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ARE YOU SITTING COMFORTABLY?
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Chris Sheldon has been cycling for a year on a Flevo - a semi recumbent bike that's practical as well as comfortable. Come Redway or roadway, it's been a lot of fun...
OK, I'm not going to get into the long debate about whether recumbent bikes are better than 'uprights', so if you've got an anorak where your mind should be, you can stop reading here and now. I don't care which is faster, or more efficient, but I do want a bike that's different, comfortable, practical, affordable and more of an encouragement to ride. I also wanted to avoid single-handedly cornering the market in Preparation H, or having long conversations with my GP about erectile problems brought on by bad saddle design.
Eventually, my shopping saga brought me to the door of a company called D-Tek, run by Kevin Dunseath. Based in Little Thetford, just outside Ely, Cambridgeshire, Kevin sells all types of recumbent and semi-recumbent bikes and if you ring him on 01353 648177 and talk to him about it, he'll let you go over for a morning and try out a few. For a minuscule fee, you can even hire one.
After a couple of visits, I decided I would try the Flevo for a year. It looked practical and had a stonking hire/buy scheme attached to it (half the money up front, no more to pay for a year, and three options for the customer at the end of the 'hire' period). It made the already reasonable price tag of £450 more than affordable.
One year later, and I'm going back to upgrade the bike. But for those who are interested, here are some of the cycling myths that passed quietly away at dawn:
- 1/ Recumbents don't climb hills.
You can't stand on the pedals, true, but with a seven speed Shimano derailleur, you just shift down and winch yourself up at a speed that's slow but sure. The trouble with the Flevo for me is that though there are two chainrings, there's no derailleur mechanism for changing up or down on the move. Doesn't bother my wife, but the next bike will need a three speed hub in addition to the indexed twist grip seven speed derailleur for real tractability.
- 2 / Motorists can't see you.
They're more likely to drive into each other than they are into you. Almost everyone feels duty bound to comment on your choice of steed. Generally speaking the verdicts were;
5 -12 years old: ' Smart Bike Mister'
12 -16 years old : 'Hurrr. Hurrr.' The hollow forced laughter that marks out an adolescent attempting to ridicule you
16 - up: 'Any chance of a go on it?'
Moral: Don't ride one if you don't want to be looked at, though ladies should note , when my wife is in the saddle, she hardly has any 'verbals' to contend with, even from the most Neolithic looking adolescent.
- 3 / You can't see motorists
On the Flevo (like most semi recumbents with above seat steering) your eye line is only a couple of inches lower than on an ordinary diamond frame bike. The open chest position as you lean back certainly aids breathing and eases the back and neck muscles. Not only that, your eyes pick up much more information about your surroundings than they ever do when you are craning upwards on an ordinary bike.
- 4./ Recumbents are faster
I really wouldn't know. Most of my journeys seem to take the same amount of time, but I arrive in a much more relaxed state that I ever do on my Mountain Bike or tourer. In bends, the raised pedals mean you can keep the power on and lean the bike through, clipping the apex and whipping out again, all without breaking sweat.
Can't recommend D-Tek enough. Take a half day to try out everything he's got, then hire one for the day when you've narrowed down your choice (or take a mate and take two out for comparison riding). Kevin's a natural born teacher, got as great sense of humour and won't try and palm you off with whatever happens to be in that week.
In short, these bikes are more fun than a barrel load of monkeys - they handle better too, and you don't have to put up with that constant 'We- could- write- the- complete- works- of- Shakespeare- if- there- were- enough- of- us' whinging. Commuting was never so much fun.
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