Is it just Seattle or is the entire country infected with these machines? I seem to pass as many recumbents these days as I do road bikes. They seem to be the bike equivalent of old people driving caddies. There was even one racked next to me in the last tri I did.
We had a guy coming out with our roadie group on one of these things. He’d always hang off the back of the group and not get in the way so nobody minded. He was a recreational rider but had no trouble keeping up with the front group on the flats. Those things are fast. We’d drop him on the hills because his rig was quite heavy, but I would imagine a serious athlete on a light recumbent could blow away any roadie, TT’er or trigeek without a problem.
Does anyone remember that old newsgroup rec.bikes.racing? There used to be a couple of real hardcore recumbent riders on there and the arguments about them being faster/better were hilarious to watch. Especially when fairing came up.
Da bum
If the race was USAT recumbents are not allowed
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My problem with the lowdown bikes is that they are really tough to see from a car. I have been riding for 35+ years so I look for bikes, but those guys are down around bumper level and are very hard to see. G
Most of the guys who ride those are liberals.
Most of the guys who ride those are liberals.
Yipes! Don’t know if that’s true or not, but I have never seen a recumbent rider fail to wave, smile, and generally act friendly. Wish I could say the same for roadies.
Yeah, recumbants are faster, particularly on the flats. Mainly due to improved aerodynamics (less frontal area, combined with being longer, makes them faster).
Often they are heavy compared with a standard road bike so are slower up hills however.
Overall they are generally accepted as being faster. This is why the F#*kin’ UCI banned them for racing back in about 1928!!!
There’s a guy around here that apparently shows up for a local fun ride/race of about 140km on/in a fared in recumbant. He wears an ice vest and drags the bunch along at about 50-60km/hr for the first 100km on the flat and stops when he gets to the hills. He pulls over because his vest has boiled! and he needs a new one for the hills. The bunch drops him and he struggles home rather slowly. Poor bastard.
I’m seeing more and more in OH - always older guys and happy - maybe just to be out of the house away from the nagging wife!!
Oh wait that’s me on my weekend rides!!
Most of the guys who ride those are liberals.
Yipes! Don’t know if that’s true or not, but I have never seen a recumbent rider fail to wave, smile, and generally act friendly. Wish I could say the same for roadies.
Sorry, poor attempt at a wisecrack. They always make me think of solar power and tree-huggers for some reason. I recently had a LBS owner talk my ear off about how great those things are, and this guy is kind of a lefty, so that helped cement my preconception.
I can’t speak for the frendliness of the riders, but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt on that one.
Last week, a guy showed up for a group ride on a recumbant. first chance he got, he took off, which makes me wonder why he bothered to show up in the first place.
For a lot of people with back or flexibility problems, recumbants are the only things that keep them riding at all.
I’ve been on one. They are very comfortable, and not cheap.
I don’t ride with any in the woods (that would be cool … a fully suspended recumbent DH’er!!! CRASH!!!)
The roadies I see allow them in the group rides, but it’s about 25:1. They’re NOT easy to spot (and they know it), so they stay in the pack. There is a club in Marlton that’s “recumbents only”, from what I’ve heard.
Fact is there is no way to ride a recumbant and not look like a damn goon…and they call us “Wedgies” and like to laugh at us? Lambda Lambda Lambda Recumbant Society.
Fact is there is no way to ride a recumbent and not look like a damn goon …
Well, you can, but I think you need to speak Spanish.
