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#1
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6 month / 6,000 mile Haluzak review
I bought my new first-time Haluzak Horizon last March
and wanted to share my experiences with it for the 6,000 miles I've put on it since. First and foremost, I love it. This is no surprise to me since I spent upwards of two years researching my first recumbent purchase in general and Haluzak in particular (I even visited their factory). The Horizon offered me comfortable USS, a great seat, and a straight-forward design. Six months and 6,000 miles later these features remain a delight. Putting on the Miles Each day the first forty miles are the hardest. I've been on the bike for awhile and yet have a long ways to go. By the time I'm past 100 miles for the day I've been having too much fun to notice. I may get tired but I don't get sore or achy. It's a sweet ride though I keep even more of an eagle eye out for potholes given the smaller diameter front wheel. All the time I get attention, some more slack-jawed than other. I encounter probably the same number of harassing motorists as on a non-recumbent, certainly no fewer. Other experiential observations are that the bike has been quite stable for me in high speed (up to 50mph) descents and does well in the rain. I don't have them, yet, but fenders are recommended along with a good rain suit and booties if foul weather is a probability for you. I have not tried one, but I think a fairing would be cool. The rear wheel is easy to lock up under braking in the dry let alone the wet so be advised and practice at what point it locks up and recovering when it does. I've done a number of mile- plus climbs with the bike; I can't see it as being any harder or easier than any other bike. Sure, you can't stand up but with the distance I do I can't see that I'd be doing stand up climbs anyway (along with no need to give my butt a rest). I have pondered replacing the inner chainring with a fewer tooth one but never have so I guess the one on it works okay. Over time the seat straps loosen so as to have to be re-adjusted, which is a knack to get just perfect but not too big a deal. Suspension In addition to its great seat, the Haluzak is most notable for its labeled passive rear suspension. Everyone has an opinion on it and I do as well. I like it though there are some quirks for me to ignore. It works well along with the seat design as smoothing out the bumps. However, there is undesired flex under certain conditions, typically with the lowest gear going uphill. Further, because the two chain stays can flex independently, crowned pavement etc. can cause rotational flex about the main tube axis. I take it in stride as just a good reason to improve the smoothness of my cadence. The one bug-a-boo for me it that this all can mimic a flattening rear tire and with all the flats I get it sometimes distracts me as to whether I'm getting yet another flat or it is just this flex. Note that with me and my load I'm close to the 250lb. maximum so your experience may differ. Haluzak offers a front suspension fork that I got to test ride during my factory visit. It was nice but my advice on this is that if you have any doubts about purchasing it, you don't need it. Unless your regular ride includes a lot of rough pavement that calls out to you for a suspension fork, I'd say your ride will be fine without it. Travel The two keys things I was looking for in my new bike were long distance (100+ miles per day) comfort and travel portability. I wanted to go long distances as well as take my bike with me whenever I traveled. I wanted the perfect bike that would leave me with no desire to seek out a future replacement or companion bike. The Haluzak's straight forward monotube design struck me as likely to be modifiable for travel. Up to the last minute I thought a single S&S coupling would do the trick until I was told the manufacturer does not allow their couplings to be used for monotubes. I still think that there must be some practical way to split the single tube, after all tandem recumbent tubes have a take-apart design. Until I find this way, I have been using a reasonable alternative. I made a box of the magic 26"x26"x10" dimensions and bought the longest soft sided golf bag travel case I found. The single tube just fits the travel case (actually being soft sided it can stretch the needed extra 1/2") and the other parts fit pretty easily into the box. Since there is not a golf bag inside the case, I firmed it up and enhanced its protection by custom fitting a box inside it, regaining the rigidity and protection a golf bag would have provided. As my research indicated, the airlines take the golf travel bag without a hitch although I have found I have to keep its weight closer to 25lbs. than the airline 50lb. maximum else it generates scrutiny. The weight issue is not one of the bike but because of all the camping equipment, tools, spares, etc. I pack in. Repairs I've been through what, four tires and who knows how many tubes and patches but I don't see this as bike model related. When the front tire goes flat, you have to stop now since there's no moving forward. I've used tire liners with indeterminate success and now have Kevlar lined front and rear tires that do help. I have discovered that the front spokes have a tendency to loosen so I often check them and keep a spoke wrench with me. I had to replace a headset bearing race, evidently I reinstalled it upside-down since they are actually installed asymmetrically. Five mostly minor spills have lead to the replacement of some bar end and seat tube end plugs and some scratched metal but in summary there have been no real problems. Mods and Tweaks Obviously I spend a lot of time and travel many miles on my bike. Not surprisingly I have taken a good thing and worked on making it better. Primary are changes to haul my