Testrides at Göteborg meet

The meet was held yesterday and was great fun. They had arranged
a 200 m sprint and an exibithion since this coincided with Göteborg-kalaset
(a festival). At this exhibition that took place on a very hot plaza (28-29C)
I got to ride a few unusual recumbents.

First was the Cannondale Easy Rider. Yes, I know its not all that unusual
in the States. However since it probably cost the poor owner in the region of 4500 usd
to get it to Sweden I think I'm justified in calling it that. I also know they dropped
the name but this one had it written on the frame. ;-)

It looks great but was rather smallish. Light for a fully suspended recumbent.
The seatback was reclined all the way which isn't really much. Still it turned out
to be enough to cause me trouble. On my first ride the seat was too far forward
so my legs hit the handlebars if I was not careful and this affected handling somewhat.
Moving the seat meant that the handlebars were too far away when I was leaning back
so turns became a bit dicey. I'm no stranger to the superman position since I use it
on my TE-clone, but this was too much. Maybe fooling around with the handlebars
would have resulted in a better fit but I was just riding it around the plaza cobblestones
and grass. A nice little bike but there was nothing remarkable about it.
It would certainly make a nice commuter but the price would still scare me away. ;-)
(If anyone near Göteborg fancies one it was up for sale for 24.000 SEK.
Contact HPV-Vest via the Swedish HPV-homepage.)

Second bike I tried was a Jouta delta. Its a FWD, mid-/rearsteered trike.
This was actually for sale too. But for a very modest amount.
Pic he http://www.liggister.org/ (Choose KÖPES BYTTAS SÄLJES
from the menu on the left. Its the first or second bike. Big yellow bananaseat.)

Now this was fun. It was pretty light for a trike and with the big wheels it took off
like a rocket (not RANS mind) and handled fine on the grass around the plaza.
It has USS and was very responsive to the touch. The rear wheels are rather close together
so I was advised not to make sharp turns at speed. (The guy dispensing this advice
apparently learned this the hard way. ;-) )
But leaning into turns wasn't a problem and I could easily see myself tearing around
on one.

As for the 200 m sprint I did a rather dissapointing 52 kph or so on my VK.
The tailfaring flexed just enough to hit the wheel producing some impressive loud bangs
when I honked the pedals and that made me ease off.
So I was beaten by a Zephyr with a Novosport tailbox. (...the horror... the horror ;-) )

Regards
Mikael

However since it probably cost the poor owner in the region of 4500 usd
to get it to Sweden I think I'm justified in calling it that.

Ooops. Was thinking BigHa prices here. I mean in the region of 3000 usd
to buy on in Sweden. Maybe more though since he was asking about 3200 for it.

M.

Mikael Seierup wrote:

How did you like it? Good and bad things?
Its pretty cheap so I am toying with the idea of buying it.


Well, as you noticed it is quite light and nippy, but it really needs
a committed and rather acrobatic rider; the delta configuration just
isn't as stable as a tadpole, and the front part of the bike doesn't
lean into corners far enough. But if your willing to practically throw
yourself out of the seat at every corner, great fun can be had!
It is VERY low; this helps in cornering, and makes it faster, but
makes it noticably less visible. Riding on the edge of a cambered road
can be a PITA, and you'll hit EVERY bit of glass on the road, but that
goes for all trikes (and with modern kevlar belted tires, who cares
about a bit of glass?)
Didn't like the original seat much; mine came with the flevobike seat,
wich was sowewhat better. And my left leg used to rub against the
front fender.
Apart from these (mostly minor) niggles, its an enjoyable runabout,
and definitely Something Completely Different, even among 'bents.

Mark van Gorkom.

P.S.: just had a look at the picture, and it dus look a bit different
from mine (wich had a rear rack integral with the frame, and was a bit
lower, I think).