My 'Bent Is Starting to Annoy Me

Okay, so I've been putting through my HP Velo SMGTe through all kinds
of conditions around town for almost a year now. After all the
potholes, rain, mud, grit, heat and cold I finally managed to really
**** it up Sunday. A chainring got bent slightly, and eventually the
chain itself broke and messed up some drivetrain components in the
process!

I only wonder how folks manage to take this model 'bent on them Third
World tours if I'm having issues with it from simply riding around
town! From the beginning the rear air shock suddenly stopped working.
In another two weeks I managed to shred the top teflon tube somehow.
Then the front disc brake rotor became permanently warped. Then the
back ones. Did I mention the rear mudguard cracking in two? Sunday,
about the whole drivetrain came undone: broken chain, a bent chainring,
the idler spring clamp kaputt. Interestingly, the Thracian wheelset
has held up just fine, AFAIK.

Good God, but this is starting to be like dealing with your PC: "now
what???" comes to mind more and more. And this seems to me
recumbency's fatal flaw preventing it from wider adoptation: it's too
****ing complicated! And I can't believe how many of the nuts and
bolts on my SMGTe do not seem to be off-the-shelf stuff you can get at
a hardware store. Also, there should be a re-assembly instruction
sheet for owners included with the bikes, since not all LBSes know or
care about servicing 'bents.

Recumbents are fun when they work, but mine is finally going to make a
grease-monkey out of me! The HP Velo SMGTe is still the most
comfortable 'bent around, but it requires a lot of attention, not like
my other bikes which I just ride and take to the shop maybe once or
twice a year. So far, I think I've spent $250 getting my 'bent
serviced and refitted in one way or another. JFC!!

I've now almost completely disassembled my 'bent, so as to clean out
all the grit and grime and reinstall the chain, etc. Damn, this is
going to be some education in bike mechanics! I'm really learning the
hard way...on my own. I'm kind of looking forward to it, out of
curiosity. Just wish I had the space to lay things down properly and
leave them around.

Get a real bike and more people can fix it!!!


Prisoner at War wrote:
Okay, so I've been putting through my HP Velo SMGTe through all kinds
of conditions around town for almost a year now. After all the
potholes, rain, mud, grit, heat and cold I finally managed to really
**** it up Sunday. A chainring got bent slightly, and eventually the
chain itself broke and messed up some drivetrain components in the
process!

I only wonder how folks manage to take this model 'bent on them Third
World tours if I'm having issues with it from simply riding around
town! From the beginning the rear air shock suddenly stopped working.
In another two weeks I managed to shred the top teflon tube somehow.
Then the front disc brake rotor became permanently warped. Then the
back ones. Did I mention the rear mudguard cracking in two? Sunday,
about the whole drivetrain came undone: broken chain, a bent chainring,
the idler spring clamp kaputt. Interestingly, the Thracian wheelset
has held up just fine, AFAIK.

Good God, but this is starting to be like dealing with your PC: "now
what???" comes to mind more and more. And this seems to me
recumbency's fatal flaw preventing it from wider adoptation: it's too
****ing complicated! And I can't believe how many of the nuts and
bolts on my SMGTe do not seem to be off-the-shelf stuff you can get at
a hardware store. Also, there should be a re-assembly instruction
sheet for owners included with the bikes, since not all LBSes know or
care about servicing 'bents.

Recumbents are fun when they work, but mine is finally going to make a
grease-monkey out of me! The HP Velo SMGTe is still the most
comfortable 'bent around, but it requires a lot of attention, not like
my other bikes which I just ride and take to the shop maybe once or
twice a year. So far, I think I've spent $250 getting my 'bent
serviced and refitted in one way or another. JFC!!

I've now almost completely disassembled my 'bent, so as to clean out
all the grit and grime and reinstall the chain, etc. Damn, this is
going to be some education in bike mechanics! I'm really learning the
hard way...on my own. I'm kind of looking forward to it, out of
curiosity. Just wish I had the space to lay things down properly and
leave them around.

wrote in message
ups.com...
Get a real bike and more people can fix it!!!

Big Jim has a good point here, but he does not realize how much we recumbent
cyclist insist on comfort, something that you can never get on an upright.

When I ride an upright and it starts to cause me pain I get so freaking mad
I could kill myself for being so stupid as to think an upright could ever be
comfortable for more than half an hour. Screw all uprights all the way to
hell and back! The g.d. things are nothing but torture racks. One thing is
for sure, they were never designed for the human anatomy.

Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota




Prisoner at War wrote:
Okay, so I've been putting through my HP Velo SMGTe through all kinds
of conditions around town for almost a year now. After all the
potholes, rain, mud, grit, heat and cold I finally managed to really
**** it up Sunday. A chainring got bent slightly, and eventually the
chain itself broke and messed up some drivetrain components in the
process!

I only wonder how folks manage to take this model 'bent on them Third
World tours if I'm having issues with it from simply riding around
town! From the beginning the rear air shock suddenly stopped working.
In another two weeks I managed to shred the top teflon tube somehow.
Then the front disc brake rotor became permanently warped. Then the
back ones. Did I mention the rear mudguard cracking in two? Sunday,
about the whole drivetrain came undone: broken chain, a bent chainring,
the idler spring clamp kaputt. Interestingly, the Thracian wheelset
has held up just fine, AFAIK.

Good God, but this is starting to be like dealing with your PC: "now
what???" comes to mind more and more. And this seems to me
recumbency's fatal flaw preventing it from wider adoptation: it's too
****ing complicated! And I can't believe how many of the nuts and
bolts on my SMGTe do not seem to be off-the-shelf stuff you can get at
a hardware store. Also, there should be a re-assembly instruction
sheet for owners included with the bikes, since not all LBSes know or
care about servicing 'bents.

Recumbents are fun when they work, but mine is finally going to make a
grease-monkey out of me! The HP Velo SMGTe is still the most
comfortable 'bent around, but it requires a lot of attention, not like
my other bikes which I just ride and take to the shop maybe once or
twice a year. So far, I think I've spent $250 getting my 'bent
serviced and refitted in one way or another. JFC!!

I've now almost completely disassembled my 'bent, so as to clean out
all the grit and grime and reinstall the chain, etc. Damn, this is
going to be some education in bike mechanics! I'm really learning the
hard way...on my own. I'm kind of looking forward to it, out of
curiosity. Just wish I had the space to lay things down properly and
leave them around.

Edward Dolan wrote:
wrote in message
ups.com...
Get a real bike and more people can fix it!!!

Big Jim has a good point here, but he does not realize how much we recumbent
cyclist insist on comfort, something that you can never get on an upright.

When I ride an upright and it starts to cause me pain I get so freaking mad
I could kill myself for being so stupid as to think an upright could ever be
comfortable for more than half an hour. Screw all uprights all the way to
hell and back! The g.d. things are nothing but torture racks. One thing is
for sure, they were never designed for the human anatomy.

Have you tried Rivendell's style of fitting? Maybe some reading
material will help:

http://www.rivbike.com/how_to_pick_y...pick_your_bike

http://www.rivbike.com/how_to_pick_y...g_a_frame_size

http://www.rivbike.com/how_to_pick_y...iding_position

http://www.rivbike.com/assorted_read...et-up_mistakes

Good Luck with all that!

"bfd" wrote in message
oups.com...

Edward Dolan wrote:
wrote in message
ups.com...
Get a real bike and more people can fix it!!!

Big Jim has a good point here, but he does not realize how much we
recumbent
cyclists insist on comfort, something that you can never get on an
upright.

When I ride an upright and it starts to cause me pain I get so freaking
mad
I could kill myself for being so stupid as to think an upright could ever
be
comfortable for more than half an hour. Screw all uprights all the way to
hell and back! The g.d. things are nothing but torture racks. One thing
is
for sure, they were never designed for the human anatomy.

Have you tried Rivendell's style of fitting? Maybe some reading
material will help:

http://www.rivbike.com/how_to_pick_y...pick_your_bike

http://www.rivbike.com/how_to_pick_y...g_a_frame_size

http://www.rivbike.com/how_to_pick_y...iding_position

http://www.rivbike.com/assorted_read...et-up_mistakes

Good Luck with all that!

All of the above is water over the dam as far as I am concerned. I have been
there and done it - many, many times.

I have been around bikes for the past 35 years and consider myself an expert
on the subject of comfort. If you are young and physically fit you can more
or less be comfortable on an upright for several hours at best, but even
then you cannot be comfortable on them all day every day for weeks at a
time.

