It was weird

A ZOX 20. I was at the Spezialradmesse thingy in Germesheim and they
had a bit of a CIHAGM[1] fest on. Must have been 60 different
recumbents available, and a couple of ZOXs[2].

Wierd, I just couldnt get used to watching the derailur shift *in
front* of me. Also notable a Rainbow[3], if anyone has one of these my
sympathies. The KMXs out in force and I have scraped knuckles to prove
it, and also memorable, five, yes *five* Hases[4] joined up nose to tail
doing the taxi run down to the Bahnhoff. Bloody good laugh, including
the 'incident', which if I remember, I will post up the video somewhere
as viewed from the last seat in the train.

All in all, a nice day out and remarkably, my credit card came back intact.


[1] Can I Have A Go Mate
[2] http://www.zoxbikes.com/
[3] http://rainbow-recumbents.co.uk/index.htm
[4] World record is apparent 62.
http://www.hase-bikes.com/ens/worldrecord/index.php

Tosspot writes:

front* of me. Also notable a Rainbow[3], if anyone has one of these my
sympathies.

I tried one of these in NL before buying the Fiero and quite liked it,
seemed like a good tourer though a bit boring. What was wrong with it? I
think I tried the Liner, can't remember exactly.

Roos

Roos Eisma wrote:
[Rainbow 'bent]
I tried one of these in NL before buying the Fiero and quite liked it,
seemed like a good tourer though a bit boring. What was wrong with it? I
think I tried the Liner, can't remember exactly.

Lyner, rather than Liner. Same trip and bike that Roos was on, I
thought it was okay too, we both reckoned it a damn site better
than the Challenge Mistral we had out on the same demo tour (the
only good thing I found about the Mistral were the brakes, which
were Maggies, and part of the reason I upgraded my Streetmachine to
HS-33s). "Boring" mostly for the right reasons, as in no
"interesting" quirks like twitchy handling. Main things against it
were no Magic X Factor and the suspension seemd a bit liable to
mnior pogoing (and since this was in the NL, that wasn't climbing).

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/

Roos Eisma wrote:
Tosspot writes:


front* of me. Also notable a Rainbow[3], if anyone has one of these my
sympathies.

I tried one of these in NL before buying the Fiero and quite liked it,
seemed like a good tourer though a bit boring. What was wrong with it? I
think I tried the Liner, can't remember exactly.

Ok, I'm not a recumbent rider although well up for a bash on one, but I
was trying these things back to back so I had a good comparison. I
thought it was extremely 'tetchy'. Ok, most recumbents are, but this
was a nightmare at walking pace and didn't get any better with speed.
Even the Challenge felt more stable.

They look nice I'll grant, but for me, no way.

I don't recall the exact model, but it must be the latest off the line.

Peter Clinch wrote:
Roos Eisma wrote:
[Rainbow 'bent]

I tried one of these in NL before buying the Fiero and quite liked it,
seemed like a good tourer though a bit boring. What was wrong with it?
I think I tried the Liner, can't remember exactly.

Lyner, rather than Liner. Same trip and bike that Roos was on, I
thought it was okay too, we both reckoned it a damn site better than the
Challenge Mistral we had out on the same demo tour (the only good thing
I found about the Mistral were the brakes, which were Maggies, and part
of the reason I upgraded my Streetmachine to HS-33s). "Boring" mostly
for the right reasons, as in no "interesting" quirks like twitchy
handling. Main things against it were no Magic X Factor and the
suspension seemd a bit liable to mnior pogoing (and since this was in
the NL, that wasn't climbing).

Well there's a thing! I thought the Challenge was at least in the same
ball-park as the Rainbow for handling. Looking at the Challenge its a
bit more full on, you'd expect the Rainbow to handle better. See post
up there --^

Maybe I do it an injustice, or maybe it wasn't set up right, but for me,
nope, it wasn't a nice experience.

Tosspot wrote:

Well there's a thing! I thought the Challenge was at least in the same
ball-park as the Rainbow for handling. Looking at the Challenge its a
bit more full on, you'd expect the Rainbow to handle better. See post
up there --^

Tricky to comment usefully given there are 4 models they do and we
don't know which one this is...

