26" Touring bikes

In the vein of ON topic discussions...

I'm planning on replacing my Kotzur dual 20" touring recumbent with a bike with bigger wheels to
handle the horrid dirt roads we have here in Australia. (I dont care about the theory, but pushing
20" wheels over 1" to 2" rocks is a pain in the bum - litterally, and hard on the legs)

Well Im a SWB convert, and dual 26" bikes are my plan - that limits me to about 4 production bikes.

So I've researched the Rainboe Lyra, Optima Condor/Lynx, M5 26/26, and the Nazcz Pioneer.

Anyone out there ridden all three? Or perhaps one of them on dirt roads?

On a slight tangent -

Whats the opinion on suspending the front wheel only on a SWB 26"bike? I seem to think that the
suspension on the rear must be mighty stiff to deal with a big rider and all the touring gear, and
become of little use.. But the front wheel suspended would smooth the ride and help handling for
less weight penalty I suspect.

On an even greater tangent -

Suspended seats for touring - anyone tried making a bike for touring that suspends the rider for
comfort and not the bike and gear? I suspect that this might be a nice simple way of smoothing out
the ride (with the obvious drawback of not saving the bike any of the jarring of the road).

Hope that all stirs up the flies

Tom

 

Tom Nicholson wrote:

> In the vein of ON topic discussions...
>
> I'm planning on replacing my Kotzur dual 20" touring recumbent with a bike with bigger wheels to
> handle the horrid dirt roads we have here in Australia. (I dont care about the theory, but pushing
> 20" wheels over 1" to 2" rocks is a pain in the bum - litterally, and hard on the legs)
>
> Well Im a SWB convert, and dual 26" bikes are my plan - that limits me to about 4
> production bikes.
>
> So I've researched the Rainboe Lyra, Optima Condor/Lynx, M5 26/26, and the Nazcz Pioneer....

Is suspension a requirement? There are unsuspended SWB bikes that use ISO 559-mm wheels and have
clearance for reasonably wide tires from Bacchetta, Volae and in the near future RANS. The cost of
importing any of these to Australia may be prohibitive, however.

If you were willing to consider LWB bicycles, the Lightfoot Ranger would be a possibility.

<http://www.lightfootcycles.com/HTML/rangerforest.jpg> <http://www.lightfootcycles.com/>.

Tom Sherman - Quad Cities

 

Tom Sherman <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...

> Is suspension a requirement? There are unsuspended SWB bikes that use ISO 559-mm wheels and have
> clearance for reasonably wide tires from Bacchetta, Volae and in the near future RANS. The cost of
> importing any of these to Australia may be prohibitive, however.

Yes they're nice bikes, but how would they go with 100kg of me and 30kg of gear on them..? I suspect
some of those nice sleek Bacchetta and Volae bikes might fail under the load. Not to mention they
are designed to perform well with the usual load characteristics... Not that I've even seen or ever
ridden any of these, but thats the feeling I get... Please correct me if im wrong.

Concurrently I've never ridden a recumbent with dual suspension - however I have experience with
many that are not suspended, and know suspension is required (or might lessen the discomfort) on
our gravel roads. Well perhaps not suspension but _something_ is needed to lessen the discomfort
at least..

> If you were willing to consider LWB bicycles, the Lightfoot Ranger would be a possibility.

Nope sorry, I'm unashamedly biased towards the SWB design for may reasons

Tom.

 

There's the Challenge Distance too.

Met a big bloke in Denmark, on an Optima Condor, a couple of years ago who'd toured in Tibet on some university trip and he reckoned it was ok once you got moving but he had fallen off a few times on uphill starts.

 

Chris Hatherly from Canberra (Oz) and his mate Tim Cope rode across Siberia in 14 months on 26/20 Kotzur SWB bikes with front suspension. http://www.timcopejourneys.com/index.pl?page=41
They were carrying about 100kg of gear.
With a 26" rear you can go to around a 2.5" knobbie - that should be nice and comfy, otherwise you could just stick to the blacktop.
Were in Oz are you Tom?
Northern Territory?

Pete
Canberra

 

I should also have mentioned that Ian Humphries in Canberra runs a business called Flying Furniture Cycles
He is a dealer for Optima Bikes in Australia and has couple of suspended ones in stock.
His conatct details are:
email [email protected]
webthingy www.flyingfurniture.com.au
Mob. 0419 697 405

Pete

 

Poiter <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> Chris Hatherly from Canberra (Oz) and his mate Tim Cope rode across Siberia in 14 months on 26/20
> Kotzur SWB bikes with front suspension. http://www.timcopejourneys.com/index.pl?page=41 They were
> carrying about 100kg of gear. With a 26" rear you can go to around a 2.5" knobbie - that should be
> nice and comfy, otherwise you could just stick to the blacktop. Were in Oz are you Tom? Northern
> Territory?
>
> Pete Canberra

Pete,

I met Chris in 1997 during his ride round Australia at the HPV Challenge that year. He was riding
the bike he rode throught Russia. My bike is designed around his but using dual 20" wheels. I run
some pretty fat tyres at times- up to 2.5". Wayne made the forks especially wide to fit wide tyres.
I have a bit of a 'thing' about usung 2 wheels the same size.. It makes carrying spares so much
simpler ect.. amongst other things.

I live in Sydney, but when I tour I like to get to places that are usually protected by dirt
roads... Not to mention the roads always seem worse when your on a bike! Perhaps though I'm just
being a pussy and should live with the rough ride of a recumbent on dirt..

Yeah Im gradually coming to the idea that it would be far cheeper to just put on some decent 20"
suspension on the front of my bike rather that go find another bike... There are a few other mods I
want to do, so I might get Wayne to do some chopping and see if I cant make the existing bike right.

Tom