My Most Recent Ride 2008 (Part I of series)

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Mike, I have been following the exploits of this fella for a few years. Last Nov when I flipped my sweet Cannondale XC fully suspended off-road rocketship I really started thinking.

http://www.elmtreedental.com/AR Recumbent 05.html

I had come across an old RANS Glide which was fully suspended and I was contemplating playing with it offroad. No go on purchasing that one so now I am just watching Craigslist hoping the right bike will show up. I also have a fella who is a Master tool and dye guy who is interesting in making one.

From what Richard says you need a fully suspended bike with at least a 26 on the front. He also feels a 29er on the rear would be the way to go. If I work with that metalsmith I might try and go that route using Richads bike as a loose guide.

Ward

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Ward,

That looks interesting. I wouldn't mind giving something like that a try sometime.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

There are some old boys out there my age that would
wear your wheels off. I've seen several around that I can't
keep up with at all. Tough old birds with good genes.

However, lifestyle is more important than genes. Genes
load the gun and lifestyle pulls the trigger.

High blood pressure and diabetes are lifestyle diseases. Type II diabetes, that is.

We are off topic here. We should, in all fairness, start a
new thread if we want to brag on ourselves or just tell
lies.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Hi Ward,

The Linear with USS was a 20/26 set up. It did OK part of the time, but when things got steep I had to be careful as it would start lifting the front wheel. Also, my front wheel was a narrow 20”, so it didn’t float over stuff well.

Currently, I’m in process of converting to OSS and I’ve cannibalized an old MB (I found a use for my old DF!) for it’s front fork and wheel. Right now I’ve got the fork mounted, a Sun handlebar in place, brakes, and front derailleur connected. I still need to connect the rear derailleur and then the 3 speed hub.

With stealing the shifters from the MB, I’ve found the front derailleur works much better, I don’t know whether the derailleur was freed up some with moving things around, or the old MB shifter gives better leverage, or perhaps it’s the way the cable is now routed. The front shifts much better. I’m hopefully going to set up the rear derailleur today, it all depends upon what is happening after church this morning. 3 speed hub will need to wait until I can get by the LBS to get a SIS cable set up for a tandem.

I’m hoping the 26” front wheel will allow me to ride up an over stuff easier than the 20” was doing. Going to OSS should provide a little more ability to lean the bike to get around obstacles also.

With what I’m doing on the Linear, everything can be put back to original, as I’m keeping all the cables and parts that I’m taking off and storing them. The front fork I’m going to store also.

This isn’t the first bent I’ve tried riding off road, my old Sun EZ-1 I rode off road quite a bit. It worked well, except for being really heavy. Until I sold it in May, I was contemplating taking the MB I have with full suspension and putting the forks and rear suspension unit on the Sun. I was a little afraid of what it would do to the ride characteristics, so I ended up selling the Sun since I hardly rode it.

I’ve seen some video of a couple of guys riding bents off road, one of which was racing his. I’m not into racing, but I do like to tour and since I normally camp for a week or two in the Sierra’s each year (In Sequoia National Forest normally), there are a lot of fun forest roads that are little more than motorcycle trails. Because of the altitude difference between where I live (90’) and where I camp (5300’), it normally takes about 3 days before I’m able to breath easily enough to ride for very long.

If the Linear doesn’t work, it looks like I’ll be forced into buying another bike. Just don’t want to be trying to figure out where to get the money.

Curtis

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

keeps us posted on how the new front end works Curtis, I might just follow your lead. I see lots of Linear's for sale at pretty reasonable prices better than jumping to a Lightfoot Ranger which is close to 3 grand.

Buddy, no lies just fact. I know about those old guys you are talking about. There was a whole group of them that passed me like I was sitting still on a century ride last year.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Hey Ward, don't pay any attention to me. I should
have put a grin on that. Like, smile when you say that boy.
Remember, I didn't get any education and have no
social skills. That ain't funny.

But now I can ride a bicycle and I like that really well.
I'm going right now to see how the 22-32-42 rings work.
Will need a SRAM Dual Drive in order to do a metric.
Probably spin out at about 8mph.

I'm registered for the Sunrise Century, $33 this year,
but well worth it.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Buddy, no offense taken. I'm still trying to convince my wife to let me come up and do that ride with ya'll. In the pasts I have considered setting up a bike just for climbing with a MTB triple like that. That SRAM dual drive looks like a pretty sweet thing. You planning on doing the assault on Mt. Mitchell or something http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/viewtrip.aspx?tripId=209173

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

The weather is finally cooperating. I rode both Wednesday & Thursday this week. I have hardly ridden at all last month due to traveling and weather!

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Hang in there Jon. They say summer is coming this weekend.

My mileage was down in July too but still managed 500 miles.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Well after four years back in town I was invited to ride with a group today. A couple of guys that I MTB'd with last year. It was susposed to be a somewhat leisurely pace of 15-17 with no-one left behind.

About 10 or 11 riders showed up and we pulled out at about 7am. Very little wind but it was already hot, probably about 85 degrees and no clouds anywhere.

We hung together pretty well for about the first ten miles. At the first real climb one fella Richard wanted to hit the hill hard so I went with him, dropped him halfway but one other fella almost caught me before the top. He would prove to be quite strong. The next 3 miles or so were pretty flat and we regrouped and moved along pretty well about 18 or 19. There was a nice downhill and up ahead I could see the following climb. Looked like I could hold my speed so I pulled out of the group, picked it up to 38 and prepared for the upcoming hill. I kept most of my momentum and was again the first to crest but the GI in yellow jersey was right behind me.

