I'm reading The Essential Touring Cyclist by Richard A Lovett.
He describes touring and the special needs of a bicycle tourist. He has a pretty good overview of things so far though there are some things I wish he'd covered in more detail. I'm only about half way through the book so maybe he'll answer things in more detail later.
Things I'm interested in finding more about are.... trailers. BOB vs Burley. Why would one be better than the other? The prices are close. Most of the trailers I see in pictures on touring reports seem to be BOB trailers. The recumbent store I've been too carries Burley but can order BOB's. They didn't give me any really good reason why one is better than another and are happy to order BOB's if you like. Burley says they will carry more weight (100 lbs vs 70 lbs) but I'm not too sure I want to carry a lot more weight! The guy at the store said he has a BOB but it's not stable if you put more than 40 lbs in it. Another site I saw said 50 lbs was the magic number for stability at his height ans weight. I haven't seen any reports on the Burley. Does it matter if you use a recumbent trike? More stable closer to the ground? Less? And what about a tandem does the combined weight of the tandem and riders make it more or less stable? Lots to figure out. I guess not a big deal as I have lots of time.
Weigh-in tomorrow. I'm hoping for good news.
Showing posts with label recumbent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recumbent. Show all posts
Monday, March 16, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Bike/Trike thoughts... Lots of thoughts.
It's been brought to my attention that most people tour on Bikes not Trikes. Why? Is there a reason Bikes are better? What are the pros and cons of Regular bike vs Recumbent bike vs Recumbent Trike for touring.
I like the idea of a recumbent Trike for several reasons, one I hate most bike saddles. At my current weight most are painful to sit on and painful for days afterward. I can see that that could change after losing a significant amount of weight. Another is balance and fear I count this as one thing because the one leads to the other. I have a constant low level of vertigo with occasional increased levels that range from discomfort to need to touch something to walk upright due to visual issues. Normally I can ignore it and just keep going, when it's worse the thought of trying to balance on a bike is scary, especially if riding near traffic. Sometimes just going up or down stairs is scary. You would rarely see me climbing stairs without touching a hand rail or the Wall. The vertigo is believed to be allergy/ear related. That is NOT something that is likely to go away with losing weight, though clearly I would not be upset if I was proven wrong.
Now if there is a good reason why touring on a Bike is better than a Trike I'm open to suggestions. It does have to be enough better that it would out weigh the balance/fear and I hate saddles issues. I do a lot of things in a less than steady state, so I could do a tour on a bike unless the vertigo got really bad. I'm not saying I'd be able to enjoy it as much but I could do it. (It's hard to enjoy the scenery if it won't hold still and if it starts jumping around or spinning all bets are off.) DH says he's not sure you could set up a Trike to carry the things we might need on a bike tour as we are looking at not using a touring company that would carry our stuff in a van. Instead we would like to plot our own route and carry what we need, clothing etc.
Also there are recumbent bikes... That might take care of the saddle issue. (not sure as I've not tried one) but I am concerned that leaning back without that extra wheel for stability might be worse than riding a regular bike. Oh well. Lots of time to figure it all out I guess.
I like the idea of a recumbent Trike for several reasons, one I hate most bike saddles. At my current weight most are painful to sit on and painful for days afterward. I can see that that could change after losing a significant amount of weight. Another is balance and fear I count this as one thing because the one leads to the other. I have a constant low level of vertigo with occasional increased levels that range from discomfort to need to touch something to walk upright due to visual issues. Normally I can ignore it and just keep going, when it's worse the thought of trying to balance on a bike is scary, especially if riding near traffic. Sometimes just going up or down stairs is scary. You would rarely see me climbing stairs without touching a hand rail or the Wall. The vertigo is believed to be allergy/ear related. That is NOT something that is likely to go away with losing weight, though clearly I would not be upset if I was proven wrong.
Now if there is a good reason why touring on a Bike is better than a Trike I'm open to suggestions. It does have to be enough better that it would out weigh the balance/fear and I hate saddles issues. I do a lot of things in a less than steady state, so I could do a tour on a bike unless the vertigo got really bad. I'm not saying I'd be able to enjoy it as much but I could do it. (It's hard to enjoy the scenery if it won't hold still and if it starts jumping around or spinning all bets are off.) DH says he's not sure you could set up a Trike to carry the things we might need on a bike tour as we are looking at not using a touring company that would carry our stuff in a van. Instead we would like to plot our own route and carry what we need, clothing etc.
Also there are recumbent bikes... That might take care of the saddle issue. (not sure as I've not tried one) but I am concerned that leaning back without that extra wheel for stability might be worse than riding a regular bike. Oh well. Lots of time to figure it all out I guess.
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