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What Is A Recumbent Bicycle?
What is a recumbent bicycle?
A bicycle where you sit back in a full seat with your legs in a horizontal position. This puts the body in a position where there is less wind drag from the legs, but still maintains the optimal angle between back and legs as on a conventional bicycle, provides a more comfortable riding position with no weight on the wrists, and provides a natural view looking forward. If you study where the energy goes in riding a bicycle you will find out that at speeds over 25 km/hour, 90% of your energy is used to overcome wind resistance. (I found the above on www, it seems to make it clear for those who don't know.) |
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#2
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What Is A Recumbent Bicycle?
wrote in message ... What is a recumbent bicycle? A bicycle where you sit back in a full seat with your legs in a horizontal position. This puts the body in a position where there is less wind drag from the legs, but still maintains the optimal angle between back and legs as on a conventional bicycle, provides a more comfortable riding position with no weight on the wrists, and provides a natural view looking forward. If you study where the energy goes in riding a bicycle you will find out that at speeds over 25 km/hour, 90% of your energy is used to overcome wind resistance. (I found the above on www, it seems to make it clear for those who don't know.) I seriously doubt anyone gets a recumbent because they have a slight aerodynamic advantage over uprights. They get them for just one reason - comfort. No one who is perfectly comfortable on an upright will ever get a recumbent. It will not even occur to them. However, many cyclists after they get a recumbent decide they also want to be fast, and so the quest begins for a faster and faster recumbent. It is how many of us end up with more than one recumbent. Regards, Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota aka Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota |
#3
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What Is A Recumbent Bicycle?
On Jul 20, 6:06 pm, "Edward Dolan" wrote:
wrote in message ... What is a recumbent bicycle? A bicycle where you sit back in a full seat with your legs in a horizontal position. This puts the body in a position where there is less wind drag from the legs, but still maintains the optimal angle between back and legs as on a conventional bicycle, provides a more comfortable riding position with no weight on the wrists, and provides a natural view looking forward. If you study where the energy goes in riding a bicycle you will find out that at speeds over 25 km/hour, 90% of your energy is used to overcome wind resistance. (I found the above on www, it seems to make it clear for those who don't know.) I seriously doubt anyone gets a recumbent because they have a slight aerodynamic advantage over uprights. They get them for just one reason - comfort. No one who is perfectly comfortable on an upright will ever get a recumbent. It will not even occur to them. However, many cyclists after they get a recumbent decide they also want to be fast, and so the quest begins for a faster and faster recumbent. It is how many of us end up with more than one recumbent. Regards, Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota aka Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota So you could save the rest of us a lot of time by suggesting the best and fastest highway bicycle ('bent) right here in this group. eh? |
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What Is A Recumbent Bicycle?
wrote in message ... On Jul 20, 6:06 pm, "Edward Dolan" wrote: wrote in message ... What is a recumbent bicycle? A bicycle where you sit back in a full seat with your legs in a horizontal position. This puts the body in a position where there is less wind drag from the legs, but still maintains the optimal angle between back and legs as on a conventional bicycle, provides a more comfortable riding position with no weight on the wrists, and provides a natural view looking forward. If you study where the energy goes in riding a bicycle you will find out that at speeds over 25 km/hour, 90% of your energy is used to overcome wind resistance. (I found the above on www, it seems to make it clear for those who don't know.) I seriously doubt anyone gets a recumbent because they have a slight aerodynamic advantage over uprights. They get them for just one reason - comfort. No one who is perfectly comfortable on an upright will ever get a recumbent. It will not even occur to them. However, many cyclists after they get a recumbent decide they also want to be fast, and so the quest begins for a faster and faster recumbent. It is how many of us end up with more than one recumbent. So you could save the rest of us a lot of time by suggesting the best and fastest highway bicycle ('bent) right here in this group. eh? Unfortunately as I acquired faster and faster recumbents, I also got older and older and therefore slower and slower. I suggest you go for comfort and forget about speed on a recumbent. Serious uphill grades will utterly defeat you on any recumbent, so why bother. Regards, Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota aka Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota |
#6
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What Is A Recumbent Bicycle?
Edward Dolan wrote:
wrote in message ... On Jul 20, 6:06 pm, "Edward Dolan" wrote: wrote in message ... What is a recumbent bicycle? A bicycle where you sit back in a full seat with your legs in a horizontal position. This puts the body in a position where there is less wind drag from the legs, but still maintains the optimal angle between back and legs as on a conventional bicycle, provides a more comfortable riding position with no weight on the wrists, and provides a natural view looking forward. If you study where the energy goes in riding a bicycle you will find out that at speeds over 25 km/hour, 90% of your energy is used to overcome wind resistance. (I found the above on www, it seems to make it clear for those who don't know.) I seriously doubt anyone gets a recumbent because they have a slight aerodynamic advantage over uprights. They get them for just one reason - comfort. No one who is perfectly comfortable on an upright will ever get a recumbent. It will not even occur to them. However, many cyclists after they get a recumbent decide they also want to be fast, and so the quest begins for a faster and faster recumbent. It is how many of us end up with more than one recumbent. So you could save the rest of us a lot of time by suggesting the best and fastest highway bicycle ('bent) right here in this group. eh? Unfortunately as I acquired faster and faster recumbents, I also got older and older and therefore slower and slower. I suggest you go for comfort and forget about speed on a recumbent. Serious uphill grades will utterly defeat you on any recumbent, so why bother. Serious uphill grades will kill your average speed on any bike, so why bother. |
#7
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What Is A Recumbent Bicycle?
