Just met Bill Darby, bent & trike builder - wow!

So there I was walking to the supermarket and there he was, getting
onto a rusty but beautifully welded trike, a real workhorse of a
trike, with big wire panniers in the back and a couple of batteries
for the hills.

I'd heard of Bill Darby who custom designs bikes and trikes in the
Boston area (check out his website at billdarby.com) but hadn't run
into him yet, in spite of the local annual recumbent ride in the
western suburbs, usually our only chance to check out the other area
bent riders.

The reason the trike was rusty is, it's his own prototype and of
course would be the last to ever get painted and tarted up. But check
out his pretty ones on his website.

Could this be the designer who could design me a recumbent bike that
I could stand on the pedals of, for uphills, then sit back down on a
comfortable recumbent seat? Stay tuned....

C.C.,Rider

That URL is http://www.darbydesign.com/ not billdarby.com!

"Carol Cohen" wrote in message
om...
So there I was walking to the supermarket and there he was, getting
onto a rusty but beautifully welded trike, a real workhorse of a
trike, with big wire panniers in the back and a couple of batteries
for the hills.

I'd heard of Bill Darby who custom designs bikes and trikes in the
Boston area (check out his website at billdarby.com) but hadn't run
into him yet, in spite of the local annual recumbent ride in the
western suburbs, usually our only chance to check out the other area
bent riders.

The reason the trike was rusty is, it's his own prototype and of
course would be the last to ever get painted and tarted up. But check
out his pretty ones on his website.

Could this be the designer who could design me a recumbent bike that
I could stand on the pedals of, for uphills, then sit back down on a
comfortable recumbent seat? Stay tuned....

C.C.,Rider

Hey, Carol....

Darby's bikes and trikes are wonderful!

your desire for a standup/sitdown bike. Surely you know
about George Reynolds and his Redundant?

See Bryan Ball's interview he

http://www.bentrideronline.com/Vol24/georgereynolds.htm

Hope to see you on Scott's ride on the 19th!!

-Geoff

Carol Cohen wrote:
So there I was walking to the supermarket and there he was, getting
onto a rusty but beautifully welded trike, a real workhorse of a
trike, with big wire panniers in the back and a couple of batteries
for the hills.

I'd heard of Bill Darby who custom designs bikes and trikes in the
Boston area (check out his website at billdarby.com) but hadn't run
into him yet, in spite of the local annual recumbent ride in the
western suburbs, usually our only chance to check out the other area
bent riders.

The reason the trike was rusty is, it's his own prototype and of
course would be the last to ever get painted and tarted up. But check
out his pretty ones on his website.

Could this be the designer who could design me a recumbent bike that
I could stand on the pedals of, for uphills, then sit back down on a
comfortable recumbent seat? Stay tuned....

C.C.,Rider

Yes, Geoff, I've seen the Redundant in action and although I admire
George Reynold's clever creativity (and also welding), I'd like a bent
that one wouldn't have to stop, get off of, flip a saddle forward,
then remount; plus, the Redundant has to carry the weight of 2 sets of
cranks, pedals and chains (and saddle). And it's short wheelbase,
which I'm not comfortable on.

What I'd like is a long wheelbase bent with only 1 crankset and seat,
which has a handlebar which can somehow be unlocked quickly and
flipped forward (using a modified form of the flip-it?) to clear the
way for one to stand on the pedals, only on the uphills (because on
the level, that position would probably overbalance the bike forward).
Then at the top of the hill one sits down, releases the 2-position
handlebar lock, pulls it toward one and locks it in the original
position.

Is this impossible?

Sorry, fellow old a.r.b.r's, for beating this dead horse. I know I
brought this up a couple of years ago. Maybe flip-it technology has
improved since then.

C.C.,Rider
P.S. - I'd like to go on Scott's annual ride but I wish he'd change
the location. I'm bored with the wooded backroads of Dover and
Natick.


geoff adams wrote in message news:eCJgb.9436$N94.6061@lakeread02...
Hey, Carol....

