Yo, just out of interest, how did you start riding the extraordinaire ?
I bought a 2 wheeled bent just because it looked interesting, fell off it and bolted on a trike conversion rear.

That's how it started, I don't know if it's in the genes, all our tribe live on sofas throughout the land. The mother in law had to be surgically removed form hers while clutching a bottle in one hand and 20 ciggies in the other.

About 17 years ago I took my son on a long driving lesson from Milngavie to Coldstream (it may have been another Borders town) and back via the A1 and Edinburgh. It was by shear co-incidence (yeah right!) that we had an opportunity to pop in to visit Neatworks and try out a couple of their recumbent trikes. Unfortunately they were too expensive for me at the time otherwise I would have bought one there and then.

I have no recollection as to how I ever heard of Neatworks in the first place. In fact, I had forgotten their name until I mentioned the experience to Kevin at D-Tek recently and it was he who remembered.

Still the seed was clearly sown and has since germinated as I bought a used (was it really? There was no evidence of this being the case) ICE-T from Kevin in October 2005.

After a long campaign my wife was finally persuaded that she would like a recumbent trike too (thanks to a two-hour test in Trier and along the banks of the Moselle, courtesy of Frank Heidemann).

So the ICE-T was recently sold back to Kevin to (partially) fund its replacement by a pair of 2010 Hase Kettwiesel Tours from Ben at Kinetics.

MacH

IIRC, it was all down to the late Tom Riley. Whom I knew from the Archaeology drinking sessions in The Maltings on Sunday nights, not that I am/was an Archaeologist but I knew some from an orchestra I was in.

At some point, some generic cycling conversation occured and obviously the topic of recumbents was brought up. I presumably said something about how I'd heard about them, and their pros/cons, but had never ridden one. Tom pointed out he had both a BikeE and knew the location of the Hase Tagun that Velovision was testing and would I like a go? (The alternative description involves comparisons to dealers in illicit substances and the comment that "the first sample is free"!)

From there, and the 10 or so starting attempts it took me to get down his drive on the Tagun, it led to pointing out a HPV Streetmachine that was in the VV small adds and from there it was (as far as my bank balance was concerned) all downhill!

I should add that David of Laid Back Bikes in Edinburgh was also instrumental in achieving the conversion for both myself and my wife.

First he persuaded 'Becks' to let me have a shot on her Windcheetah and then more recently let my wife have a shot on a demo Kettwiesel (prior to the Trier test ride).

MacH.

palmersperry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> IIRC, it was all down to the late Tom Riley.

Yup, me too - I was a fellow archaeology student (and also drank with Palmersperry). Got me into cycling generally by improving the Halfords bike I brought to Uni, and we went along to the Encyclopedia show at the Knavesmire, where I had my first go on a recumbent (a Gnat trike I think). Ended up doing work for Company of Cyclists, with more opportunity to try stuff out, and also got to know Velo Vision...

My prompt to get one was the invitation to go on a recumbent only trip through France. That was my old Trice, now replaced (just in time for the third French recumbent odyssey - see [www.crazyguyonabike.com]) with the lovely Catrike Dash.

If money and space allowed, a 'bent bike would be fun, but I probably get more out of triking, as I love the stability at speed.

If I had a baby elephant, it could help me wash the car. If I had a car.

Also often found on www.cyclechat.co.uk

MacHovis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I bought a used (was it really? There was no evidence of this being the case)
> ICE-T from Kevin in October 2005.
>
>
Don't be surprised. Some people with more money than riding ability buy these before finding it's not their thing after all and Kevin buys them off them. One had a factory-fitted computer with only 2 miles on the clock.

I blame Richard Ballantine!

I bought Richard's Bicycle Book in 1979 and then a later edition with recumbents mentioned. His take on cycling hit a nerve, even though work, stress and family meant I didn't cycle for some years. BUT when I came back to cycling in 2000 I had an itch, all due to Richard. Buying Richard's 20th Century Bicycle Book reignited the itch. So I bought an Azub-4 in 2005, then a QNT in 2007 and the rest is history.

Richard! I want my money back!

Not really. But thanks.

"I thought of that while riding my bike." --Albert Einstein, on the Theory of Relativity

2007 ICE QNT
2008 Hase Kettwiesel AL27
2011 Catrike Trail.
1951 Engine in need of partial rebuild.

I blame it on Jim McGurn! Ballantine also had a subliminal role, but it was thefirst edition of Encycleopedia in Worcester library, which placed in front of me the ideal new obsession for a petrolhead ex-rally driver and classic car broker, jaded with the car cultture, and remembering a teenhood on two wheels.
The wonderful machines on those pages inspired me, and I soon aquired a lovely Velocita. With a young daughter, a trailerbike was soon made for the newly-aquired upright bike, and trailers followed soon. A degree course in D&T teachin allowed use of Sheffield Hallam's engineering workshop, so a self-built tandem project (no, not two bikes welded together!) and then a 2-wheeled recumbent were designed and built at the end of the 90s.
Many miles were covered on the bent, until the late Chris Hamm snapped the frame (not his fault, he just happened to be on it at the time).
Peter Eland also fuelled the trike interest with a ride on his Russian trike, the first time we ever met (by chance, outside Open Roads offices, which were in York Steiner School's premises). A badly sprained ankle, caused by Tom Riley crashing the sofa-cycle with me on board, resulted in the loan of a Thorax from Mike west, and I've never quite shaken off that desire. Mariana, mu lovely wife, is a triker (of the upright sort), so we even have a purchading excuse!

