On 11 Nov 2004 07:57:10 -0800
[email protected] (CR) wrote:
> I'm thinking about getting a recumbent. I have problems with my neck
> and "private parts" when riding my mountain bike. There's a lot of
> scenic paved bike trails where I live as well as lots of mild off road
> stuff. Can I get something decent for under a grand?
Yeah.
Nearly all of the actionbent product line is under a grand, and the
rest of it is real close to a grand. These are all short wheel base bikes,
the nicer ones are fully suspended. see
www.actionbent.com or if you're
feeling really cheap(I was) see
www.chucksbikes.com for some bikes from the
same factory nearly identical to their early models. I have the Tsunami T-2
and aside from some cheap components there's basically nothing wrong with
it. That isn't also wrong with the actionbent models, at least. And a few
things aren't wrong with chuck's version that are wrong with the AB
version. All minor stuff. The crankset, bottom bracket, and pedals are
similar to Walmart bikes - in practice this isn't a problem for most
people. Oddly, some of them come with American Classic hubs which would,
at retail, cost half what you paid for the whole bike. The problem with
these bikes is you won't be able to test ride them unless you live in the
seattle area or find someone in your area who already has one.
Cycle Genius and Sun also make a number of compact long wheel base bikes
in this price range. They're usually somewhat heavier than the AB bikes -
but some people prefer CLWB. These bikes you may be able to find at a local
shop. I don't know a whole lot about these bikes because CLWB never
appealed to me. I want to look 100% weird out there, on my SWB with
under-seat steering. Not just 80% weird on a CLWB with over-seat steering.
There's no shortage of used BikeE models for sale. The caviat here is
that in an odd contrast from their stated intention of making a quality
low-cost recumbent they used a lot of weird and sometimes needlessly
expensive parts. The 1.25" headset is merely weird but if the internally
geared hub fails on you that's $150 right there. The problem is that if an
internally geared hub isn't correctly indexed by the shifter, or is abused
by the rider (by shifting under load), the gears can get chewed up pretty
fast. If you buy a used BikeE, look for one with low miles.
If you're looking at used bikes, there's probably no shortage of models
out there that may be better than the above, at about $1k.
