Chalo Colina said:Tom Sherman said:Scott Gordo said:From looking at that cruzbike.com page, it dawned on me that
recumbents must require more of a leap of faith handling-wise. Looks
like there's no way to redistribute your weight, and I don't see much
of a way to plant a foot to prevent a crash.
The CruzBike does look to have the weight distribution too far forward.
The Cruzbike's traction probably benefits from it's weight bias to the
drive wheel. I'm pretty sure that its handling suffers more from
pedal-steering than it does from its weight distribution. But once
you've made the decisive handling compromise of going to any kind of
'bent layout, the specific problems are just details. It's like
complaining about a necktie that flaps in your face when you've
already jumped out of a tall building.
With all due respect, commenting on the handling of recumbents would be
better left to those that have some experience of the variety. I have
ridden recumbents that require almost no effort to steer and balance,
and poorly designed others that are barely controllable. There is a far
greater variation in recumbents than there is in upright bicycles.
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:You can not do the same type of maneuvers on a recumbent as on a
upright, but this is really only of concern in technical off-road riding
or certain types of non-vehicular cycling. For many types of riding,
these limitations are unimportant.
You can call it "unimportant" to limit your bike travel only to places
where you can take the lane (or a paved shoulder), but actually
getting places is easier and much more versatile when you can also
take to the sidewalk or the grassy margins as appropriate-- even if
those facilities are not blessed with curb cuts.
I never found this to be a significant disadvantage. I prefer NOT to
ride in these odd places, since both pedestrians and motorists will not
be watching for potential conflicts coming from these areas,
substantially increasing the risk of collisions.
Quoted message said:'Bents don't appear to do well in city centers, or in well-populated
suburbs.
Huh? I have spent plenty of time riding a recumbent in such areas with
not difficulty. Again, we have a non-recumbent riding "expert" on
recumbents. 🙁
Quoted message said:Judging by the places I ever see them riding more than once
in a rare while, it looks like they are best suited to riding on multi-
use paths and inconvenient byways avoided by motorists. I expect that
they'd be OK on the open road, but I don't think I've ever seen one
out in the countryside.
I have seen plenty (relative to their share of the bicycle market) of
recumbents on the open road. In fact, due to the greater comfort and
upright to slightly reclined head position, recumbents are an excellent
choice for long-distance touring.
--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
"Localized intense suction such as tornadoes is created when temperature
differences are high enough between meeting air masses, and can impart
excessive energy onto a cyclist." - Randy Schlitter
