You can afford one

People often say to me, I like to have recumbent, but cant afford one.
Well buy second-hand, troll the internet. Get a bank loan. When I bought my first one, I never looked back. Actually I thought, why didn't I do this before.
Follow your passion and get one. Life is too short.

Andy

I'm intrigued by them but I'm concerned about possible difficulties seeing and being seen from a low vantage point, especially since the configuration that most interests me is the "tadpole" style of trike.

something like this...

http://www.icehouse.net/jim_d/gifs/33bch.jpg

Thats a nice tadpole trike. Just shorten the brake cable though.
I have an original Mike Burrows Windcheetah and have never had any problems in cars seeing me. They have an unusual profile that drivers cant fail to notice. I would never use my in heavy traffic as you cant squeeze through gaps and have wait at queues like everyone else.
Many riders use flags on their machines. I think they look colourful anyway

Andy

Andy, I've met many bike riders who have talked themselves into believing they can't afford more than $100 for any bike. They seem to prefer whining about how expensive your bike may be, and won't spend any $ on themselves. It almost took an atom bomb to break one friend out of Wal-Mart bikes. Interestingly, they seem able to afford other things in life. bk

Yeah we have some people like that in the local touring club. 30 year old bikes with worn out tryes etc, wont spend any money on them. Yet nice house, plenty of disposable income.

Rear view mirrors are a good thing to have.

__________________
Cheers,

Bloke on a bike
(Perth, Western Australia)

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2005 Giant CRX4 with:
Continental Gator Skin tyres - 700x23C
Shimano M324 pedals
Satori steerer tube extender
Selle Italia FLX Gel Flow seat
Vetta RT88 cycle computer
2 aluminium bottle cages
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There really are some great deals on Used Bents. I picked up a used Bike E this summer, loaded with accessories, for $300. The bag and custom handlebars alone, go for about $150.

__________________
Jim
Make a BOLD statement while cycling.
www.oilfreeandhappy.com

I have yet to receive my first recumbent so I can't comment directly. However, from what I've been told by a few folks that are experienced with these types of bikes, a recumbent due to it's "unusual" looks and relative obscurity gets markedly more attention then a "normal" bike.

I too am worried about the lower nature of the VK2 I'm waiting on, but I'm willing to bet that the attention factor will be a boon to my safety. If however I find that riding in traffic is now with a recumbent as bad as it was when I rode extensively on a mountain bike with road tires, I will limit myself to places that are free of traffic such as bike trails or tracks.

I want to be able to ride on the street but my experiences with the mountain bike were pretty bad. Once a "Super Big Gulp" cup full of ice went whizzing past my head at around seventy miles an hour just missing my ear. I was able to catch the teenaged offenders and scare the Bejesus out of them, but it could have killed me. Yikes!

Other occasions had people with a serious case of road rage that were very upset with the fact that someone on a bicycle was passing them in their car. In turn they either opened their door in front of me or tried to see just how close they could get their side view mirror to my left grip.

Last but not least I once was speeding down a steep blvd. keeping up perfectly with traffic. I needed to avoid the extreme right side of the road due to terribly built storm drain inlets so I was out in the traffic, which I understand is perfectly legal as long as you're not impeding the flow of said traffic. I felt as if someone was breathing down my neck so I looked over my shoulder to find a brand new, black Volvo one foot from my rear tire. When we finally stopped at a red light I maneuvered back to the Volvo's driver to ask him why he thought it was O.K. to risk my life with his tailgating. (The car directly ahead of me was only about twenty feet off my front tire so it's not like my moving aside would have gained him anything.)
His reply was that I had better "Get off his road before I got run over."
When I returned home after caving in his driver’s side door with my foot the reality of the situation set in. (He could have pulled a gun and shot me for God’s sake.) I began to think that bicycling on public roads might not be a good place for either a bicycle or a rider with a personality such as my own.

That was the last time I rode on the street. It's been about eight years now. We shall see how it goes with the recumbent. I'll keep my fingers crossed and try to keep my mouth shut.

P.S. The last time I commented on a statement that was a part of a post but not the main subject of said post, I received a rude comment via email from what I guess is one of the site’s administrators. He thought that I didn’t quite understand the flavor of the thread. I don’t have a problem with comments from other bloggers that may strongly disagree with my sentiments. I love to dish it out and can take it with the best of them. I do however have a problem with a site administrator (for lack of his or her proper position or title) leaving a rude message meant only for me without a signature. Anyone can make ridiculous comments anonymously. The act requires no fortitude whatsoever.

