Cruzbike V20 Review

[Adah]

Whatis the best recumbent road bike for long fast rides with lots of hill climbing? Larry Oslund put the new Cruzbike S40 to the test over hundreds of miles and thousands of feet of climbing and descending on Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway and shares his experience in the guest post below.

I was initially quite excited and then a little apprehensive to ride something new on such a long and challenging ride. My biggest fear was to change from what I was so used to so drastically. I normally ride a Cruzbike V20 with a Ventisit seat pad, 150mm cranks and mid sole cleats. I first grabbed a new pair of shoes and installed the cleats at the toe again to hopefully give me a little more reach for the 165mm cranks. Jim did give me the option of a Ventisit pad, but since everyone else had chosen the stock seat pad and it looked comfy I decided to go with pure stock setup.

I have to admit the first 60 miles of the Skyline Drive were not enjoyable at all. My legs hurt, my arms hurt, my knees hurt, my neck hurt and I was getting hot-foot already. Gosh, I was almost dreading the next 640 miles! But after stopping a few times and re-adjusting the boom, the handlebars, and the headrest to fit me better all my problems suddenly vanished. We adjusted the boom so the Bottom Bracket was farther out so my knees were not bending too much, moved the handlebars a little farther away so my arms were comfortable, and adjusted the headrest some so my neck and head were in a better position. It is amazing what a correctly fit bike will do for your ride, body, and your attitude. Even better than that, I felt re-energized and felt I could make power better. That is usually the case when there is no pain!

I am telling you all this as proof that bike fit is so important. Just a few inches one way or the other in several key areas can make a great bike feel like it is not for you. If you feel like this with your current Cruzbike, then I urge you to ask someone for help. Post your pics on the Cruzbike forum and someone will help you. If you can make it down to Hilton Head Island - I will personally assist you with your fit and have you riding and loving your Cruzbike like never before.

The higher seat back angle on the S40 (40 degrees on the S40 vs 20 degrees on the V20) allows you to see all the beautiful sights better and actually helps control your speed on some of the scarier descents. It is also a well known fact that a higher seat back angle allows better power making capability which is sometimes a blessing on those 2 hour climbs.

The new thru-axle design gives the front end a more solid-tight feel and you feel like every watt of power applied to the pedals is going straight to the front wheel! This is probably the greatest improvement in this iteration of the S40.

Another great improvement that is basically a dampener for the front end

The front end never feels like it wants to flop one way or the other and I never noticed any shaking or awkwardness when going downhill at 40+ mph, or uphill at 4!

This is the improvement or change in the S40 setup I was most skeptical about. This was partly because of the heart attack and stent I had placed in my chest 3 months earlier and the doctors orders that I should not exceed 120 bpm while riding. I just did not think the 42 tooth front ring and the max 42 tooth large ring on the cassette was going to be good enough for the long, long, long 6-7-8% grades that we were going to be asked to ride on this tour. And not just for a few minutes or miles, but at times nearly 2 hours non-stop.

Well, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the 42x42 was perfect for those extended grades and even with my lower required power output of 2 W/kg. I found I could go up a 6% grade at about 4-5mph on those 2 W/Kg and still keep my balance and also keep my heart under the 120 bpm. Hallelujah!

In my opinion Cruzbike hit a home run on this newly designed S40! And I was so lucky to be given a chance to buy one of these first ones at the end of the tour - Thanks to Jim and Maria for that opportunity!

I understand that Cruzbike is pre-selling these new Cruzbike S40s right now and they should be shipping by the end of June. From what I understand there are limited numbers of these babies to be had, so if you want one, I would put your order in now. Who knows when the next set will be available?

Great review from a great person. I just moved my V20 seat back to 20 degrees after riding it for about two years at 10 degrees. Actually going faster with the higher torque than in the almost flat position. Easier to see up ahead also. Your climbing heartrate of 120 bpm just goes to show that you have a big heart, metaphorically speaking.

If your cycling has been limited by saddle, back, neck or wrist pain or injury and you're not willing to sacrifice performance for comfort, join us. We make performance recumbent road bikes that climb fast.

