I’ve decided I want my next bike to be a recumbent, and give my back a break. I’m looking for a road bike capable of light touring. I’m not looking for a workout, I’m looking for efficiency.
So who makes good stuff? I want to keep the price tag under 1500, for EVERYTHING new – (including the accessories – gloves, racks, bags, etc.)
My main worry about recumbents is visibility, both what I won’t see and who won’t see me with me so much lower to the ground. Does anyone know whether there are recumbents to keep you as high up as possible? Of course, I know this is inconsistent with efficiency, but I’ll take safety over efficiency if I have to make a choice.
Also, this is not the kind of thing I want to buy unseen/untested online. I know a couple of local stores to check, but I haven’t seen much in the way of recumbents. Anybody know if there are bike stores that specialize in recumbents around Chicago or Milwaukee?
First thought is a Bike-E. In your price range, they stand pretty upright and tall, and are easy to learn on. I think of all the companies that they might be pretty easy to find a test-model of-- I see them around quite a bit.
I don’t have product suggestions, but I would suggest that you wear something reflective and Day-Glo when you’re on the bike. Also you can put up a little flag on a tall flexible pole on the back. There’s a guy around me who rides one, and he’s below eye level, not up high like a regular bike, and he just wears regular clothes and has no flag, so he’s not very visible.
I just test rode a Giant. The model name escapes me, but I think they only make two kinds.
One starts around $600, which is a great price for a recum. And the rider sits pretty high off the ground, so I think the visibility issue is solved. I’m saving my pennies, because my back – and some other areas – can’t withstand the beating from the road anymore.
I guess I’m qualified to answer this - I own a few. First of all, visibility will only a problem with an extremely low bike like the M5 Lowracer. Most recumbents are taller than sports cars, and they usually don’t have a problem with visibility. My Greenspeed GTO trike is almost as low as a lowracer and I have no trouble riding it in traffic. (I do have a flag on the trike, but not my two-wheelers.)
If you haven’t read BentRider Online, you should check out their buyer’s guide and review articles. All their past review articles are online. They also have an excellent message board which will probably give you better advice than the SDMB.
How much exactly do you want to spend on the bike alone? The price of the accessories varies quite a bit too - a high end lighting system alone can cost $400. At a rough guess I’d say $100 for helmet and gloves, $150 for rack and bag, and $50 for lights - does that sound enough? That leaves $1200 for the bike alone. RANS makes a few models around or below this price range - the Rocket and Tailwind are both $999 MSRP. Vision has also been recumbents for a long time. Their VR-40 sells for around $1130 and available in USS (under-seat steering) version if you prefer. Easy Racers is another good company but I think their <$2000 models geared more towards comfort than performance. I can’t think of other good performance bikes under $1200 that I can recommend. Lightning has one in your price range but they don’t have a very good reputation for customer support, so I can’t recommend it with good conscience. In the $1200 to $1300 range you have the Burley Canto and the RANS Velocity Squared which may be worth considering. The Giant is a fun bike but I consider it a comfort bike, not a serious road/touring bike. The BikeE is the same, and besides, they’re no longer in business.
You should definitely find a shop to test ride. I don’t know of shops in IL off hand, but you can look at the dealers list on various manufacturers’ web sites. I looked at a couple and The Bike Rack in St Charles seems to come up in all of them. Or you can take a road trip to Stevens Point, Wisconsin to visit the world famous Hostel Shoppe. And I really do mean world famous - I’ve bought two bikes from them by mail order, and many fellow recumbent riders in Japan do the same.
I should have said that I don’t own any of the bikes I recommended above, but I have done at least a short test ride on each one. Of the three bikes I mentioned in the <$1200 price range (RANS Rocket, RANS Tailwind, Vision VR-40), my favorite is the Rocket. It seemed to handle better than the Tailwind especially at low speeds, and I like having my feet up high (“high BB”). I preferred the RANS seat to the Vision seat. All three are excellent bikes for the money IMHO.
But those are personal preferences, and you should decide for yourself by test riding each one.
I’ve heard BikeE recommended on this board before, but as scr4 mentioned, they’ve gone out of business.
I just bought a Burley Canto about a month ago, and love it to death. It’s my first recumbent, and since I wasn’t sure whether I’d end up liking a short wheel base (front wheel behind pedals) or long (front wheel in front of pedals), the Canto was perfect, since you can switch it from one configuration to the other. It retailed for $1250, but I got it on sale for 10% off. There’s a good review of it one click from this page.
They’ve got a dealer search function on their website, and plugging 57301 (Zip for Madison I pulled from a webpage) in gives me eight dealers within 20 miles.
I won’t be riding at night. I’ve been lit up like a christmas tree at night and still drivers don’t see. I’ve had too many close calls to risk it any more. So no lights except maybe an arm strap strobe for emergencies. My helmet is in fine shape, so I don’t need one of those.
Thanks so far. Keep 'em coming. Would throwing another $500 in get me a much better bike?
