a.twiddler
Veteran
Three Years with a Linear LWB recumbent.
I’ve had this lengthy beast for three years now. It’s an American Iowa built long wheelbase tourer with underseat steering. Like many American LWB recumbent bikes of its era its geometry is based on the original Avatar LWB recumbent of 1980. It’s 88” long, comprised basically of an aluminium beam with bicycle equipment on each end and a garden chair on top. The seating position is quite upright for a recumbent. This has the advantage of making it relatively easy to learn to ride, and with a lowish bottom bracket it’s a steady, if leisurely hill climber. It’s not particularly “aero” for a recumbent but it’s all -day comfortable. It’s similar in geometry to several American LWB makes, which has become a somewhat classic design. The main difference between the Linear and these other designs is that they use conventional bicycle tubing and over seat steering.
Part of the Linear legend is that on the early ones at least, the seat mesh was hand made by local Amish women.
I have learnt that when the definitive Linear LWB design was finalised in 1986 it had a number of firsts. It was the first recumbent to:-
Have an aluminium frame
To be made from custom tubing
Fold
To have a seat with a cushion and a mesh back
To have a built in pocket behind the seat.
The Linear company has changed hands several times since its original production in Iowa but is still made in updated form, still with under seat steering, by The Bicycle Man of Alfred Station, New York.
Most of my steep recumbent learning curve took place in the first six months but it can still surprise me. Most of the modifications took place in the first year as I found out what I wanted in a recumbent. To summarise:
I bought it during lockdown after unexpectedly selling a mountain bike for an unfeasibly large amount caused by “lockdown mania” when the shortage of new bikes pushed up the price of used ones.
I made an offer on it without a test ride or even seeing it. It had apparently spent the last ten years in the owner’s barn, which was believable judging by the amount of former insects that I dug out of the frame while sorting it out ready for the road. While adjusting some item on the frame there was an Indiana Jones moment when 20 or 30 tiny white spiderlings poured out through a mounting hole. I gave them a squirt with GT85 but many survived, no doubt adding to the biodiversity of the mini monsters that inhabit the garage.
It was a lucky buy. The previous owner was over 6ft tall yet the wide range of adjustment available made it possible to make it fit me at 5’5”. The seat was adjusted well back when I bought it and now is well forward.
There is still some adjustment in the clamp -on BB before any chain links need to be added or removed. I didn’t realise at the time that this was a very unusual quality in recumbents and took it for granted that other recumbent bikes were equally adjustable. If you bought a Linear new there was the option of an even larger frame, or an extra small with smaller wheels. With a SWB recumbent the adjustment tends to be in the boom, with some, perhaps a little in the seat too. There is not that much adjustment so like upright bikes they might come in more specific small, medium and large sizes.
I had a hairy time learning to ride it but at no time did I think, “this isn’t for me”. I carried on learning new things every ride, sometimes frightening the bejasus out of myself. Other road users would give me unbelievable amounts of space which was a huge bonus. I rode it up unsuitable tracks and it coped. Due to its unconventional construction I carried a good selection of tools. I fitted an accessory bar to the front for lights. I fitted a large bell there, operated by a brake lever on the underseat handlebar. Later, I replaced the brake lever with a non indexed gear lever with the friction wound off, to save space.
In January 2021 I replaced the bottom bracket as there was a little play in it and I wanted to avoid any problems on the road. Not only did it turn out to be a threadless one but the previous owner had fitted it back to front! O what fun I had trying to get it out before I realised this. Once I got it out I found that the threads were still viable and was able to fit a standard bottom bracket. It did make me wonder about the previous owner’s mechanical skills and what horrors I might yet find as I replaced parts. It has held up fine to date.
I experimented with the gearing. It came with a triple chainset but no front changer. I made a derailleur post and found that a double would give me all the gears I needed. It has a 3 speed hub gear and a seven speed derailleur at the back. With the double chainring at the front, that totals 42 gears with a range of about 17.5 inches to about 110 inches. It’s possible that I won’t be able to go fast enough to maintain steerage way in bottom gear unless I pedal at a rate faster than I normally find comfortable but the theory is that by maintaining smoothness I ought to be able to balance and steer at a lower speed. This was prompted by being defeated on Alsagers Bank in Staffordshire the year before last. Previous to that I believed I could climb anything. It’s probable that if I was on my upright tourer I would have had to get off and walk too.
