# Anyone else get this?



## Oldhippy (23 Aug 2020)

Not long bought an Ice Trice recumbent and using it a lot recently as rebuilding my two wheel touring bike. People look at you like you've just landed on the planet! The call it 'Sick so I'm either really cool or a twat not sure which. Drivers on the whole ok but a few offensive comments while out. Not convinced it will be my everyday bike yet or if it's a keeper. Loads of fun though and very quick.


----------



## recumbentpanda (23 Aug 2020)

Standard response from a certain section of the youthful population. You will also get:

Look at that funny bike! (Small children mostly, who like most of the population don’t register the diff between bi and tri)

Various remarks on the theme of it being lazy, usually from people who look like they may have skipped a skipping session or two in favour of pie.

‘I want one of those!’ 

Also the looks:

Boys: ‘I don’t know what that is and it makes me feel insecure in front of my peers because I don’t know whether it’s cool and I should say ‘sick’, or uncool and I should mock it.’

Girls: ‘That looks really interesting I don’t give a wet slap whether it’s cool or not I want to know how it works!’

A certain type of older club cyclist in Lycra: ‘Are you telling me I’m doing it wrong?’

I know what all these people were thinking because I stopped and talked to some of them!


----------



## Oldhippy (23 Aug 2020)

Two kids pulled up beside me today and wanted to know all about it.


----------



## 404 Not Found Anywhere (23 Aug 2020)

Most of the responses I get are positive. Indeed I can only recall one motorist responding negatively but I suspect he might have had “problems”...

The best response I’ve had to my trike was riding along an icy multiuse path one winter and coming across two older ladies who were clinging to each other to stop falling over. They said in a plaintive chorus, “we _need _one of those!”. The path did bear a close resemblance to a skating rink!


----------



## xpc316e (23 Aug 2020)

I used to ride a TW Bents trike that got a few comments, but the best was possibly when I parked it in the town centre and walked away to hear someone say, "But you're not disabled."

I have just returned to recumbent riding with a Vision R30 and yesterday I rode it into town for the first time to do some shopping. On my way home I met some club riders coming from the opposite direction; the lead rider smiled and acknowledged me, but the rest sternly avoided any eye contact whatsoever. I can see that I will have to acclimatise myself all over again to the odd reactions that a recumbent provokes.


----------



## Ming the Merciless (23 Aug 2020)

I think it’s sic rather than sick and it basically means cool or radical in older generations terms. It’s a good thing to hear. Means they like what you’re riding, and like like that you are riding it.

Now that millennials are reaching middle age it’s a generation Z term. The current young ones.

One of things I like about bikes and particularly recumbents. They seem to bridge any generation.


----------



## jeffoi (24 Aug 2020)

I get a lot of 'how much did that cost?' which I try to avoid answering (harder if stuck at traffic lights) 

Motorists give me a wider berth on the trike than ever did when I was on a tourer, or even the tandem with my OH. 

Get a lot of angry over-revving when the road isn't wide enough to allow for passing, especially when the space for the over-take finally appears, but it only makes me more likely to slow down (not get out of the way)

But mostly get 'wow' and gentle bibs of horns and the seldom point and laugh. Much prefer it to the always hilarious tandem comment of 'the one on the back isn't pushing'


----------



## numbnuts (24 Aug 2020)

Been riding a trike now for five years, I was worried at first being so low down, but that was soon passed as most drivers went the other side of the road to pass me.
I've had loads of great comments from everybody and get loads of waves from all ages.
I bought it as a fun thing, but I have found it so practical it can carry so much heavy shopping without becoming unstable.


----------



## recumbentpanda (24 Aug 2020)

YukonBoy said:


> I think it’s sic rather than sick and it basically means cool or radical



No. ‘Sic’ is Latin for ‘thus’. They don’t do Latin. Or spelin. You got the meaning right tho dude.


----------



## flake99please (24 Aug 2020)

I have been jokingly asked to get off mine so they can show me how to wheelie with it. It would be quite a miracle seeing a tadpole doing a wheelie.


----------



## Oldhippy (24 Aug 2020)

The only downside is that I live in a third floor flat, a challenge but got used to it and wouldn't dream of locking it up outside even though we live in a quiet area.


----------



## numbnuts (24 Aug 2020)

Oldhippy said:


> The only downside is that I live in a third floor flat, a challenge but got used to it and wouldn't dream of locking it up outside even though we live in a quiet area.


I live in a flat too, but I have a garage, it's 100 yards away and costs £60 per month


----------



## Ming the Merciless (24 Aug 2020)

flake99please said:


> I have been jokingly asked to get off mine so they can show me how to wheelie with it. It would be quite a miracle seeing a tadpole doing a wheelie.



