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#1
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Advice requested for touring bike purchase.
Greetings, I'm working my way down (or is it up) the food chain. I went from a large SUV, to a Honda Goldwing, and now I'm on a Recumbent. I bought a Sun EZ 1 about 6 months ago to ride to work here in Austin. As a beginner Recumbent rider it worked great for what I needed. Now I find myself riding the Hill country roads on the weekends and wishing I could go farther... and farther... and farther. In other words I'm hooked! So I'm getting ready to purchase bike number 2, a touring bike. Multi-day tours here I come. My local dealer carries Rans but not the tour easy line. I understand they're both fine bikes and I'm happy with my dealer so I'll go with a Rans Stratus XL. I'll test ride the stratus in the next couple of weeks. Right now I'm gathering information to help me slowly climb the learning curve. My questions a What's the difference between storing gear on the bike via front panniers, a rear rack, underseat panniers, or some combination of those and storing gear on and pulling a trailer? Is pulling a trailer a lot harder on the rider? How does pulling a trailer effect the handling of the bike? Will gearing on the stock Stratus give me a low enough gear to cruise uphill at 4MPH yet give me peddle room in the high gears when going 35+? I quickly run out of peddle on the EZ 1 after 30 MPH. That's spinning 115 RPM in my highest gear. I want to go faster on the downhill (is this were a trailer is a bad idea?). If I need to upgrade the gearing I want to include that in original (loan) purchase. How all the gearing stuff plays out is one of the many topics on my learning curve. It's hot here in Central Texas 7 months out of the year. I like the idea of a windshield but I may be to hot to ride behind it. Any experience from the Southern riders out there? On my Goldwing I had Wind Wings that hung outside the faring and were adjustable to allow you to direct a little bit of air at the rider when it was hot. Anyone seen a product like that for bicycle fairings? I plan on getting a different handle bar/ riser set up. Does that mean I'll have to get my dealer to change out cables because of length issues? Feel free to throw any other tidbits of touring experience my way. I'm a beginner on a mission. Onward through the fog, Gene Titus |
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#2
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Advice requested for touring bike purchase.
"Gene Titus" wrote
It's hot here in Central Texas 7 months out of the year. I like the idea of a windshield but I may be to hot to ride behind it. Any experience from the Southern riders out there? I'm only a bit north of you and ride year round with the front fairing on my Tour Easy. It does seem to keep my lower body warmer in the colder months, but somehow, I don't notice it making the hotter days seem worse... Heading into a hot headwind is better with the fairing than without. Actually, the time I feel the hottest is when I'm matching the wind speed running downwind. The apparent wind speed is then zero and the sun can really bake you! Speed up or slow down. Wicking fabrics help. We ride early or late in the day when the temperature gets past 100F. We seek shaded routes. Drink lots of water... I plan on getting a different handle bar/ riser set up. Does that mean I'll have to get my dealer to change out cables because of length issues? Cables, perhaps. Also perhaps fairing mounts... Jon Meinecke |
#3
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Advice requested for touring bike purchase.
I have a Stratus and felt the need to switch the small chainring to a 26 for a
touring low gear. This requires no modification other than a new chainring and has improved things nicely. The shifting is still smooth and I have had no problems. Guy College Park MD |
#4
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Advice requested for touring bike purchase.
Gene Titus wrote in
: Will gearing on the stock Stratus give me a low enough gear to cruise uphill at 4MPH yet give me peddle room in the high gears when going 35+? I quickly run out of peddle on the EZ 1 after 30 MPH. That's spinning 115 RPM in my highest gear. I want to go faster on the downhill (is this were a trailer is a bad idea?). If I need to upgrade the gearing I want Not to sound glib, but it really depends on how strong you are and how steep your hills are. You might consider spending some concentration on spinning until you can cruise at 95-110 RPM, and don't get spun out until something more like 150 (WAG). On a tour, the only real reason to pedal on a downhill is to keep the muscles limber, IMO. I plan on getting a different handle bar/ riser set up. Does that mean I'll have to get my dealer to change out cables because of length issues? The rear derailleur cable will need to be swapped out. The Stratus XL takes a 3 meter cable (think triplet tandem) and leaves you about 2 inches left over. The dealer part (for me) came about because of the difficulty threading the cable through the grip shifters. I don't feel good about that. I did this conversion recently and was able to re-use the brake cables, but I cut my own cable housings. The front derailleur cable might have been just long enough, I don't remember. Plan on replacing at least those two. H |
#6
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Advice requested for touring bike purchase.
