in place.


Then - I just used a black dress sock - a kinda long tube-sock over the whole thing. Doubled back on itself and it holds that "water" bottle in the background (with my tools/tubes inside) like so.


Right now the Tools bottle is resting on those Clamps I was messing around with you can see at the bottom of the 2nd image - that allows me to have more weight in the tools bottle. But this would hold a light jacket or even snacks etc quite well.

And when it gets stinky/stretched or whatever - I have LOTs of spare dress socks.
I suppose you could even go argyle.

 

[Tor Hovland]

That's a nice padding solution!

Now, about yesterday's ride. I should have reported yesterday, of course, but I was a little tired after over 5 hours on the bike, and 140 km. We had travelled by car to take a train ride on this very genuine steam engine:

I had brought the Vendetta, so I could ride a long route home. This ride involved more major roads than I had been riding so far. Traffic was rather light, but it does of course add a little bit more stress when I see fast cars appearing in the mirrors every now and then. Most of them give me plenty of space, but I don't really know that until they pass me. When I approach a bend or other stretches with limited visibility it is particularly interesting to see whether cars will slow down or simply press on and pass me.

I actually experienced some back pain on this ride, and it happened only one third into the ride, at 40 km. It was a slight pain in the middle of my back, mostly on the left side. As I didn't experience this on my other rides, I chose to think that it was due to the tension from riding in traffic. My hands were also tired from clenching the handlebars. Anyway, I was now in the settlement of Evje, where there was opportunity to indulge in traditional Norwegian road fuel, which of course means petrol station hot dogs:

The back pain luckily disappeared the minute I stopped. Just after the food stop, I entered the most significant climb of the ride: up 220 meters over 5 km, with the second half at 8 %. A bit tough with the 39x28 gearing on the bike. Actually, I tend to think that a fast recumbent needs a wider gearing range than a DF, partly because it can go faster on slight declines and partly because it is sometimes necessary to be able to spin up steep inclines. I certainly used the highest and lowest gears on this ride and could have used a wider range. My Bacchetta Giro has a triple crank, which I think makes a lot of sense, but then again, the Bacchetta is designed to be able to haul baggage.

On the 90 km ride I did earlier in the week I had no back discomfort, but some knee pain. On this ride it was the other way around. The mid-back pain from earlier in the ride did not return, but after about 80 km I had some lower back pain. I wanted to go on to the 90 km mark before I took a break, but the back pain evolved into some shooting nerve pain, and I decided I needed to stop. Luckily, a short break was all I needed, and I didn't have any pain for the rest of the ride. I do, however, have a suspicion that a Volae seat would fit me better.

Just as I was getting ready to ride the last third of the route, it started to rain. It continued for most of the remaining trip, and the thick layer of clouds filtered out a lot of the afternoon light. The remaining light was pretty much filtered out by my sunglasses, which I found I needed to wear after raindrops started to hit my eyes at high speed during some descents. And then for some reason traffic intensified in both directions. I was a little worried about how visible I would be in these conditions, and at one point I had to pull out to the side of the road and stop until the road seemed clear enough to get going again. When I took the sunglasses of, and the clouds thinned, visibility wasn't that bad after all

When I got home I was wet to the bone, but not exhausted. I could feel the ride pretty well in my legs, but I think I could have gone further after a break, if I needed to. I was happy to see that my average speed had increased a little, to 27.1 km/h, and that my max speed had increased to 60.5 km/h. That's the same as 37.6 mph. The ride is available on Strava here.

 

[jond]

Nice going, a few more days and then go clipless?

wow you are a natural Tor. i would let the headrest out so that the pad touches the base of your skull as you recline.
then by letting it out incrementally your head will be brought more vertical so you are not looking up at the sky. this does however cause your neck to bend more so it is a comfort/feel issue for the individual. my body weight on the V feels evenly distributed across my buttocks , back , neck and base of my skull. i feel so comfy i could literally fall asleep. like you i started off with the headrest forward trying to prop myself up and it seemed counter intuitive to let the headrest out to get my head vertical. check out all the fitting videos. then go get your own vendetta.