If you already have a helmet, do you also have the basic portable tools (multi-tool and pump)? Sounds like you just need a rack, panniers (standard ones would do) and a couple of spare tubes. $100 to 150 at a rough guess. If you allow up to $1400, another bike to consider is the Volae Tour. Volae is a new brand that just started shipping last month but the bikes designed by Hostel Shoppe and built by Vision, both of which have many years of recumbent bike experience. I haven’t seen one myself but they are getting good initial reviews. All Volae bikes come with “European style” seats, i.e. fiberglass hardshell seats which are usually considered more efficient than the typical American design using a padded seat bottom and a mesh seatback. I believe it’s only available from Hostel Shoppe so you’ll have to go to Stevens Point to test ride one. (Nothing unusual - there are many recumbent manufacturers who only sell direct.)
Also the Lightning Phantom may be worth considering. I mentioned the poor customer support, but if you buy from a reputable shop they should be able to handle all such issues.
I think the <$1300 bikes mentioned so far are just fine, but it’s up to you to decide through test rides. In the $1300 to $1800 range (well, right at the $1800 limit), one notable bike is the Bacchetta Strada, one of a new breed of “high-racers.” High-racers are similar to lowracers in that they have a very reclined seat and a high BB relative to the seat. This minimizes the frontal area of your body and reduces air resistance. But the high-racer combines this position with large wheels for better visibility and better availability of parts. (The selection of fast 20" tires is extremely limited compared to 26" or 650c) I own a Bacchetta Aero which is a higher end model and it’s a fantastic bike. The only catch is that you need to be about 5’9" to ride one, otherwise you’re stuck with a 20" front wheel. I wouldn’t recommend it for stop and go traffic but it should be a fine choice for touring.
There are some cool European bikes too, but the exchange rate isn’t very favorable for that right now. Fools Crow lists the Challenge Mistral for $1575, for example, but I don’t know how up to date that price is. European bikes in general are lower, more arerodynamic and better looking than American counterparts but they tend to be a few pounds heavier. If you live in a hilly region you’d probably want to stick with an American product.
You might want to postpone your trip by a week! They’ll be having their annual Recumbent Rally on August 2-3, reputed to be the largest gathering of recumbent bike riders in the US. It should be a great opportunity to talk to other recumbent owners and try out their personal bikes (most owners are more than happy to let you test ride their own bikes). There should also be some manufactuers bringing their own test bikes.
I spent a good part of the day at the Hostel Shoppe in Stevens Pont, WI testing and asking about recumbents. I ended up purchasing the RANS Stratus.
I was amazed how difficult these bikes are to control. They tell me I’ll be fully acclimated after about 50 miles, but I felt like a kid learning to ride all over again. I came pretty close to crashing or tipping several times during test rides.
I hadn’t been on a bike in a few years when I bought mine, and the SWB bikes I tried nearly threw me every time I tried to turn. The LWB is a bit more stable, but still took a while to get used to.
I’ve had mine about six weeks now, and just did my first 50 mile ride on it yesterday. It rides like a dream, and I’m having to struggle to stay off the thing (life calls, you know).
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Are recumbents banned from races like the Tour de France, or are they just not suitable? I know the recent race I attended (I didnt race, I did the {shorter} tour) there was a a separate category
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(reads a little more) or are they too good?
To me recumbents are like canard airplanes, They have lots of advantages but tradition and inertia keep them a niche
Some of the bikes have a low gear of 10 wheel-inches :eek: You could plow fields with that!
Brian
who recently got a bike, but did not seriously consider a recumbent (please don’t smite me)
Way to go. I am going to Wisconsin tomorrow to look at one of these babies from RANS.
I hope I don’t come close to crashing.
Keep us informed on how you like the bike. I’m interested in one of those myself. The 'bents just look like they would be more comfortable than a conventional bike.
Cool! I know someone who took one to Europe for a tour across Hungary and Slovakia.
LWB (long wheelbase) bikes tend to feel little twitchy at first, especially at low speeds. I’m sure you’ll get used to it quickly. As you’ve probably figured out by now, the trick to starting is to first position the pedal of your dominant leg upwards. That way you can pick up speed with one good stroke on the pedal. After that, try not to grab the handlebars too strong. Put all your weight on the seatback, relax your shoulders and only apply a very light touch on the handlebars. Also, each time you are coming to a stop, shift down before coming to a full stop. That way you can start out with a low gear. This becomes automatic after a while.
I’ve found a couple of small problems already. The seat adjusts forward and back on a rail, and when I pedal very hard, it slips back. Hopefully, since I’ve now tightened it up more, that will take care of it. I’ll know tomorrow.
The other is sloppiness in the indexed shipping. Sometimes there’s a significant time lag between my turing the shift knob, and the gear actually changing, or I have to shift down two gears for the bike to shift down one. I don’t think this is a major problem, except that the mechanic is a two hour drive away. Somewhere along the line, I learned how to adjust non-indexed derailleurs, but I never learned how to adjust indexed ones.
Right now I’m just commuting between my job’s parking space and my workplace, about 2 miles each way, until I feel a little more in control. There a park in town called the Arboretum, which has what amounts to a big oval track. I plan to spend a lot of time there over this weekend, except that I have to work Saturday.
I’m debating about whether to try and tackle the gear adjustment myself, or make the trek back to Stevens Point. Suggestions?