"Gene Titus" wrote in message ... Will gearing on the stock Stratus give me a low enough gear to cruise uphill at 4MPH yet give me peddle room in the high gears when going 35+? I quickly run out of peddle on the EZ 1 after 30 MPH. That's spinning 115 RPM in my highest gear. I want to go faster on the downhill (is this were a trailer is a bad idea?). If I need to upgrade the gearing I want to include that in original (loan) purchase. How all the gearing stuff plays out is one of the many topics on my learning curve. Gene. On my previous V-Rex I ran a 24-38-52. This can be run but you must make sure the chain is the correct length. I kept taking out a link until I got it right. Many people on this group and BROL find a 38 tooth middle ring ideal for 90% of the riding. With the 42 middle ring it always seemed I was shifting into the small ring for rollers whereas with the 38 I can usually make it to the top. The 24 will give you a nice low gear for loaded touring and the 52 gives you that "I'm Insane" gear for spinning at 45+mph downhill. Swap the rings out when buying the bike. To add to the confusion, many people are running 150-165mm cranks so they can spin faster. Three of our bikes have 155mm cranks and we would not go back. A week ago I purchased a used, mint 97 V-Rex with 175mm Campy cranks. They drive me crazy. I will be switching these out for shorter cranks. My wife Terry and I will be biking in Austria and the Czech Republic for 6 weeks this summer. We will be riding S & S coupled Tour Easys with 26" rear wheels and carrying our gear with ERRC Looong Underseat Panniers and Arkel RT-70 panniers on the rear rack. Our bikes will have 20-33-45 chainrings on so we can burro up hills. We're excited! Too many choices! Too little time! Perry B |
#7
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Advice requested for touring bike purchase.
Gene Titus
Will gearing on the stock Stratus give me a low enough gear to cruise uphill at 4MPH .... Gene, Welcome! I would advise getting the lowest gear you can -- for me that's a 24 tooth in the front and a 34 in the back. When pulling a touring load you'll feel like you're blowing out your knees anyhow, so don't make it worse by not gearing down to the max. Ed ps. You may find that as a tourist the 35+ mph pedalling may not seem so important; I quickly gave up my higher gears in favor of bunching my gearing beginning with that low gear described above. No big gaps between shifts. |
#8
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Advice requested for touring bike purchase.
Cletus D. Lee wrote in
T: Your LWB RANS Stratus will drive like an 18 wheeler, IMO adding a trailer will only make it handle worse. OTOH, I've pulled 60-80 lbs of kids + 15 lbs of trailer behind a Stratus up to about 18-20mph (down a slight grade) with no ill effects. Suspect the Burley Nomad might be more stable than Bob, but never pulled a Bob. (although I have friends named Bob that occasionally do odd things, and sometimes I do "pull a Bob" but that's not the same ...) |
#9
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Advice requested for touring bike purchase.
I don't know the Rans line but why not look at the Velocity? Seems
it's more directly comparable to the Tour Easy. Setting up a touring recumbent is a matter of taste, budget, purpose, and endless refinement. Plenty of room for personal quirks and oddball modifications no one else would want to run. I know of no better resource to learn about recumbents on the long haul than to buy a dozen back issues of ERRC magazine. http://www.geocities.com/e_r_r_c/index2.html david boise ID |
#10
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Advice requested for touring bike purchase.
Gene Titus wrote in message ...
Hi Gene, I can help you with my experiences with my Stratus XL. My questions a What's the difference between storing gear on the bike via front panniers, a rear rack, underseat panniers, or some combination of those and storing gear on and pulling a trailer? Is pulling a trailer a lot harder on the rider? How does pulling a trailer effect the handling of the bike? My first year, I stored my gear on a rear rack: 2 paniers fully loaded, a tent, sleeping bag and autoinflatable mattress. This combo changed the handling to a condition I'd compare to a car understeering. It took me 30 minutes in a parking lot to get used to the change The next year, I got a Burley Nomad to be able to bring a few extras with me (I like my creature comforts, the previous setup was a bit too barebones camping for my taste). The handling wasn't much different that riding with the rear fully loaded, the effort in the flats was the same as last year, but going up big hills was harder. I had trained hard(30 miles a day at 20 mph with many short sprints to simulate going up hills) for a month before my 3 week camping trips, and I needed it. Going down hills wasn't that much of a problem, the aerodynamics of the trailer would prevent me from going much faster that 35 mph. My average speed on my trips is 12 mph in the flat areas, and in hilly areas, I'd drop approx 2 more mph. Last year, I was able to ride between 60 miles/day in hilly areas to 90 miles/day in flat areas. Last year, I rode 1300 miles in 22 days on my trip. Another thing that needs to be addressed is the low speed handling of the Stratus. When I'd be going up a big hill in 1st gear, I'd have to move the steering tiller a lot to stay straight Will gearing on the stock Stratus give me a low enough gear to cruise uphill at 4MPH yet give me peddle room in the high gears when going 35+? I quickly run out of peddle on the EZ 1 after 30 MPH. That's spinning 115 RPM in my highest gear. I want to go faster on the downhill (is this were a trailer is a bad idea?). If I need to upgrade the gearing I want to include that in original (loan) purchase. How all the gearing stuff plays out is one of the many topics on my learning curve. At 4MPH, you might have problems with keeping it in a straight line, my slowest speed was 5mph, and it was a handfull at that speed. Downhill, unloaded, my Stratus is a pleasure at speeds of up to 50 mph, very steady. Loaded, either with paniers and tent or with the trailer, I felt that 35mph was pretty much the max speed I wanted to ride at, the front end feels a little light at that speed. At that speed, I still wasn't spun out in top gear, approx. 100 RPM. It's hot here in Central Texas 7 months out of the year. I like the idea of a windshield but I may be to hot to ride behind it. Any experience from the Southern riders out there? On my Goldwing I had Wind Wings that hung outside the faring and were adjustable to allow you to direct a little bit of air at the rider when it was hot. Anyone seen a product like that for bicycle fairings? I can't address the heat issue, as in Canada, it rarely gets above 90F. and with my fairing I don't get overheated. Hope this has helped, Denis Rivest Stratus rider in Montréal |
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