 

[JOSEPHWEISSERT]

I actually experienced some back pain on this ride, and it happened only one third into the ride, at 40 km. It was a slight pain in the middle of my back, mostly on the left side.

I had totally forgotten all about that until you mentioned it. But when I started riding the V, I now remember that I also had some back pain in the upper or middle of the back more than once (I don't remember exactly where now). But the important thing is that I somehow adapted and have never had it since.

I do, however, have a suspicion that a Volae seat would fit me better.

If the stock seat doesn't work out for you, then you will most likely be happy with the Volae seat and associated Ventisit pad as an alternative. By the way, mine is large and I am 5'-9.5" tall with a 42.5" x-seam. And my seat fits very well. I talked to the Hostel Shoppe in Wisconsin and they recommended the large. I don't know if there is an extra large or if you are taller than I am, but you should talk to someone who knows if you are seriously considering the Volae seat. The people at the Hostel Shoppe are great to work with. The seats were hard to come by in the spring, but they managed to get me one much sooner than was expected.

 

[Tor Hovland]

like you i started off with the headrest forward trying to prop myself up and it seemed counter intuitive to let the headrest out to get my head vertical.

Yes, it does seem counter intuitive, but the way you describe it it does make sense. I can't try it now, though, as the Vendetta has been handed back to Peder, and I am now back from my summer vacation.

I did have one particular goal in mind for the summer, and that was to complete a 200 km ride. That would be longer than I have ever ridden, and it would just about be long enough to get into randonneuring territory. I am happy to say that I was indeed able to complete that goal, with a long ride on Monday.

The build-up for the ride wasn't optimal, I suppose, because the wife and I had been on an 11 hour hike a few days earlier, and my legs were quite sore, particularly due to 1000 stone steps down the mountain. Although I couldn't walk without visible stiffness the following days, cycling was generally fine, but I could certainly feel it pretty well in my legs each time I started on a hill.

Anyway, the first 50 km went incredibly well, and I rode continuously without being off the bike at any point. The same couldn't be said about the second half of the ride, where I was off the bike a lot, for various reasons, such as hunger, fatigue, getting out my jacket, mis-navigation, etc. After the first half of the ride it looked like I could set a new best average speed of 27.5 km/h, but for the second half I only had 23.1. Part of that was due to some steep hills and generally more elevation, but most of it was due to fatigue.

I had virtually no back pain on this ride, but the left knee was once again complaining a little. I should have worn the knee warmers that I had taken the trouble to pack for the summer.

After two thirds of the ride, I reached the pretty coastal village of Risør, where I stopped for some ice crea... I mean fuel.

I did not see many other cyclists on this ride, at least not going in my direction. The few I met were mostly touring cyclists with luggage. The highlight of the ride was when I was sweating up an 8% hill, wishing for a bigger cog wheel, and I saw two touring cyclists up ahead. They each had a luggage trailer, and they had to push the bikes up the hill. One of them turned and noticed me. As I approached them, he looked at me with interest, and when I passed them, he yelled: That is the coolest bike I have ever seen! Just to add to the V20 boom design discussion, he also said "CRUZBIKE, I'll have to check that out when I get home". I doubt he would have noticed the name of the bike if I was riding a V20.

The ride is available on Strava here.

With that I conclude my "learning to ride" diary. I have had a blast on this bike. I've been able to ride long rides in comfort, with a very energy efficient cruise along the flats. Rolling hills are just lovely to push up at high speed on the large chainring, and the bike responds with stiffness and agility that inspires. Longer hills are quite doable, provided you have sufficiently low gearing. I could ride downhill at 60+ km/h, without any scary wobbling incidents, and I am sure it is easy enough to go faster than DF riders when total confidence on the bike has been achieved. Finally, learning to start riding the bike was much easier than I anticipated.