"Edward Dolan" wrote in message
news


I remember something I read once what Gardner Martin, the designer of the
Tour Easy, said about how to design recumbents. He said he designs them
for
250 pound guys like you because they constitute a large share of the
market
for recumbents. I think that is true. I do see very many heavy folks on
recumbents. This makes a lot of sense because it is very hard for big and
heavy guys to ever get any comfort on an upright.


I'm not surprised to learn this. I came to recumbents because of my search
for the ever more comfortable bicycle. I've done centuries on upright bikes
but the sensation of getting back on the bike after a rest stop was just
awful.

What makes recumbents bad for people my size is how terrible they are on
hills. I recall one hill in CT that I finally walked up after falling off my
bike (Infinity recumbent) 5 times because I couldn't keep up enough speed.

This is what led me to trikes. I test rode some trikes on a fairly hilly
test course and found that I could just drop it into low gear and make it up
anything at whatever speed I desired. As you know, I can even stop in the
middle of a hill to rest (I never do though but I've tried it just to
convince myself that it could be done.)

So I sold all my bikes and I now ride trikes exclusively.

Ah but then I discovered rail-trails which are essentially flat. I will
probably pick up a bike again just to take on "rail-trail only" trips.

BTW it is easy for heavy guys to get comfort on an upright. They just have
to lose weight. Losing weight is the hard part, however.

Jeff