BikeE
 

First ever ride on a recumbent today. "BikeE" Owner says: one of the lower end 'bents available at the time.

Very cool. Like sitting on a lazy boy. Suddenly riding my junk 10-spd around feels like mild torture by comparison!

The owner says these BikeE things aren't that much money: $300-$500 ish used?

You should really try one. If you like to bike, I bet you'll have a blast on a recumbent. Track down a local cycling club - I'm sure they'd be happy to let you take one for a spin.

My bike is a 25 year old Ross 12 speed. It is very similar to your fuji i think.

I rode a recumbent around a bike shop's parking lot one time. The steering seemed a bit strange, but you would adapt to that over time.

Metro, it you get the chance try to climb a steep hill and tell us if you surived.

One other drawback I realized on this trip: you can't use your legs as "suspension" for your butt. On a standard bike, you often stand or at least tension your legs to go off a curb or through a sharp bump. But you must remain seated and get it full force on the bent. Rear suspension would be good.

But still a lot of fun. Total grin factor. I'll be making up reasons to go places on this bike.

My friend has a BikeE! It looks like fun...maybe I'll get him to let me ride it.

You definitely should. I'd be interested to see your take on it.

I didn't think I'd be able to track stand on it, but I can... sort of. I tend to roll ahead a bit more than on the junker or the mtb though.

So I've had this BikeE thing for a week now, and I've easily put 4x the distance on it than I would have on my beater 10 speed. I still look for excuses to go places on it.

If you don't like the twitchEness, you can try replacing the headset ball bearings with needle bearings. They aren't as loose, and really allow for a decent amount of trail w/o the looser steering bouncing all over the road imo.

Thanks for the tip. If it were my bike and not just a loaner, I'd seriously consider that.

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Went for a 39 km tour on Friday. Didn't push hard, just nice and steady. Knees ached a little by the end, but it's hard to say whether that's just me or the bikeE; I don't do 39 km rides on my regular bike, so I have nothing to compare it to.

Aside from being tired at the end (I'm not in particularly awesome shape), I can say that my butt/back/neck were NOT sore at all. And that riding the BikeE is much more condusive to sightseeing.

I'd put a fairing on it though. :)