newbie needs advice

Greg, plan a vacation at a bent dealer with a liberal test ride policy and a large inventory. Oh,
take money too. I don't think anyone on this newsgroup can give you the absolute best bike to buy,
you need to do this yourself grasshopper. BTW if you like riding what you buy, don't plan on it
being your last bike. Denny in Sayre, Pa "Bent but not broken" "Greg McAllister"
<[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi,

I live just south of Calgary Alberta (in redneck cattle country 🙂 where F350 dually's are more
the order of the day than anything human powered. I am very interested in getting a recumbent and
tried out a Burley Caito

back

Quoted message said:

in Ontario a couple months ago. It was a blast to ride, but dropping

$2600+

Quoted message said:

dollars is not something I want to do till I know that is absolutely the best bent to buy. So
therein lies the problem... how do I test different bents or at lest feel confident that I'm
buying the right bike for me when they are about as scarce as a cat in a room full of rocking
chairs ? I'd very much appreciate advice from people who have bought and their experiences. For
the record, if anyone cares to recommend, I'm 42, 6'2 and 215 lbs. This is just a hobby for me
as I don't see myself commuting the 60km's each way to work so it should be reasonably priced
as well.

TiA

Greg

Greg McAllister <[email hidden]> wrote:

: best bent to buy. So therein lies the problem... how do I test different bents or at lest feel
: confident that I'm buying the right bike for me when they are about as scarce as a cat in a room
: full of rocking chairs ? I'd very much appreciate advice from people who have bought and their
: experiences.

I don't know. Every bent is great but none of them is perfect. You can find my experiences at
my HPV page.

Be sure to read this newsgroup! :-)

: 215 lbs. This is just a hobby for me as I don't see myself commuting the 60km's each way to work
: so it should be reasonably priced as well.

Sounds like a nice commute. If the route is interesting you could do it maybe once or twice a week,
as a roundtrip.

--
Risto Varanka | helsinki.fihpv.htmlOpen ↗ varis at no spam please iki fi

"Greg McAllister" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Hi,

I live just south of Calgary Alberta (in redneck cattle country 🙂 where F350 dually's are more
the order of the day than anything human powered. I am very interested in getting a recumbent and
tried out a Burley Caito back in Ontario a couple months ago. It was a blast to ride, but
dropping $2600+ dollars is not something I want to do till I know that is absolutely the best
bent to buy. So therein lies the problem... how do I test different bents or at lest feel
confident that I'm buying the right bike for me when they are about as scarce as a cat in a room
full of rocking chairs ? I'd very much appreciate advice from people who have bought and their
experiences. For the record, if anyone cares to recommend, I'm 42, 6'2 and 215 lbs. This is just
a hobby for me as I don't see myself commuting the 60km's each way to work so it should be
reasonably priced as well.

TiA

Greg

One thing you want to know before you drive long distance to try bikes is your outseam length.
You get this by sitting against the wall and measuring from your hip to the bottom of your heel.
At 6'4" you my have a long leg with more then 47" on the outseam. Many bents would not fit you.
Once you know your measurment you can call ahead for info. on bents in stock your size at
different shops. Good luck!

Not sure about this different shops idea...this is Alta where he lives and the selection of
recumbent stores Greg could visit is pretty well limited to ONE in 1,000 miles in every direction
except SW into the USA. Canada is a vast country with 1/10th the USA population. We have this huge
2,000 mile stretch of nothing recumbent between Vancouver and Windsor Ontario.

"daybiker" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Greg

Once you know your measurment you can call ahead for

Quoted message said:

info. on bents in stock your size at different shops. Good luck!

"Joshua Goldberg" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Not sure about this different shops idea...this is Alta where he lives and the selection of
recumbent stores Greg could visit is pretty well limited to ONE in 1,000 miles in every direction
except SW into the USA. Canada is a vast country with 1/10th the USA population. We have this huge
2,000 mile stretch of nothing recumbent between Vancouver and Windsor Ontario.

I did a week long organized ride in North Dakota (Candisc) several years ago and there were 3
recumbent cyclists who came down from Gillam, Manitoba to do the ride. They considered themselves to
be in the Southland in North Dakota as they were from near Hudson Bay. Where they got their
recumbent bicycles from I haven't the foggiest. Probably mail order. Like all Canadians, they were
super strong cyclists. They said they only had very limited roads up there on which to ride their
bikes. They all worked in a power plant facility (hydro).

Ed Dolan - Minnesota

Thanks for all the replies both to the group and my email !

