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I beg you to consider recumbent bikes. I am an avid cyclist. I ride daily to work. (less so now that the roads are icy) I have had back surgery (L4/L5 is now

by VA3FXP 10y ago

I beg you to consider recumbent bikes. I am an avid cyclist. I ride daily to work. (less so now that the roads are icy) I have had back surgery (L4/L5 is now fused). I went on a bike tour where I rode for 13+hrs a day for a month. At the end of the day the only thing sore was my muscles. I weigh almost 300lbs. A recumbent bike is a complete life changing, world altering, paradigm shifting, bundle of awesome. I beg you to look into it, or send me a PM if you have any questions.

throwanem 10y ago
On topic: What's a recumbent bike like to ride on the street? I live in Baltimore, and while I've ridden a conventional bike successfully in daytime traffic, it's not something with which I can imagine ever being really comfortable. A recumbent bike, having the rider much lower to the ground, seems like it'd be even scarier - how have you found it? Or do you ride on roads where it's not a problem? Platform note: Hacker News doesn't support PMs, so you'll want to include in your profile an email address, or some other means of contact outside HN itself, in order to make out-of-band conversations possible. Welcome! We're glad to have you.
- VA3FXP 10y ago
  My bike is 'average' height. Lower then some, higher then some. (There is incredible diversity in recumbent designs.) I am "eyeball-level" with most cars/sedans. I am lower then most mini-vans. As a general rule-of-thumb 75% of vehicles give me more room then they do when I ride a traditional bike. I would say that the majority of cars give me "half the lane" (which would mean that they pull over far enough that their right-side tires are in the left-side wheel track). BUT, I still get atleast 1 vehicle a day that drives too close. In some parts of town this is more likely to happen then others, it also depends on road/traffic/other conditions too. When I am areas or during times-of-the-day where it is not as safe for me, I 'Take the Lane' and don't let cars try to drive beside me. In my city I can either take road (12km route) or dedicated bike paths for most of the trip (20km route). I always prefer the bike paths.

by VA3FXP 10y ago

throwanem 10y ago

On topic: What's a recumbent bike like to ride on the street? I live in Baltimore, and while I've ridden a conventional bike successfully in daytime traffic, it's not something with which I can imagine ever being really comfortable. A recumbent bike, having the rider much lower to the ground, seems like it'd be even scarier - how have you found it? Or do you ride on roads where it's not a problem? Platform note: Hacker News doesn't support PMs, so you'll want to include in your profile an email address, or some other means of contact outside HN itself, in order to make out-of-band conversations possible. Welcome! We're glad to have you.

VA3FXP 10y ago
My bike is 'average' height. Lower then some, higher then some. (There is incredible diversity in recumbent designs.) I am "eyeball-level" with most cars/sedans. I am lower then most mini-vans. As a general rule-of-thumb 75% of vehicles give me more room then they do when I ride a traditional bike. I would say that the majority of cars give me "half the lane" (which would mean that they pull over far enough that their right-side tires are in the left-side wheel track). BUT, I still get atleast 1 vehicle a day that drives too close. In some parts of town this is more likely to happen then others, it also depends on road/traffic/other conditions too. When I am areas or during times-of-the-day where it is not as safe for me, I 'Take the Lane' and don't let cars try to drive beside me. In my city I can either take road (12km route) or dedicated bike paths for most of the trip (20km route). I always prefer the bike paths.