The Lyner was the one we tried and it had a slightly longer
wheelbase than nost SWB touring 'bents, and that seemed to
contribute to very solid handling.

We didn't find anything wrong with the handling on the Mistral, but
the seat didn't suit either of us, the suspension was sh^H^Hnot
very good (Roos actually got blurred vision at one point on the
brick paved roads commin around subutban Amsterdam) and the rack
had been designed by a fool who clearly never intended it to be
used with panniers (we had panniers, so they went on the Rainbow,
which took them with no problems).

Which brings us back to the Perrennial 'Bent Advice: try in person,
just because someone else [dis]likes it doesn't mean much for you.

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/

Peter Clinch wrote:
Tosspot wrote:

Well there's a thing! I thought the Challenge was at least in the
same ball-park as the Rainbow for handling. Looking at the Challenge
its a bit more full on, you'd expect the Rainbow to handle better.
See post up there --^

Tricky to comment usefully given there are 4 models they do and we don't
know which one this is...

Hokay, they had two there and since they were SWB I guess the Lyner and
the Lyric ("The Lyric is a must ride machine for the beginner..."!) and
they happened to be blue and green as well. I rode both, seemed
similar. But the green one was the bloody twitchy one.

The Lyner was the one we tried and it had a slightly longer wheelbase
than nost SWB touring 'bents, and that seemed to contribute to very
solid handling.

We didn't find anything wrong with the handling on the Mistral, but the
seat didn't suit either of us, the suspension was sh^H^Hnot very good
(Roos actually got blurred vision at one point on the brick paved roads
commin around subutban Amsterdam) and the rack had been designed by a
fool who clearly never intended it to be used with panniers (we had
panniers, so they went on the Rainbow, which took them with no problems).

Which brings us back to the Perrennial 'Bent Advice: try in person, just
because someone else [dis]likes it doesn't mean much for you.

shrugs Definitely. Nice looking bikes though.

Peter Clinch wrote:
We didn't find anything wrong with the handling on the Mistral, but
the seat didn't suit either of us, the suspension was sh^H^Hnot
very good (Roos actually got blurred vision at one point on the
brick paved roads commin around subutban Amsterdam)

interesting, as they both use DNM DV22 rear shocks, albeit at quite
different lever ratios, which would tend to give more damping on the
Fiero - maybe some of the fference is also in the seat design?

and the rack
had been designed by a fool who clearly never intended it to be
used with panniers (we had panniers, so they went on the Rainbow,
which took them with no problems).

Ermm, I think the 'fool' prefers to use Radical recumbent panniers,
which (according to Radical) don't need the usual drop-down bit on the
rear rack (excess weight) when used on a Mistral.

squeaker wrote:

interesting, as they both use DNM DV22 rear shocks, albeit at quite
different lever ratios, which would tend to give more damping on the
Fiero - maybe some of the fference is also in the seat design?

Note that though Roos owns a Fiero, this was pre-buy testing and we're
comparing a Rainbow Lyner.
But comparing the Fiero to the Mistral, the seat certainly does account
for a lot. Neither of us liked the Mistral one much, the Fiero one is
suits Roos nicely altogether and it suits me reasonably well (if it
didn't cut away at the shoulderblades it would be my Fave Seat So Far).

Ermm, I think the 'fool' prefers to use Radical recumbent panniers,
which (according to Radical) don't need the usual drop-down bit on the
rear rack (excess weight) when used on a Mistral.

Well, that's just great for the designer, but overly restrictive on the
customers, so it would stop me from buying one. Roos has a set of
Radicals and they're great for touring, but the inability to use them
singly would make them a poor choice for quite a bit of utility work.

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/

Peter Clinch wrote:
squeaker wrote:
Ermm, I think the 'fool' prefers to use Radical recumbent panniers,
which (according to Radical) don't need the usual drop-down bit on the
rear rack (excess weight) when used on a Mistral.

Well, that's just great for the designer, but overly restrictive on the
customers, so it would stop me from buying one. Roos has a set of
Radicals and they're great for touring, but the inability to use them
singly would make them a poor choice for quite a bit of utility work.

Pete.

You're right there, and I don't think you can't get a regular sized
laptop into the Radical panniers, and definitely not in their medium
rack bag - which I have got Maybe an excuse for a laptop upgrade
tho'