New Crank Forward - First Impressions

slide wrote:
....
Supposedly the Rans is as fast and climbs as well as a conventional
bicycle but is more comfortable.

I doubt it, even though my only other bike is a recumbent. The RANS just
sits too far upright, your chest catches too much wind.


The bike is enormously comfortable.
...
The sit up position is easy to like.

Everybody (mostly total non-bicyclers) likes mine, though the price tag
makes them gag.


The front end is way out there making it lighter than a conventional
bike. Thus it'll wash out easier on gravel or loose dirt. I know from
experience.

The reason it's washing out is because the front tire is overinflated.
The tires should be inflated proportional to the weight they are
carrying. IF you've got less weight on the front, then the front should
have lower pressure than the rear tire.

On the Fusion I have, the rear carries about 2/3 of the weight, so the
rear pressure is nearly twice what the front is. The F/R pressures are
35/65 PSI.

Use a bathroom scale to weigh the front tire with you sitting on the
bike, and figure the F/R distribution from the rider+bike weight.


I'm skeptical that this bike will climb like a conventional bike.
... Also I"m a bit out of shape so this may be
something which comes in time.

I notice that my legs get tired much quicker on the Fusion than on the
LWB recumbent I own. For a long time I had Q-rings on the LWB but not
the Fusion, and I figured that was the reason. About a month ago I also
got some Q-rings for the Fusion too, and that apparently wasn't the
difference.

I could do some long rides on the Fusion, much farther than I would want
to do on a regular bike (saddle!) but I don't think that I'd do it as
fast as I would on a regular bike. I guess that saddle pain /is/
motivation, in a way.


The bike is probably as fast as conventional on a level surface. It
flies downhill. But there is a gotcha in a way. Being upright, I"m more
susceptible to wind.

As I noted earlier, you can feel your chest catching a lot of air.
Perhaps a front fairing might help, if you want to go for the total geek
classification.
http://www.zzipper.com/
shows one for the RANS Zenetic, that should fit the other bikes.

As it is, mine became a commuter bike, with a rear rack and baskets,
heavy tires and lots of other junk bolted on. If it was ever fast
before, it ain't now.

Mine came with Primo Comet tires and while these rolled very easily, I
got a flat tire about once a week. I switched to Schwalbe Marathon Plus
tires, and no flats in the ~2 years since--but the Marathon Plus tires
are heavy and draggy, I can definitely feel them.


The only real dislike I have for the bike is the grupo - specifically
the SRAM X.5 gears. My conventional bikes had Record 10 and Shimano XT.
This grupo doens't shift well and will even shift itself. The twist grip
shifters seem attached to elastic cables. The entire shifting experience
is unsure and unsatisfactory. If I grow to use this bike a lot, I'm
upgrading to XT's.

My Fusion is a late-2006/early 2007 model, so what it came with might
not be the same as what they're shipping now.
-however-
Mine came with dirt-cheap ($16/pr) grip shifters, and I had annoying
problems with inadvertent grip-shifting too. I've changed a number of
things on the bike now, but the first BIG improvement I did was I
switched to the x.7 trigger shifters, that cost about $60 a pair.

Also--the Fusion has a slacker head angle, and presents quite a bit of
wheel flop. I had to order mine without a test ride (they were selling
very fast at the time) but if I had to get another, I'd probably go for
the Dynamik instead.
~