A recumbent is the ONLY way to go if you want TOTAL comfort. You give up
some speed, especially on hills, but the comfort is more than worth it. This
is actually a subject not even worth talking about as anyone who knows
recumbents can tell you.

Those of you presently on uprights who think you can live with them will
find out that as you age that you in fact cannot. At that point, you will
either give up cycling - or you will graduate to recumbents.

Good Luck with all that - indeed!

Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota

"Edward Dolan" wrote in message
news:zq6dnWrqwqzKMQzYnZ2dnUVZ_syunZ2d@prairiewave. com...

"bfd" wrote in message
oups.com...

Edward Dolan wrote:
wrote in message
ups.com...
Get a real bike and more people can fix it!!!

Big Jim has a good point here, but he does not realize how much we
recumbent
cyclists insist on comfort, something that you can never get on an
upright.

When I ride an upright and it starts to cause me pain I get so freaking
mad
I could kill myself for being so stupid as to think an upright could
ever be
comfortable for more than half an hour. Screw all uprights all the way
to
hell and back! The g.d. things are nothing but torture racks. One thing
is
for sure, they were never designed for the human anatomy.

Have you tried Rivendell's style of fitting? Maybe some reading
material will help:

http://www.rivbike.com/how_to_pick_y...pick_your_bike

http://www.rivbike.com/how_to_pick_y...g_a_frame_size

http://www.rivbike.com/how_to_pick_y...iding_position

http://www.rivbike.com/assorted_read...et-up_mistakes

Good Luck with all that!

All of the above is water over the dam as far as I am concerned. I have
been there and done it - many, many times.

I have been around bikes for the past 35 years and consider myself an
expert on the subject of comfort. If you are young and physically fit you
can more or less be comfortable on an upright for several hours at best,
but even then you cannot be comfortable on them all day every day for
weeks at a time.

A recumbent is the ONLY way to go if you want TOTAL comfort. You give up
some speed, especially on hills, but the comfort is more than worth it.
This is actually a subject not even worth talking about as anyone who
knows recumbents can tell you.

Those of you presently on uprights who think you can live with them will
find out that as you age that you in fact cannot. At that point, you will
either give up cycling - or you will graduate to recumbents.

Good Luck with all that - indeed!

Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota




I've been around bikes for the past 40 years, around this world for 56, and
in fact can live with upright bicycles.
Kerry

If I can ride a bike for 4-6 hours I consider it comfortable. My
Lemond road bike and C;dale cross bike fit that bill fine. I have the
bars only slightly below saddle, a Brooks seat and I;m fine. My MTB's
are torture machines and cannot ride for more than an hour before neck
shouler wrist pain start!!


Edward Dolan wrote:
wrote in message
ups.com...
Get a real bike and more people can fix it!!!

Big Jim has a good point here, but he does not realize how much we recumbent
cyclist insist on comfort, something that you can never get on an upright.

When I ride an upright and it starts to cause me pain I get so freaking mad
I could kill myself for being so stupid as to think an upright could ever be
comfortable for more than half an hour. Screw all uprights all the way to
hell and back! The g.d. things are nothing but torture racks. One thing is
for sure, they were never designed for the human anatomy.

Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota




Prisoner at War wrote:
Okay, so I've been putting through my HP Velo SMGTe through all kinds
of conditions around town for almost a year now. After all the
potholes, rain, mud, grit, heat and cold I finally managed to really
**** it up Sunday. A chainring got bent slightly, and eventually the
chain itself broke and messed up some drivetrain components in the
process!

I only wonder how folks manage to take this model 'bent on them Third
World tours if I'm having issues with it from simply riding around
town! From the beginning the rear air shock suddenly stopped working.
In another two weeks I managed to shred the top teflon tube somehow.
Then the front disc brake rotor became permanently warped. Then the
back ones. Did I mention the rear mudguard cracking in two? Sunday,
about the whole drivetrain came undone: broken chain, a bent chainring,
the idler spring clamp kaputt. Interestingly, the Thracian wheelset
has held up just fine, AFAIK.

Good God, but this is starting to be like dealing with your PC: "now
what???" comes to mind more and more. And this seems to me
recumbency's fatal flaw preventing it from wider adoptation: it's too
****ing complicated! And I can't believe how many of the nuts and
bolts on my SMGTe do not seem to be off-the-shelf stuff you can get at
a hardware store. Also, there should be a re-assembly instruction
sheet for owners included with the bikes, since not all LBSes know or
care about servicing 'bents.

