The Gerry Attrick bike: Mixte or Bent?

On Feb 4, 8:21*am, Peter Clinch wrote:
Andre Jute wrote:
My interest isn't in high performance bikes even now that I'm whole
and and hale and hearty. One suspects that with advancing years one's
interest will focus even more closely on comfort and utility.

Bad wording on my part, but I regard "comfort and utility" to be
performance aspects as well. *Moultons are comfortable thanks to the low
stepover and good road-going suspension, and utilitarian because of the
convenience and tight steering of the small wheels.

But most of
his bikes I wouldn't spend my own money on; I have too much spaceframe
experience to like bunches of little tubes -- call it a personal
prejudice, if you like. I'm a big beam man.

The Bridgestone Moulton doesn't have a spaceframe

Furthermore, I live in a country where the roads are (were until
recently, actually) so bad that a bicyclist on the way home from the
pub falling into a pothole and drowning was a matter of national
political outrage rather than a cruel joke. Small wheels just won't
do.

As someone who lives on an untracked lane and has a Brompton with even
smaller wheels, I suspect that's more about prejudice than experience.
Furthermore the case that if the roads are poor then a good road-going
suspension will make a very useful difference to ride comfort.

I could be tempted by a Moulton design because it is without a doubt a
significant bike. Both the TSR and he Bridgestone seem to me pretty
reasonably priced. But I've already decided my next bike must use my
Cyber Nexus groupset, and I've also fallen in love with the 622
Bontrager wheels the hubs are built into... Besides, I'm thirty years
past buying something just because it is the most significant product
of its kind. In the end, to me the Moultons are not different enough,
merely a different, if significant, execution of an upright bike.

Recumbents have other serious problems. I was never a bike racer, so I
never learned to pull on the upstroke and I'm not planning on learning
now. Cleats and shoecages and straps are a nuisance I don't need.

A compact like the HPVelotechnik Spirit is quite typically used with
normal platform pedals, there not being the sort of advantage of
clipless associated with more laid back examples. *Also the case that
something like the Spirit has a fairly high and relatively upright
seating posotion so you won't be staring out wheel nuts: in fact you'd
have an eye-view slightly higher than a typical driver.

By golly, now that's a proper, German, thoroughly thought-through
recumbent bike, right down to keeping the chain grease off proper
trousers. Thanks for showing me that one, Pete; I've saved the Kinesis
review link on it.

The thing I learned about recumbents
in those half-dozen rides is encapsulated in something truly shiver-
making that Tom Sherman said when he mentioned riders "trained" for
riding recumbents. I don't fancy retraining for cycling, an activity I
consider should be fun rather than a socially acceptable form of sado-
masochism.

Again, there's recumbents and there's other recumbents. *The Spirit is
very much a climb aboard and pedal off design that shouldn't need any
re-training, just a short period (and by short I mean somewhere between
seconds and hours, not days, weeks or months) of familiarisation. *It's
also the most immediately comfortable bike I've ever sat on in my life,
bar none. *Not so good for a long tour as a more laid-back example with
the weight more in the middle, but that's only an issue if you're
touring. *Sounds to me like you're just getting about, and if that's so

No even that. My physician is next door, the shops and library less
than five minutes from my front door. I use the bike for daily
exercise, and if the day is fine ride further, but my maximum round
trip is only 22km.

then a Spirit or a Bridgestone only really raise problems in the cost,
being that much more than a good roadster.

No more expensive than a custom bike. But the Spirit is not anybody's
geriatric bike. A proper gerrybike will have zero maintenance or as
close as makes no difference. That means a fully enclosed chain. Older
people may be unable to bend to provide regular service to open gears
and chain, and may find the bike too heavy to lift up on stand.

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/

Excellent going, Pete. If for some reason I give up on the big wheels
and the chaincase, I'll take another look at the Spirit, which is
clearly a more user-friendly recumbent.

Andre Jute
Logical progress

"still just me" wrote in message
...
[...]
Congratulations. You actually managed to properly quote the previous
post. I knew you could do it if you put your mind to it.

You need to worry less about quotation marks and more about saying something
that others would find interesting to read.

The only posts that I get on my newsreader that are messed up are from
Google Groups and that is because those who post from that website do not
know what the hell they are doing. Even so, it is very easy to mess up when
using Google Groups and I would never use it myself. There is no substitute
for a proper newsreader.

Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota

I knew you could do it if you put your mind to it.

=x= But that would require some sort of mind.
_Jym_

"Jym Dyer" wrote in message
...
I knew you could do it if you put your mind to it.

=x= But that would require some sort of mind.
_Jym_

There is not one person in a thousand on Usenet who has any wit. I myself do
not have it, so I never attempt it. I just plug along in my accustomed
manner and occasionally I become humorous in spite of myself. I suggest that
Jym Dyer follow my example and forego all attempts at wit. Why fall flat
when you don't have to!

"Skip" was the only poster to ARBR who ever evinced any wit. I think you
have to come at the world sideways in order for wit to kick in. Those who
come at the world head on like I do are incapable of it, as is Jym Dyer of
course.

Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota

Andre Jute wrote:

No more expensive than a custom bike. But the Spirit is not anybody's
geriatric bike. A proper gerrybike will have zero maintenance or as
close as makes no difference. That means a fully enclosed chain.

The chains are in tubes but the crank isn't enclosed... /but/ (and IME
of 'bents it's a big "but") without the crank placed low and behind the
front wheel the amount of crud it catches is minimal, far, far less than
is the case on a "normal" bike, so there's not much chain cleaning needed.
The Spirit can also be specified with a SRAM 8 speed hub gear (in fact
that's the default option), so you don't need to worry much about
cleaning the gears.

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/