Does any body have experience with these recumbents.

When I switched from my trike to the V-Rex, one of our members said you need to put 300 miles on it before you will really feel comfortable with it. I agree. I started on the Knoxville greenway. No traffic and some twists and turns to practice on. First time almost fell over 4 times. Second time on the bent I fell over. Haven't had a mishap since then (knock on wood!)

Just keep at it. You will feel more comfortable the longer you ride it. Just enjoy the process and feel good about your progress.

 

I realize this thread is probalby dormant but since I ended up just joining and I am an ActionBent rider, I thought I would respond for posterity sake since there is very little online about them.

I have the Actionbent Tidal Wave 3 which is an aluminum USS SW bent. I just went their website and it does not look like they sell it any longer but I suspect this is due to the overseas manufacturer China Mascot no longer making the frame. It was their lightest model at 27lbs stock. In any case, I love the bike...with caveots. Being a tinkerer by nature, nothing on the bike has been unfixable by me without a little thought engineering but for some, these kinds of things might make the bike not worthy of purchase.

Before I get into all of that, I will note that this is my first bent so I had nothing else to compare it to, just a desire to not break the bank in getting into a bike. Turns out, I love them and just sold my DF MTB now that I am comfortable riding in most any circumstance. I guess the most surprising thing to me when I got into bents is that pretty much everything is the same as a regular bike in terms of components, just laid out differently.

On the plus side, it rides smoothly and I have never had anything structural with it. None of the parts that came with it have has any issues. So in terms of overall quality, it has been just fine. Shimano gear around the AB frame.

On the negative side, clearly the pieces for this bike were pulled together to make a bent but never actually put together to see if they all work. The USS steering handle bars would only clear the seat if they were set so that the handles came back toward your shoulders which would get painful after 20 or so miles. The solution, of course, would be to rotate the handles forward but then this limited the turning capability of the bike to something akin to a small ship so there had to be something better to work it out. In my case, that involved putting a riser block under the seat bottom to raise the seat about 3/4". With this, the bars now clear under the seat in the "comfort" position for much tighter turning. Cost about $.50 for the plastic and another couple of bucks for longer bolts to fit in the seat. Not necessarily their fault but there was no place to mount a rear light that was high enough to be seen. Easy to fix in my case. as I drilled a few holes in the headrest and mounted a rear light there. Lastly, the underseat guide for the chain is plastic on a spindle. This is starting to wear and will need to be replaced. I have looked at the systems from Hostel Shoppe and will see if one of their pully guides will fit or maybe I will just order a few more from ActionBent. Which in my case is pretty easy since they are right around the corner from me here in Redmond. There were also brazings for a bottle to be mounted on the back top of the seat but with a top seat saddle bag, this was unusable. I fixed this by getting the FastBack No Drill bottle system with the second bottle on the other side so I have decent hydration when I ride at my hips. I also did not dig the bar end shifters. Not only did they impede any sort of mirror mounting, they had a tendency to get caught anytime I wnet near something like a branch. Bad karma I guess. I just replaced these with Shimano dual trigger shifters which I really dig and mounted a bar end mirror so I can see whom I just passed. Other tweaks that have increased my riding pleasure are Pedal Extenders (seems like it just rides better for me this way) and fenders for riding in the Pacific Northwest "summers".

So all in all, probalby not the best bike for a mechanical dis-inclined soul but well worth the price IMHO. Now if I could just figure out someone locally to pair up with to make a carbon frame, I would love to get this down into the sub-20lb range.

In any case, thanks for reading...whatever you got/get, enjoy the ride.

-JMG

 

Thanks for the info. I think you are one of the first Action Bent rider in our group. That was a very thorough write up and will be helpful for others who are looking at the brand.

Keep us posted!

 

hey i recognize that name! I could not remember what kind of trike i have till you mentioned it.USARecumbents.I didn't purchase my trike from them but they have been extremely helpful and supplied free parts to get some kinks out of the trike.Some of the problems where due to a lack of trike experience on the part of the bike shop i had assemble it.But USARecumbents didn't hesitate to explain it to me and send me the parts.Some parts we were not even sure i would need them but they said try both see which one fixes it.Great people.IMHO

 

Thanks for the write-up and welcome to the forum.


Keep smiling!

Dennis

 

Thanks, I was looking at an actionbent.
However I am not mechanically adept so I am happy the bike I have though it needs work too.
I think you will enjoy the group.
Sally