Optima Rider

"Ole Carlsen" skrev ...
> Hi! Does anybody in this forum have any experience with the Optima Rider? How is the handling?
> Riding position? Is it easy to maintain? Every comment you have!

Hej Ole

Jeg så en til et træf i Malmø. Den ser lækker ud, men jeg brød mig ikke om styret. Til 10.000 tror
jeg, at den er et fund. Jeg formoder, du har kig på den nede fra Lolland.

mvh Mikael

Hej Mikael!
> Til 10.000 tror jeg, at den er et fund. Jeg formoder, du har kig på den nede fra Lolland.
Jep og jeg tror næsten jeg har købt den ene

--
Ole

allegedly Ole Carlsen wrote <[email protected]> :
> Hi! Does anybody in this forum have any experience with the Optima Rider?

It's one of the three trikes in my house. It belongs to my partner but I've ridden it a few times.

> How is the handling? Riding position? Is it easy to maintain? Every comment you have!

First off I should point out that I prefer a much more laid back positon than the optima provides,
as my other trikes are a trice XL and a demon, so bear that in mind.

The handling is fine, I found it a bit tippy in fast corners but I'm fairly tall and more used to a
more recliined position. It's regular rider hasn't complained about that and finds it handles well,
certainly she's never complained and she did try several trikes before going for the optima.

The riding position is comfortable but fairly upright, compared to say a trice. The seat foam is a
bit scratchy, so I'd consider making a cover for it, or just don't worry about getting split ends if
you've got long hair.

Haven't had any problems maintaining it, but then it's not really needed much in the way of
maintenance yet.

The brakes and gearing are really quite good, though we did deviate from the standard model in that
we got our dealer to provide a 3 speed front boom, along with the 3x7 hub to give a better range of
gears. The parking brake catch is a bit fiddly till you get used to it but no big deal, and the
parking brake is quite sufficient to stop the trike at lower speeds.

The only real problem we have with it, is that due to the tall seat and large back wheel /* large
compared to a a trice */ we can't get it in the front door and down the hall way, so it has to go in
and out of the house via the front window. Which is a tad annoyng but reflects more on the house
than the trike

--
Robm 873 "Ask not what I can do for the stupid, but what the stupid can do for me" - Graeme Garden

Hi Robert,
> allegedly Ole Carlsen wrote <[email protected]> :
>
>>Hi! Does anybody in this forum have any experience with the Optima Rider?
>
>
> It's one of the three trikes in my house. It belongs to my partner but I've ridden it a few times.
>
Thanks for the feedback

--
Ole

Ole, I've had a Rider City for almost 3 years now and agree with Robert on the Rider's handling,
though I think that rider weight may play more of a role in "tippiness" than height (only scared
myself on a couple of occasions, and those were my own fault). The rear suspension does smoothe out
the ride. See http://www.jstevenwood.com/trike.htm for some early experiences with the Rider, though
I haven't updated the pages in a while. Had a few mechanical problems/issues over the 2700 miles
accumulated:
1.two of the idler pullys fractured, so I had a couple of roller blade wheels machined to fit (the
City only has a single idler and the Enduro had two, so I added a second, rear, idler to see if it
would reduce stress on the forward idler) and they've served well, plus reduced drive train noise.
2. have had a number of front wheel spokes break, particularly on the right front wheel.
3. alignment was badly off and took a number of tries (and several front tires) to get it dialed in.
4.the front fenders only have clearance for tires no wider than 1.3 inches, so if you go with
anything wider, you're out of luck using the fenders.

Overall, though, it's a good solid, comfortable trike.

Hope this helps, Steve

On 9 May 2003 19:56:28 -0700, [email protected] (Steve Wood) wrote:

>Overall, though, it's a good solid, comfortable trike.

Damn heavy, though - but I hear they are reducing weight on newer models?

Guy
===
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allegedly Steve Wood wrote <[email protected]> :
> I've had a Rider City for almost 3 years now and agree with Robert on the Rider's handling, though
> I think that rider weight may play more of a role in "tippiness" than height (only scared myself
> on a couple of occasions, and those were my own fault).

The reason I suspect height more than weight is that I'm about the same weight as my partnre
but she's somewhat shorter /* I'm a skinny so and so */ and she doesn't have problems with it
being tippy. That said though I also tend to ride a bit more aggresively which probably doesn't
help matters.

[snip]
> See http://www.jstevenwood.com/trike.htm for some early experiences with the Rider, though I
> haven't updated the pages in a while.

Just had a look at your page, and thought you might be interested in how we solved the braze on
problem for water bottles. As the sides of the optima's mudgaurds are solid and fairly robust, we
drilled holes through them, put a bracer plate on the wheel side and bolted bottle cages to the
rider side of the mudgaurds. Andlged slightly back towards the rider. This makes them very very easy
to get to.

[snip]
--
Robm 873 "Ask not what I can do for the stupid, but what the stupid can do for me" - Graeme Garden

> Just had a look at your page, and thought you might be interested in how we solved the braze on
> problem for water bottles. As the sides of the optima's mudgaurds are solid and fairly robust, we
> drilled holes through them, put a bracer plate on the wheel side and bolted bottle cages to the
> rider side of the mudgaurds. Andlged slightly back towards the rider. This makes them very very
> easy to get to.

Good idea... unfortunately for me, I'm not using the mudguards as they won't accommodate the 1.5
inch tires, but I could use the existing brackets and add an extension to bolt a bottle holder to
(did that for the speedo sensor). I bolted a bottle cage directly to the back of the seat, angled
outward - it's accessible and in the shade, so water stays a bit ccoler in summer.