Maria and I have been riding the T50e electric recumbent bike around our new hometown in Massachusetts for several months and loving it. This is a review of the bike after loading two of them on the back of our RV for a trip to Maine where we put about 100 miles on the bikes in just a few days. Despite being an owner of the Cruzbike company, this is my honest review, including both the strengths and weaknesses of the T50e.

Other minor annoyances are that the display on the throttle control is difficult, if not impossible, to read in sunlight. I had to find a spot of shade to read the battery level, which is indicated by either 1, 2, 3, or 4 bars. If you only have 1 bar, you better be ready to pedal very soon.

The ride quality of the T50e was great. The cushion is thick and comfortable. The upright seat gave me a great view of the scenic coastline, and the bike handled well on corners and bombing down steep country roads. Even when the battery was dead, I still climbed well on the bike, despite the extra weight of the battery and motor.

Our second and third days of riding in Maine were also a blast, although the battery died somewhere in the 15-20 mile mark each day, despite my judicious use of the throttle.

The front and rear mechanical disc brakes worked great, even with the bike loaded and coming down a hill. The gearing is a simple 9-speed system with a 38T chainring, 11-34T cassette, and 155 mm cranks. I had plenty of climbing leverage, even when the battery was dead, but missed some top-end speed on the occasional steep downhill.

The stock tires that we have been riding on are 26 x 1.75 (44.5 mm), a pretty fat tire, but the tread is for road use, so they don't make a lot of noise on pavement. The maximum pressure is 80 psi, but we rode them at about 65 psi for comfort and traction. If you need to change a tire (we haven't so far) the front wheel is quick-release. The rear wheel, where the motor is, mounts with 18 mm nuts. So carry an adjustable wrench or 18 mm open-end wrench in the event of a rear flat. When removing the rear wheel, there is a short power-cable connection that you just pull apart to separate the wheel from the bike.

On the 270 mile RV trip to Columbia Falls, Maine, we drove through heavy rain, and the bikes got coated in rain and wet road grime. While driving at highway speed in the rain, both windshield wipers on our RV flipped off their holders. I had to pull over and find some tools to do a quick repair, getting soaked in the process, but that's another story. We also rode through some rain on our daily trips, and the bikes sat out in the rain a couple of nights, but that did not cause any electrical issues. I was worried there might be a short from all the exposure to the rain, but everything worked fine despite that. When at camp, we always bring our cushions inside to stay dry if there is any chance of rain.

One other advantage worth mentioning is that the T50e is great for teaching people how to ride a Cruzbike. The hardest step for a beginner is getting started from a stop. Having the throttle to get started is a very useful learning aid.

Easy to operate throttle but hard to read the display in sunlight.

Thanks for the review. I just bought a used Q45 that I am converting to a higher-powered e-bike. I appreciated your comments on the range, and with technology improving each day, hopefully Cruzbike will get a much larger capacity battery. I will be using a 1000W brushless hub motor, with a 48V 30aH battery. It should be zippy AND long-range!

A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. All reviews on this site are written by readers who have actually used the tool and others like it. Items can be either old or new as long as they are wonderful. We post things we like and ignore the rest. Suggestions for tools much better than what is recommended here are always wanted.

If you have a long-haul international flight coming up and you'll be in the back of the plane, this guide to the roomiest seats in regular economy could be useful. Noting seat pitch, width, recline ability, and roominess of the cabin, it's a list of which flights will be the most comfortable. I've been on two of them and will vouch that flying on Emirates in an Airbus 380 felt like going back in time to the 1980s, as in a far superior experience than what we're stuck with now most of the time.

The overall consensus of our Santa Cruz Hightower review is that this is a great bike designed for all-terrain riding. You know, going up, down, along, around and over on trails, tracks and anything gritty, dirty, rough and fun. 145mm rear travel (150mm-travel fork), easy rolling 29-inch wheels and confidence-inspiring geometry means anywhere tires will roll then so will this bike. No fussing, no nonsense, no silly category names.

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