I ride a sleek blue-gray HP Velotechnik Scorpion fs 26 with white accents that is the ninth or tenth love of my life. It has a body link seat, rear rack…all whistles and no bells. Will a pair of HPV’s Moonbiker panniers mount properly? If not, which others might be my pleasure? My only requirements are that they look as attractive as the trike and have excellent capacity.
Yours truly,
Zing
Dear Zing,
You’re right to require that a pair of panniers look as good as the trike.
Usually, the Moonbiker or Radical Design panniers are suitable, but not this time: they won’t lay properly on the Scorpion fs 26’s uniquely shaped rear rack.
However the Ortlieb Recumbent Panniers are a very nice pair, with 54 liters capacity. They are attractive, waterproof, aerodynamic, with a fiddle-free mounting system. As you might imagine, they’re not cheap but, like most Ortlieb products, you’ll want to hold onto them for the long-term.
These Radical Design bags are also good choices, though with less capacity. They’re attractive and a great option if you don’t feel ready to commit to one or the other: if you have trouble choosing, go with both for 35 liters total volume.
Riding a Cruzbike requires a fair amount of coordination between the hands and feet. For many people, myself included, it takes practice to master that coordination. Some people are more patient with themselves than others, but I assure you that if you’ve bought a Cruzbike, your utter patience and practice is a worthwhile investment in a really neat, high performance machine.
The following are some of the drills I give customers (and myself), for refining the coordination required to confidently handle a Cruzbike.
The payoff is that these drills will help make the hand-foot coordination second nature more quickly than if you simply spend your time riding down the bike path.
Guiding Principals and Tips for getting the most out of the drills.
Press with your feet, pull with your hands. So, you will pull with your right hand while you press with the right foot, then you will pull with the left hand while you press with the left foot. Got it? This is as opposed to pressing with the right foot while pressing with the left hand. I know the “official” Cruzbike instructional videos show an open handed “pressing” technique for beginners; I teach a pulling technique. We’re both right but I find it easier for me to pull against the bars and that’s how I teach others.
Concentrate on coordinating a brief moment of “punctuated thrust” between your foot (pressing) and your hand (pulling). Continue a very tight mental focus on that coordination while doing the drills. For a while (how long varies by individual), you the rider may need to think a lot about the coordination. After a while, it will become second nature.
Make everything other than the coordination as easy as possible. Bring the seat to the most vertical position possible. This makes it easier to balance.
Wear reasonable shoes. Don’t try and learn with toe clips or sandals.
For all the following, first ride with two hands, then ride one-handed, alternating left and right. When riding one-handed, switch from left to right hand on the bars after every 10-20 pedal strokes. The exact number doesn’t matter; you simply want to make sure you’re working the same amount on both sides.
Bike speed is slow during the drills. Although your cadence will often be fast, ride at a low comfortable speed for all drills. In fact, your riding speed under all conditions should always be “comfortable” and under control. Never, ever ride a Cruzbike (or any bike) at a speed beyond where the coordination feels comfortable and second nature. Take this advice seriously. Your welfare depends on it.
While doing the drills, your aim is to be perfectly in control of the steering, always. This means there is never a moment where the bike is in control of you as opposed to vice versa.
Do the drills both laying back in the seat as well as sitting up straight, with your back off the seat.
The goal is to build your coordination between the motion of your feet and your hands. Keep pushing at the limits of your coordination by increasing the speed of the cadence from slow to “too fast.”
These sorts of drills are not unique to Cruzbikes. Every recumbent rider can benefit from them. For the record, standard frame riders who want to ride well do drills like these as well.
The Drills
– Slalom “S” turns: pick a comfortable slow speed and maintain it. Make slalom “S” turns beginning with narrow turns and then gradually get wider till the turn is exaggerated.
– Figure eights and double figure eights. Maintain perfect control, pedaling continuously.
– Figure eights: open circles, decrease the radius with each circuit till you can’t go any smaller.
– Cadence/coordination: Begin riding at a moderate cadence, gear up and ride with a very slow cadence. While maintaining speed, gear down to easier gears, maintaining speed while increasing the speed of your cadence, keep gearing down while increasing cadence till you can no longer maintain the coordination between your hands and feet.
– Create an obstacle course on the ground, whether it’s by choosing marks on the pavement or dropping your hat and gloves in a pattern. Challenge yourself to ride the course, changing cadence from slow to ultra fast as you ride. Adjust the course, continually making it more challenging.
Thanks to NYC Volae-rider Dan C. for forwarding this video to me. The invisible airbag helmet is a nice idea. Would it reduce cyclist deaths and or injuries? Would it work for recumbent bike* riders? Is it only comfortable for riders sitting in an upright “Dutch style” riding position?
