09-27-2003, 09:56 PM
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#24 (permalink)
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| | Re: Unhappy bentriders ?
In article <bl4ube$ncm$1@oravannahka.helsinki.fi>,
risto.varanka@secure.from.spam.helsinki.fi wrote:
> jacques <jamnospam@bluewin.ch> wrote:
>
> : I may consider buying a bent in the next months. I hesitate because it is
> : expensive and I'm not sure I will really like it in the long term. I've
> : read a lot of stuff explaining all the advantages of the bent thing.
> : As a skeptical person I would like to have the cons too. I don't think I
> : will find them on alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent.
> About people who went bent and came back... I know there is at
> least a small number of those cases, but I don't have a clear
> picture of the reasons. Maybe a good part of those people went
> bent for speed but the expectations didn't realize. This could be
> because of a short conditioning period to bent riding (your
> muscles could need years) or a model of bent that doesn't offer
> top performance.
I would think that speed and comfort are the only reasons for
bent-riding. Well, speed, comfort, and weirdness.
Given that, if bents aren't notably faster than uprights, and you don't
have a comfort issue, why would you?
I have no doubt recumbent bikes have their own rewards, notably in that
some people can ride them who cannot ride DF bikes because of back
issues, or because they're more comfy, or because the faired ones are
quick on the flats. But it reminds me of a discussion with one friend in
which he suggested it took two or three listen-throughs of the Ring
Cycle to really appreciate Wagner's genius. I countered that after
investing that much time, I'd be all but forced to agree it was great if
only to avoid admitting I'd just wasted so much time.
Similarly with the process of getting a recumbent, it's important to be
very deeply convinced that a recumbent is the right bike for you,
because the only way to find out decisively is to invest a considerable
amount of cash (well, considerable for most cyclists) and time in the
buying and learning to ride the chosen bike.
I'm not saying that bent-riders are wrong, or even that they are as evil
as Ring-nuts, but I am pointing out that most of the people who
currently ride recumbents were convinced they would really enjoy riding
a recumbent before they purchased one.
--
Ryan Cousineau, rcousine@sfu.ca http://www.sfu.ca/~rcousine
President, Fabrizio Mazzoleni Fan Club
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