The rear derailleur is operated by a Suntour barcon on the right bar end and the hub gear by a Sturmey bar end lever on the left. The front derailleur is operated by a thumb lever lower down on the left bar end.
During my first year of ownership I acquired a 406 rimmed hub brake front wheel which allowed me to fit a 406-50 Big Apple front tyre rather than with the original front wheel which was a 440, with only a limited choice of narrow tyres. This has made a big difference, and the bike feels really planted. This is despite the rear being narrower, a 700-42C Vittoria Randonneur which is actually nearer 38C.
Around the same time I updated the rear brake to an old school BMX one which works very well.
I experimentally bodged an old aluminium ATB carrier to the front end by cutting off the legs and attaching it by an exhaust clamp, jubilee clip and P clips. It was only meant as a lightweight carrier and the main trial was my trip to Wales the year before last which it completed with no problems.
However in general use with a tapered bag on top it proved too unwieldy and eventually the P clips proved not durable enough, so I took it off. Recently I experimented with a pair of small panniers on lowrider frames (which I had in the garage) on the front wheel and despite it being 20” they work fine.
Despite its age and unconventional design I had confidence that I could go anywhere on this bike so I planned a trip to Wales in 2021. Unfortunately I overestimated my fitness and carried too much gear so after getting off my route and climbing more hills than I’d bargained for on the first day I found that on the second my legs weren’t up to the hills I had planned. Fortunately I had a plan B. I’m hoping to go again some time with better route planning.
One of my main concerns when buying this Linear was the possibility of rear frame weakness as it’s a known problem especially if sometime in the past it’s had hard use. I inspected it minutely when I went to collect it, and again when I was getting it ready for the road and it seemed fine.
I ‘d been thinking about fitting a frame reinforcing plate since I’d had it so when I found an aftermarket one from “The Bicycle Man” in Alfred Station, NY (Current manufacturer of the Linear), I bit the bullet and ordered it. This was an item fitted to the NY produced Linears while using up the stocks of Iowa Linear parts. Earlier models such as mine didn’t have them. Current Linears have a revised rear frame and as far as I know, are no longer of a folding design. From time to time they have stocks of frame reinforcing plates in for the older designs. Worth fitting I think if you have an older folding Linear for the peace of mind it gives. I could have made one myself more cheaply but there was something satisfying about improving my US -made bike with a US part from the present manufacturer.
I had it welded on and the frame certainly feels more rigid. A bit of work was needed to trim it for the non standard 700C wheel to give enough mudguard clearance. It would be tempting to fit a 26” wheel if not for the cost of building on to the hub gear, so as to have the chance to fit a Big Apple on the rear, matching the front. Still, after quite a bit of fettling it works fine now.
I now know a lot about recumbents and fettling them, budget ones at least. Not so much about higher end ones.
There’s something rather ship like about the riding experience of this bike. You get aboard rather than mount it. You launch rather than casually get on and ride. It gets under way, until you reach cruising speed, then makes stately progress. Short as I am, it still seems a long way from the bridge to the engine room. You have to plan ahead as it gives the illusion that it has the turning circle of a super tanker, though it's more nimble than you might expect. Perhaps I need to get a boat horn. It’s a different experience from a SWB recumbent. It’s a bike, but somehow more than just a bike.
Maybe it’s more of a Non Standard Human Powered Vehicle that just happens to have two wheels.
There’s also something akin to flying about it, although at a low level. I vividly remember when first riding it, getting going, fumbling with the unseen unfamiliar controls under the seat, wondering how I’d got into this situation on a machine that seemed to have a mind of its own. Feelings of terror and elation wrestled with each other as I rode several alarming miles avoiding T junctions or changing speed or direction before daring to try and stop in case I lost control and slid down the road. The same road that was rushing by seemingly so close beneath my clenched buttocks, not beneath my feet, and the invisible ever present traffic behind me that I imagined was just waiting to flatten me when it happened. I was paranoid about not being able to see behind. The saying “I’ve never looked back since I bought a recumbent” was literally true then but with use of a decent mirror and learning to interpret auditory cues it’s hardly an issue now.
It’s such a contrast with the early days now ,when I climb aboard and everything “just fits” like my more conventional bikes even when it’s a while since I rode it.
Over the last few years I’ve only had one instance of anything like a close pass which probably wouldn’t even have been remarkable if I was riding my upright bike. Everyone just gives you l o a ds of r o o m. Maybe the vehicle least likely to be involved in a SMIDSY is a recumbent bike or trike.