travel and bike repair items. For one-day or shorter trips, I thread a waist pack onto the upper seat tubing. I already had several of various sizes and found a medium sized one works out well. I have also added one on the lower seat tubing, resting on the main tube between the seat and the seat angle support tube on occasion as needed such as to hold cooler/wet weather garments. For multi-day trips I use my old small (2,000 cu.in. each) panniers. I had put them on a rear rack using the adaptor that connects to the seat angle support tube. My experiences with this arrangement were the same as those of others I had read. Any significant load, say 10lbs. or heavier, flexes the passive rear suspension and is felt while riding. As pointed out by others, shifting weight to the seat back improves the situation. Eventually the adaptor broke (no surprise given the constant rear suspension flex) and I was even more motivated to find another carrying approach. I discovered I could actually mount the panniers directly to the rear seat back. Each is as wide as the angled portions of the seat back cross tubing and the angle tilts them away from the rear wheel. I used small pieces of cord lashed to the tubes to provide receivers for the pannier attachment hooks. It works well although they can rub on the rear tire if the mounting loosens or shifts and because of the angled mounting the far edge of each sticks out a little beyond the width of the seat. The load is now a little higher up than with rack mounting and all the weight plus me are carried by the seat. I have not noticed this resulting in anything, though. My dream solution is a custom rear pack that has at least the same capacity as I have now, provides an aero tail and a rear fender function, and then can be removed and unzipped into a large duffle bag that can store the whole disassembled bike. To make it easy to reassemble the crank boom to the main tube as well as tweak its distance and angle position I put punch marks on both the crank boom and where it meets the main tube. Close proximity allows the chain to sometimes rub on the water bottle in the rear mount. So I took and re-drilled the cage mount holes a few millimeters offset to give better chain clearance. I should have taken copious notes on cable routing before my first disassembly but I didn't so it now seems like the routing varies a little each time I reassemble. I think regardless I've had to tweak a little with a couple extra cable ties and some electrical tape on rub points. A key area is preventing cable contact with the chain in the vicinity of the take-up wheel. I have trained myself to immediately stop and check out any new noise regardless how subtle. Between the panniers rubbing on the rear tire, a cable hitting the chain or take-up wheel, or chain rubbing on the rear water bottle, any new noise means something is up. I drilled a hole in the bottom of the bottom seat angle adjustment tube since I found that it often ended up filled with water since there is no way to keep water from oozing in over time and no way for it to drain out once it does (check your bike and I bet you'll find this trapped water in it.) Oh, and of course I installed the light/computer mount but I wish it was made of light aluminum rather than heavy steel. Finally, I did a few things to facilitate on-the-road repairs. I bring an Alien RX that covers most of the tool needs for the Haluzak and one additional tire lever. (I contacted Topeak to get a second tire lever of theirs that I would substitute for an Allen wrench I don't need but they said no way, no how.) I got a nice small and light Craftsman 4" adjustable wrench for the couple nuts and bolts on the bike and modified it so it will open wider to work on the outer cone nuts as well. I also got a wide mouth 6" adjustable wrench for the other end of the one bolt-nut combination and also modified it so that it will open real wide to fit the 32mm outer headset nut along with shortening the handle and drilling holes in it to lighten it up. I drilled a second hole in my inner cone wrench and mount it under the water bottle cage alone with a compact Park headset/cone wrench that was designed already for such mounting. (This has turned out to be the one Park tool I've come across of poor quality and unfortunately has not worked well.) On one airline trip they lost some of the bike's small parts so I took the opportunity to replace the seat angle adjustment tube to main tube bolt with one with a metric Allen drive, thus eliminating the need to bring two wrenches (I don't know why I did not do this earlier). As much as I liked the cute 4" adjustable wrench, I don't even need it now. |
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#3
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6 month / 6,000 mile Haluzak review
WOW!!! 12,000 miles a year is smoking! Most I ever did in one year
was 14,000 and that was when I was training 4-5 hrs a day days a week. Very impressive. Keep it up! On 6 Sep 2003 06:11:04 -0700, (m worth) wrote: I bought my new first-time Haluzak Horizon last March and wanted to share my experiences with it for the 6,000 miles I've put on it since. First and foremost, I love it. This is no surprise to me since I spent upwards of two years researching my first recumbent purchase in general and Haluzak in particular (I even visited their factory). The Horizon offered me comfortable USS, a great seat, and a straight-forward design. Six months and 6,000 miles later these features remain a delight. Putting on the Miles Each day the first forty miles are the hardest. I've been on the bike for awhile and yet have a long ways to go. By the time I'm past 100 miles for the day I've been having too much fun to notice. I may get tired but I don't get sore or achy. It's a sweet ride though I keep even more of an eagle eye out for potholes given the smaller diameter front wheel. All