Better handling?

Is it my imagination or do recumbents tend to handle better than your
standard upright road cycle or mtb? After riding my custom recycled
recumbent swb with a headtube angle of about 81 degrees more than several
times now I have noticed that is seems to handle better than my other bikes.
Is this generally true or is it due to my high headtube angle? This is my
first recumbent that I own for myself, I had the chance to ride a lwb once
and thought it seemed to handle well too.

Ken

--
More of my mind dribblings: http://mind-dribble.blogspot.com/

"Ken Marcet" wrote in message
...
Is it my imagination or do recumbents tend to handle better than your
standard upright road cycle or mtb? After riding my custom recycled
recumbent swb with a headtube angle of about 81 degrees more than several
times now I have noticed that is seems to handle better than my other
bikes.
Is this generally true or is it due to my high headtube angle? This is my
first recumbent that I own for myself, I had the chance to ride a lwb once
and thought it seemed to handle well too.

Ken

In my opinion a recumbent has slightly worse handling than a standard cycle,
others here may disagree

"Ken Marcet" wrote in message
...
Is it my imagination or do recumbents tend to handle better than your
standard upright road cycle or mtb? After riding my custom recycled
recumbent swb with a headtube angle of about 81 degrees more than several
times now I have noticed that is seems to handle better than my other
bikes.
Is this generally true or is it due to my high headtube angle? This is my
first recumbent that I own for myself, I had the chance to ride a lwb once
and thought it seemed to handle well too.

Ken

--
More of my mind dribblings: http://mind-dribble.blogspot.com/

Nice blog, I'm also considering the same thing you mention on todays post

Ken Marcet wrote:

Is it my imagination or do recumbents tend to handle better than your
standard upright road cycle or mtb? After riding my custom recycled
recumbent swb with a headtube angle of about 81 degrees more than several
times now I have noticed that is seems to handle better than my other bikes.
Is this generally true or is it due to my high headtube angle? This is my
first recumbent that I own for myself, I had the chance to ride a lwb once
and thought it seemed to handle well too.

Certainly some recumbents handle very well, e.g. Earth Cycles Sunset
Lowracer, RANS Rocket, while others do not. However, the handling is so
different from an upright bicycle, that I really would not make direct
comparisons.

Some recumbents do handle poorly, e.g. Hypercycles and their
evolutionary designs such as the Blackbent III.

--
Tom Sherman - Earth

"Tom Sherman" wrote in message
...
Ken Marcet wrote:

Is it my imagination or do recumbents tend to handle better than your
standard upright road cycle or mtb? After riding my custom recycled
recumbent swb with a headtube angle of about 81 degrees more than several
times now I have noticed that is seems to handle better than my other
bikes.
Is this generally true or is it due to my high headtube angle? This is my
first recumbent that I own for myself, I had the chance to ride a lwb
once
and thought it seemed to handle well too.

Certainly some recumbents handle very well, e.g. Earth Cycles Sunset
Lowracer, RANS Rocket, while others do not. However, the handling is so
different from an upright bicycle, that I really would not make direct
comparisons.

Some recumbents do handle poorly, e.g. Hypercycles and their evolutionary
designs such as the Blackbent III.

--
The first recumbent I rode was a Hypercycle. It was a nice handling bike
and was exceptionally easy for a beginner to ride. There is this myth that
it was a bad handling bike. I rode one for a summer and disagree. Have you
ridden one?

The Blackbent III has a reputation, and I believe it is deserved, of being
an evil handling, dangerous bike. I don't consider it to be part of the
evolutionary design of the Hypercycle. I believe it was designed by the
owner of the Recumbent Barn who is an account by profession. The original
Blackbent was in the Hypercycle evolutionary design path. It was designed
and made by S&B. The partners in S&B were part of the Hypercycle company
along with Milt Turner. The Blackbent I was a refined successor to the
Hypercycle and by all reports reported to be a good handling bike.

All that said Tom's original point is valid. There is a lot of variation in
recumbent design. Some handle wonderfully, others are good, and a few are
actually bad. The bad ones don't sell well and soon vanish from the market
place. There are not so many design variations in DF design so their
handling is fairly predictable.

I am happy to hear Ken Marcet's home built came well. If I could do that I
would.

skip

$kip wrote:

"Tom Sherman" wrote in message
...

Ken Marcet wrote:


Is it my imagination or do recumbents tend to handle better than your
standard upright road cycle or mtb? After riding my custom recycled
recumbent swb with a headtube angle of about 81 degrees more than several
times now I have noticed that is seems to handle better than my other
bikes.
Is this generally true or is it due to my high headtube angle? This is my
first recumbent that I own for myself, I had the chance to ride a lwb
once
and thought it seemed to handle well too.

Certainly some recumbents handle very well, e.g. Earth Cycles Sunset
Lowracer, RANS Rocket, while others do not. However, the handling is so
different from an upright bicycle, that I really would not make direct
comparisons.

