Posted by Jim Strasma on August 24, 2013

If your car has a trailer hitch, or can have one added, that can be an easy way to transport one or two recumbent trikes. We've covered this ground before here and here, but now Amlings offers several neat additional trailer options from Alpaca Carriers. Here's a photo of one holding two Terratrikes in our showroom:

Here's a view from the other side, showing just how it fastens to a trailer hitch:

Two trikes are usually well under even the lowest weight limit for a trailer hitch, allowing them to be added to most vehicles.

We also sell HP Velotechnik and ICE brand trikes that fold to fit easily inside even a tiny car without a trailer hitch.

Posted by Joe Reichert on June 30, 2013

The Recumbent Cycling Experience

Your head is up in a natural position, giving you a great view of your surroundings and the road ahead. No more neck and back pain from being hunched over. Hands, arms, and wrists are comfortable because they are not supporting your weight. You slice through the wind faster and easier, due to reduced frontal exposure. Handling, cornering, and stopping are more assured due to a significantly lower center of gravity. Saddle soreness is not a problem, even at the end of the longest rides.

The bike seems to vanish beneath you as you cruise along, experiencing the scenery (and potential hazards) as never before. You'll find yourself cycling longer and farther than before, and arriving at your destination refreshed. Once you've experienced a recumbent, it's difficult to ever go back to a conventional bike!

You may as well be driving a Ferrari for all the attention you receive. Motorists, pedestrians, and other cyclists do double-takes as they watch you breeze by -- seemingly without effort.

Recumbent Bicycle Performance

Wind resistance, friction, and rolling resistance impose limitations on the performance of any cyclist. All other things being equal, even slight aerodynamic advantages will exhibit significant cycling speed improvements. A recumbent bicycle provides between fifteen to thirty percent lower wind resistance (coefficient of drag) over the typical racing bike.

All existing open human-powered speed records (i.e. top speed, time over distance, and distance covered per hour) are held by recumbents! The Race Across America record of just over five days is held by a recumbent design. Recumbent performance advantages are not new. In 1932, a recumbent bicycle won an important French pro bicycle race, wherein a new world hour record was set. The record was revoked due to unfair design advantage, and since then recumbents have generally been outlawed from racing against conventional bike designs.

Certainly not all recumbent bikes provide record speed capabilities. As with any bicycle purchase, it's best to match the machine and intended use to the rider. Amling’s Cycle offers several models for commuting, touring, recreation, and performance applications. All provide outstanding aerobic fitness.

Do recumbents climb hills well? In fact, recumbents do climb well provided they are geared to do so (as with any other bike). Despite the fact that you cannot stand on the pedals, you can leverage power against the seat. Different muscle groups are employed, and a short period of adaptation to recumbent climbing should be expected. Shorter wheelbase versions tend to do better at climbing than longer models.

Cornering and overall control is enhanced by the recumbent's lowered center of gravity. Many riders report feeling that the bike seems to be "running on rails."

Recumbent Safety

Again, the lowered design offers advantages. Most obvious is that you can easily place both feet down to the ground! Recumbents tend to stop faster and smoother than typical designs. Their enhanced handling and cornering provide superior accident avoidance capability. In an unavoidable accident situation, rather than taking a long head-first spill over the handlebars as with a conventional bike, a recumbent rider can simply roll over sideways and can better avoid head and shoulder injuries.

Visibility in traffic is a concern for any cyclist. Many recumbent riders indicate that they are generally better seen than other bikes because they are noticed more. Furthermore, the "head-up" position lends itself to making better eye contact with motorists. Nonetheless, use of safety reflectors, markers and flags is recommended for riding in traffic. Helmets are a must for any bike rider!

Recumbent Serviceability

Although the overall designs of our bicycles are exotic, their components are not. In fact the chain, brakes, grips, shifters, pedals, wheels, tires, and other components are the same as those found on other elite road or mountain bikes. This means that your recumbent can be serviced at any of thousands of bike shops throughout the world.

Why ride a Recumbent?

Comfort, Performance, and Style!

Originally from the People Movers website, a now defunct recumbent store in Southern California.  While they were viable they did a great job of putting lots of folks on 'Bents.  Thank you......

