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Twitchy Recumbents?
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Dave Head
Dec 10, 2012, 4:52:38 PM12/10/12
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Bought a used Bacchetta Giro. This bike is "twitchy", hard to ride in
a straight line. Maybe I'll get used to it, but I probably won't pass
30 mph no matter how much downhill I find, 'cuz its really scary. My
buddy, that rides 1000's of miles on DF's, rode it and it scared him
too...
If I lose the sort of weight I intend to, I'll get a better bike, but
it may be a trike... maybe they'll go down the road a little
straighter...
a straight line. Maybe I'll get used to it, but I probably won't pass
30 mph no matter how much downhill I find, 'cuz its really scary. My
buddy, that rides 1000's of miles on DF's, rode it and it scared him
too...
If I lose the sort of weight I intend to, I'll get a better bike, but
it may be a trike... maybe they'll go down the road a little
straighter...
Rotorhead
Dec 11, 2012, 10:55:43 AM12/11/12
to
There are lots of people over there with experience with your kind of
'bent, who can and will help.
Most people will tend to over control when first riding a bent. It should
subside with a few miles of riding.
This newsgroup is pretty much dormant. A shame really, since it used to be
a great place for information exchange. Then some people made it a very
unpleasant place to hang out, and the newsgroup died.
Best of luck to you.
Dave Head
Dec 11, 2012, 11:55:51 AM12/11/12
to
Yeah, the newsgroups are fading mostly, with a few pockets of serious
activity. Programming language newsgroups still seem to be doing OK,
even Ada, and there's a movie review newsgroup that still gets lots of
posts. I am unimpressed by forums on the web, since you have to keep
remembering to check into them to get the latest. I think I'm going
to check my Yahoogroups for some bent groups, too, since that comes
right in the e-mail.
kimble
Dec 11, 2012, 12:17:59 PM12/11/12
to
On 10/12/12 21:52, Dave Head wrote:
> Bought a used Bacchetta Giro. This bike is "twitchy", hard to ride in
> a straight line. Maybe I'll get used to it, but I probably won't pass
> 30 mph no matter how much downhill I find, 'cuz its really scary. My
> buddy, that rides 1000's of miles on DF's, rode it and it scared him
> too...
Odd. On the one occasion I tried a Giro (that was far too big for me,
> Bought a used Bacchetta Giro. This bike is "twitchy", hard to ride in
> a straight line. Maybe I'll get used to it, but I probably won't pass
> 30 mph no matter how much downhill I find, 'cuz its really scary. My
> buddy, that rides 1000's of miles on DF's, rode it and it scared him
> too...
so I was slouching down in the seat and pedalling with tiptoes), I found
it to be astoundingly stable, even at pedestrian speeds.
If it's your first time on a 'bent, you need to get used to how they
handle. It's different to a DF because you can't move your bodyweight
around to tweak the balance - it all has to come through tiny movements
of the bars.
A few hours of practice at following lines and steering round obstacles
at low speeds in the local park did me a world of good when I first got
a recumbent. Once you're confident at that you can do hill starts and
emergency stops. Once you've got that sussed, it's just a matter of
mileage. High speed will take care of itself.
Oh, and keep the gears low - the wobble becomes worse if the pedalling
cadence gets too close to the wobble frequency. Remember you can't
swing your body around to compensate like you do on a DF.
(ObSillyQuestion: the forks aren't on backwards, are they?)
Kim.
--
Dave Head
Dec 11, 2012, 3:22:18 PM12/11/12
to
On Tue, 11 Dec 2012 17:17:59 +0000, kimble <k...@ductilebiscuit.net>
wrote:
Thanks for the advice. I'll stick with it. As to the forks, I just
bought it used from a bike shop that is a dealer for Bacchetta, so I
highly doubt it.
Dave Head
>
>
>Kim.
wrote:
bought it used from a bike shop that is a dealer for Bacchetta, so I
highly doubt it.
Dave Head
>
>
>Kim.
Tom $herman (-_-)
Dec 14, 2012, 1:01:06 AM12/14/12
to
On 12/11/2012 11:17 AM, kimble wrote:
> On 10/12/12 21:52, Dave Head wrote:
>> Bought a used Bacchetta Giro. This bike is "twitchy", hard to ride in
>> a straight line. Maybe I'll get used to it, but I probably won't pass
>> 30 mph no matter how much downhill I find, 'cuz its really scary. My
>> buddy, that rides 1000's of miles on DF's, rode it and it scared him
>> too...
>
> Odd. On the one occasion I tried a Giro (that was far too big for me,
> so I was slouching down in the seat and pedalling with tiptoes), I found
> it to be astoundingly stable, even at pedestrian speeds.
>[...]
> On 10/12/12 21:52, Dave Head wrote:
>> Bought a used Bacchetta Giro. This bike is "twitchy", hard to ride in
>> a straight line. Maybe I'll get used to it, but I probably won't pass
>> 30 mph no matter how much downhill I find, 'cuz its really scary. My
>> buddy, that rides 1000's of miles on DF's, rode it and it scared him
>> too...
>
> Odd. On the one occasion I tried a Giro (that was far too big for me,
> so I was slouching down in the seat and pedalling with tiptoes), I found
> it to be astoundingly stable, even at pedestrian speeds.
I did ride an Aerocycle once, and it was so twitchy I was scared of
crashing. And this was after putting in more than 10,000 miles on a
RANS Rocket and Earth Cycles Sunset, both of which are quick handling
but not twitchy.
On the other hand, I have had very experienced upright riders *not* be
able to ride the Rocket - you cannot manhandle a SWB 'bent they way many
ride uprights.
--
Tºm Shermªn - 42.435731°N, 83.985007°W
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