The Actionbent Jetstream Recumbant

It looks like the Actionbent Jetstream recumbant is the best value for a recument of any on the market today. The price is about half of anything else out there with comparable quality. Am I missing anything? It weighs in at 30 lbs, which is not bad for a recumbent priced at $595. I don't see how I will be able to find a new recumbent of this quality at a lower price. Does anyone have any other ideas?

See http://www.actionbent.com/products.html

The " Catch "-Be prepared for extensive assembly, the bikes are shiped in a less completed form to reduce package size & shipping cost. Also the Bottom brackets on the recent shipment have been a problem. Actionbent warrantee program is good on this matter. Lastly, the idler wheel/chainline set up, & seat angle adjustment is less not exactly optimal, most owners have modified the systems(see yahoo group actionbent for details)


The "Reward"- Very nice short wheel base, similar in handleing to the Rans V-Rex. Comfy seat, most components are decent. this bike is light & fast, resonably well made. If you enjoy tinkering, most of the issues have been worked out by others.

I was wrong about the weight too. It weighs in at 32 lbs, not 30. This is not too bad, but when you consider you can build a LWB from scratch using wood and come out a lot lighter, it kind of gets you thinking maybe it would be better to do just that, considering all the assembly and tinkering required on the factory ordered version.

I bought one recently, put it together, but can't ride in a straight line. The combination short wheel base and uss is more difficult than I thought it would be. Also, the bike isn't as fast as many of the readers claim. As compared to my older model touring bike, this one is quite slow.

No offense here, but if you're having a hard time riding in a straight line then you're not likely to really be cranking hard to find out what kind of speed you could achieve and sustain. Hey, if you're uncomfortable you're not going to push it, right? So making the comparison really isn't very fair; once you've gotten comfortable and you do a side by side then you're on equal ground.

USS is tough to master, especially for those new to bents. I'm not a fan myself, I'm very unsteady and can't move nearly as fast on a USS as an OSS much like you're experiencing. Let alone trying to learn riding bents with USS first, that's a brave move, I salute you. I'd have clobbered myself if I'd tried USS first...

My recommendation to you would be to contact Randy at ActionBent and let him know you're having a hard time with USS and would like to go OSS. He might even swap you out for free, but I know he sells both bar types all the time. Before you do this you might want to try a friends OSS to make sure that's really going to work for you, but I think you'd find that you're a lot more comfortable and a lot faster on an OSS equipped JetStream.

It takes some time to get used to, but once you've mastered riding a bent you should notice a speed increase and certainly one in comfort! Speed was never my concern, just comfort, the former just came as a result of the later...

Good luck and happy riding, whatever type of bike it might be!

Drew816

Thanks for the information and I will take your advice.

I rented a Vision long wheelbase recumbent for 1 day, returning it yesterday afternoon. It is the first recumbent I have tried. I will try more later. I was surprised actually. I thought that it would not climb as fast as a road bike only because of the weight difference, but that is not the case. Sure, weight does add to the difference, but it's something about the positioning that makes it tough to climb with a recumbent. I suspect that even a very light one would still not climb as well as the same weight road bike. Even mild climbs where it is hard to even tell that the road is rising, I notice a big drop in speed. But on the flats and downhills, I could leave the roadies in the dust. In fact, there were 3 roadies on a training run that caught up to me on a mild downhill with the wind in our faces. They passed me, and said, "nice bike". I said, "Yeah, but the gearing is too low." Then, after they passed, I realized there was also an internal 3 speed in the back hub in addition to the regular external cluster. I shifted into the highest internal gear and highest external gear. Then I caught back up to them and told them I found the other gear. I then easily left all three of them by 10-15 mph faster speed than they were going. I think I was doing about 35 or so.

I suspect that recumbents don't deliver as much horsepower from rider to wheel as a road bike, but under certain conditions, like on a flat or downhill, you don't need as much to go way faster. That's how much difference the wind resistance improvement makes. It more than makes up for the loss of power. But not on the hills or even mild grades.

I think it would be great if the designers could come up with a recumbent which you could stand up on when climbing. This, I suspect, would be the holy grail of HPV's. You would have the best of both worlds--high relative horsepower on the uphills, reduced wind resistance on the flats and downhills. This would be a great all around bike. And I bet you wouldn't need to be a Leonardo Devinci to come up with something like this. Movable folding handlebars might be one component, like you see on JetSkis.

