how DO you ride a recumbent bike for the 1st time ???

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Location
Neath
Well took possesion of a hp streetmachine GTE today so carted it off in the back of my car to the local park, out it came with an eagerly 54 yr old kid {thats me } trying to ride this strange machine all to the amusment of my so called mate who I may add did promise me not to laugh!! Needless to say he never kept his side of the bargain , after the 10 fall off and numerous false starts accompanied by endless 10 yard straight line wobbles I started to laugh myself so it is with great anticipation that I await your expertise on any tips you may have for me ?? ps I have recieved one from my ex mate lol which he says get a refund and buy a bike with stabilers !!

Cheers Neil
 

ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
Location
Rides Ti2
this thread is no good without Video
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sheddy

Legendary Member
Location
Suffolk
no idea but can you find a slightly downhill grassy slope so (just like a toddler) you don't have to worry about pedalling ?
 

TheDoctor

Noble and true, with a heart of steel
Moderator
Location
The TerrorVortex
Give the steering a yank as you set off. Sounds counter-intuitive but it helps.
It sets up a wiggle, which you then try to correct, and so on. It stops you thinking about this weird thing you're on, so you relax your grip, and it just flows after that.
Apparently...
 
I'm another one with three wheels so balance is not a problem .......... :tongue:

From what I've seen about riding two wheel bents ...........

You really need to get above ~5 mph before it starts to get stable.
Line the pedal crank up with the front mec boom so you can get a good push as you start to pedal.
A down hill start helps.
Keep you sholders relaxed.

Luck ........... :biggrin:
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
A good shove off with the leading pedal, wiggle the bars as you start and try not to grip them too hard.

I'm a three wheeler too, and I find that most two wheelers take me a few hoppity-non-starts to get going. The one I recently found the easiest was a Brompton 'bent conversion, funnily enough, typical, about 3 grand and the last ever to be made apparently.
 

mark barker

New Member
Location
Swindon, Wilts
As above, a slight downhill slope will get you moving without having to pedal, so balancing should be a little easier. Once you've done that a couple of times and gained that bit of confidence start pedaling down the hill, and before you know it you'll be sorted. I've never quite mastered the start without a wobble, and have had a few worried looks from other road users, but in general people leave you far more room on a bent so all is good!
 
OP
OP
neil earley
Location
Neath
thanks for all your replies, went out to the park again slight slope down and off I wobbled went about 10 yards and then started peddling . All seemed to be going ok then decided to turn left and fell off , but not dispondant carried on !! I can slowly start off dont have a death grip on the uss seems to help and above all finding it fun . bought a recumbent due to having major surgery to my lower spine and hopefully this bent will give me some normality back into my life , once again thanks for all you tips as it has spurred me on immensley Neil
 

Fiona N

Veteran
Hi Neil
You've reminded me of my attempts to ride a Hurricane from London Recumbents when I was test riding various models of recumbent bike before buying one. I'd previously been up to Kinetics in Glasgow which is conveniently situated on a quiet circuit of back streets with a nice downhill just outside the door so each HPV test machine could be set off on the slope and by the time I got to the first righthand corner, I was balanced and pedalling nicely. With the Hurricane, it was all too different - cold miserable day, muddy paths in the park much narrower (and flatter) than the road with sharp corners and pedestrians (kids and dogs too). So completely nervewracking. I found the Hurricane really twitchy and didn't really get on with the tiller steering (my eventual Speedmachine had USS) but the stress of the test ride - particularly not wanting to fall off on those wet and muddy paths - really didn't sell it to me either.

So good luck - you learn to relax and enjoy it eventually but even with the more intuitive (to me) Speedmachine, I used to fall off just about every outing for the first year - always while stationary :blush:
 
I second the advice about having a really light grip on the 'bars - just use your fingertips if you can. You really need to be in quite a high gear to start off; that way one good push with the right leg will get you rolling fast enough to give you time to get the left foot up on the pedals. When I learnt to ride my Radius C4 I found that a downhill slope made things worse; being on the flat, or a very slight upslope, meant that I had to keep pedalling and that was essential to sussing out the machine.

Good luck with it and I hope that your back likes recumbentriding.
 

BentMikey

Rider of Seolferwulf
Location
South London
Don't stress, your progress sounds entirely normal to me. Think of it as learning to ride a bike all over again, and expect to take time and put in plenty of practice. When you can get going and ride around a bit, a good way to improve rapidly is to lay out some cones in a park, working on stuff like gentle slalom and figures of 8. You can start with easy ones, and steadily get more challenging with yourself, and you'll rapidly improve.

After doing a lot of this, I was extremely flattered when some recumbent riders were talking about my trike on a video - they thought I was riding one when I was in fact on a Fujin 2 wheeler.
 
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