Faired recumbent bikes
Discussion
I was wondering what the opinion of the people here is about faired recumbent bikes. I took delivery of mine today, and have to say I'm very impressed with it.
I bought it because I recently started commuting to work, but 40 miles a day is taking a bit long on a regular bike, and there are only so many months I can do that before it gets too wet and cold. The faired bike fixes that, I'm protected from the weather, and the aerodynamic fairing should help me greatly improve my average speed.
It seems to me the only real downside to them is that they are pretty expensive, but apart from that I'm curious why people seem to dismiss them so easily.
If you don't have a clue what kind of bike I'm talking about, here is a picture of mine earlier today:
I bought it because I recently started commuting to work, but 40 miles a day is taking a bit long on a regular bike, and there are only so many months I can do that before it gets too wet and cold. The faired bike fixes that, I'm protected from the weather, and the aerodynamic fairing should help me greatly improve my average speed.
It seems to me the only real downside to them is that they are pretty expensive, but apart from that I'm curious why people seem to dismiss them so easily.
If you don't have a clue what kind of bike I'm talking about, here is a picture of mine earlier today:
Thanks for the comments. 'pretty expensive' in this case means around €6000.
Being seen is definitly something that I worry about. It has pretty good lighting, but in the end it is a low, relatively fast moving object that people aren't familiar with. Luckily, 90% of my commute is on a dedicated bike path next to a canal, so I don't have to worry about that most of the time. When I am on a normal road, I tend to use the age-old advice of assuming everybody else on the road is an idiot who is out to kill me. That usually keeps me out of too much trouble.
Being seen is definitly something that I worry about. It has pretty good lighting, but in the end it is a low, relatively fast moving object that people aren't familiar with. Luckily, 90% of my commute is on a dedicated bike path next to a canal, so I don't have to worry about that most of the time. When I am on a normal road, I tend to use the age-old advice of assuming everybody else on the road is an idiot who is out to kill me. That usually keeps me out of too much trouble.
I'm from Belgium, so I Channel 5 is not something I can watch 
At the moment, my commute takes about 1.5 hours one way, I hope to get that down to 1 hour with this. That way, taking the bike would take the same time as taking the train, and on most days would be a lot faster than taking the car, thanks to the ridiculous traffic jams going to Antwerp.
So far, I've only taken it on a few short rides while I try to get a good setup. It's a bit daunting at first sight: you can adjust the crank to seat length, plus the seat in 3 ways, and the metal plates for the clicky pedals on my shoes.
In total, I've done about 15km now, averaging 28kph with a lot of stop/start driving. I remembered to switch on Strava for one 5km drive, and it says I averaged 35.6kph(22.1 mph) with a top speed of 48.6kph, although that maximum seems suspect to me. I know it doesn't sound impressive, 35.6 is about 10kph more than I managed on my normal bike, someone who is a bit decently trained shouldn't have much trouble breaking 45kph average.
My thighs are killing me now, I've already been warned that I need to re-train a bit because in this you use your muscles differently than on a normal bike. I guess the first few weeks are going to be hard, but worth is.
At the moment, my commute takes about 1.5 hours one way, I hope to get that down to 1 hour with this. That way, taking the bike would take the same time as taking the train, and on most days would be a lot faster than taking the car, thanks to the ridiculous traffic jams going to Antwerp.So far, I've only taken it on a few short rides while I try to get a good setup. It's a bit daunting at first sight: you can adjust the crank to seat length, plus the seat in 3 ways, and the metal plates for the clicky pedals on my shoes.
In total, I've done about 15km now, averaging 28kph with a lot of stop/start driving. I remembered to switch on Strava for one 5km drive, and it says I averaged 35.6kph(22.1 mph) with a top speed of 48.6kph, although that maximum seems suspect to me. I know it doesn't sound impressive, 35.6 is about 10kph more than I managed on my normal bike, someone who is a bit decently trained shouldn't have much trouble breaking 45kph average.
My thighs are killing me now, I've already been warned that I need to re-train a bit because in this you use your muscles differently than on a normal bike. I guess the first few weeks are going to be hard, but worth is.
Today was the first day I took it to work, and I'm loving it! I haven't had a bad reaction yet, so far everyone smiles or gives me thumbs up. I averaged 20mph over 21 miles, about 5mph faster than I managed on the normal bike. I'm sure someone with more talent and/or training can do much more. 25-27 seems realistic when I get a bit more training done.
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