Author Topic: Regional popularity of recumbents  (Read 5359 times)

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Regional popularity of recumbents
« Reply #25 on: 25 February, 2021, 12:16:01 pm »
Recumbents common in London? Where? When? It's still a novelty to see even one out and about and invariably they're ridden by eccentrics* rather than commuters.

The logistics of storing one in London* don't bear thinking about. After you've got your yacht and your Ferrari you can get yourself a lockup garage.

(* On reflection, I'm not sure how you'd spot a non-eccentric recumbentist)
(** real London anyway. The places in "London" where normal houses have garages are not London)
Don't know what part of London the bloke was in or how long he lived there but he moved away in 2009. I think it was more of a comparative "hundreds" to Bristol than literal.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Kim

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Re: Regional popularity of recumbents
« Reply #26 on: 25 February, 2021, 01:11:20 pm »
Lambs Conduit Street or Dulwich Park or something, I expect.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Regional popularity of recumbents
« Reply #27 on: 25 February, 2021, 05:28:39 pm »
Update: he lived mainly in Clapham in the 90s and worked as a cycle courier, so went all over.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Regional popularity of recumbents
« Reply #28 on: 25 February, 2021, 08:00:31 pm »
* On reflection, I'm not sure how you'd spot a non-eccentric recumbentist
Neither beard nor sandals, obviously.
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the slower you go the more you see

Re: Regional popularity of recumbents
« Reply #29 on: 25 February, 2021, 09:00:47 pm »
Judging from the reaction of the locals, when they see me on a recumbent bike, recumbents are rare in the North East of England.  The only times I've seen another were:

- on one of Dean's audax events from Darlington - the other guy was leaving the arrivee just as I arrived in my usual knackered condition

- on a ride from Dumfries to Brampton, saw a recumbent trike going in the other direction
Sunshine approaching from the South.

First time in 1,000 years.

Regulator

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Re: Regional popularity of recumbents
« Reply #30 on: 26 February, 2021, 03:44:01 pm »
Maybe the Fens does well because they have D-Tek nearby.

Probably the other way round, given how difficult it can be to get him to sell you anything  ;D

He has a Kettweisel I've been trying to get him to part with for a number of years...
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I completely agree with Reg.

Green Party Councillor

Regulator

  • That's Councillor Regulator to you...
Re: Regional popularity of recumbents
« Reply #31 on: 26 February, 2021, 03:45:36 pm »
Recumbents common in London? Where? When? It's still a novelty to see even one out and about and invariably they're ridden by eccentrics* rather than commuters.

The logistics of storing one in London* don't bear thinking about. After you've got your yacht and your Ferrari you can get yourself a lockup garage.

(* On reflection, I'm not sure how you'd spot a non-eccentric recumbentist)
(** real London anyway. The places in "London" where normal houses have garages are not London)
Don't know what part of London the bloke was in or how long he lived there but he moved away in 2009. I think it was more of a comparative "hundreds" to Bristol than literal.


I regularly rode a recumbent (a Trice T) when we lived in London.
Quote from: clarion
I completely agree with Reg.

Green Party Councillor

Re: Regional popularity of recumbents
« Reply #32 on: 27 February, 2021, 09:52:44 pm »
Moving around the country with my employer hasn't affected which or whether I ride a recumbent. My commute in London from Kingston to Whitehall was on an upwrong, and convinced me I'm doing it badly. Mrs Wheels had a Terratrike at the time but I never took it into the city as one couldn't filter in it - essential to complete faster than the train. I wasn't bothered by lowness, it was the width. It was usable in and around Kingston, and saw plenty of use. Only ever saw 1 other recumbent in Richmond Park - a trike.

Since then I've had 2 (now 3rd) job in the cotswolds and one around Portsmouth. I only have 1 bike and it's a Cruzbike S40, previously an earlier & heavier & slower model from the same stable. So FWD. One *can* slip the front wheel but it's more dramatic event fallacy than a real hinderance1. Climbing doesn't define my choice of ride anyway. I've started using the old railway paths north and south of Bath a bit more since last autumn, and I do see other recumbents semi-regularly, and oddly enough more often than cargo or other speciality bikes.

The job in Portsmouth had a 6-mile commute and my old Cruzbike was ideal. Mrs Wheels' arrangements changed and she stayed with a trike, but a BIG upright Mission trike with a bench-seat. Usage defined that shift. What she'd really like, although wouldn't use it enough to justify it, is the tilting trike from Kervelo.

Also Castle Coombe race circuit lets cyslists go orbiting on Tuesdays during summer [daylight saving] time. There's a guy with a rapto-bike some weeks, and a tadpole tandem, but surprisingly little else other than me.

So I reckon suburbia is better for a bike under any circumstances, and not all 'bents are longer and heavier, but you need to know the market and what you want out of it. I think volume of people and trunk routes make it more likely to see them in London, but hang around the Bristol-Bath cycle path and they'll turn up too.

[1] I've done Bathford hill, Quarry Hill in Box, Colerne airfield NW climb, Bannerdown Hill and Winsley Hill in the dark and wet, so it's definitely possible.
Cruzbike V2k, S40

Re: Regional popularity of recumbents
« Reply #33 on: 27 February, 2021, 10:02:35 pm »
One spotted in Victoria Park, Hackney today. But it's the kind of place you can (and indeed, did) see someone getting wherever they need to be on a unicycle and nobody blinks.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Regional popularity of recumbents
« Reply #34 on: 26 March, 2021, 01:44:32 pm »
but hang around the Bristol-Bath cycle path and they'll turn up too.
Hang around there for a while and everything will turn up, and not just on wheels!
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Regional popularity of recumbents
« Reply #35 on: 26 March, 2021, 03:22:46 pm »
Also, let's not overlook that the most popular form or recumbent cycle (in terms of what people are buying today, if not mileage ridden) is the electric assist tricycle.  Hills are no problem when you've got electrons.
That is very true. :)
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