[*I’m learning to write out the bulky phrase “recumbent bike” in order to enhance my search engine optimization. Aren’t I good?]
I don’t have an opinion — “good” or “not” — though I agree it’s cool. However, I prefer solutions that involve no technology and little expense for the rider, if possible. Surely the invisible helmet airbag will be an expensive device, won’t it?
The solution is safer streets for everyone — cyclists, pedestrians and motorized vehicles — and these will result in fewer cyclist injuries and deaths. I do not believe the solution is either greater helmet technology or helmet laws (not that the video gets into that).
While I don’t want to go too far down the rabbit hole of helmet safety for this blog entry, briefly, statistics show that the larger the number of cyclists, the fewer the number of cyclist deaths and that helmet laws discourage cycling. Therefore, helmets (and helmet laws) appear to have the effect of increasing the number of cyclist deaths.
“Cyclists who wear protective helmets are more likely to be knocked down by passing vehicles, new research from Bath University suggests. The study found drivers tend to pass closer when overtaking cyclists wearing helmets than those who are bare-headed.” [from the BBC]
As it relates to the “invisible helmet” in this video, all this should mean the “invisible helmet” will provide an effective double buffer of safety for the cyclist. Cars will give more space to the cyclist who is not (apparently) wearing a helmet and, if that cyclist is struck, the airbag helmet will give needed protection. Fantastic. But I can’t say I want to spend money on — or deal every time I ride — with that airbag helmet device. I suppose plastic and foam helmets are funny looking, but they’re also pretty simple, even if they’re of limited effectiveness.
The only effective and fair solution is for government to develop street infrastructure that encourages cycling, same as was done for cars. This would include bikeways — bike lanes, greenways, separated bike paths — wider shoulders on roads, reduced and enforced speed limits for cars,
Subject: Thank you
From: “M____ A____”
Date: Wed, November 6, 2013 9:09 pm
To: “Robert Matson”
Dear Robert,
I wanted to thank you for the time, effort, and patience you extended me during my demo ride. Minutes after meeting in your bicycle-rich apartment, I was learning the basics of front wheel drive handling. Riding in the park gave me ample opportunity to try out the speed and handling characteristics of the [Cruzbike] Quest. Later I had my first remote mechanic FaceTime call as you helped me with some assembly questions. So despite three back fusions, I am once again speeding down my local bike trail. Many thanks, Mike Anderson MD, Great Falls, Va
Recently, a fellow posted a question to the HP Velotechnik message board on Yahoo.
– Removing rear rack from Street Machine Gte
– Tue Oct 8, 2013 4:29 am (PDT) . Posted by: “L C____”
– I would like to remove the rear rack from my recently acquired Street
– Machine and I notice that 2 of the mounting bolts appear to go right into
– the pivot point of the rear suspension.
– Is there a special trick to doing this?
– TIA.
– L___
You can just remove the bolts, then remove the rack, and then replace the bolts. However, when done properly, the long bolts that originally held the rack are replaced with a pair of 20mm button head bolts.
Getting the new bolts back in involves a fair amount of fiddling. I’d try finding replacement bolts at your hardware store. Be sure to grease the new bolts before replacing them to prevent them from seizing and becoming impossible to remove in the future. The torque for the swing arm bolts is 17-19 nm when using HP Velotechnik’s bolts.
If you want to ride with only an underseat rack, and no rear rack, you’ll need to use the long bolts to hold the rack with spacers to take up the space otherwise used by the mounts for the rear rack. The spacers go on the bolt, between the swing arm hinge and the mounting point on the rack. HPV provides spacers, for the official solution, or you can find something on your own that is strong.
Here is this Fall’s recipe for Energy Pellets (no cook)
1/2 C(up) almond butter
1 C peanut butter, salted
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 C corn syrup
1/2 C ground flaxseeds
1 T(ablespoon) chia seeds
1 C Grape Nuts (or similar coarse multi grain ready to eat cereal)
1/2 C rolled oats (5-min. quick oats)
Fleur de sel (sea salt) to taste
1/2 C raisins
1/2 C chocolate M and Ms or their likeness (I use Sunspire brand.)
Use a highly conductive non-stick sauce pan, for best results.
Thoroughly combine nut butters, cinnamon and corn syrup in sauce pan over medium-low flame.
Stir these evenly into the goop mixture, a bit at a time:
Flax and chia seeds
Grape Nuts
Rolled oats
Raisins
Let mixture cool a bit so the M and Ms don’t melt when you add them.
Sprinkle M and Ms around the mixture and then stir them in as best you can.
Mold mixture into balls with freshly washed hands (I’m just saying).
Sprinkle fleur de sel over balls to taste.
Put into resealable plastic containers and then into fridge for 8 hrs.
Store in fridge.
To take them on a ride, I put them into plastic zipper-closure bags.