I’ve fallen off once into a handy patch of nettles when I stalled on a climb (before I adapted the gearing). Despite the initial scariness it has become a reassuring and comfortable ride.
It tends to attract attention, although when running it is very quiet due to having no chain tubes or rollers, so sometimes people are only aware of you when you are going away from them on cycle tracks or rail trails. It has raised far more smiles than hostile responses.
It can definitely go where a touring bike or hybrid can go as long as there are no awkward barriers. Even then it can be stood on its back wheel to get through “kissing gate” type barriers, though I wouldn’t like to have to pass too many in quick succession. It really is comfortable, and I’ve ridden much further on the Linear than I have been able to do for years on an upright bike. Some aches and pains, certainly, but nothing like the excruciating neck and shoulder pain, and numbness and tingling in the hands and occasional foot pain that I used to get after a good distance on the upright bike. Even though it is relatively upright your weight is spread out over what is effectively a garden chair, the only pressure on the bars is enough for fingertip control rather than supporting your weight, and similarly only enough pressure on the pedals to spin you along rather than support any weight. You get a panoramic view of the world rolling by rather than staring at the road ahead of your front wheel, without even handlebars intruding into your view. In the right circumstances, pretty much zen on two wheels. It might look rather disturbing to onlookers, but it feels great.
Transportation is the only issue where it falls down really, as going further afield would entail getting on a train or into a car. It does fold, but not quickly or easily like a Brompton. It’s the length of a tandem and unlikely to be allowed on a train. I partially folded it and took the seat off when I bought it, and it fitted into a Skoda Superb Estate, though the Skoda Superb has an unusually large luggage capacity. A suitably long van would be a better bet, as there would be no need to remove, replace and readjust things before using it.
On the whole, especially for what I paid for it three years ago, the positives well outweigh the negatives, in its various incarnations over that time. It might appear rather industrial in some respects but it certainly appeals to the tinkerer in me.
Apologies for any repetitions to those who have read my previous “A year with a Linear” and “Two years with a Linear” but maybe newer posters might read this and be tempted to enter the weird and wonderful world of budget recumbent riding. As you can see, there is a lot of my blood, sweat and tears in this Linear but it has given me a very good idea of what works for me in a recumbent.
I’ve had this lengthy beast for three years now. It’s an American Iowa built long wheelbase tourer with underseat steering. Like many American LWB recumbent bikes of its era its geometry is based on the original Avatar LWB recumbent of 1980. It’s 88” long, comprised basically of an aluminium beam with bicycle equipment on each end and a garden chair on top. The seating position is quite upright for a recumbent. This has the advantage of making it relatively easy to learn to ride, and with a lowish bottom bracket it’s a steady, if leisurely hill climber. It’s not particularly “aero” for a recumbent but it’s all -day comfortable. It’s similar in geometry to several American LWB makes, which has become a somewhat classic design. The main difference between the Linear and these other designs is that they use conventional bicycle tubing and over seat steering.
Part of the Linear legend is that on the early ones at least, the seat mesh was hand made by local Amish women.
I have learnt that when the definitive Linear LWB design was finalised in 1986 it had a number of firsts. It was the first recumbent to:-
Have an aluminium frame
To be made from custom tubing
Fold
To have a seat with a cushion and a mesh back
To have a built in pocket behind the seat.
The Linear company has changed hands several times since its original production in Iowa but is still made in updated form, still with under seat steering, by The Bicycle Man of Alfred Station, New York.
Most of my steep recumbent learning curve took place in the first six months but it can still surprise me. Most of the modifications took place in the first year as I found out what I wanted in a recumbent. To summarise:
I bought it during lockdown after unexpectedly selling a mountain bike for an unfeasibly large amount caused by “lockdown mania” when the shortage of new bikes pushed up the price of used ones.
I made an offer on it without a test ride or even seeing it. It had apparently spent the last ten years in the owner’s barn, which was believable judging by the amount of former insects that I dug out of the frame while sorting it out ready for the road. While adjusting some item on the frame there was an Indiana Jones moment when 20 or 30 tiny white spiderlings poured out through a mounting hole. I gave them a squirt with GT85 but many survived, no doubt adding to the biodiversity of the mini monsters that inhabit the garage.
It was a lucky buy. The previous owner was over 6ft tall yet the wide range of adjustment available made it possible to make it fit me at 5’5”. The seat was adjusted well back when I bought it and now is well forward.