Posted by Jim Strasma on June 14, 2013

Much as we enjoy our Terratrike Rover Tandem trike, at ten feet long, it's a challenge to transport -- especially since we added the 12 extra pounds of a BionX SL350 electric assist. Before adding the BionX, we mounted the trike backwards on top of our Prius, by fastening the two wheels to the rear spoiler, and the single wheel to a simple strap-on roof rack rail just short of the front windshield. But we were rarely willing to go to that work, nor willing to risk driving over 35MPH with it mounted.

Now we have a much better solution, a custom trailer, originally designed for a customer by Bicycle Transport Trailers of Madison, WI. They are no longer making the trailers, but were happy to help me make one like it, at a total cost of $570 (plus taxes) and several hours of my time.

To do the same, here's what you will need:

From HarborFreight.com: "600 Lb. Capacity Boat Trailer with 8" Wheels and Tires" (item#5002.) Be sure to use the 20% off coupon that is usually available. I also got a spare tire (item#44143), a 1-7/8"/2" double ball hitch (item#94900 - a 1-7/8" ball is used by this trailer), and safety chains that turned out to already be included with the trailer (item#95021)

From etrailer.com: 3 "Wheel Trays for Thule Big Mouth Roof Mounted Bike Carrier" (Code: 853-5423-56.) Note: I should have gotten 4, to extend the middle tray to the rear for easier loading. Also 3 "Replacement Wheel Strap Assembly for Thule Echelon and Big Mouth Roof Mounted Bike Carrier" Note: get an extra tray or spare straps to take advantage of free shipping on orders totaling more than $150.

My remaining costs were $160 for title, license plate, sales tax, and local parking tag.

Hints when building:

1 Wire the lighting last, so you won't have to avoid wires when drilling holes for the front end of the two outside wheel trays

2 Add a rubber grommet (not included, but available at any hardware store) to each wiring hole, so wires won't fray and short out in use.

3 Slide on the wheel strap assembly before bolting down the second end of each wheel tray.

4 You'll have unused boat-related parts left over that you can use to bolt down the wheel trays.

Cautions:

1 The license plate is close to the ground, so be careful on steep driveways.

2 Before driving at highway speeds, store away safely anything that could come off, such as lights, computers, water bottles and bags.

3 Be sure you have someplace to keep the completed trailer, as it does not fold.

Would I do it again? The jury is still out on that, as our family also just bought a 23' travel trailer and a tow vehicle to pull it, leaving our garage fuller than when I started this project. The trailer itself, however, is everything I hoped it would be.

For those able to get up and down easily (unlike my stoker), another alternative is Terratrike's "Tandem Pro", which comes with couplers to let it be disassembled for more compact storage.

Posted by Jim Strasma on February 14, 2013

One good option for transporting a recumbent bike or trike is via a hitch rack. This is a metal rack that fastens to the back of a car or truck, plugging into a 1-1/4" or 2" trailer hitch receiver. Some vehicles have this already. Many others can have it added aftermarket, because the weight to be carried for a bike or two is within the limit of most vehicles.

The benefit is that it may be easier to fasten bikes and trikes to a hitch rack than to fit them inside the vehicle. The trailer hitch may also protect the car better than trunk mount racks.

Such trailer racks come in several flavors:

1) To hold one or more two wheel recumbent bikes, The bike(s) can be held either by the top tube, or by wheel holders.

2) to hold one or more three wheel recumbent trikes via wheel holders.

3) to hold one of each - both a two wheel bike and a three wheel trike.

On your left as you enter the front door here, you'll notice a $370 Hollywood SportRider HEAVY DUTY recumbent two bike rack set up to hold either one or two such bikes by their wheels.

It is also available along with a trike adapter for $460 total, to instead hold a three wheel trike alone or along with a two wheel bike.

Currently, we also have two used racks for two wheel bikes for sale on consignment.

One is a $200 custom rack designed to have the front wheel of one or two bikes held by a clamp in place of the front axle, and the rear wheel held by a wheel holder.

The other is a $300 SportWorks rack designed to hold one such bike, both by the wheels and by two .padded clamps around the frame.

Posted by Jim Strasma on February 12, 2013

 Late last fall, I added a BionX SL350 electric assist to my family's Terratrike Rover 8 Tandem. It was a great solution for us, except for one thing. Because the new BionX wheel replaced the original, we also lost use of the original 8 speed internal gear shift.

