Chalo Colina wrote:
Tom Sherman wrote:
Chalo Colina wrote:
[...]
The BikeE is violently unstable. Its front end has an intrinsic
tendency to whip to the side and dig in at an oblique angle from the
direction of travel. If this were allowed to happen at speed, it
inevitably would result in a crash. The range of steering angle
within which it does not try to flop the front wheel one way or the
other is so narrow as to be like balancing on a knife edge.
Increasing speed does not have a pronounced stabilizing effect on the
BikeE as it usually does on a poorly configured, unstable but
otherwise normal bike.[...]
This does not describe the handling of any of the several BikeE models I
have ridden, but then I am not 2 meters tall, nor do I have a mass of
ca. 170 kg. I believe that Chalo was both too tall and too heavy for the
BikeE CT.

For what it's worth, the reason I rented a BikeE during my trial visit
to Seattle was because it was the only rental bike that could be
adjusted to fit me correctly (correctly being a relative term in this
case). The resulting weight distribution may have been a factor in
the bike's handling, but it was within the bike's design limits.

You may have been within the limits of seat adjustment so you could have
the correct leg extension while pedaling, but you would not have been
within the proper weight distribution range - the BikeE does not fit
normally proportion people taller than 1.9 meter. The handling does get
odd when the front wheel has less than 20% of the total weigh on it.

I suggest that you may have accustomed yourself to the compromised
handling that is typical of recumbent bikes. In my chopper bike club
in Seattle, there were a few members who were known to be able to ride
bikes that could not generally be tamed by the rest of us. When
queried about how they did it, they would say things like "you gotta
get your weight back and go real easy on the handlebars", or some
variation thereof. Which, oddly enough, is almost exactly the same
advice I have heard from recumbent riders when they offer their wisdom
about keeping the rubber side down.

Well, recumbents do not take well to being manhandled like many
uprights. Newbie cyclists or those adults who have not ridden in many
years can generally hop on a BikeE and go, while experienced upright
riders who have a riding style that involves yanking the bike around a
lot probably can not ride it at all.

I have been able to teach several people who had problems with
recumbents to ride by simply instructing them to hold the handlebars
with their fingertips only, which led then to stop over-controlling the
bike.

_Somebody_ can ride just about any ill-tempered bike, no matter how
nasty its disposition. Why they'd want to is an altogether different
matter.

Well gee, I am below average in learning new motor skills, gross motor
coordination, balance and general "athleticism", so if I have no problem
with a bicycle, any normal person should have no problem once they get
beyond preconceived mental notions of how the bike should ride and handle.

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
“Mary had a little lamb / And when she saw it sicken /
She shipped it off to Packingtown / And now it’s labeled chicken.”