There is still some adjustment in the clamp -on BB before any chain links need to be added or removed. I didn’t realise at the time that this was a very unusual quality in recumbents and took it for granted that other recumbent bikes were equally adjustable. If you bought a Linear new there was the option of an even larger frame, or an extra small with smaller wheels. With a SWB recumbent the adjustment tends to be in the boom, with some, perhaps a little in the seat too. There is not that much adjustment so like upright bikes they might come in more specific small, medium and large sizes.
I had a hairy time learning to ride it but at no time did I think, “this isn’t for me”. I carried on learning new things every ride, sometimes frightening the bejasus out of myself. Other road users would give me unbelievable amounts of space which was a huge bonus. I rode it up unsuitable tracks and it coped. Due to its unconventional construction I carried a good selection of tools. I fitted an accessory bar to the front for lights. I fitted a large bell there, operated by a brake lever on the underseat handlebar. Later, I replaced the brake lever with a non indexed gear lever with the friction wound off, to save space.
In January 2021 I replaced the bottom bracket as there was a little play in it and I wanted to avoid any problems on the road. Not only did it turn out to be a threadless one but the previous owner had fitted it back to front! O what fun I had trying to get it out before I realised this. Once I got it out I found that the threads were still viable and was able to fit a standard bottom bracket. It did make me wonder about the previous owner’s mechanical skills and what horrors I might yet find as I replaced parts. It has held up fine to date.
I experimented with the gearing. It came with a triple chainset but no front changer. I made a derailleur post and found that a double would give me all the gears I needed. It has a 3 speed hub gear and a seven speed derailleur at the back. With the double chainring at the front, that totals 42 gears with a range of about 17.5 inches to about 110 inches. It’s possible that I won’t be able to go fast enough to maintain steerage way in bottom gear unless I pedal at a rate faster than I normally find comfortable but the theory is that by maintaining smoothness I ought to be able to balance and steer at a lower speed. This was prompted by being defeated on Alsagers Bank in Staffordshire the year before last. Previous to that I believed I could climb anything. It’s probable that if I was on my upright tourer I would have had to get off and walk too.
The rear derailleur is operated by a Suntour barcon on the right bar end and the hub gear by a Sturmey bar end lever on the left. The front derailleur is operated by a thumb lever lower down on the left bar end.
During my first year of ownership I acquired a 406 rimmed hub brake front wheel which allowed me to fit a 406-50 Big Apple front tyre rather than with the original front wheel which was a 440, with only a limited choice of narrow tyres. This has made a big difference, and the bike feels really planted. This is despite the rear being narrower, a 700-42C Vittoria Randonneur which is actually nearer 38C.
Around the same time I updated the rear brake to an old school BMX one which works very well.
I experimentally bodged an old aluminium ATB carrier to the front end by cutting off the legs and attaching it by an exhaust clamp, jubilee clip and P clips. It was only meant as a lightweight carrier and the main trial was my trip to Wales the year before last which it completed with no problems.
However in general use with a tapered bag on top it proved too unwieldy and eventually the P clips proved not durable enough, so I took it off. Recently I experimented with a pair of small panniers on lowrider frames (which I had in the garage) on the front wheel and despite it being 20” they work fine.
Despite its age and unconventional design I had confidence that I could go anywhere on this bike so I planned a trip to Wales in 2021. Unfortunately I overestimated my fitness and carried too much gear so after getting off my route and climbing more hills than I’d bargained for on the first day I found that on the second my legs weren’t up to the hills I had planned. Fortunately I had a plan B. I’m hoping to go again some time with better route planning.
One of my main concerns when buying this Linear was the possibility of rear frame weakness as it’s a known problem especially if sometime in the past it’s had hard use. I inspected it minutely when I went to collect it, and again when I was getting it ready for the road and it seemed fine.
I ‘d been thinking about fitting a frame reinforcing plate since I’d had it so when I found an aftermarket one from “The Bicycle Man” in Alfred Station, NY (Current manufacturer of the Linear), I bit the bullet and ordered it. This was an item fitted to the NY produced Linears while using up the stocks of Iowa Linear parts. Earlier models such as mine didn’t have them. Current Linears have a revised rear frame and as far as I know, are no longer of a folding design. From time to time they have stocks of frame reinforcing plates in for the older designs. Worth fitting I think if you have an older folding Linear for the peace of mind it gives. I could have made one myself more cheaply but there was something satisfying about improving my US -made bike with a US part from the present manufacturer.
