What Do You Cyclists Think of This Recumbent?

[happyslug]

8. Paris-Brest-Paris avoids the Alps and the Pyrenees,

Thus the main "Fault" of recumbents are avoided in that ride. Recumbents are faster on the flats then conventional bikes, but slower going up hill (Downhill is about the same for both bikes). By avoiding the mountains, you work with the main advantage of the recumbent.

Now, a recumbent can go uphill, it just that conventional bikes do it better and faster. Thus in the mountains I would avoid a recumbent for the main problem is going uphill, not downhill. On the flats (and that includes most Rails to Trails in the mountains, the old steam locomotives did NOT want to go over a 5% grade, and such a grade is well within the ability of a recumbent) a recumbent comes into its own.

I did like the report in suspension and bicycle that point out that most suspension is a waste of money on the grounds that suspension comes into its own off road NOT on road. The pot holes in most paved roads, when it by a bicycle, are to quick for the suspension to come into operation. Suspension are used to smooth out a lot of bumps not just one bump caused by a pot hole. I live in an area of a lot of pot holes and suspension kicks in AFTER you hit that pot hole. On the other hand, when traveling on a brick road with uneven bricks the suspension comes into its own, the suspension smooths out the ride on that rough road due to its ability to smooth out the many bumps the bike is hitting.

Thus suspensions have a very limited affect on the effect of hitting A pot hole with your bike, suspensions are design to handle a lot of small "potholes" one after another that one runs across on a rough road or path. It is for this reason bikes did not have suspension till off road biking became popular starting in the 1980s.

Even today most road bikes do NOT have suspension, for such suspension is NOT needed if the road is relatively smooth (and that is true even if one is on a dirt road, when you need suspension is on paths and other "unimproved" roads). It is on such rough "roads" that suspension comes into its own, otherwise suspension is a waste of money.