Ron Teplitz wrote:
I've gone over sideways four times in the 10 years that I've had my
Lightning Stealth. When an SWB's front wheel slides out, you go down
fast. Ususally I just get road rash on the forearm that hits the street.
The most recent time I did this, was going in a straight line at about
12 mph, rode into a small patch of gravel. Went down, landed badly and
broke a leg. Am re-evaluating my choice of bikes.

Is an SWB any more likely than some other kind of 2-wheel bent (or a
wedgie) to lose control on a patch of gravel in the street? Opinions?
Experiences?

Ron

I have one SWB I bought about a year ago, and have test-rode a few other
SWB's and other two-wheelers as well. I notice this too on mine, when I
ride through somewhat-deep gravel the front wheel creeps/slides
left-and-right, even though I hold the steering in a straight line. And
this gravel would be NOTHING on a upright road or MTB, so I think it is
caused by heavily-loaded small front wheels. On a couple test-rides, I
have slightly felt the other recumbent bikes (that I did not buy) do the
same thing. And of course braking makes that problem even worse. Also I
notice that most-all recumbents (at least, the ones with small front
wheels that I rode) could not be ridden hands-free. So I think a tiny
front wheel just does not stabilize as well as a big wheel does. ,,,,
And I kind of like the Rans crank-forwad bikes. But the first year they
came out, they had a little 20" wheel on the front, but Rans changed
that to a big wheel. Coincidence? I think not. ---- My SWB is a 20/26",
by the by. ---- ....I would suggest a LWB or a CLWB, I want to buy
another bent for guests to ride on but would not get another SWB for
that, I would get a LWB or CLWB. The longer bikes feel much more stable
overall, the SWB's are very jittery. Some people could get on mine and
ride it quickly (with platform pedals on it) but they wandered around a
lot, because of the lack of steering stability. ----- I think the
"most-stable" recumbent would be a LWB with big wheels, 700's or 26's.
At least one company makes one [I don't recall who, but I've seen their
website ], maybe two companies doing it but not very many though. --Or,
one could I suppose get a regular small-front-wheel LWB and try putting
a long fork and big wheel on the front.... ? Some people do this to turn
a "general-purpose" SWB into a high-racer.