I bought a recumbent after injuring my wrist playing the fiddle. I was two months off typing, six months off playing and about two years off doing any cycling.
I bought an ultimate bikes Cobra 2000 LWB USS, which was probably a mistake - especially as I intended to use it for commuting from Croydon to Central London. It was fine in the test ride, but absolutely hopeless pulling out of suburban T junctions. It is also uncontrollable at anything under 5 mph, and positively frightening over 20, the front bounces about so much.
I then lashed out and got a Street Machine. (A bit of post divorce boys' toys buying
)
The street machine is a fantastically stable bike. Absolutely no problems with ballance, I test rode it in Central London - no problems. No more sore bum, no more aching wrists.
But for me there was a downside. After about a year of not cycling I went at it too hard. I entered a 100k Audax and got a knee injury, which kept me away from cycling for a while.
In February I took it out to a pub music session - the week before I took the Airnimal, and couldn't play after 16 miles on it, so decided to take the Street Machine - It was cold, I had cramp and ripped a calf muscle.
I would imagine there's a lot of difference between a bike and a trike. The problem I find with hill climbing is that once the going gets tough, you're clipped in, it's very difficult to get out without falling off. That's what happened when I ripped the calf. I find being flat on your back going up a stiff hill, clipped in and unable to get out a bit stressful; I can imagine that riding a trike with a 15" bottom gear is a piece of cake in comparison.
I have often wondered about the contention that recumbents are good for people with bad backs. That's a generalisation, and therefore like all generalisations can't be true for all cases. My Cobra 2000 is not suspended and all upper body weight is sitting above the back wheel, and you do get all the bumps from the road - that's not comfortable, I wouldn't like to ride it if I did have anything wrong with me.
Since I've been with my partner (5 years a couple of weeks ago) the bents have spent a lot of time in the shed and we do much more on the tandem we bought ourselves. I occasionally take the street machine out, but she doesn't like it because I can't keep up with her. The last time I took it out was a couple of weeks ago, and I found it a struggle and had quite a bit of pain down the inside of my left knee when I was riding.
I'm wondering what to do with it, and have been thinking of selling the street machine and was quite cheered up by seeing one go for £999 on ebay recently. I'm also wondering if the other one could be converted into a trike - but that's a question for another thread once I've got round to taking some pictures of it.