I noticed as you did that the bike was really squirrelly when I first started riding it, but after riding it about 50 miles, I noticed it was easy to keep it in a straight line. I was actually rather surprised that this is a skill you can develop. It seemed inherently unstable at first. It's still not as easy to be straight as a road bike, but after one day, I felt very confident that I would not run into another biker coming from the other direction on a bike path. I wasn't so sure the first day.

CAN ANY ONE ANSWER THIS????????

If i put a rear rack on it, can i carry about 40 pounds (9-18 kg)

thanks

I've not carried that much on it myself, but I can tell you that I own a JetStream have about 500 miles on it with no issues and I started out at 280 lbs and am currently at 258 (and heading down)

I would say that my first 100 miles on it was at a total weight of 300 lbs so that should give you an idea...

-mike

I just got an Actionbent Road Runner II. I found that sitting the seat up more vertical made it a lot easier to control the steering. I put a piece of aluminum plate in the slot in the seat adjustment mechanism to keep it from slipping. It's a great bike, now I just have to get in good enough shape to ride it longer!

I just bought the Action Bent Jetstream OSS. Putting it together was not difficult at all. The hardest part was getting the position of the front tube set for my xseam. Mine is 45" and I had to cut about 4 inches off the tube.
My first recumbent was a BikeE and the difference was astounding. My average speed was up almost 1.5 mph. On this one shallow hill I like to really crank down I was able to get to 37 mph on the Jetstream. On my BikeE the max was 34. Plus the Jetstream is several times more comfortable.

Lars

Mike,

Starting out to "re-learn" to ride a bike at the tender age of 61 and weighing 300 lbs., I'd be interested to know how much of your weight loss was exercise and how much was diet, and what your diet was like. I'm adding the biking to my exercise program to supplement the weight training and treadmill. Started on the bike with a trainer and some spinerval tapes.... got hooked! Took my $75 garage sale mountain bike onto the local riverbeds and decided to have a road bike built... can't wait to get it.
I'd like to get your input on what your bike riding program consisted of.

Thanks,
Ray

http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/actionbent/

By RR II I assume you mean the suspended model. I've got 3 rides on mine and feel more comfortable with each ride. Really like the suspension. I can feel those bumps melt away under the seat. Still, the steering is really sensitive. Thanks for the tip regarding raising the seat. I'll try it. Do you have the adjustable steering stem. Have you had trouble keeping it in one place? What about your heels hitting the wheel on sharp turns. My X-seam is ~ 45-46.

HELLO ONE AND ALL,,l,, There have been a lot of eyeballs here,, so I would like to suggest that maybe you would be interested in also checking out the yahoo actionbent group. There are lots of initeresting posts,, some of which are contradictory to what is being said here. I have an ab bike,, and have been sorely disappointed. Its copycat engineering,,at its rather mediocre lackluster. For folks who must have the lowest cost bike,,its ok,,if they are a real good bike mechanic,,and realize that any warrany support,,,,is phone or email,,and there is literally no one at the sellers location who is actually doing repairs or setup. This is mail order,,with all that entails,, including,,you bust it,,,,, and may be we will send you another one,,when we get one in. With actionbent,, there are warranty issues ,,,,,with the mono fork that they built about fifteen of,,none of them are good except one that I am aware of. These guys cant weld straight or inspect,,one or the other. They certainly must have welded that for without a fixture,,or worse,, a bad fixture then never checked them. There are complaints of pulling to the left with it. With the road runner,,there is one report of a bent swingarm from going over a curb. Fortunately the swing arm was replaceable,, but stilll,,,,,,,,I have ridden all my recums over curbs,,but gently and never broke a thing except for comfort. If you indeed are going to buy or have to be in that price range,, consider a used rans or something. But if you buy the ab,,buy the simplest and oldest model,,there will be less likely to be problems that arent fixable immediately and you will end up with more fun. I think that the EZ bikes,,are a better choice if you have to buy lo end in the recumbents. At least you get a dealer,, with support,,even though they are a litttle heavier. Go EZ or used at these price levels. Good luck.