recumbent seating position

Hi im currently designing a recumbent bike for a university project.
The bike is for a parent and child to use on the school run. Does
anyone have any suggestions for safe and practical seating positions
for both the adult and child. The adult will be the sole operater.
Also, what are the main benifits of a recumbant bike compared to an
upright? i know the eye line would be considerably lower on a
recumbent. how does this affect your vunerability on the road?

Cheers, Andy.

aseenan wrote:
Hi im currently designing a recumbent bike for a university project.
The bike is for a parent and child to use on the school run. Does
anyone have any suggestions for safe and practical seating positions
for both the adult and child. The adult will be the sole operater.

If the adult is to be the sole operator there's no design to be done.
Take any recumbent bike that can tow a child trailer and that's your
work done.
Beyond that, the Hase Pino is an existing example of a near perfect
tandem for this sort of thing with the captain upright behind a
recumbent stoker, and standard extras for shortening the distance to the
cranks for child stokers. So the parent always has the child in their
view and the child can see where they're going and do some useful work
to. The machine is also more compact than a full recumbent tandem which
is a useful point for storage and riding it back home without the stoker.

See http://kinetics.org.uk/html/pino.shtml

Also, what are the main benifits of a recumbant bike compared to an
upright?

Comfort, comfort and comfort. Aerodynamic drag may be less depending on
design, but that's not a given. Issues of superior braking and less
tendency to fly over handlebars are mainly for solo machines rather than
tandems.

i know the eye line would be considerably lower on a
recumbent. how does this affect your vunerability on the road?

This is mainly FUD. My eyeline on a touring example is pretty much
exactly the same as a typical motorist's, and examples exist with a
higher eyeline than that. If people can see other cars easily, they can
see me (/if/ they look!). Beyond that my standard view is a head's up
view of where I'm going, compared to many bikes with a crouch position
where the default view is the tarmac just in front.

But back to my earlier paragraphs, it's already been done (and is sold
commercially) by people with a background in recumbent design, so why
are you trying to reinvent their work without the same background?
Seems a bit like trying to do something new to replace wheels, but
ultimately arriving at something sort of round...

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/

Peter Clinch wrote:

This is mainly FUD. My eyeline on a touring example is pretty much
exactly the same as a typical motorist's, and examples exist with a
higher eyeline than that. If people can see other cars easily, they can
see me (/if/ they look!). Beyond that my standard view is a head's up
view of where I'm going, compared to many bikes with a crouch position
where the default view is the tarmac just in front.

My Limbo is high - I feel that I can see over many of the smaller cars,
thus I can see and avoid traffic, both wheeled, and on foot, lots better.
Having only the closest driver see me isn't enough. I also have to avoid
what's lurking on the other side of his/her monster.

Mike wrote:

My Limbo is high - I feel that I can see over many of the smaller cars,
thus I can see and avoid traffic, both wheeled, and on foot, lots better.
Having only the closest driver see me isn't enough. I also have to avoid
what's lurking on the other side of his/her monster.

While this is certainly not a bad thing, it isn't /necessary/. Or you'd
be doomed any time you were behind a van, for example.

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/

Peter Clinch wrote in message ...
Mike wrote:

My Limbo is high - I feel that I can see over many of the smaller cars,
thus I can see and avoid traffic, both wheeled, and on foot, lots better.
Having only the closest driver see me isn't enough. I also have to avoid
what's lurking on the other side of his/her monster.

While this is certainly not a bad thing, it isn't /necessary/. Or you'd
be doomed any time you were behind a van, for example.

Pete.

Same thing's true if you're *driving*. Defensive driving/riding is always best.

Jeff

Peter Clinch wrote

But back to my earlier paragraphs, it's already been done (and is sold
commercially) by people with a background in recumbent design, so why
are you trying to reinvent their work without the same background?
Seems a bit like trying to do something new to replace wheels, but
ultimately arriving at something sort of round...


Thanks a lot for some useful information. Hopefully i'll be able to
approach this project from a different angle to those in the
'recumbent design' business, and come up with plenty of new ideas and
concepts. I dont see why someone, who might not have years of
experience in a particular field, shouldn't try it anyway. you never
know, i might come up with something new!! obviously there are people
who know a lot more about these bikes than me, thats why i'm
researching. theres a wealth of young design talent out there and if
they all had your attitude, they might as well give up.

