Geebee
1 kW
Warren said:
With a chain tube on you can hand shift whilst moving, I used to have a chopper bicycle setup that way as it had no way to mount a front deraileur.
Recumbent Conversion
- Thread starter Rusty123
- Start date
With a chain tube on you can hand shift whilst moving, I used to have a chopper bicycle setup that way as it had no way to mount a front deraileur.
spinningmagnets
100 TW
I wanted to post this somewhere on ES, and this is the first link for recumbent from a search. The Harold Jarvis patent from 1901.
tomjasz
1 GW
Thanks Ron, it seems there's nothing new. Perhaps tilting mechanisms are the newest bicycle designs. I'd bet you could find early versions of those too.
pguk
100 W
I have just taken the plunge on an Azub 6 SWB (full susp). The bike is barely used and has a Rohloff hub. I have a BBS02 which I plan to use. Then, I hope to build a fairing onto the bike. I plan to blow a bubble of PTFE for the nose cone (oven build required...) and then build the fairing back from there using corrugated plastic (goes by various trade names - correx here in UK). A fairing plus mudguards will enable riding in rubbish weather as wind chill factor is negated, plus better aero giving better efficiency. Recumbents.com gave me lots of ideas.
Update: April 16.
So I rode the bike over winter, after a couple of bails I did get the hang of it. I find it takes a whole lot more concentration to keep balance on the bike, even after 6 months. I fitted the bafang middrive last month and have commuted to work 4 times on the bike (20 miles each way), but, I have not yet reached feeling comfortable with this setup, for a number of reasons:
1. The extra concentration needed for balancing. The bike is more tricky to manoeuvre. With our narrow and bumpy English roads, hoping up kerbs and negotiating a bit of unsurfaced farm lane, the commute is rather more cumbersome than on the upright.
2. The system is not as smooth as the mac motor I'm used to. The system uses the bike's own gears - a lovely Rohloff speed hub. However, I feel that the system is overloading the hub. It's very noisy under load, and you can feel the vibrations of the pulse width modulation through the pedals, enough to make your feet tingle. This can't be any good for the rohloff.
3. The novelty factor. This has been an unexpected issue for me. When cycling past a group of youngsters, you invariably get some kind of reaction - at times quite unpleasant to greater or lesser degree. This is the main thing which is putting me off, sadly.
I have a bafang hub motor which I plan to lace up for the 20" front wheel. That should give a big improvement in the ride.
Update: April 16.
So I rode the bike over winter, after a couple of bails I did get the hang of it. I find it takes a whole lot more concentration to keep balance on the bike, even after 6 months. I fitted the bafang middrive last month and have commuted to work 4 times on the bike (20 miles each way), but, I have not yet reached feeling comfortable with this setup, for a number of reasons:
1. The extra concentration needed for balancing. The bike is more tricky to manoeuvre. With our narrow and bumpy English roads, hoping up kerbs and negotiating a bit of unsurfaced farm lane, the commute is rather more cumbersome than on the upright.
2. The system is not as smooth as the mac motor I'm used to. The system uses the bike's own gears - a lovely Rohloff speed hub. However, I feel that the system is overloading the hub. It's very noisy under load, and you can feel the vibrations of the pulse width modulation through the pedals, enough to make your feet tingle. This can't be any good for the rohloff.
3. The novelty factor. This has been an unexpected issue for me. When cycling past a group of youngsters, you invariably get some kind of reaction - at times quite unpleasant to greater or lesser degree. This is the main thing which is putting me off, sadly.
I have a bafang hub motor which I plan to lace up for the 20" front wheel. That should give a big improvement in the ride.
LockH
1 PW
Included on this print.spinningmagnets said:
https://www.touchofmodern.com/sales/concept-products-0f401f45-9855-47e3-9a4b-3619accb4fb0/bicycles
Chalo
100 TW
tomjasz said:
There used to be a separate US Patent Office just for bicycles, because they accounted for so much of the volume of patents at the time (late 1800s into early 1900s).
Everything related to bicycles has already been tried. Everything. If it hasn't caught on yet, it probably won't. *cough* recumbents *cough*
"Innovations" brought to cycling in the 21st century are mostly marketing-driven gimmicks, which will fade and disappear with their fashion cycle, only to be replaced by the hottest new industry development (i.e. whatever we had before).
When I first worked in bike shops, we didn't really bother keeping road bikes around, because nobody wanted one. Mountain bikes were the entire game, even for people who never left the sidewalk and didn't want to shift gears ever. Fast forward 18 years, I'm working in a bike shop again, but this time nobody has any interest in mountain bikes. Folks who don't know tires need air and chains need oil are interested in fixed gear bikes, hmmm. Another few years pass, and even high schoolers and clueless midlife men have stopped asking about fixies.
In between, I watched hybrids, dual suspension bikes, 50 pound freestyle bikes, downhill bikes, choppers, and whatever other pointless fad bikes enjoy their flavor of the month status, then mostly go away.
In the '90s, drunks rode old ten-speeds. Those were the bikes you could go to a pawn shop and take away for ten bucks. They'd slam the seats all the way down to the frame, flip the handlebars upside down, and ride them at walking speed on the sidewalk to go get some more booze. While smoking a cigarette.
Then in the new millennium, hipsters decided that old ten-speeds were cool-- even repulsive old Huffys, Free Spirits, etc. Skanky old road bikes started to be worth money, and bums switched to mountain bikes.
Lately, young fashion-conscious people in my area are starting to take an interest in old mountain bikes. Perhaps by the time 18-speed rigid mountain bikes with U-brakes are in fashion coast to coast, we'll be able to see drunken bums rolling around brakeless on disc braked full suspension bikes with creaky pivots, bent rotors and the hydraulic hoses pulled out.
I don't think drunken bums will ever adopt fixed gears (or recumbents) because they want their bikes to be easier than walking.
markz
100 TW
That is too funny Chalo, and so true too.
I do not understand the use or need for Fixie's or Fat Bikes. Recumbents; I never really liked looks of them, but I understand now about the aerodynamic factor, through my 2 yrs now of being here and reading.
I just thought way back when, people riding Recumbents were oddballs, I dont feel that way today. But I do somewhat towards the Uni-cyclers.
To each their own, rarely do I see a unicycler, maybe less then a half dozen times in my ~40yrs.
I am a MTB guy, I did have a hybrid but didnt like it too much. Nice for the road yes, but I do road, red dirt path, paved path and single track trails.
I do not understand the use or need for Fixie's or Fat Bikes. Recumbents; I never really liked looks of them, but I understand now about the aerodynamic factor, through my 2 yrs now of being here and reading.
I just thought way back when, people riding Recumbents were oddballs, I dont feel that way today. But I do somewhat towards the Uni-cyclers.
To each their own, rarely do I see a unicycler, maybe less then a half dozen times in my ~40yrs.
I am a MTB guy, I did have a hybrid but didnt like it too much. Nice for the road yes, but I do road, red dirt path, paved path and single track trails.
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