Recumbents are fun when they work, but mine is finally going to make a
grease-monkey out of me! The HP Velo SMGTe is still the most
comfortable 'bent around, but it requires a lot of attention, not like
my other bikes which I just ride and take to the shop maybe once or
twice a year. So far, I think I've spent $250 getting my 'bent
serviced and refitted in one way or another. JFC!!

I've now almost completely disassembled my 'bent, so as to clean out
all the grit and grime and reinstall the chain, etc. Damn, this is
going to be some education in bike mechanics! I'm really learning the
hard way...on my own. I'm kind of looking forward to it, out of
curiosity. Just wish I had the space to lay things down properly and
leave them around.

wrote:
If I can ride a bike for 4-6 hours I consider it comfortable. My
Lemond road bike and C;dale cross bike fit that bill fine. I have the
bars only slightly below saddle, a Brooks seat and I;m fine. My MTB's
are torture machines and cannot ride for more than an hour before neck
shouler wrist pain start!!



I can ride my uprights all day continously and be comfortable.

The problem is that within two weeks my back will be aching like crazy.
And I am likely one of the few young 'bent-riders around at age 34.

I never had a problem with my wrists or shoulders from upright biking,
though. I do change hand positions for comfort, but no regular problem
has ever developed. It's only my back that's really affected. I agree
that frame geometry and a proper saddle do a lot for comfort on an
upright, and I don't blame bike-riding per se for my bad back -- it
kind of started in childhood and was really messed up in the Army but
upright bikes and even jogging exacerbates it.

My sports doc recommended a 'bent, and that was my excuse to splurge
thousands.

It's been great fun, but getting annoying now with all the break-downs.

Prisoner at War wrote:
wrote:
If I can ride a bike for 4-6 hours I consider it comfortable. My
Lemond road bike and C;dale cross bike fit that bill fine. I have the
bars only slightly below saddle, a Brooks seat and I;m fine. My MTB's
are torture machines and cannot ride for more than an hour before neck
shouler wrist pain start!!



I can ride my uprights all day continously and be comfortable.

The problem is that within two weeks my back will be aching like crazy.
And I am likely one of the few young 'bent-riders around at age 34.

I never had a problem with my wrists or shoulders from upright biking,
though. I do change hand positions for comfort, but no regular problem
has ever developed. It's only my back that's really affected. I agree
that frame geometry and a proper saddle do a lot for comfort on an
upright, and I don't blame bike-riding per se for my bad back -- it
kind of started in childhood and was really messed up in the Army but
upright bikes and even jogging exacerbates it.

My sports doc recommended a 'bent, and that was my excuse to splurge
thousands.

It's been great fun, but getting annoying now with all the break-downs.

I do better with the sore back issues if I keep up with core muscle
training. I got a pretty sore back on an 8 hour mountain bike ride/race
but part of that is a way to tight left quad. I need to stretch that
muscle more. Massage therapists have said I have tight hamstrings. I
need to a lot more stretching I guess.

My cross bike is more comfortable than my road bike. I need to get a
shorter stem and maybe raise the stem a bit on the road bike. Little
things can make big differences.

wrote in message
oups.com...

ALL TOP POSTERS ARE IDIOTS!

If I can ride a bike for 4-6 hours I consider it comfortable. My
Lemond road bike and C;dale cross bike fit that bill fine. I have the
bars only slightly below saddle, a Brooks seat and I;m fine. My MTB's
are torture machines and cannot ride for more than an hour before neck
shouler wrist pain start!!

4 to 6 hours in one day is not nearly good enough. Can you ride 8 to 10
hours a day for 2 weeks at a time? I thought not! No, if you want to be able
to do that you will have to get a recumbent. There is no other way.

Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota


Edward Dolan wrote:
wrote in message
ups.com...
Get a real bike and more people can fix it!!!

Big Jim has a good point here, but he does not realize how much we
recumbent
cyclists insist on comfort, something that you can never get on an
upright.

When I ride an upright and it starts to cause me pain I get so freaking
mad
I could kill myself for being so stupid as to think an upright could ever
be
comfortable for more than half an hour. Screw all uprights all the way to
hell and back! The g.d. things are nothing but torture racks. One thing
is
for sure, they were never designed for the human anatomy.