Greg

"Edward Dolan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Joshua Goldberg" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Not sure about this different shops idea...this is Alta where he lives

and

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

the selection of recumbent stores Greg could visit is pretty well

limited to

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

ONE in 1,000 miles in every direction except SW into the USA. Canada is

a

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

vast country with 1/10th the USA population. We have this huge 2,000

mile

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

stretch of nothing recumbent between Vancouver and Windsor Ontario.

I did a week long organized ride in North Dakota (Candisc) several years ago and there were 3
recumbent cyclists who came down from Gillam, Manitoba to do the ride. They considered themselves
to be in the Southland in North Dakota as they were from near Hudson Bay. Where they got their
recumbent bicycles from I haven't the foggiest. Probably mail order. Like all Canadians, they were
super strong cyclists. They said they only had very limited roads up there on which to ride their
bikes. They all worked in a power plant facility (hydro).

Ed Dolan - Minnesota

That Hydro Power facility you mention would be Thompson, Manitoba. I am amazed anyone that far North
would get bent. Thompson has more Polar Bears walking around free than anywhere else in Canada. Over
the years I have heard of a few bent cyclists in Saskatchewan and Manitoba...but no bents in stores.
Saskatchewan would be Ideal for bent riding....not a single hill anywhere and the well paved roads
see little car traffic....but it would get boring fast.

Hope you find the perfect bent....I was thinking, maybe contact Cambie in Vancouver and see if
they'll ship a Recumbini or Recumboni to you. They used to have a 30 day try before you buy policy
and shipping BC to Alta ain't that costly...about $55.00. A day trip to Vancouver would still be
your best choice.
***********************

"Greg McAllister" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Thanks for all the replies both to the group and my email !

Greg

"Edward Dolan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Joshua Goldberg" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Not sure about this different shops idea...this is Alta where he lives

and

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

the selection of recumbent stores Greg could visit is pretty well

limited to

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

ONE in 1,000 miles in every direction except SW into the USA. Canada

is

Quoted message said:

a

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

vast country with 1/10th the USA population. We have this huge 2,000

mile

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

stretch of nothing recumbent between Vancouver and Windsor Ontario.

I did a week long organized ride in North Dakota (Candisc) several years ago and there were 3
recumbent cyclists who came down from Gillam, Manitoba to do the ride. They considered
themselves to be in the Southland in North Dakota as they were from near Hudson Bay. Where they
got their recumbent bicycles from I haven't the foggiest. Probably mail order. Like all
Canadians, they were super strong cyclists. They said they only had very limited roads up there
on which to ride their bikes. They all worked in a power plant facility (hydro).

Ed Dolan - Minnesota

"Greg McAllister" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi,

I live just south of Calgary Alberta (in redneck cattle country 🙂 where F350 dually's are more
the order of the day than anything human powered. I am very interested in getting a recumbent and
tried out a Burley Caito

back

Quoted message said:

in Ontario a couple months ago. It was a blast to ride, but dropping

$2600+

Quoted message said:

dollars is not something I want to do till I know that is absolutely the best bent to buy. So
therein lies the problem... how do I test different bents or at lest feel confident that I'm
buying the right bike for me when they are about as scarce as a cat in a room full of rocking
chairs ? I'd very much appreciate advice from people who have bought and their experiences. For
the record, if anyone cares to recommend, I'm 42, 6'2 and 215 lbs. This is just a hobby for me
as I don't see myself commuting the 60km's each way to work so it should be reasonably priced
as well.

TiA

Greg

I'm 6' 2" and weigh(ed) 235 before I started biking with the trikes I built two months ago. With
your height you might have an X-seam around the 48" like I do, in which case you'll have to go for
the stretch versions of the bikes if their standard sizes don't fit you. I'm just north of Toronto
(near Barrie) and due to a back operation, I can't ride DFs anymore - so bents and trikes seemed to
be the way to go. The only places in Ontario I could find that sold bents and trikes, had prices
that I found to be prohibitive - so I built some instead. I don't know what your "mechanical"
background is, but the bents/trikes are very easy to build and you have to really mess the
construction up bad, or go for a really radical modification to make them unrideable. The nice thing
is, if you build them, you can mod them to fit exactly what you want out of a HPV. Any project that
doesn't fit the bill can be sold/recycled/given away and you start again. After 2 months and a few
hundred K on the trikes, I pretty much know what I need to make a ride comfortable for me, and I
have 3 or 4 ideas I want to try out for bents. While homebuilt bikes might seem indtimidating, it
really is much easier than it appears, there are a myriad of resources on the net, and the skills
you have/develope will come in handy for many more areas than just building bikes. Some of the BMX
modded bents can be built in a matter of hours.