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-   -   Twitchy Recumbents? (http://www.cyclebanter.com/showthread.php?t=239368)

Dave Head December 10th 12 10:52 PM

Twitchy Recumbents?
 
Bought a used Bacchetta Giro. This bike is "twitchy", hard to ride in
a straight line. Maybe I'll get used to it, but I probably won't pass
30 mph no matter how much downhill I find, 'cuz its really scary. My
buddy, that rides 1000's of miles on DF's, rode it and it scared him
too...

If I lose the sort of weight I intend to, I'll get a better bike, but
it may be a trike... maybe they'll go down the road a little
straighter...

Rotorhead December 11th 12 04:55 PM

Twitchy Recumbents?
 
Dave Head wrote:
Bought a used Bacchetta Giro. This bike is "twitchy", hard to ride in
a straight line. Maybe I'll get used to it, but I probably won't pass
30 mph no matter how much downhill I find, 'cuz its really scary. My
buddy, that rides 1000's of miles on DF's, rode it and it scared him
too...

If I lose the sort of weight I intend to, I'll get a better bike, but
it may be a trike... maybe they'll go down the road a little


Recommend you take your request over to Bent Rider Online: just google it.
There are lots of people over there with experience with your kind of
'bent, who can and will help.

Most people will tend to over control when first riding a bent. It should
subside with a few miles of riding.

This newsgroup is pretty much dormant. A shame really, since it used to be
a great place for information exchange. Then some people made it a very
unpleasant place to hang out, and the newsgroup died.

Best of luck to you.

Dave Head December 11th 12 05:55 PM

Twitchy Recumbents?
 
On Tue, 11 Dec 2012 15:55:43 +0000 (UTC), Rotorhead
wrote:

Dave Head wrote:
Bought a used Bacchetta Giro. This bike is "twitchy", hard to ride in
a straight line. Maybe I'll get used to it, but I probably won't pass
30 mph no matter how much downhill I find, 'cuz its really scary. My
buddy, that rides 1000's of miles on DF's, rode it and it scared him
too...

If I lose the sort of weight I intend to, I'll get a better bike, but
it may be a trike... maybe they'll go down the road a little


Recommend you take your request over to Bent Rider Online: just google it.
There are lots of people over there with experience with your kind of
'bent, who can and will help.

Most people will tend to over control when first riding a bent. It should
subside with a few miles of riding.

This newsgroup is pretty much dormant. A shame really, since it used to be
a great place for information exchange. Then some people made it a very
unpleasant place to hang out, and the newsgroup died.

Best of luck to you.



Thanks.

Yeah, the newsgroups are fading mostly, with a few pockets of serious
activity. Programming language newsgroups still seem to be doing OK,
even Ada, and there's a movie review newsgroup that still gets lots of
posts. I am unimpressed by forums on the web, since you have to keep
remembering to check into them to get the latest. I think I'm going
to check my Yahoogroups for some bent groups, too, since that comes
right in the e-mail.

kimble[_4_] December 11th 12 06:17 PM

Twitchy Recumbents?
 
On 10/12/12 21:52, Dave Head wrote:
Bought a used Bacchetta Giro. This bike is "twitchy", hard to ride in
a straight line. Maybe I'll get used to it, but I probably won't pass
30 mph no matter how much downhill I find, 'cuz its really scary. My
buddy, that rides 1000's of miles on DF's, rode it and it scared him
too...


Odd. On the one occasion I tried a Giro (that was far too big for me,
so I was slouching down in the seat and pedalling with tiptoes), I found
it to be astoundingly stable, even at pedestrian speeds.

If it's your first time on a 'bent, you need to get used to how they
handle. It's different to a DF because you can't move your bodyweight
around to tweak the balance - it all has to come through tiny movements
of the bars.

A few hours of practice at following lines and steering round obstacles
at low speeds in the local park did me a world of good when I first got
a recumbent. Once you're confident at that you can do hill starts and
emergency stops. Once you've got that sussed, it's just a matter of
mileage. High speed will take care of itself.

Oh, and keep the gears low - the wobble becomes worse if the pedalling
cadence gets too close to the wobble frequency. Remember you can't
swing your body around to compensate like you do on a DF.


(ObSillyQuestion: the forks aren't on backwards, are they?)


Kim.
--

Dave Head December 11th 12 09:22 PM

Twitchy Recumbents?
 
On Tue, 11 Dec 2012 17:17:59 +0000, kimble
wrote:

On 10/12/12 21:52, Dave Head wrote:
Bought a used Bacchetta Giro. This bike is "twitchy", hard to ride in
a straight line. Maybe I'll get used to it, but I probably won't pass
30 mph no matter how much downhill I find, 'cuz its really scary. My
buddy, that rides 1000's of miles on DF's, rode it and it scared him
too...


Odd. On the one occasion I tried a Giro (that was far too big for me,
so I was slouching down in the seat and pedalling with tiptoes), I found
it to be astoundingly stable, even at pedestrian speeds.

If it's your first time on a 'bent, you need to get used to how they
handle. It's different to a DF because you can't move your bodyweight
around to tweak the balance - it all has to come through tiny movements
of the bars.

A few hours of practice at following lines and steering round obstacles
at low speeds in the local park did me a world of good when I first got
a recumbent. Once you're confident at that you can do hill starts and
emergency stops. Once you've got that sussed, it's just a matter of
mileage. High speed will take care of itself.

Oh, and keep the gears low - the wobble becomes worse if the pedalling
cadence gets too close to the wobble frequency. Remember you can't
swing your body around to compensate like you do on a DF.


(ObSillyQuestion: the forks aren't on backwards, are they?)


Thanks for the advice. I'll stick with it. As to the forks, I just
bought it used from a bike shop that is a dealer for Bacchetta, so I
highly doubt it.

Dave Head


Kim.


Tom $herman (-_-) December 14th 12 07:01 AM

Twitchy Recumbents?
 
On 12/11/2012 11:17 AM, kimble wrote:
On 10/12/12 21:52, Dave Head wrote:
Bought a used Bacchetta Giro. This bike is "twitchy", hard to ride in
a straight line. Maybe I'll get used to it, but I probably won't pass
30 mph no matter how much downhill I find, 'cuz its really scary. My
buddy, that rides 1000's of miles on DF's, rode it and it scared him
too...


Odd. On the one occasion I tried a Giro (that was far too big for me,
so I was slouching down in the seat and pedalling with tiptoes), I found
it to be astoundingly stable, even at pedestrian speeds.
[...]


I did ride an Aerocycle once, and it was so twitchy I was scared of
crashing. And this was after putting in more than 10,000 miles on a
RANS Rocket and Earth Cycles Sunset, both of which are quick handling
but not twitchy.

On the other hand, I have had very experienced upright riders *not* be
able to ride the Rocket - you cannot manhandle a SWB 'bent they way many
ride uprights.

--
Tºm Shermªn - 42.435731°N, 83.985007°W
Post Free or Die!


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