Show us your bicycles!

[Chrispy]

Edited the last sentences in my post for clarity Most recumbents will certainly not be very functional for mountain biking, even though it has been done. Horses for courses! For trails and uneven surfaces like gravel, hardpacked snow, etc, uprights work better as a general rule. I do think though that recumbents generally are safer, as the head doesn't go first in the case of a fall or a crash, but I certainly see why they may be perceived as less safe. I like all kinds of bikes though. I have been using traditional road bikes for many years, and I will probably keep riding both recumbents and uprights.

I'd be far more worried about the mass of the car vs my bike/body, especially if I'm below the line of sight of the drivers (I know you can fly the flags and all that, but I've not been seen on a large upright motorcycle with a headlight on by someone making a left hand turn in front of me, too ). I've been saved by my helmet a few times, cars or no, tho I never really thought much about the head being a few feet higher and farther forward than on a recumbent.....

IMO that's one of the best parts of mountain biking....no cars to contend with (well, most of the time, we do have some traffic on our dirt/gravel roads to access trails). Have always wanted to try one of the aero type recumbents with a full fairing just for the speed aspect....but would prefer a closed course for that OTOH.

 

[Laserjock]

Rockrider brought over from Italy

 

[Chrispy]

View attachment 167213Rockrider brought over from Italy

That saddle makes me hurt just looking at it! Especially when I think of good Italian saddles

 

[Laserjock]

That saddle makes me hurt just looking at it! Especially when I think of good Italian saddles

Don’t spend much time on it..

 

[Martinvb]

 

[LTig]

Edited the last sentences in my post for clarity Most recumbents will certainly not be very functional for mountain biking, even though it has been done. Horses for courses! For trails and uneven surfaces like gravel, hardpacked snow, etc, uprights work better as a general rule. I do think though that recumbents generally are safer, as the head doesn't go first in the case of a fall or a crash, but I certainly see why they may be perceived as less safe. I like all kinds of bikes though. I have been using traditional road bikes for many years, and I will probably keep riding both recumbents and uprights.

Recumbents can also stop faster because it's not so easy to cartwheel like an upright due to the lower point of mass.

Mine is not that good though because the seat is higher compared to most other models and the front wheel is closer to the seat (direct steering) - but still better than an upright. Once a car took my right of way and I had to break so hard that after it stopped the bike was standing vertically behind me. I was about 1m away from the car but I did neither fall nor trip over. Luckily there is a protector around the chain ring otherwise it might have been damaged as it had to bear the combined weight of the bike and me.

 

[oivavoi]

Recumbents can also stop faster because it's not so easy to cartwheel like an upright due to the lower point of mass.

Mine is not that good though because the seat is higher compared to most other models and the front wheel is closer to the seat (direct steering) - but still better than an upright. Once a car took my right of way and I had to break so hard that after it stopped the bike was standing vertically behind me. I was about 1m away from the car but I did neither fall nor trip over. Luckily there is a protector around the chain ring otherwise it might have been damaged as it had to bear the combined weight of the bike and me.

Indeed. I'll never forget that time I was riding very fast on a gravel road around Oslo, on the little brother to your HPV - the Grasshopper (that bike doesn't get much use these days, unfortunately, as I prefer the P38 for road use and find that the Grasshopper is a little bit too slow in the climbs on gravel).

Not me! - but a HPV recumbent in descent:

There suddenly appeared a family with kids out of nowhere in front of me at the bottom of a hill. Ok, I accept the fact that they probably didn't materialize out of thin air and that that I may have ridden irresponsibly fast, but let's assume they just appeared. I had to brake extremely hard. The bike stopped almost immediately, but I was thrown out of the bike towards the front. I somehow landed on my feet, ran for 5-6 meters before losing balance and taking a kind of judo roll. I got up, with only minor scratches, and apologized as politely as I could and asked if they were ok. The parents looked at me with a look which expressed a mixture of terror and disbelief while the small kids were over the moon with excitement. Don't think I'll ever forget that moment.

Had I been on an upright I'm fairly sure that someone would have gotten hurt. Doesn't mean that recumbent riding can't be dangerous as well, of course.

Sorry for derailing the thread with anecdotes though! Looking forward to seeing more bikes from audio nerds

 

[LTig]

ROTFL

Actually the pix shows the successor to mine, the Street Machine GTe. All aluminium instead of steel, and a major (just kidding) loss of weight (500g). No way I replace my steel frame with that.

 

[Phorize]

When I was a kid I had a Raleigh Chopper, similar to one of these in the picture. The stability of them was dreadful and it was particularly easy to fall off backwards. The other problem was that this was in about 1980 with BMX coming in. It was something of a ‘boy named Sue’ experience.

 

[Doodski]

When I was a kid I had a Raleigh Chipoer, similar to one of these in the picture. The problem was though that this was in about 1980 with BMX coming in. It was something of a ‘boy named Sue’ experience.

The Raleigh Chopper is a very cooL ride. I imagine they are on the collectors' lists.

I had a old Raleigh mountain bike with a springy chrome moly frame and peeps where telling me some of the old Raleigh frames are sought after. Is that true? Was Raleigh at one time a high end brand?

 

[Phorize]

The Raleigh Chopper is a very cooL ride. I imagine they are on the collectors' lists.

I had a old Raleigh mountain bike with a springy chrome moly frame and peeps where telling me some of the old Raleigh frames are sought after. Is that true? Was Raleigh at one time a high end brand?