This area being a flat part of mostly-flat Illinois, that wasn't much of a problem. The BionX has been strong enough to power us up any slopes we've found thus far. However, it's been a close thing a couple of times, so I really wanted to add back the original ability to shift gears..

Because the Rover has a horizontal axle dropout, it first needed an adapter, to allow it to mount a rear derailleur. To the rescue comes Problem Solvers, whose CH0910 fits easily in a horizontal dropout, and acts as a derailleur hanger. The BionX wheel is designed to work with a freewheel, rather than a cluster, and ours already had an 8 speed freewheel, so all that was still needed was an 8 speed rear derailleur and a matching 8 speed twist shift for the front handlebar. (I'd already removed the one for the internal 8 speed hub, and Joe assured me that no, I could not just reuse that one.) Add in a tandem-length shift cable and housing, and presto - 8 speeds again!

What a lovely project for a snowy winter day! Note: I used a medium cage rear derailleur, to minimize chances of it hitting the ground when riding. I was a bit worried it wouldn't be able to handle the full range of gears, but no worries. With only one derailleur involved, even a medium cage is sufficient for most any standard freewheel.

Posted by Jim Strasma on January 23, 2013

If you've always wanted bicycle-themed art, especially if you'd like it to be at least somewhat unique, Singapore designer/artist Thomas Yang has a solution for you here. Available as either a poster or a T-shirt, each design is limited to 100 copies. Here's an example:

Took me a while to notice it spells the word "cycle."

Along the same lines, one day last fall I came out of a photography workshop to find several of my fellow photographers snapping away at the bike on which I'd arrived. To me that morning, it was just a parking spot. But to an artist, it's rather more. See what you think:

Now, who can point us to some great trike or recumbent art?

Posted by Jim Strasma on December 18, 2012

 As winter finally sets in here in Illinois, it's time to store our bikes. When doing so, it's important to keep their tires off concrete floors when temperatures there go below freezing, lest the tires be damaged.

For our family's three bikes, we do this in three different ways:

1) Our BikeE LWB recumbent hangs upside-down from our garage ceiling on two large hooks screwed into ceiling joists.

    Plus: Low cost and well out of our way

    Minus: Hard to lift the bike into position and get it down again

2) Our Easy Racer LWB recumbent hangs on a fold-down wall rack

    Plus: Rack folds out of the way when not needed

    Minus: Not as wide as I'd like for such a long bike

3) Our Terratrike tandem trike hangs from two rope and pulley ceiling mount systems

    Plus: Easy to lift and lower even a heavy bike to any desired height.

    Minus: Making sure to lift both sides in sync, so trike doesn't tip

Here's the result:

I particularly like that I can still easily work on the raised trike, and how little of our garage space had to be given up to store all our bikes.

Need ideas on how to store your own bikes this winter? Come see us. We'll be glad to help.

Posted by Jim Strasma on December 04, 2012

In my opinion, one or more good bike lights are one of the best investments you can make for biking in the dark, especially when it is already dark during rush hour, and completely unlit along off-street bike paths. Avoiding just one emergency room visit more than  repays the cost of any number of lights.

I start with a good 2 watt LED headlight and a SuperFlash Turbo tail light on the bike itself. That helps me be seen, and lights up where the bike is going. However, that isn't always where I want to go next. For that, I added a Light & Motion Vis 360 helmet light, which includes both a 100 lumen front light and a bright rear light, plus amber lights on both sides. The result was much better than with lights only on the bike itself.

Then this fall I learned Lights & Motion has doubled the power of the Vis 360 in a new Vis 360+ model, and immediately added the Vis 360 to Ellen's helmet, with the Vis 360+ being added to my own helmet. That's partly because we often ride together on a tandem trike, and the Vis 360+ has a new button allowing me to turn off its rear light to avoid blinding the stoker. The rest of the reason is that my usual commute home from the shop uses the Des Plaines River Trail, which is so dark at night that doubling the power of the headlight adds a lot of safety.

Here's how the two helmets look together:

And here's how their beams look together on our living room wall:

One other benefit of both is that they are rechargeable, via the same microUSB connector I use to charge my cell phone. That saves on batteries, AND it's one less thing to pack when traveling.