Darby's bikes and trikes are wonderful!

your desire for a standup/sitdown bike. Surely you know
about George Reynolds and his Redundant?

See Bryan Ball's interview he

http://www.bentrideronline.com/Vol24/georgereynolds.htm

Hope to see you on Scott's ride on the 19th!!

-Geoff

"Carol Cohen" skrev

Sorry, fellow old a.r.b.r's, for beating this dead horse. I know I
brought this up a couple of years ago. Maybe flip-it technology has
improved since then.

No flip-it technology has not improved. Still pretty much done by hand.

I still think that you can design a bike that does everything.
Unfortunately it wont do it well.

M.

Carol, if you start wearing the old shorts with the real thin spot on the
tusch, you'll get over this weird compulsion to stand up when you ride.
Mikael Seierup wrote in message
...

"Carol Cohen" skrev

Sorry, fellow old a.r.b.r's, for beating this dead horse. I know I
brought this up a couple of years ago. Maybe flip-it technology has
improved since then.

No flip-it technology has not improved. Still pretty much done by hand.

I still think that you can design a bike that does everything.
Unfortunately it wont do it well.

M.

Carol,

It seems to me that to do such a radical change of position
on the bike without stopping would be a real trick - but I'm
no bike designer. Have you seen Joe Kochanowski's take on this?

http://www.outsideconnection.com/gallant/hpv/joe/


-Geoff



Carol Cohen wrote:
Yes, Geoff, I've seen the Redundant in action and although I admire
George Reynold's clever creativity (and also welding), I'd like a bent
that one wouldn't have to stop, get off of, flip a saddle forward,
then remount; plus, the Redundant has to carry the weight of 2 sets of
cranks, pedals and chains (and saddle). And it's short wheelbase,
which I'm not comfortable on.

What I'd like is a long wheelbase bent with only 1 crankset and seat,
which has a handlebar which can somehow be unlocked quickly and
flipped forward (using a modified form of the flip-it?) to clear the
way for one to stand on the pedals, only on the uphills (because on
the level, that position would probably overbalance the bike forward).
Then at the top of the hill one sits down, releases the 2-position
handlebar lock, pulls it toward one and locks it in the original
position.

Is this impossible?

Sorry, fellow old a.r.b.r's, for beating this dead horse. I know I
brought this up a couple of years ago. Maybe flip-it technology has
improved since then.

C.C.,Rider
P.S. - I'd like to go on Scott's annual ride but I wish he'd change
the location. I'm bored with the wooded backroads of Dover and
Natick.


geoff adams wrote in message news:eCJgb.9436$N94.6061@lakeread02...

Hey, Carol....

Darby's bikes and trikes are wonderful!

your desire for a standup/sitdown bike. Surely you know
about George Reynolds and his Redundant?

See Bryan Ball's interview he

http://www.bentrideronline.com/Vol24/georgereynolds.htm

Hope to see you on Scott's ride on the 19th!!

-Geoff

I think with some trial and error it could be made. It would need to be a
semi bent for starters, to keep the BB low enough that when you're standing
on the pedals, your head wouldn't be 10' off the deck. I can think of some
fairly robust but simple hinge designs, but the only real glitch is
transition.

If a rider is coming into a hill, at speed, you're going to need to be able
to stand the bars up first, then pull yourself up, all under control, and
carry on pedalling. If the bars had some kind of ape-hanger shape to them,
I think it would aid in the transition. The cheaters way would be to have
USS with stubby bars up front. Might look hokey, but it would still work
and provide bars that are already in the right position. Actually, a friend
of mine wants me to build him a bent with USS and tweener steering so he can
change when his arms get tired from the OSS.

As for the weight of the "redundent", that could be pared down after
prototype stage.


"Carol Cohen" wrote in message
om...
Yes, Geoff, I've seen the Redundant in action and although I admire
George Reynold's clever creativity (and also welding), I'd like a bent
that one wouldn't have to stop, get off of, flip a saddle forward,
then remount; plus, the Redundant has to carry the weight of 2 sets of
cranks, pedals and chains (and saddle). And it's short wheelbase,
which I'm not comfortable on.