Just wanted to drop you a line to say hello. I hope all is well with you and your 2013 season for recumbents ended well.
B— and I are currently traveling through SE Asia on motorcycles. We are in central Laos right now heading south towards Cambodia. We’re expecting to be back in NYC at the end of the year as B— has teaching obligations for the first few months of 2014.
I’m thinking of continuing to take time off in early 2014 and have been considering a solo ride of the ACA Southern Tier route east to west in Feb/Mar 2014. Know anyone who has ridden the Southern Tier E to W? If I do this I’ll sure be glad I kept the grasshopper fx!
Best,
A—
# # #
Again, I think I have the world’s coolest customers.
I need your help, guys. And I need it now. Please. Voting ends Nov. 15 at midnight. I still need more votes.
I realize recumbent bike riders in the NY Metro area wish we had a larger dealership here. I feel the same way. And I’d like you to know I keep hammering away at it.
Some of you know the business and you know how incredibly hard it is. That’s especially true in a high-cost region like NY Metro where we pay 3x what others pay for real estate and 2x more for utilities. Those of you who know me personally know how I knock myself out to grow the business, every day.
At last weekend’s Recumbent Cycle Convention, dealers and manufacturers from all over the country, pretty much to a man, expressed overwhelming support for what I’m doing, including offers to help if they can, etc. The level of kindness was really touching. And it appears I’m on pretty much a similar path to everyone else, doing similar things. (It also turns out that a few manufacturers consider me their “best” dealer; that felt good.)
None of you will be shocked to hear the main obstacle to growing New York City Recumbent Supply is money. So, I’ve applied for a huge competitive grant from Chase Bank. If I get it — if we get it — it’ll be massive and will dramatically increase access to recumbent bikes in our region.
All I need is your vote. It’s fast and free.
To be considered for the first round of this competitive grant process, I need your support: your vote, in fact. And the votes of your friends.
The link is below. When you go to the site, Chase is going to ask for Facebook stuff. They say they don’t use or retain the info. I assume it helps prevent voter fraud. But I don’t know. I don’t control it. Unfortunately, some people have found this off-putting. Please don’t be put off.
I just returned to New York from the Recumbent Cycle Con (RCC) in Los Angeles. A superb experience and a fun trip. Loved the light, ocean, and mountains. Too bad about all the driving, highways, and traffic. I’ve heard people wonder how New Yorkers get by without cars. But how do Angelenos get by with them? I felt I couldn’t easily get anywhere!
Out with the Cruzbike family on our semi-daily daybreak Death March and chat, complete with great views and glorious sunshine. Robert on left. Tom in yellow. Abram with hat. Maria in green. Jeff in blue. Photo copyr. 2013 R Matson
But RCC was a blast. I continue to believe that the best things about bikes (and trikes) are the people you meet as a result of being a cyclist, and the experiences you have with those people, whether it’s shooting the breeze with a fellow cyclist at a traffic light, or going on a group trip, or racing, or advocating for cyclists’ rights, or helping a fellow cyclist you find sidelined along the road, or attending a bike show, or any of those other experiences that result from being an engaged member of the world’s cycling community.
Robert demonstrates a track stand on a Mirage Nomad, a shaft-drive ‘bent.
Glad to have had the chance to ride it. Photo copyr. 2013 R Matson
As for the machines themselves, bikes are cool, some more than others, but they’re just bikes; they’re a means to an end, not the end-all and be-all. They’re a lever, a tool for amplifying what your mind and body want to do and could perhaps do anyway. Without the machine, you could have similar life experiences, you simply wouldn’t go as fast, or as far, or, maybe, get into as much trouble. So, the potentially coolest thing about a bike show, for me, is the people; next, it’s the experience I might have with them; thirdly, it’s seeing what people are thinking about and the problems they’re trying to solve with human powered equipment — the bikes/trikes/drivetrains/chains/headsets, etc. Maybe it’s because I’m less a gear-head and more a traveler, but what excites me about a great machine is not the engineering; it’s the experiences a machine could open up for me and, then, whether that machine will get me safely to the other side. I feel similarly when it comes to dealing bikes. First and foremost it’s about people and the experiences a 2- or 3-wheeled human powered tool make available to them, whether during the sales process, or years after when they’re pedaling through Arthur’s Pass (South Island, New Zealand).
At RCC, I met many people who, till now, I knew only by name, e-ml, phone or photo. People turned out to be pretty much as I anticipated: people I thought would be super, turned out to be super. I had wonderful conversations with the people from Cruzbike and HP Velotechnik and I’m going to continue what I’m doing with them. In their own segments they are the leaders for good reasons. Had good conversations with several others, too many to name. I met Catherine and Hubert van Ham of Radical Design, the recumbent pannier manufacturers, who didn’t have a booth but attended the show as visitors; really nice people. Hase remains impressive. I was also pleased to meet the other dealers in my “neighborhood.”