The next 15 miles was one 4-7% grade after another. I knew as we headed out into that direction about the hills so I backed off a bit. The yellow jersey (funny hunh) would be the first on all the rest of the climbs. Turns out he is 33 and stationed in Honduras where they only have mountains. Anyway, the second guy to the top on most of those climbs is my friend the triathlete. I was usually 3 or 4th with one other guy being about as strong as I am.

We stopped to fuel after 37 miles. Stayed way to long and several of us felt pretty stiff when we continued on. We only had one real big climb left but it was a doozy. A couple of miles long with several sections and varying grades. probably the best climb in Columbus. I started slow, in the middle of the pack, but quickly reeled in a couple of riders. There were three way ahead at the start: yellow jersey, triathlete and 1 guy who had held back on the previous climbs. About halfway up I caught the triathlete, he was done, he looked like one of those domestique's on the TDF who has wasted himself getting his team leader to the climb. I didn't catch the other two but I never completley lost sight. The guy who was about as stong as I am was again right behind me when we crested.

Now, the next 25 miles is really my playground. Five miles of rolling hills with a downhill trend followed by only one short climb in the next 20. After we had regrouped I let everyone go ahead of me. The downhill kicks off with about a 9% grade into a small valley then about the same grade on the way back up the other side. I hit 46 on the downhill and was still moving at 40 when I crested the next hill passing the yellow jersey and two others. Some other the weaker riders, including my MTB buddies. I caught them about a mile later and we grouped up and I pulled them the rest of the way home. The yellow jersey would pass us but then we would catch him just before the end after he cramped up pretty badly.

70 miles of lots of fun. Funny thing though, I didn't smell a single rose :

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Ward,

You are a machine!!!

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Hi Ward,

Just got back from a quick trip to the Sequoias, helped out at a friend’s daughters wedding. I took the Linear with me and had a couple of chances to try out the new modifications. I had changed the 20” front wheel to a 26”, changed from USS to OSS, also replaced the front hydraulic brake to a V brake set up.

The 26” front wheel was a real asset when riding off road, which is what I did about 90% of the time. Since the Sierra’s are rather steep I didn’t ride many miles, but I did put about 4 hours in the saddle. In 4 hours, I only rode 22 miles. I guess that has more to say about the engine not putting out much power at about 6000 ft compared to its output at sea level, where I normally ride.

The Linear did quite well, I was really pleased with it, I rode in both soft dirt and sand as well as rocky and rutted areas. The 2” of dense foam soaked up the bumps that the 26” MTB tires let through. With moving the steering from USS to OSS, it allowed me the ability to rock the bike around easier, and also allowed me to make sharper turns. There were only a couple of locations where I pushed through the turns with my feet, and one time where I simply picked the bike up and turned it to the proper direction (a 90 degree turn made for hikers). The riding was great, the bike did its job, and I just wish the engine had done a better job, although I’ll have another chance later this month when I go back to the same area for about 10 days, which will give me a chance to acclimate to 6000 ft elevation!

I still need to make some adjustments, the front derailleur needs a little tweaking to get it operating properly, and the handlebars still need some tweaking to get them just right. The rear derailleur and 3 speed hub worked great.

When I was on one ride, I had a guy ask me about how it handled the hills and then asked to give it a try. I guess he didn’t believe me that when you start up a hill, you just simply are pushing against the seat back and can get more power to the back wheel. After a couple of minutes of riding it, he then believed me and started asking questions about whether I had built it or not. I explained that it was a commercially available bike, but that I had made some modifications so I could ride it off road. Perhaps another recumbent rider in the future?

I think I’m bitten by the off road recumbent bug, big time. I’ve noticed that my miles are mainly going on the Linear instead of my SWB Jetstream. At the end of the year, I may have to look at whether I should keep both, or sell the Jetstream. It’s fun, but with its 100 psi tires, it’s not nearly as comfortable as the Linear. I guess I’ll have wait and see.

Curtis

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Great report Curtis, sounds to me like you are the machine. I know that 10 miles on my MTB would take me about 1:15 and that was just riding up and down gully's. I bet those 22 miles were great and scenic.

I had hoped to try and get something to use offroad but I was vetoed by my wife and we got the Ketttweisel instead. Its definately not set up for off-road. Its a regular set up with single wheel drive and semi-slick tires. I had found one with a Rolhoff, dual drive, suspension front fork and knobby tires but it was shot down .

Its fun though. I still havn't had a chance to really get it out and play. One day the linear just might be my path off-road.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Thought a picture might prove helpful. I cropped a picture of the Linear sitting along the trail. I have my flag on the bike, but have cropped it out so I could get the picture to fit on the web page. The Linear originally had a chain tube for the top run of chain, I split it so I could have pieces for both the top and the bottom runs. I had heard of people having trouble with the bike shifting itself, so far I haven't had any problems that way.
It definitely doesn't look like a typical Linear! But it is a blast to ride.

Curtis

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Thought I'd share a few of the views I had.
The King's Canyon Overlook is looking down into the start of King's Canyon National Park, it's really beautiful, however during the summer it is quite warm and with lots of hungry bears looking for a nice car to open.
The King's Canyon Trail shows a portion that is part of the wider section of trail. There are portions that are just about handlebar wide, with a nice steep drop off on one side and the mountain on the other.
The start of this trail is right at Hume Lake dam, one of the first multiple arch dams built. The picture I have is about a mile below the dam, showing Ten Mile Creek as it is running towards King's Canyon.
The trail is a great ride, you start at about 5,200 ft elevation, then play up and down as you wind your way around part of the mountain. It's not a technical trail, but good tires are an asset for it.

Curtis