I think they were probably one of the oldest bike manufacturers in the world at the time and very well regarded. Certainly when I was a child they were seen as very high quality, although BMX massively disrupted their dominance with brands like Mongoose etc. As is obligatory for any brand of historical importance in the U.K it is now owned by an overseas company (Dutch I think) but I don’t think the brand has any manufacturing here. Never mind. TBH I think US bike brands are great, I’ve owned Specialized and Trek bikes and found them to be very good.

 

[Phorize]

The Raleigh Chopper is a very cooL ride. I imagine they are on the collectors' lists.

I had a old Raleigh mountain bike with a springy chrome moly frame and peeps where telling me some of the old Raleigh frames are sought after. Is that true? Was Raleigh at one time a high end brand?

As to the frames question, I wasn’t aware that Raleigh MTB frames were well though of. My impression had been that MTB was one of the final nails in the coffin for Raleigh in the U.K.

 

[Doodski]

I think they were probably one of the oldest bike manufacturers in the world at the time and very well regarded. Certainly when I was a child they were seen as very high quality, although BMX massively disrupted their dominance with brands like Mongoose etc. As is obligatory for any brand of historical importance in the U.K it is now owned by an overseas company (Dutch I think) but I don’t think the brand has any manufacturing here. Never mind. TBH I think US bike brands are great, I’ve owned Specialized and Trek bikes and found them to be very good.

I think most of the bikes these days are a hash of the same components on different frames. The frames seem to all be stiff alloy frames and that's OK with a suspended ride but for the others it's pretty painful to ride them. Are peeps building still with components or are they now mostly for repairs and MODs?

 

[Tom C]

Here's some of the bicycles I've had.
My first bike was a hand-me-down from the oldest brother. I don't remember what make or model. I was pretty young.
Then I had a green Mustang.

Then this model that I read is highly collectible now. I liked the Mustang better because it wheelied and did jumps better.

Then I got a small sized touring bike. A Motobécane. I think it was a 10 speed. I rode and rode that thing till one day I hit the brakes hard and the rear wheel turned into a potato chip. I wiped it out on somebody's lawn to avoid road rash and then I sold it with the wheel like a potato chip and the buyer was really happy about the sale. It was green and had a lot of features that other road bikes never had for some years too come. It was like the pictured bike and had extra brake levers on the handlebars. It had two methods for braking dependent on the sitting position.

Then I got what was my favorite bike of them all. A yellow rat mountain bike that I added stuff to as I broke the handlebars wheelieing, broke the rear derailleur while taking it off road, put on new Continental tires with different rims front and back, a new chain, a bell, new peddles because I twisted one off the crank arm, added a $90 seat for comfort, broke/bent the front forks while jumping the stairs of the court house so I put on a trials fork and put on proper brakes front and rear. It was a 23 inch Raleigh with a chrome moly frame that was springy when riding it. I rode that for 3 summers to keep in shape for downhill skiing and then I gave it away.

That Schwinn is so sweet.

 

[Doodski]

That Schwinn is so sweet.

Yeah with red and glitter handlebar grips... I have not seen anything like that for a longg time.

 

[rdenney]

Raleigh of old was like Schwinn in attempting to serve most price points. One of my cycling-team buddies in college had a Raleigh Professional, which as a first-class bicycle (just as was the Schwinn Paramount). But the also had (well-made, for what they were) arc or friction-welded steel frames just like Schwinn’s low-end models.

After the bike boom of the 70’s, road bikes made in the USA or Europe had to move substantially upmarket to find a market. The low-end market was flooded with Asian water-pipe bikes that had the same lower-grade components like the Huret Allvit derailleurs and Weinmann brakes. That killed companies like Schwinn and Raleigh, who depended on the cash flow from mass-produced bikes that could not compete on price. They couldn’t even nudge upmarket a little bit, because companies like Nishiki and Giant owned that niche with entry-level Shimano and Sun-Tour components.

The Schwinn Homegrown was a skunkworks project from a vestige of the original Schwinn, and it was successful (for a time) because they aimed it well upmarket.

Rick “sorta like Timex vs. Fossil” Denney

 

[rdenney]

Motobecane was like Atala—cheapie European bike-boom ten-speeds, usually with Huret or Simplex derailleurs and Weinmann center pull brakes with those terribly unsafe “suicide bars” on them. Gitane was similar. But they all had halo models with Reynolds tubing and Campy components just for brand-building. In Morobecane’s case it was the Grand Record—quite a nice road bike in the 70’s and early 80’s.

Rick “who also rode with a guy who had a Grand Record” Denney

 

[Doodski]

Raleigh Professional

Is Sheldon Brown has a article on the Professional then it's good in my books. I've spent months reading Sheldon Browns website stuFF. Great resource.

Another thing I like about the steel frame is stuff can be brazed onto it. I've had that done and I tried to bend, break and flexed the frame considerably and no issues.

 

[Doodski]

In Morobecane’s case it was the Grand Record—quite a nice road bike in the 70’s and early 80’s.

More Sheldon Brown references on this model. Looks like a nice ride.

WoW! 52 teeth. That requires strength.

• T.A. Profesionnel 3-arm cotterless crank, 52/42 with built-in "chainguard."

 

[rdenney]

Is Sheldon Brown has a article on the Professional then it's good in my books. I've spent months reading Sheldon Browns website stuFF. Great resource.

Another thing I like about the steel frame is stuff can be brazed onto it. I've had that done and I tried to bend, break and flexed the frame considerably and no issues.

Sheldon was a good friend on the Hardcore Bicycle Science mail list, and also the rec.bicycles.tech Usenet newsgroup. I visited him many times on trips to Boston. I miss him.

Rick “glad they are keeping his encyclopedia online” Denney