I’ve seen many posts on this site that are nothing but advertisements for African investments or “Dr. Speedy’s Vitamins.” They don’t even pretend to have an interest in the subject matter. Yet these advertisements that have absolutely no place posting “replies” to a bicycle forum manage to make it past the “screeners”. So Mr. Administrator, if you think I'm a horses ass or worse, tell me so, in public, with your signature. Thank you for this forum.

I don't know where you ride but I've probably gone 30k miles on the highways and biways of america and have yet to have anything that serious happen to me. The closest I ever had was a car missing my left handlebar by less than 6 inches. And that happened once on a road with no shoulder and oncoming traffic. I wasn't real happy about it but that was once in 10 years or so of riding.

I guess that stuff can happen but it has to be extremely rare. If it isn't in your neck of the woods I'd be thinking seriously about moving.

The only other incident I guess would be considered my fault. I was riding thru the Adirondack mountains and decided to draft a logging truck that crept over the crest of the hill. I tucked in and we hit 60mph or so. No worries till I pulled into the diner a few miles later and he was sitting there. I guess he thought a loaded truck was going to stop faster than me or something... A minor confrontation but I apoligized and he dropped it. In fact we were laughing about it a few minutes later.

As I alluded to in my previous post, it may have a bit to due with my personality. I doubtfully would have apologized to the trucker myself in that situation. As long as you did nothing to impede his progress, I.E., pulling out in front of him or cutting him off, you had nothing to apologize for. I realize that often the best bet is swallow your pride rather than your teeth, but the eighteen-wheeler had nothing to fear from you.

I also believe that the lion’s share of the problem is due to my location. I’m in Southern California, right outside of Los Angeles. From my limited experience with traveling around the Southwest, I’ve found that even going five hundred miles North of this area makes for a large drop in the average amount of tension on the roadways.

I can think of nothing bad so far that has occurred to me that I’ve brought on myself. The tailgating incident included. Now, it could have escalated due to my damaging his vehicle, but I’m afraid I don’t do well with threats to kill me. I’m not sure simply walking away from that would have gone hand in hand with the greater good. People have to understand that they can’t do or say anything at anytime to anybody. Threats of physical violence, especially death, should not be ignored. Now the correct thing for me to do would have been to call the police, (unfortunately at that time I don’t think there was a law against “terrorist threats,”) but I’m willing to bet that individual will think twice before risking a bicycler’s or pedestrian's life after that incident. I know he wanted nothing to do with driving anywhere near me afterwards. In fact, he gave me quite a wide berth.

To be quite honest, I think America is not nearly the great place that it once was. It used to be that there were “codes” to live by, and violating these codes actually had consequences. No one believes in consequence any more. Even though I’m only 46, when I was a kid you didn’t tell an adult to go f himself or you knew that you were going to get smacked. Now if tell your kid that they need to have “their ass straightened out”, it becomes a national outrage and media circus.

Maybe positive progress should include going backwards in certain areas. Wow, what I rant I’ve gotten on. I’ll go now.

It was perfectly legal regardless of whether it impeded traffic. The storm drains made that part of the road impassible to you, so you moved out as far as you needed to in order to be safe.

I snipped the recounting of the incident, but I have to say that although it was definitely a BAD IDEA to do what you did, for the reasons you stated and more, there are plenty of times I have felt like doing exactly the same thing. Glad to hear you didn't get hurt.

My LBS does not stock recumbents; they will order them, but they say there isn't enough local demand to stock them.

I'd like to try one before I buy one, but . . . .

It's a chicken and egg scenario. They say there isn't demand because people don't come in asking for them often. But people don't ask about them because they don't see them in the shop.

I can understand why shops don't like to introduce bents. But it's foolishness. Bring in 3 or 4 of the most popular models and show them to everyone complaining about comfort issues and within 2 years they'd probably have a loyal following (unless there's a local shop that carries more).

I ran a retail store for 8 yrs and new, even when they're exciting, products are always slow off the start. But if a trend you chose to ignore takes off, you're the one left standing on the sidelines. Look at all the shops who chose not to buy into the mountain bike craze of the 80's...

I just picked up my first 'bent; a 2004 Sun Speedster CX for $325.