I had it welded on and the frame certainly feels more rigid. A bit of work was needed to trim it for the non standard 700C wheel to give enough mudguard clearance. It would be tempting to fit a 26” wheel if not for the cost of building on to the hub gear, so as to have the chance to fit a Big Apple on the rear, matching the front. Still, after quite a bit of fettling it works fine now.
I now know a lot about recumbents and fettling them, budget ones at least. Not so much about higher end ones.
There’s something rather ship like about the riding experience of this bike. You get aboard rather than mount it. You launch rather than casually get on and ride. It gets under way, until you reach cruising speed, then makes stately progress. Short as I am, it still seems a long way from the bridge to the engine room. You have to plan ahead as it gives the illusion that it has the turning circle of a super tanker, though it's more nimble than you might expect. Perhaps I need to get a boat horn. It’s a different experience from a SWB recumbent. It’s a bike, but somehow more than just a bike.
Maybe it’s more of a Non Standard Human Powered Vehicle that just happens to have two wheels.
There’s also something akin to flying about it, although at a low level. I vividly remember when first riding it, getting going, fumbling with the unseen unfamiliar controls under the seat, wondering how I’d got into this situation on a machine that seemed to have a mind of its own. Feelings of terror and elation wrestled with each other as I rode several alarming miles avoiding T junctions or changing speed or direction before daring to try and stop in case I lost control and slid down the road. The same road that was rushing by seemingly so close beneath my clenched buttocks, not beneath my feet, and the invisible ever present traffic behind me that I imagined was just waiting to flatten me when it happened. I was paranoid about not being able to see behind. The saying “I’ve never looked back since I bought a recumbent” was literally true then but with use of a decent mirror and learning to interpret auditory cues it’s hardly an issue now.
It’s such a contrast with the early days now ,when I climb aboard and everything “just fits” like my more conventional bikes even when it’s a while since I rode it.
Over the last few years I’ve only had one instance of anything like a close pass which probably wouldn’t even have been remarkable if I was riding my upright bike. Everyone just gives you l o a ds of r o o m. Maybe the vehicle least likely to be involved in a SMIDSY is a recumbent bike or trike.
I’ve fallen off once into a handy patch of nettles when I stalled on a climb (before I adapted the gearing). Despite the initial scariness it has become a reassuring and comfortable ride.
It tends to attract attention, although when running it is very quiet due to having no chain tubes or rollers, so sometimes people are only aware of you when you are going away from them on cycle tracks or rail trails. It has raised far more smiles than hostile responses.
It can definitely go where a touring bike or hybrid can go as long as there are no awkward barriers. Even then it can be stood on its back wheel to get through “kissing gate” type barriers, though I wouldn’t like to have to pass too many in quick succession. It really is comfortable, and I’ve ridden much further on the Linear than I have been able to do for years on an upright bike. Some aches and pains, certainly, but nothing like the excruciating neck and shoulder pain, and numbness and tingling in the hands and occasional foot pain that I used to get after a good distance on the upright bike. Even though it is relatively upright your weight is spread out over what is effectively a garden chair, the only pressure on the bars is enough for fingertip control rather than supporting your weight, and similarly only enough pressure on the pedals to spin you along rather than support any weight. You get a panoramic view of the world rolling by rather than staring at the road ahead of your front wheel, without even handlebars intruding into your view. In the right circumstances, pretty much zen on two wheels. It might look rather disturbing to onlookers, but it feels great.
Transportation is the only issue where it falls down really, as going further afield would entail getting on a train or into a car. It does fold, but not quickly or easily like a Brompton. It’s the length of a tandem and unlikely to be allowed on a train. I partially folded it and took the seat off when I bought it, and it fitted into a Skoda Superb Estate, though the Skoda Superb has an unusually large luggage capacity. A suitably long van would be a better bet, as there would be no need to remove, replace and readjust things before using it.
On the whole, especially for what I paid for it three years ago, the positives well outweigh the negatives, in its various incarnations over that time. It might appear rather industrial in some respects but it certainly appeals to the tinkerer in me.
Apologies for any repetitions to those who have read my previous “A year with a Linear” and “Two years with a Linear” but maybe newer posters might read this and be tempted to enter the weird and wonderful world of budget recumbent riding. As you can see, there is a lot of my blood, sweat and tears in this Linear but it has given me a very good idea of what works for me in a recumbent.
