Cycling UK Forum

>what are the BAD points of a recumbent

Recumbent bikes are bikes, and most of the problems for experienced bike riders starting to ride a recumbent are the same as getting any new bike. Which one best suits my needs? How much do I spend for good value? Who is the best supplier?

There are a couple of particular problems...

1. You have to spend time learning to ride it.

The misapprehension that recumbents are generally harder to pilot comes from people, who have spent thirty years perfecting their fluent control of classic bikes, riding a recumbent for 25 minutes and unsurprisingly finding it somewhat awkward..

No moving two-wheeler can ever be 'balanced' any more than an aeroplane can balance in the sky, what's balanced in both examples are the forces operating on the system not the system itself. Keeping a bike from falling over is millions of times less complicated than skills we take for granted like walking, running or speaking. What disables a new rider is the feeling of strangeness that lasts until they relax into the feeling.

"The distraction of balance" - thinking about how not to fall over - is the same problem that makes people who think about how to speak, stammer. It's a misuse of ones intelligence to consider - in the moment of execution - the detail of a routine physical accomplishment. What you need to think about is what you want to happen. What you want to say, not how to speak. Where you want the bike to go, not how 'wrong' it feels. Your physical intelligence works best when your consciousness concentrates on a desired outcome and doesn't interfere with the detail of execution. Riding any bike is - in the best sense - a confidence trick, a feeling not a skill.

You can get the feeling for a recumbent bike in a couple of hours of riding. The fastest way to progress is by doing the easiest part first. All bikes are most stable when going fast, recumbents even more so. Get used to the feeling of going fast, first in a wide open space then on a well-engineered familiar road, once you have the somatic sensation of controlling the machine at speed it's much easier to let yourself feel OK going slowly.

In a couple of weeks of regular riding you can eliminate embarrassing false-starts and inelegant stops but you'll still be learning to ride it better for tens of thousands of kilometres, this probably means years. Take care of your knees during the early stages if you are already fit. The different action puts stress on different support muscles and you can hurt these with lung-power and too much ambition.

If you think that years of perfecting your recumbent riding will be an interesting challenge - a source of satisfaction - get one.

If you think it will be a waste of time don't.

2. The pressures of stardom

In current conditions it's not possible to ride a recumbent discreetly. People will react to you. Lovers of novelty will be over-impressed, conservative types may be outraged. Things are getting less hectic. Fifteen years ago in any journey of 100 km you were likely to witness at least one near-miss as the driver of another vehicle looked too long at you then locked his wheels in panic on realising the vehicle in front had stopped.
This problem declines with time but it remains the drawback over which you have least control. Stand beside a safety bike and nobody takes much notice. Do the same with a recumbent and strangers may come over to say - "oh those things are hard to see." If only.

On any bike people may treat you as a hero for no good reason. Others may treat you as vermin. Recumbents exaggerate this phenomenon.

The best way to understand the differences between a recumbent bike and a classic bike is that recumbent bicycles are even more like bicycles than other bicycles.

Riding a bike is a heightened form of existence. The good bits - for example going downhill on a good road - are much better than natural life, and the bad bits - for example going uphill on a rough road - are worse. In this you can compare riding a bike to being an alcoholic or a user of hard drugs, although the first is healthier and more sustainable than the last two.

Some kinds of cycling - for example using a fixed gear - make cycling less extreme. A fixed gear takes the shine off the best bits - going downhill or being boosted by a tailwind are both awkward - but, by simplifying the machine and the pedalling action, the effort of keeping the bike running smoothly is reduced. Fixed gear is cycling-lite.

Riding a recumbent goes the other way - it's 'Class A' bike riding - the good bits are enhanced. For example, going downhill on a good road you have much more braking potential, a potentially higher terminal velocity, you are going feet - not head - first, and are close to the ground. In a fall the impact is related to acceleration so half the distance equals a quarter the force. It's easier to relax when you think a crash won't hurt you and the more relaxed you are the less likely you are to crash. You can keep pedalling even when leaning through corners. You can see where you're going without straining your neck to pull your head up. All very nice and over quicker than on a machine attracting more atmospheric resistance.

The bad bits are worse - for example - grovelling up a steep hill you can't dance on the pedals to recruit other muscles to spread the workload beyond your feet, legs and lower back. You just have to sit and spin or get off and walk. On a classic bike bystanders, fellow-travellers may ignore your suffering. On a recumbent your shameful incapacity is less likely to go unnoticed.

A recumbent can make a strong, experienced rider faster - hence Andy Wilkinson's End-to-End record - but they can also handicap a rider without the power or confidence to exploit the machine's potential. This poor soul may only feel it's problems.

If someone offers you advice ask how far they've ridden on a recumbent and which recumbents they've ridden? The further, the more, the more likely they are to have something useful to tell.

Of course this will give you biased information. The people who have ridden the furthest and the most are mostly those who like riding recumbent bikes. There's another vital principle of bicycle wisdom - when someone says:- "this is how to ride a bike" what they usually mean is:- "this is how I ride a bike and it works for me." Listen carefully to experience but apply it to your own situation with discretion.

I hope this is useful.

see you up the road

Patrick[/quote]