Some recumbents do handle poorly, e.g. Hypercycles and their evolutionary
designs such as the Blackbent III.

--

The first recumbent I rode was a Hypercycle. It was a nice handling bike
and was exceptionally easy for a beginner to ride. There is this myth that
it was a bad handling bike. I rode one for a summer and disagree. Have you
ridden one?...

No, but I have heard from people with respected judgement who have
ridden them and disaproved strongly of the handling, expecially during
braking and over bumps. I have ridden Turners and their ilk, and the
handling did not inspire confidence.

The Blackbent III has a reputation, and I believe it is deserved, of being
an evil handling, dangerous bike. I don't consider it to be part of the
evolutionary design of the Hypercycle. I believe it was designed by the
owner of the Recumbent Barn who is an account by profession....

At one time the name of the business was "Recumbant Barn" (sic).

--
Tom Sherman - Earth

"Tom Sherman" wrote in message
...
$kip wrote:

"Tom Sherman" wrote in message
...

Ken Marcet wrote:


Is it my imagination or do recumbents tend to handle better than your
standard upright road cycle or mtb? After riding my custom recycled
recumbent swb with a headtube angle of about 81 degrees more than
several
times now I have noticed that is seems to handle better than my other
bikes.
Is this generally true or is it due to my high headtube angle? This is
my
first recumbent that I own for myself, I had the chance to ride a lwb
once
and thought it seemed to handle well too.

Certainly some recumbents handle very well, e.g. Earth Cycles Sunset
Lowracer, RANS Rocket, while others do not. However, the handling is so
different from an upright bicycle, that I really would not make direct
comparisons.

Some recumbents do handle poorly, e.g. Hypercycles and their evolutionary
designs such as the Blackbent III.

--

The first recumbent I rode was a Hypercycle. It was a nice handling bike
and was exceptionally easy for a beginner to ride. There is this myth
that it was a bad handling bike. I rode one for a summer and disagree.
Have you ridden one?...

No, but I have heard from people with respected judgement who have ridden
them and disaproved strongly of the handling, expecially during braking
and over bumps. I have ridden Turners and their ilk, and the handling did
not inspire confidence.

The one I rode for a summer braked normally and the way it took bumps didn't
seem to be out of the ordinary, so I'm not sure what your source with
respected judgement was talking about. The bike didn't have a lot of frame
to absorb shock and the fiberglass bucket seat had a thin pad, so yes, you
could sure feel the bumps up and down your spine and that got tiresome after
a while.



The Blackbent III has a reputation, and I believe it is deserved, of
being an evil handling, dangerous bike. I don't consider it to be part of
the evolutionary design of the Hypercycle. I believe it was designed by
the owner of the Recumbent Barn who is an account by profession....

At one time the name of the business was "Recumbant Barn" (sic).

--

If someone can't spell the name of the thing they are designing you might be
well advised to proceed with caution before getting too involved with that
item.

skip

Ken Marcet wrote:
Is it my imagination or do recumbents tend to handle better than your
standard upright road cycle or mtb?

"Recumbents" covers a lot of ground in design: I don't think you can
generalise that much.
But in any case, what exactly is "better handling"? I think my
Streetmachine GT handles fast curves down hills on roads much better
than my MTB, but OTOH my mtb handles steep climbs on rough ground a lot
better than the 'bent. Which one is "better" depends what you're after.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

On Mon, 28 Feb 2005 09:30:03 +0000, Peter Clinch
wrote:

Ken Marcet wrote:
Is it my imagination or do recumbents tend to handle better than your
standard upright road cycle or mtb?

"Recumbents" covers a lot of ground in design: I don't think you can
generalise that much.
But in any case, what exactly is "better handling"? I think my
Streetmachine GT handles fast curves down hills on roads much better
than my MTB, but OTOH my mtb handles steep climbs on rough ground a lot
better than the 'bent. Which one is "better" depends what you're after.

Pete.


I like recumbents! As far as handling, when I hit a larger bump,
there is no way to shift your weight to compensate like you can when
you are riding an upright bike. O ride a Vision V40 SWB with
under-seat steering and a Rans Screamer tandem.
Regards, Dex Henschel

"Dex" wrote in message

I like recumbents! As far as handling, when I hit a larger bump,
there is no way to shift your weight to compensate like you can when
you are riding an upright bike. O ride a Vision V40 SWB with
under-seat steering and a Rans Screamer tandem.

On many recumbent bikes you can press between pedals
and seatback to unload the body weight on the seat bottom
somewhat. It's possible to rise completely off the seat
bottom while coasting. I do this at certain rough places
on my TourEasy when I'm trail riding or railroad crossing...

Tougher with more reclined seating. Haven't come up
with a very satisfactory mode for dealing with rough
roads on my Volae Sport. Pulling on the handle bars
helps only a bit as does bracing between pedals and
seatback. Anyone riding a high-bottom bracket
SWB have any suggestions?

Jon Meinecke