What I'd like is a long wheelbase bent with only 1 crankset and seat,
which has a handlebar which can somehow be unlocked quickly and
flipped forward (using a modified form of the flip-it?) to clear the
way for one to stand on the pedals, only on the uphills (because on
the level, that position would probably overbalance the bike forward).
Then at the top of the hill one sits down, releases the 2-position
handlebar lock, pulls it toward one and locks it in the original
position.

Is this impossible?

Sorry, fellow old a.r.b.r's, for beating this dead horse. I know I
brought this up a couple of years ago. Maybe flip-it technology has
improved since then.

C.C.,Rider
P.S. - I'd like to go on Scott's annual ride but I wish he'd change
the location. I'm bored with the wooded backroads of Dover and
Natick.


geoff adams wrote in message
news:eCJgb.9436$N94.6061@lakeread02...
Hey, Carol....

Darby's bikes and trikes are wonderful!

your desire for a standup/sitdown bike. Surely you know
about George Reynolds and his Redundant?

See Bryan Ball's interview he

http://www.bentrideronline.com/Vol24/georgereynolds.htm

Hope to see you on Scott's ride on the 19th!!

-Geoff

"geoff adams" wrote in message
news:c3Zgb.10903$N94.3126@lakeread02...
Carol,

It seems to me that to do such a radical change of position
on the bike without stopping would be a real trick - but I'm
no bike designer. Have you seen Joe Kochanowski's take on this?

http://www.outsideconnection.com/gallant/hpv/joe/

I have a hard time picturing Carol on a Kochanowski hybrid creation knocking
over people's garbage cans in the back alleys of Cambridge. Truth is I have
a hard time imaging anyone other than Joe riding one of those things.

skip

Sticker Jim, you are envisioning the problems of position shift very
clearly! One would have to move fast and not lose balance during the
shift.

Today I was in Montreal trying out the semi-recumbent folding bike by
Belize in Canada -- they call it the "Easy Rider", can you believe
this?

The frame design for quick folding and unfolding was quite good, I
thought. I tried standing up on the pedals but since there were no
hills for about 50 miles in every direction, I couldn't get the uphill
balance I wanted. The front handlebars did somewhat get in the way,
but not entirely.

But the Belize bike is designed for lighter biking than I do. Maybe
for carrying on the commuter train then biking the 5 miles home from
the station. Because the pedals fold I was concerned about the stress
on their hinges if one stood and pushed/pulled up and down on the
handlebars. So this won't work for me (nice bike for what it does,
and I'm going to review it in a separate thread).

So, Sticker Jim, I felt that if that semi-bent bike had a little more
upright fork, or if a USS recumbent had not only a front handlebar but
also an auxiliary set of lower pull-up handles to get the rider
quickly up and somehow still steering and balancing in 2 stages, it
might work.

Yeah, I love Joe Kochanowski's designs too. And his Mad Max goggles
with the rearview mirrors.

C.C.

"Sticker Jim" wrote in message .cable.rogers.com...
I think with some trial and error it could be made. It would need to be a
semi bent for starters, to keep the BB low enough that when you're standing
on the pedals, your head wouldn't be 10' off the deck. I can think of some
fairly robust but simple hinge designs, but the only real glitch is
transition.

If a rider is coming into a hill, at speed, you're going to need to be able
to stand the bars up first, then pull yourself up, all under control, and
carry on pedalling. If the bars had some kind of ape-hanger shape to them,
I think it would aid in the transition. The cheaters way would be to have
USS with stubby bars up front. Might look hokey, but it would still work
and provide bars that are already in the right position. Actually, a friend
of mine wants me to build him a bent with USS and tweener steering so he can
change when his arms get tired from the OSS.

As for the weight of the "redundent", that could be pared down after
prototype stage.