"Jon Bendtsen" wrote in message ... Edward Dolan wrote: wrote in message ... On Jul 20, 6:06 pm, "Edward Dolan" wrote: wrote in message ... What is a recumbent bicycle? A bicycle where you sit back in a full seat with your legs in a horizontal position. This puts the body in a position where there is less wind drag from the legs, but still maintains the optimal angle between back and legs as on a conventional bicycle, provides a more comfortable riding position with no weight on the wrists, and provides a natural view looking forward. If you study where the energy goes in riding a bicycle you will find out that at speeds over 25 km/hour, 90% of your energy is used to overcome wind resistance. (I found the above on www, it seems to make it clear for those who don't know.) I seriously doubt anyone gets a recumbent because they have a slight aerodynamic advantage over uprights. They get them for just one reason - comfort. No one who is perfectly comfortable on an upright will ever get a recumbent. It will not even occur to them. However, many cyclists after they get a recumbent decide they also want to be fast, and so the quest begins for a faster and faster recumbent. It is how many of us end up with more than one recumbent. So you could save the rest of us a lot of time by suggesting the best and fastest highway bicycle ('bent) right here in this group. eh? Unfortunately as I acquired faster and faster recumbents, I also got older and older and therefore slower and slower. I suggest you go for comfort and forget about speed on a recumbent. Serious uphill grades will utterly defeat you on any recumbent, so why bother. Serious uphill grades will kill your average speed on any bike, so why bother. Recumbent cyclists who get into speed want to be able to keep up with upright cyclists. And they can almost do this if it weren't for the hills. You cannot make up going down a hill what you lose going up a hill. And so recumbent cyclists are always being dropped by upright cyclists because of this fact of life. I have seen upright cyclists take hills like they are not even there. That is never true for recumbents. It will feel like you have an anchor attached to your bike every time you approach a slight upgrade. That is why recumbent are for comfort, not speed. Regards, Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota aka Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota |
#8
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What Is A Recumbent Bicycle?
Jon Bendtsen wrote:
Edward Dolan wrote: Unfortunately as I acquired faster and faster recumbents, I also got older and older and therefore slower and slower. I suggest you go for comfort and forget about speed on a recumbent. Serious uphill grades will utterly defeat you on any recumbent, so why bother. Serious uphill grades will kill your average speed on any bike, so why bother. I've yet to be defeated by a hill's gradient killing available power completely, I have failed on a couple off-road where I ran out of traction. The End to End record (cycling from Land's End in Cornwall to John o'Groats in Scotland, the longest direct trip there is in the UK) is held on a faired recumbent trike. There's no shortage of "serious uphill grades" on the route so the position that recumbents are killed by hills is evidently wrong. http://www.windcheetah.co.uk/record.htm In 2003 there was a recumbent class in the Classique_Genevoise road race. For those unfamiliar, the Geneva area is not the flattest you'll find on the planet... the race report at http://www.m5-ligfietsen.nl/site/EN/...que_Genevoise/ again suggests recumbents can do hills and still keep up. Still, why worry about mere evidence when one's mind is made up? But despite the above Ed does actually have a good point about speed not being the primary driver to get folk onto 'bents. I initially got on for curiosity, I've stayed because of comfort. People who love to go fast often want to race, and if you want to do that against good racers the opportunities on recumbents are there but are *very* limited compared to racing UCI compliant upright racers. The best way to get fast isn't buy a recumbent, it's go out with the local chain gang. Not so clever taking a bike for that that is slower in some places, faster than others, and that nobody can draft properly. Pete. -- Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/ |
#9
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What Is A Recumbent Bicycle?
Highway bicycle does mean something to me: like:
http://www.recumbentmania.com/images...ate/dragon.jpg |
#10
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What Is A Recumbent Bicycle?
wrote:
Highway bicycle does mean something to me: like: http://www.recumbentmania.com/images...ate/dragon.jpg That looks like a "Z-frame" lowracer to me. The large, custom single chainring indicates that the bike is intended mostly for racing. -- Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia “Mary had a little lamb / And when she saw it sicken / She shipped it off to Packingtown / And now it’s labeled chicken.” |
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