An Intro to Recumbenteering
What are these weird new bikes you’re seeing around town? Why, they’re recumbents!
What’s up with that? Well, ‘bents’ are an amazing breed of bike that you need to ride to believe. They’ve been around forever, and had a hard time getting started in the conservative bike world, but they’re now starting to get really popular. Here’s some of their unique features….
They’re easy to ride. Just hop on and ride away. The less you resist having fun, the less you’ll wobble. Just sit back, relax and go. Non-bikers seem to do especially good on bents! Bents handle like any other bike (easier even, since you’re not steering with weighted hands). About the only thing they can’t do is bunnyhop.
Your first big bonus is no more pressure points. Your weight rests on back and butt. No load on your hands, arms, feet or undersides. Imagine!
They offer a ‘heads-up’ view of scenery and the road with a natural head angle. No more neck trouble, or staring down at the pavement. You’ll realize that the sky is lots bigger than before.
You also ride a lot lower. This gives a great ‘fighter jet’ feeling. You can bank way over while taking any corner. -With no risk of pedal scrape.
A really neat thing to experience is Underseat Steering. It’s like you’re on a magic carpet ride. There’s nothing between you and the scenery!
Try Overseat Steering for a ride that’s as aero as a tri-bike. Yes, bents can easily be as aero as the best racing bikes and can quickly be made more so by adding any of the popular fairings-for free extra speed and weather protection.
With a Vision, you can have the best of both worlds: you can ride either USS or OSS by swapping the handlebars.
Bents seem weird, but they’re just bikes. They use almost all the same parts. The frames are no stranger than a Trek Y-frame. The only unique part is the big comfy seat!
Longwheelbase models ride quite a bit softer and are better for highspeed stability on uneven roads. They handle fine. Shortwheelbase is easier to transport, a little more maneuverable, and slightly cooler looking, some say. Again, you can have it all with a Vision, since they can convert between LWB and SWB.
Then there’s safety. You’re riding low and feetfirst. So stopping, or even bailing out, is just a matter of stepping off or putting a foot down. Since there’s no tendency to go over the handlebars, you can brake as hard as you like.
When riding bent, wear a bright-color helmet since you are lower than a regular bike. (Bright colors are best for any riding, of course!) Your head height is about the same height as a car driver’s so it’s easy for them to see you. There’s been no increase in accidents with bents. You’ll stand out just fine. The broad seat-back is easy to decorate with safety cloth, if you like (it’s bigger than the rear view of a sport cyclist). The ‘worst’ thing that happens is that you distract traffic.
That’s one of the neat things about benting: you’ll get waves and conversation from kids, teens and regular people for the first time. Bents are great for biking PR.
With a bent, it’s harder to see behind you, so always use at least one mirror to check before making any turn.
Benting uses your muscles differently, so ride easy for the first months. Use a no-stress spinning style. You may notice that you go slower up hills than before. This is also a matter of adapting. After awhile benters can go uphill as fast as before, and downhill faster. -And into that nasty headwind *much* easier!
For sport benting, use clipless pedals. They greatly increase performance.
It’s harder to unweight as you ride, so if you ride bumpy roads, suspension is a nice option. But bent seats absorb most bumps just fine.
Weight matters a lot in uphill benting, so buy the lightest model you can afford.
If you plan on ride long distances, remember to take rests, and eat and drink when riding your bent. Some people forget to because there’s none of the pain that makes you need to stop and take a break with a regular bike!
There are a wide variety of bents. They have a wider range of ‘feel’ than uprights or mt-bikes. So test rides are essential.
That’s another neat thing about bents: you can forget about subtle differences between brands, models and components of the sort offered by the world of high-end upright bikes. When you change angles, length, design and seating in bent-land, you get big changes in performance. Adding accessories can *really* make huge differences in ride quality. It’s a *lot* of fun bang for your buck! So if you’re tired of fussing over suspension travel, handlebar tape thicknesses or spoke styling, step up to a wilder scene!
For more information on the bent scene, check out RCN: *Recumbent Cyclist’s News* or *Bike Culture Quarterly*. There are many online bent resources.
There’s also the Michigan HPV Association with several events, rides and races they sponsor every year. They sponsor several ride events and a big day of racing for all HPVs at Waterford Raceway the first weekend in June every year. The HPV scene is like bike racing and mt-bike racing used to be: low-key family fun plus high performance camaraderie and lots of room for creativity.
Now, get out there and try a whole new way to ride!
Jeff Potter is a longtime local cyclist and publisher of books and zines on modern folkways by way of OutYourBackdoor.com.
