Cyclist News! - Steve Briggs

Letters Email: recumbentcyclist@gmail.comPlease write us. Letter limit is 300 words (or write an article).We edit for clarity, content and space limitations.RIDER-FRIENDLY BENTS& BLOWOUTSThanks for another fine issue of RCN— number 099! Two items in particularstood out for me. One was your commentto a letter on p. 4: "I had a tire blowout ona state highway. You’ll only need to go downonce before you agree with me." It is indeedhorrifying to do so. I’ve had three blowoutscausing me to be thrown from my bikes (oneupright and two recumbents) and I narrowlyescaped death in two of them. I wonderedwhy these had occurred recently and not in myyouth. Some students and I studied the problem,and found that the reason appears to besolely that there are no longer standards for thefit of tires on rims. So after much experimentationand consultations with experts we wrote aproposed new standard, published it in HumanPower and elsewhere and sent it via SenatorKerry, a keen bicyclist, to the agency supposedlycovering bicycle safety in the government.As you will guess, nothing whatsoever has beendone. Please write to your congresspersons!You could save many lives and injuries.The second spot-on contribution was “The ultimate,affordable and rider-friendly recumbentbicycle.” It struck me as very timely because acouple of weeks ago I was interviewed at yoursuggestion by John Sedgewick, who writes forsomething called Forbes FYI. He wanted towrite about recumbents, and he lives nearby.He came around to our house and we had anenjoyable evening. I felt sure that a positivearticle in this big-shot publication would follow.But last week he phoned in some consternation.He had bought or rented a recumbent, and itwas something like a low racer. His seat waslow and the pedals were high. He found ridingit so disconcerting that he dared not go on thehighways (which are, naturally, full of Bostondrivers.) I don’t have anything suitable that Icould lend him right now, and directed him to abike shop that has, or had, some entry-level recumbents.I hope that they have not been pulledin favor of more-exciting ‘bents. I agree withyou that someone should produce the best ofthe bikes we had just a few years ago.Incidentally, there is a similar problem in theupright market. I would like to buy my visiting-nursewife a bike suitable for her to do herrounds in all weathers, meaning that fenders,lights and disc brakes are a must. No one thatI’ve found offers anything like it.Keep up the good work!Dave WilsonEditor's Comments: David Wilson is a retiredMIT professor, author of Bicycling Science, coauthorof Human-Powered Vehicles, formereditor of the IHPVA's technical journal, HumanPower, and was one of the principals ofthe Avatar recumbent bicycle company in theearly 1980s. According to Wikipedia, "He iscredited, along with Chester Kyle, with startingthe modern recumbent bicycle movementin the USA."MAKE RCN MORE RIDER-FRIENDLYI appreciated Bob Bryant’s article about“The Ultimate, Affordable and Rider-FriendlyRecumbent Bicycle”, and I think that conceptmight be spread even farther — to your newletter!I appreciate all of your efforts to makeRecumbent Cyclist News a financially viablepublication, and making it a “rider-friendly”publication with broad appeal would make itmore likely that I will renew my subscription.Your new product reviews are interesting, butreally, really, really long! I thought the articleabout Actionbent Jetstream was a parody of areview at first — how many of your readersare going to buy a moderate-priced bike off theshelf and replace just about every part, almosttripling the price in the process? A few, perhaps,but enough to sustain a newsletter?I have been a recreational cyclist since I wasabout four years old, have toured in France, theRockies, most of the islands in the Northwest,have biked my neighborhoods in five states. At54 years old, I hope to have lots more years ofcycling ahead of me. I have never owned morethan two bikes at a time, have never done a fulltune-up, and take ol’ blue (a 2006 BacchettaStrada) down to my local bike shop for anythingmore serious than a flat, a dirty chain, minorcable adjustments or general tightening up.I am not a gearhead. I just like to ride bikes.How about an article about people (like me)who had to give up on riding upright bikes dueto health problems, only to discover recumbentsat the Group Health-Cascade Bicycle Club BikeExpo in Seattle several years ago.Marti AnamosaEditor’s Comments: I’m not sure what youmean by “broad appeal”, but I’ll take a guess:less and shorter road tests, more basic tech articles,more rider articles and more how to ridelonger and more difficult courses. I've placedthese on our to do list for the future. As for theJetstream article, it was real — not a parody.The author had not planned to spend that muchmoney on the bike.RCN AS A MENTORI just sold my BikeE RX, which had nearly10,000 miles on it after five years. The drivetrainwas worn to the point where it neededabout $500 of work. It served me well as acommuter — very comfortable and reliableoverall, but I knew I wanted more performanceand quality. Thanks to RCN I knew Bacchettaand RANs machines really interested me. Mylocal dealer has a token recumbent inventoryof maybe three bikes, happened to have a recumbentsale — 25% off. I had my eye on theGiro26, and also tried an Aero and a Corsa.The Giro26 had the big front wheel, and seemedrather cumbersome for handling and I had lotsof heel strike with the front wheel. The crankset also seemed too high for my comfort. TheAero was an easy ride and neat to try.I then tried the Corsa, thinking this wouldnever be the bike for me as a commuter. Man,was I surprised and wrong! The comfort wasextraordinarily good, far better than with the oldBikeE RX — must be that comfy laid back seatwith the thick cushion. It has the tweener barswhich also surprised me for the natural relaxedarm comfort they afforded me. The crank heightactually is (or seems) lower and easier to usethan the big wheel Giro for me. And as youknow, this machine is a rocketship! WOW!My eight mile commute requires me tostop or slow down two times on average, soI’m not at all troubled with restarts, and I ridebefore rush hour both in the AM and PM. I’mamazed how happy I am with a performancebike as a commuter. The bike is equipped witha kickstand, a rear rack, my old BikeE bag,Power Grips pedal straps, mirrors, head andtail lights.It’s through my RCN subscription for abouteight years, that I felt confident in the Bacchettabrand and their quality. Thank you for beingmy recumbent teacher and mentor!Richard A. SloaneSAT'RDAY & RIDER-FRIENDLYCOMMENTSI read with interest RCN’s Sat’RDay review(RCN 099). I was not surprised to find the bikehad many minor prototype like problems andsome major problems like the flexing boomcausing paint to rub off. When I first saw the initialphoto of the bike I knew right away it wouldhave a lot of boom flex. It does not surprise meBike Friday is still selling basically prototypesto paying beta testers, not paying attention todetails, dealing poorly with customer feedbackand providing poor documentation andinstructions with their bikes. My gut feelingwas correct that although this bike seems likea big improvement over the original Sat’RDay Istill shouldn’t buy one. Too bad there aren’t anyother players in the compact fold two wheeledrecumbent market. HP Velotechnik could do agood job at if they chose to do a GrasshopperFX.- 4 -