Andy

aseenan wrote:

Thanks a lot for some useful information. Hopefully i'll be able to
approach this project from a different angle to those in the
'recumbent design' business, and come up with plenty of new ideas and
concepts. I dont see why someone, who might not have years of
experience in a particular field, shouldn't try it anyway.

Maybe they want to make some successful products and maybe even some
money? There have been mould breakers working on their own, it's true:
people like Dyson beating Hoover at their own game, Bayliss putting
radios into places Sony never managed, but they are few and far between.

But though I don't want to put a damper on genuine talent, what concept
and idea do you have so far that is actually new? There already are
tandems perfect for the school run, I sometimes see a kiddyback pass me
as I walk into work in the morning. Making it recumbent for a short
trip like the school run is just a way of making it more expensive and
less accessible, because you can't use standard parts so easily.

know, i might come up with something new!! obviously there are people
who know a lot more about these bikes than me, thats why i'm
researching. theres a wealth of young design talent out there and if
they all had your attitude, they might as well give up.

In this case it appears that you've decided on your project /before/
you've done the research though. Where have you seen a need that is not
fulfilled satisfactorily by existing products?

You can just dismiss what I'm saying as negative stuck in the mud
moanings, but they're questions that you really should be answering
before embarking on a design project unless it's just for your personal
gratification. I assume if it's a university project then it's for a
degree of some sort, so your external examiner is going to be asking
similar at the end.

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/

Hi im currently designing a recumbent bike for a university project.
The bike is for a parent and child to use on the school run. Does
anyone have any suggestions for safe and practical seating positions
for both the adult and child. The adult will be the sole operater.
Also, what are the main benifits of a recumbant bike compared to an
upright? i know the eye line would be considerably lower on a
recumbent. how does this affect your vunerability on the road?

Cheers, Andy.

Typically, however, no recumbents are safe for children, only adults with full
responsibility. One must accept the full responsibility that the driver will
not be suprised by odd shapes and flags and run you over. Overall, you must
conclude that rucumbents are not safe for children, but that any suspension in
the seat should be required for children who can easily damage their prostates
or whatever by a large bump. Thank you. By the way the recumbent powering
seems to have no proper inuendo. It is mainly glutes and hams. No proper
address of the quads in this equation. Glutes are strong, but hams are not.
Quads are great. Therefore, you should compare the angles which you impose upon
yourself in the weight-lifting squat as it is important to you. This squat is
entirely efficiently against gravity. If you are actually a student, you may
then compare horizontal gravity to vertical gravity and arrive at a proportion
of the proportion. don't think anyone has done this. I think they were all
hoping they could get only their asses into it. This helped them.

30 seconds on a recumbent.
Dave )

Dave is not akin to and avoidant of most occult fraternities, despite
maintaining his interest in life and conversation, because they have only
harmed or hindered that which was precious to him. Thank you.

WivFam wrote:

Typically, however, no recumbents are safe for children, only adults with full
responsibility. One must accept the full responsibility that the driver will
not be suprised by odd shapes and flags and run you over.

This is ridiculous. Of course no recumbent is fully safe for /anybody/,
and neither is any other sort of cycle. Or car, or main battle tank.

Overall, you must
conclude that rucumbents are not safe for children

Then presumably the manufacturers of the KMX "must" have concluded this
and are thus negligent and open for business from lawyers? I think not...

but that any suspension in
the seat should be required for children who can easily damage their prostates
or whatever by a large bump.

And this isn't an issue with conventional saddles?

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/

"Peter Clinch" wrote in message
...
WivFam wrote:
[...]
but that any suspension in
the seat should be required for children who can easily damage their
prostates
or whatever by a large bump.

And this isn't an issue with conventional saddles?

I have often wondered if the conventional bicycle saddle used extensively
over many years does not cause bladder and prostate problems. There is no
chance whatever that a recumbent seat would cause these problems, but I not
so sure about saddles. Testicular cancer is another possible casualty of
bike saddles. And possibly hydroceles too. All that pressure in the groin
area caused by sitting on a conventional bike saddle cannot be good for the
human anatomy. Maybe some who claims to be an expert in medical physics
could enlighten us.

--
Regards,

Ed Dolan - Minnesota