Ha ha I get asked by kids to do wheelies on my recumbent. You’re aving a laugh is the usual response. I used to be good at wheelies as a kid, several hundred metres of them. But not on a recumbent!


----------



## a.twiddler (24 Aug 2020)

Can't comment on trikes but so far but my experience with the two wheeler has been positive. Certainly no aggression but plenty of smiles. Maybe the exravagant length somehow amuses them, and the seat is not as alarmingly low as many trike seats. Certainly more people have spoken to me in passing than ever have on my tourer, mostly in a pleasant way. I suppose this is the cue for my next ride to be accompanied by a hail of missiles and a barrage of insults. Oh well.


----------



## a.twiddler (25 Aug 2020)

Another thing about the Linear is that it looks rather "industrial" or home made. When you ride by on a girder with a garden chair on it, odd sized wheels and no apparent handlebars, it is a lot for the average person to take in.

People expect a bike to be made out of tubes, and it isn't. The odd thing is, it is comfortable and it works! It would be hard to have to explain to the average walker or non cyclist in passing. But they seem to be mostly entertained by it, rather than having their preconceptions challenged and stirred to anger. It has been a pretty life enhancing experience so far.


----------



## Nigelnightmare (25 Aug 2020)

flake99please said:


> I have been jokingly asked to get off mine so they can show me how to wheelie with it. It would be quite a miracle seeing a tadpole doing a wheelie.


They keep asking me to do wheelies.
I tell them I can't. 
But I can do great 'Stoppies' though, and then show them.


----------



## Gravity Aided (21 Sep 2020)

a.twiddler said:


> Another thing about the Linear is that it looks rather "industrial" or home made. When you ride by on a girder with a garden chair on it, odd sized wheels and no apparent handlebars, it is a lot for the average person to take in.
> 
> People expect a bike to be made out of tubes, and it isn't. The odd thing is, it is comfortable and it works! It would be hard to have to explain to the average walker or non cyclist in passing. But they seem to be mostly entertained by it, rather than having their preconceptions challenged and stirred to anger. It has been a pretty life enhancing experience so far.


Iowa Linear have always been a show-stopper. It is also one of the first recumbents I saw after the Avatar. Must have been mid to late 1980's, and it really was a sensation. So different from any other bicycle I had seen.


----------



## recumbentpanda (17 Oct 2020)

My kids used to call my Linear the ‘attention seeking bicycle’. It does puzzle people. One chap asked ‘how are you steering that thing?’ ‘Mind over matter.’ I said. He seemed to accept this, but then, it is, in a way, true . . .


----------



## yostumpy (18 Oct 2020)

Does anyone remember a bike shop in Whitstable, called Herberts? The owner , at the time (25 years ago) had a lwb 'bent, and I always thought it was homemade, but the comment above about it looking industrial, now makes me think it was a Linear.


----------



## Gravity Aided (18 Oct 2020)

I thought many of those cycles from that time would be easy to reverse-engineer from a bit of good aluminum bar stock, some alu bike frames to cut up, and a welder. I actually threatened to mock one up with some marine plywood and the necessary bicycle parts, just as a proof of concept and geometry.


----------



## a.twiddler (18 Oct 2020)

recumbentpanda said:


> My kids used to call my Linear the ‘attention seeking bicycle’. It does puzzle people. One chap asked ‘how are you steering that thing?’ ‘Mind over matter.’ I said. He seemed to accept this, but then, it is, in a way, true . . .


On my last trip on the Linear I made the error of passing through town at chucking out time at the local high school. Too much attention! 'Kinnell mister, what's that bike! Sick bike ! (Only heard this phrase a few weeks ago and now can't stop hearing it everywhere). Wotlitdoo then mate! And so on. I beat a hasty retreat to less youthfully populated regions. Mostly, the response is positive. Even if coated in cunning camouflage colours, a stealth bike it will never be. Its main advantage on the road, apart from the comfort factor, is that it definitely makes motorists give it loads of room in passing.

As for the steering, well, being under the seat it_ is_ rather stealthy, as I too have been asked how I steer it. It's still not as instinctive as steering an upright (with years of practice behind me). You can get quite relaxed with it but I find at my present state of learning that if my mind wanders, so does the front wheel.


----------



## classic33 (18 Oct 2020)

yostumpy said:


> Does anyone remember a bike shop in Whitstable, called Herberts? The owner , at the time (25 years ago) had a lwb 'bent, and I always thought it was homemade, but the comment above about it looking industrial, now makes me think it was a Linear.


Still there
https://www.herbertscycles.co.uk


----------



## yostumpy (27 Oct 2020)

I've been in touch with Herbert's , via there FB page, and the previous owner, Steve Green, built the 'bent himself, along with help from his apprentice, now the new owner. Steve is still around, and now in his 80's, which is good to hear.


----------