Trisled Rotovelo, brought in by Nanda Holz of SpinCyclz. Photo copyr. 2013 R Matson
Several discoveries in terms of bikes and trikes. Yes, lots of trikes were shown as manufacturers try and respond to the demand for T’s. The average number of wheels per bike over the entire show was, I don’t know, 2.9 or so; less cleverly, more clearly said: trike showings dominated though maybe not in terms of speed. A few manf’s. had prototypes of clever trikes, folding and otherwise, and it’ll be interesting to see what they present as production models. A few new bikes, some of which I may bring in. I won’t be too specific right now so as not to disappoint people. Also, again, when it comes to recommending machines to customers, I’m highly concerned about reliability and quality and, with new machines that lack a track record, can we be sure to get that?
Cruzbike Morning Death March, group photo. Photo copyr. 2013 R Matson
Cruzbikes won the “slow-riding” as well as the “turning radius” contests. No surprise. But also the jockey Abram (photo of Abram) was, I heard, a gymnast in the past, so it might have been more than just “about the bike.”
I realize readers of this blog might like to hear my analysis of what I saw and liked or otherwise, but since I’ll be making business decisions based on my ideas, I’ll keep them to myself. Meanwhile, event organizer extraordinaire Charles (Chuck) Coyne of Recumbent and Tandem Rider Magazine was there, along with Chris Malloy and Travis Prebble of Recumbent Journal, and Bryan Ball of BentRider On-line, and I’m sure we can depend on them to write round-ups.
– Nanda Holz of Spin Cyclz (CA) imported a couple dozen of the Trisled Rotovelo and had one at the show. Good ride and nice idea for an inexpensive velomobile. Good enough in every way with one aspect I thought was non-ideal: the pedals rotate rather close to the pavement so I personally needed to adjust foot position to avoid heel strike. I don’t believe I personally, could ride it with clipless pedals or toe clips; someone with small feet might be fine. I pedaled near my instep with platform pedals, which is okay, but not my normal pedaling position. I’d recommend using heel straps with it. Lots of storage capacity inside. Call me if you want one.
– HP Velotechnik was, as expected, extremely polished and professional and was possibly the busiest booth. They had their usual top of the line bikes/trikes and the new dirt trike. They showed their new electric/pedelec system which is, in several important ways, an improvement over the Bionix solution. Call me if you want more info., etc. (Robert: T: 646-233-1219.)
– Cruzbike was possibly the darling of the show and Maria Parker gave one of the best speeches I’ve ever heard at the industry dinner. Entitled “Doing something hard,” it was ostensibly about her experience during RAAM, but was equally a TED-type talk about how to…do something incredibly hard. For the bikes themselves, only a very few people seemed to have trouble “getting” the Cruzbikes. I think we (the dealers) have gotten better at teaching people how to ride them. For a limited time, there is a slight discount on the 20″ folding model. Call me if you want more info., etc. (Robert: T: 646-233-1219.)
– Prototypes of several new folding trikes and bikes were shown in addition to the usual suspects who have production models. There’s a long way between prototype and production model, but it was exciting to see people working away at this challenge. I’ll keep folding machines on hand and will increase what I carry if and when the new ones pass the various quality tests and go into production.
– The Mirage Nomad shaft drive prototype was there. Nice idea and the ride quality is as good as similar designs.
– TerraCycle has a full length fabric fairing/sock. They are again making their tailsocks but now they are also offering a full length sock that attaches with velcro to their front fairings. So, if your bent can accept TC’s LARGE/FULL front fairing, and has the mounting points for the TC tail sock, you can inexpensively make a fully faired ride. Head opening at the top and totally open on the bottom. I’m a Terracycle dealer if you want more info., etc.
– Lightfoot showed several of their HUGE fat wheel bikes and their ATV-like Quad. They use Surly Large Marge rims/tires. Fun to ride.
Next Recumbent Cycle Con. slated for Sept. 27-28, 2014, in Chicago!
I arrived in Los Angeles and went straight to Manhattan Beach for a swim. While there, I took a photo of this guy who looks a lot like me. Photo copyr. 2013 R Matson
Another beautiful day on Bear Mountain in New York. Two Street Machines, and two street machines, and a lot of long hills. Photo copyr. 2013 R Matson
Last weekend, a friend and I went for a two-day ride around Harriman State Park on our Street Machine Gtes. The weather was spectacular, if cold and breezy, and the fall foliage was on the early side of peak. One of us went off into the weeds while trying unsuccessfully to make a tight high speed turn, the other fell into a lake. In both cases, don’t ask why. Or how. But one thing is clear: we had fun.