the time I get attention, some more slack-jawed than other. I encounter probably the same number of harassing motorists as on a non-recumbent, certainly no fewer. Other experiential observations are that the bike has been quite stable for me in high speed (up to 50mph) descents and does well in the rain. I don't have them, yet, but fenders are recommended along with a good rain suit and booties if foul weather is a probability for you. I have not tried one, but I think a fairing would be cool. The rear wheel is easy to lock up under braking in the dry let alone the wet so be advised and practice at what point it locks up and recovering when it does. I've done a number of mile- plus climbs with the bike; I can't see it as being any harder or easier than any other bike. Sure, you can't stand up but with the distance I do I can't see that I'd be doing stand up climbs anyway (along with no need to give my butt a rest). I have pondered replacing the inner chainring with a fewer tooth one but never have so I guess the one on it works okay. Over time the seat straps loosen so as to have to be re-adjusted, which is a knack to get just perfect but not too big a deal. Suspension In addition to its great seat, the Haluzak is most notable for its labeled passive rear suspension. Everyone has an opinion on it and I do as well. I like it though there are some quirks for me to ignore. It works well along with the seat design as smoothing out the bumps. However, there is undesired flex under certain conditions, typically with the lowest gear going uphill. Further, because the two chain stays can flex independently, crowned pavement etc. can cause rotational flex about the main tube axis. I take it in stride as just a good reason to improve the smoothness of my cadence. The one bug-a-boo for me it that this all can mimic a flattening rear tire and with all the flats I get it sometimes distracts me as to whether I'm getting yet another flat or it is just this flex. Note that with me and my load I'm close to the 250lb. maximum so your experience may differ. Haluzak offers a front suspension fork that I got to test ride during my factory visit. It was nice but my advice on this is that if you have any doubts about purchasing it, you don't need it. Unless your regular ride includes a lot of rough pavement that calls out to you for a suspension fork, I'd say your ride will be fine without it. Travel The two keys things I was looking for in my new bike were long distance (100+ miles per day) comfort and travel portability. I wanted to go long distances as well as take my bike with me whenever I traveled. I wanted the perfect bike that would leave me with no desire to seek out a future replacement or companion bike. The Haluzak's straight forward monotube design struck me as likely to be modifiable for travel. Up to the last minute I thought a single S&S coupling would do the trick until I was told the manufacturer does not allow their couplings to be used for monotubes. I still think that there must be some practical way to split the single tube, after all tandem recumbent tubes have a take-apart design. Until I find this way, I have been using a reasonable alternative. I made a box of the magic 26"x26"x10" dimensions and bought the longest soft sided golf bag travel case I found. The single tube just fits the travel case (actually being soft sided it can stretch the needed extra 1/2") and the other parts fit pretty easily into the box. Since there is not a golf bag inside the case, I firmed it up and enhanced its protection by custom fitting a box inside it, regaining the rigidity and protection a golf bag would have provided. As my research indicated, the airlines take the golf travel bag without a hitch although I have found I have to keep its weight closer to 25lbs. than the airline 50lb. maximum else it generates scrutiny. The weight issue is not one of the bike but because of all the camping equipment, tools, spares, etc. I pack in. Repairs I've been through what, four tires and who knows how many tubes and patches but I don't see this as bike model related. When the front tire goes flat, you have to stop now since there's no moving forward. I've used tire liners with indeterminate success and now have Kevlar lined front and rear tires that do help. I have discovered that the front spokes have a tendency to loosen so I often check them and keep a spoke wrench with me. I had to replace a headset bearing race, evidently I reinstalled it upside-down since they are actually installed asymmetrically. Five mostly minor spills have lead to the replacement of some bar end and seat tube end plugs and some scratched metal but in summary there have been no real problems. Mods and Tweaks Obviously I spend a lot of time and travel many miles on my bike. Not surprisingly I have taken a good thing and worked on making it better. Primary are changes to haul my travel and bike repair items. For one-day or shorter trips, I thread a waist pack onto the upper seat tubing. I already had several of various sizes and found a medium sized one works out well. I have also added one on the lower seat tubing, resting on the main tube between the seat and the seat angle support tube on occasion as needed such as to hold cooler/wet weather garments. For multi-day trips I use my old small (2,000 cu.in. each) panniers. I had put them on a rear rack using the adaptor that connects to the seat angle support tube. My experiences with this arrangement were the same as those of others I had read. Any significant load, say 10lbs. or heavier, flexes the passive rear suspension and is felt while riding. As pointed out by others, shifting weight to the seat back improves the situation. Eventually the adaptor broke (no surprise given the constant rear suspension flex) and I was even more motivated to find another carrying approach. I discovered I could actually mount the panniers