Catbike__Musashi

Quote:
Originally Posted by Buddy Bishop
My latest adventure is riding a Catbike. It is fantastic and
has a very nice ride.

Awright Buddy, True confessions time, tell us the whole story on the Catbike. You can't just slip that in unnoticed ya know....

Don
Original RocketRiders Member #6, August 25, 2004

Well Don, I've given my true feeling, It is a fantastic ride.
It is not at all a stiff ride. It is not twitchie at all. It is more
in the order of a low Goldrush. I rode it a total of about 30
miles. It has a compact double and 10 speed gears. A fine
road bike and will cover the ground. I could hold 18mph
riding with my one leg.

I can say a lot more, but would like to hear what others
have to say about this wonderful bike.

 

So is that the frame that Mark had there, or did you find another. Did he build it up for you or already have it built? I'm building a Mango Corsa now and putting a compact 50/34 on it and 10-speed components. Will be interested to see how you do with the compact. I'm thinking of a 12-36 cassette, what's yours have on it? Pitchurs, man, we need pitchurs...

Here's the one I rode at Hostel Shoppe's rally. Beautiful color. There's a couple more pics following. I'd forgotten that it had a compact crank. And it's a SRAM Rival, what I've got for the Mango....

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/MtQKQo23KvulZ7v2Gw5KztMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

Don
Original RocketRiders Member #6, August 25, 2004

 

The one Mark has is as your picture. The ride can
be softened by slipping a pad under the bike pad at the
shoulders. That was all that was needed to put it in
the touring mode. Or leave it in the race mode and
have a head rest. The pad made the ride very nice.
The ride is much softer than my Catrike Road was.

Mark was very busy building bikes, so I left it with him.
The gears were fine for TN 340 down on the river, but
will need to have 11-36 gears installed to go with the
compact double. That will make it work for the steeper
hills. I found the stock gears to work on all hills except
the ones above about 6%. The chain rings are 39, 52 and
I think that is fine. The 11-26t just won't get it here.
Now, that will work for the Clarksville TN century, but
not here in East Tennessee.

I left my pedals on it with extenders, so you can go try
it or put your pedals on it. I think that is the only one
Mark has. The one with the money gets it.

 

please get the spelling right...it is Musashi...an awesome recumbent to say the least...mine started out white but is now sparkle orange due to the frame having to be replaced...unfortunatelly I hit a slick spot at the top edge of a ditch about 5 weeks ago and went down hard...I scuffed the left pedal, left handlebar, and just under the left side under the seat...everything has been repaired since then and I'm good to go again once I heal up...I dislocated and broke my ankle in 3 spots unfortunatelly...25 miles an hour and pavement are a bad mix when it all goes wrong...I have about 90 miles on mine and love it regardless...I can't wait to get riding again...I was more concerned about the bike then myself truth be known...it is a fantastic ride and I'm glad I got one of the last ones being sold down here in Florida since they are now discontinued...this recumbent bike is fast, a joy to ride, and so much fun! You will be grining ear to ear after taking one for a ride!

 

Well now I really AM confused. Is that one yours, did you buy it? That's what I thought, from earlier posts. So maybe you just left it with him for the gearing changes? In any event, you don't have to worry about me.....I'm bike-poor around here...

I think the 52/39 is not really known as a 'compact' crank, that was the usual gearing for a double crank. The compact takes a little off both rings and "compacts" the gear ratios together. 50/34 is popular right now. You likely would do much better in your hills with a 34 small ring, with whatever cassette you use, an 11-32 or 12-36 would be even better. Lemme know when you get it all fixed up and home, I wanna come ride with ya man.

Don
Original RocketRiders Member #6, August 25, 2004

 

One other piece of information is that they were having cracks in the frame. They recalled ALL their frames to replace them. May have decided that expense was not worth the potential future profits. Who knows? But sorry to see this model die.