Cycling UK Forum

I bought a challenge mistral sl a few months ago and couldn't get on with it, I never felt comfortable with the handling. I wrote of recumbent bikes as being stupid. Change in circumstances mean that I can't ride a trike at moment so I picked up a speedmachine thinking I might as well give bikes on more go. I'm glad I did, the handling is so predictable. No problem whatsoever other than me not tightening the handlebars up and them slipping while I was riding.

Stunning machine. This picture is from the ad I bought it from, I'll post some of my own when I've made a few modifications (10 speed and some 155mm cranks)

I find the aero bars as featured on yours entirely predictable, but the same bike with tiller bars a bit twitchy. I'm pretty much convinced this is an issue with me and tillers rather than a fault with the bikes, as I've ridden other models where they're one of the choices and the tiller I wasn't happy with but the other option (underseat of aero) I was.

Pete.

pjclinch wrote:I find the aero bars as featured on yours entirely predictable, but the same bike with tiller bars a bit twitchy. I'm pretty much convinced this is an issue with me and tillers rather than a fault with the bikes, as I've ridden other models where they're one of the choices and the tiller I wasn't happy with but the other option (underseat of aero) I was.

Pete.

The mistral had uss. Fine on a trike, didn't like it on a bike. I'll do my commute on this tomorrow. It's a hilly 20 mile round trip with big decents and twisty back roads, really good for testing bikes as I could cycle it with my eyes closed.

After riding my Fuego for 5 years with tiller steering but never 100% confident with it, I put aerosteer bars on earlier this year. The bike has been transformed, I feel quite at home with it and the sort of surfaces that used to give me the collywobbles (eg roads”resurfaced” by simply dumping chippings on them) are no longer quite so challenging. I’ve not had any problems with leg/handlebar interference either (one of the oft-quoted problems with aero over tiller bars). I don’t think I’ll be switching back to tillers any time soon.

Interesting comments, I quite like the tiller steerning on my speedmachine because you can do an aero tuck into hamster mode by holding just the centre of the bars but I do agree it's a bit twitchy. I have aero bars on my Strada and, for a different bike admittedly, they are more stable.

Big advantage of the hamster tuck on the tiller bars is that it's a lot warmer on chilly winter commutes

I'm also finding the comments interesting. I have a Challenge Hurricane with tiller bars and even having put nearly 500km on it I still don't feel comfortable. I wonder whether aero bars would make a difference for me.

OB

Same. Didn't get on with the tiller on a Metabikes, enjoying the aerobars on my Nazca Paseo.

Yet a fellow rider here didn't like the aeros on his Schlitter and swapped to a tiller, which seemed to work better for him.

OB

Indeed, it very much depends on the rider. I switched after puzzling over how I had found other bents that had passed through my hands easy (PDQ, BikeE) or difficult to ride (LWB home built). The factor that seemed to work best for me was a minimal distance of the bars behind the steerer axis (on the PDQ which I found very easy to ride, this was effectively zero). Shorter cranks allowed me to get the original tiller closer and higher and helped a lot, but the aero steer bars bring my hands just behind the steering axis, and I find the width seems to help at low speed. The only real downside is that I can’t recline the seat as much because then I can’t reach the bars!

It’s worth adding that my difficulties were pretty much only at slow speeds: at cruising speed or faster I am quite happy with either style.

OldBloke wrote:Yet a fellow rider here didn't like the aeros on his Schlitter and swapped to a tiller, which seemed to work better for him.

A friend is a "tillers good, aeros bad" 'bentist too. It does seem to very personal, so I think it's the case that if you find any distinct style of bars not to your taste, try another flavour before writing off the bike as a non-starter.

Pete.

pjclinch wrote:

OldBloke wrote:Yet a fellow rider here didn't like the aeros on his Schlitter and swapped to a tiller, which seemed to work better for him.

A friend is a "tillers good, aeros bad" 'bentist too. It does seem to very personal, so I think it's the case that if you find any distinct style of bars not to your taste, try another flavour before writing off the bike as a non-starter.

Pete.

Yep - I started on tiller steering (raptobike) and when I tried aeros on 'bent (I was really trying the shorter cranks, but that was what they had) I was ok with them, but I still think I prefer the hamster position...

I had a young lad come up to me today on my estate and started talking about my bike. He asked me how much it was worth and I said "a little" he then replied with knowledge that it costs around £3k... Bit unnerving.

fossala wrote:I had a young lad come up to me today on my estate and started talking about my bike. He asked me how much it was worth and I said "a little" he then replied with knowledge that it costs around £3k... Bit unnerving.

Yeah but if you have your own estate 3,000 quid must be chicken feed to you. Why didn't you get one of your keepers to run him off?

pete75 wrote:

fossala wrote:I had a young lad come up to me today on my estate and started talking about my bike. He asked me how much it was worth and I said "a little" he then replied with knowledge that it costs around £3k... Bit unnerving.

Yeah but if you have your own estate 3,000 quid must be chicken feed to you. Why didn't you get one of your keepers to run him off?

Council house estate...

fossala wrote:

pete75 wrote:

fossala wrote:I had a young lad come up to me today on my estate and started talking about my bike. He asked me how much it was worth and I said "a little" he then replied with knowledge that it costs around £3k... Bit unnerving.

Yeah but if you have your own estate 3,000 quid must be chicken feed to you. Why didn't you get one of your keepers to run him off?

Council house estate...

Difference between urban and rural views I guess. Someone around here says estate and you think of things like Grimsthorpe and Irnham estates.