Maria Parker
Administrator
To prospective Cruzbike owners:
If you do not own a Cruzbike and are considering one for your next bike purchase, please consider my experience with the Cruzbike Vendetta.
I started riding four years ago when my daughter became eligible for an annual week-long teen ride sponsored by our church. I had my chromoly 531 Falcon retrofitted with a Shimano 105 groupset and have been riding a few thousand miles per year since.
I generally ride with the fast group but last year, two very capable families joined the ride and I found myself struggling to keep up. One of the riders suggested that if want to go faster, I need a more serious bike.
So the search was on with very simple criteria: buy the fastest long distance bike I could find. I was careful to keep an open mind and soon added recumbents to the mix. Cruzbike quickly stood out from the pack as the only company I could find that guarantees you will be faster on one of their bikes, in this case, the Vendetta V20.
With that guarantee, I bought a V in April with a lot of questions about whether or not I had just lost my mind. Now I look back a few months later and see what an amazing experience this has been.
I recently rode by far my most challenging ride ever - 108 miles in western Virginia. That ride, where I got to ride alongside over 1,500 other cyclists, helped confirm I made the right choice buying a Cruzbike.
Please consider my list of pros and cons about whether or not a Cruzbike is right for you.
Starting with cons, you should not buy a Cruzbike if:
- you intend to ride routes with extended inclines over 6% without training to do so - inclines are easier on a Cruzbike than diamond frame owners would like to admit because a Cruzbike rider actually has the same power posture as a traditional rider who is standing but traditional bikes still have an advantage in extreme and extended steeps
- you intend to ride sections that are very steep and wet - I started to slip on a 10% grade just after it started to rain
- you do not like learning new skills - learning to ride a Cruzbike, especially the more reclined Vendetta, is very much like learning to ride a bike for the first time, just more rewarding this time
- you intend to ride events that are closed to recumbents - this one is obvious but I needed it to make the lists a little more balanced
Now for some of the reasons you should consider a Cruzbike:
- you like to go fast - last year toward the end of the season, I got my 8-mile commute down to 31 minutes, this year at the beginning of the season, I cruised it in under 24 minutes on the V - last year, end of season, I could sustain 21mph on flat roads and this year at the beginning of the season, I rode my V on a jogging track in need of repair in a cross-wind for 25 minutes at an average of 23.5 mph, really impressed my daughter and her high school friends - definitely the kind of performance I was looking for in a bike guaranteed for speed
- you like moving with less effort - air resistance is the largest drag on a rider and the body of a laid back rider just slips through the air easier - look at a sleek hunched-over time trialer and ask yourself, if I wanted to ride that way for any length of time, what is the absolute worst aerodynamic position for my legs? That would be straight down from my body in full contact with the wind - time trialers call it the superman position - imagine superman flying through the air, legs jutting out at 90 degrees in a pike, that's how aerodynamically ridiculous riders who want to go fast on traditional bikes look to V owners - now compare that to a Vendetta which feels like a bobsled or Formula 1 racer - and, the ease of travel is even more noticeable in a headwind - plus, all the energy a traditional bike rider expends just keeping the torso over the seat is energy I'm directing into my pedals
- you like to be comfortable - riding with a group of standard road bikes, I constantly see the stretching of backs and necks and shaking of wrists or standing to temporarily relieve the knife points on the buttocks while I'm laid back thankful those days are over for me - rest stops and end-of-ride cool-downs generally find me still sitting (or laying) on my bike, something you don't find in the land of traditional bikes where you see riders dismount at the first opportunity and look for a place to re-lube the seat area
- you enjoy relaxing down hills - riding down hills on a Cruzbike is as reinvigorating as stretching out on a couch or hammock and I only need a light touch to maintain steering - if I'm riding with traditional bikes I need to stay on the brakes because I'm much faster down hills, and I can coast up the next hill much further than they can which extends the time I can renew
- you don't mind having the coolest looking bike in the group - put this bike next to anything built for longer rides and there is no looks contest - put it next next to a stick bike with mini wheels like the Bacchetta and you and the Bacchetta owner will both be looking at the Cruzbike - ride it down any street and the standard response goes something like "That is so cool!"
Thanks and let me know if this helps in the quest for your next bike.
David Z.