directly to the rear seat back. Each is as wide as the angled portions of the seat back cross tubing and the angle tilts them away from the rear wheel. I used small pieces of cord lashed to the tubes to provide receivers for the pannier attachment hooks. It works well although they can rub on the rear tire if the mounting loosens or shifts and because of the angled mounting the far edge of each sticks out a little beyond the width of the seat. The load is now a little higher up than with rack mounting and all the weight plus me are carried by the seat. I have not noticed this resulting in anything, though. My dream solution is a custom rear pack that has at least the same capacity as I have now, provides an aero tail and a rear fender function, and then can be removed and unzipped into a large duffle bag that can store the whole disassembled bike. To make it easy to reassemble the crank boom to the main tube as well as tweak its distance and angle position I put punch marks on both the crank boom and where it meets the main tube. Close proximity allows the chain to sometimes rub on the water bottle in the rear mount. So I took and re-drilled the cage mount holes a few millimeters offset to give better chain clearance. I should have taken copious notes on cable routing before my first disassembly but I didn't so it now seems like the routing varies a little each time I reassemble. I think regardless I've had to tweak a little with a couple extra cable ties and some electrical tape on rub points. A key area is preventing cable contact with the chain in the vicinity of the take-up wheel. I have trained myself to immediately stop and check out any new noise regardless how subtle. Between the panniers rubbing on the rear tire, a cable hitting the chain or take-up wheel, or chain rubbing on the rear water bottle, any new noise means something is up. I drilled a hole in the bottom of the bottom seat angle adjustment tube since I found that it often ended up filled with water since there is no way to keep water from oozing in over time and no way for it to drain out once it does (check your bike and I bet you'll find this trapped water in it.) Oh, and of course I installed the light/computer mount but I wish it was made of light aluminum rather than heavy steel. Finally, I did a few things to facilitate on-the-road repairs. I bring an Alien RX that covers most of the tool needs for the Haluzak and one additional tire lever. (I contacted Topeak to get a second tire lever of theirs that I would substitute for an Allen wrench I don't need but they said no way, no how.) I got a nice small and light Craftsman 4" adjustable wrench for the couple nuts and bolts on the bike and modified it so it will open wider to work on the outer cone nuts as well. I also got a wide mouth 6" adjustable wrench for the other end of the one bolt-nut combination and also modified it so that it will open real wide to fit the 32mm outer headset nut along with shortening the handle and drilling holes in it to lighten it up. I drilled a second hole in my inner cone wrench and mount it under the water bottle cage alone with a compact Park headset/cone wrench that was designed already for such mounting. (This has turned out to be the one Park tool I've come across of poor quality and unfortunately has not worked well.) On one airline trip they lost some of the bike's small parts so I took the opportunity to replace the seat angle adjustment tube to main tube bolt with one with a metric Allen drive, thus eliminating the need to bring two wrenches (I don't know why I did not do this earlier). As much as I liked the cute 4" adjustable wrench, I don't even need it now. Bryan J. Ball Editor/Publisher www.bentrideronline.com |
#4
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6 month / 6,000 mile Haluzak review
Mr. Worth - thank you for the extended review. I like your
travelling/packing solutions. Regards Chris |
#5
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6 month / 6,000 mile Haluzak review
Mr. Worth - thank you for the extended review. I like your
travelling/packing solutions. Regards Chris |
#6
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6 month / 6,000 mile Haluzak review
'BentRider wrote:
: WOW!!! 12,000 miles a year is smoking! Most I ever did in one year : was 14,000 and that was when I was training 4-5 hrs a day days a : week. Very impressive. Keep it up! He needs to make up for those 2 years of research... ) That was a nice narrative, I read all of it =) The bonk-before-40-miles is something I've seen too. On my long rides on the upright I often started to feel Mr Bonk approaching, only he didn't come closer no matter how long I rode... On my trike 100 km goes just like that, easy stuff nowadays. My total this year is going to be just about 3000 miles. Do you like the Haluzak USS steering? Some claim it's the best in the industry :-) -- Risto Varanka | http://www.helsinki.fi/~rvaranka/hpv/hpv.html varis at no spam please iki fi |
#7
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6 month / 6,000 mile Haluzak review
'BentRider wrote:
: WOW!!! 12,000 miles a year is smoking! Most I ever did in one year : was 14,000 and that was when I was training 4-5 hrs a day days a : week. Very impressive. Keep it up! He needs to make up for those 2 years of research... ) That was a nice narrative, I read all of it =) The bonk-before-40-miles is something I've seen too. On my long rides on the upright I often started to feel Mr Bonk approaching, only he didn't come closer no matter how long I rode... On my trike 100 km goes just like that, easy stuff nowadays. My total this year is going to be just about 3000 miles. Do you like the Haluzak USS steering? Some claim it's the best in the industry :-) -- Risto Varanka | http://www.helsinki.fi/~rvaranka/hpv/hpv.html varis at no spam please iki fi |
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