I crashed a motorbike at 150ish mph (on a race track!) and started cycling to get over my injuries.

Bought a crap bike, thought I could do better, discovered BCQ, met Simon (Thomas) orgnaised Spokesfest 2000 and then set up Cyclemagic.

I too would like to blame Tom, Pete, Arch, Wobbly John and a host of others for encouraging/supporting us along the way :-)

Borntoolate Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A badly sprained ankle, caused by Tom Riley crashing the
> sofa-cycle with me on board, resulted in the loan
> of a Thorax from Mike west, and I've never quite
> shaken off that desire.
Ah yes - I remember taking the Thorax for a spin at the
Rally quite a few years back. Took it for a lap round the
racecourse, nearly all on grass, and came back with a grin
so wide that I thought the top of my head was going to
fall off. Very definitely 'fun' with a capital 'FUN'. Of
course there was Pete's Russian trike and the PELT to
take into consideration too ...

From what I remember, the Thorax was a very competitively
priced machine for its time, but even then I had neither
the space or the money to get a recumbent, having just
spent nearly ?600 on the first of my Dave Yates frames.

I still fancy a recumbent trike, but would probably have
to move house and/or win the lottery to make it happen :-(



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 15/07/2010 02:40PM by simon.

I can't help thinking that Tom is looking down on us all and laughing... And I can see his look of mock outraged indignation at that idea now...

If I had a baby elephant, it could help me wash the car. If I had a car.

Also often found on www.cyclechat.co.uk

It was Tom Johnstone, used to be assiant warden at Wooler YH and then worked for Neatwork,

I had a go a the Ryan Vangaurd, the Peer Gynt, the Dino etc but couldnt afford one.
so he sold me a Bob Yak instead.

Later i saw Jase, and 2 other recumbent folk somewhere.
at wooler a card come for me saying I could have the Peer Gynt for ?400 and the Bob Yak.

enjoyed the Peer Gynt lots but he 700 bike wheel kept losing its spokes.
Possibliy I am too fat.

Then I bought a Challenge Mistral with the 406 wheels that are stonger.

Next I went to the Longrigde Towers CycleFeast for twike but had something in the water that made me water the buy a Trice.

I got before the credit-cruch for....
rode back me Maltby. had on the holdiaday last year and this year and it fun unforntaly it got to go,
summat to do with mothers sickness (incase leave the home.)

Michael McLean had a few ideas back 2005.
I should followed him.

Zwaamo!

Richard's Bicycle Book in the 70s planted the seed, thanks Richard. It took a while to germinate due to finances and opportunity. 6 years on I'm still agog at how much joy my recumbent Trikes and Bike have brought me.

Any relative youths who are wondering, I urge you to go for it sooner rather than later. You might end up, like me, with more human powered pleasure than you could have ever imagined

Oddball

'I'm drinking wine and eating cheese, and catching some rays, you know.'

First recumbent I saw and tried was at the Kirkpatrick McMillan centenary bike show. Tried a Peer Gynt. Then spotted a report on an ICE trike on the Internet from the Folding Society mag followed by a conversation with David at Laidback. I became a lost soul!

John

> I should add that David of Laid Back Bikes in Edinburgh was also instrumental in
> achieving the conversion for both myself and my wife.

> First he persuaded Becks to let me have a shot on her Windcheetah and then
> more recently let my wife have a shot on a demo Kettwiesel (prior to the
> Trice test ride).

Hey, MacH! How are you? :-)

My story is a bit convoluted, but when I was about 11 years old and on holiday in England with my parents, I saw a recumbent tandem parked outside a village shop. I can still see the plywood and black camping mat seat cushions and the hand-laid carbon fibre frame. To a little girl it was rather impressive and looked very comfortable. Does anyone know who that machine might have belonged to? All I know is that it was possibly owned by a German couple.

The Open University once did a feature about energy or transport or human power or something like that. There was a long zoomed camera shot of recumbent racing on an airstrip or circuit, and I remember the lowracer with the black wheel covers, swooping around and generally looking cool as hell. I did see the programme again when I was at university studying mech eng, but alas I can't remember the title. So by now I knew that recumbents existed, and I even saw one (maybe a KC) while cycling home from uni in about 1995. I was absolutely fascinated.

Then I saw a photo my Dad took while at Manchester's museum, of a three wheeled thing. Of course, I was later to learn that it was Martin Powell's Windcheetah. Shortly after that I seemed to discover all at once: Richard's bicycle book, Kinetics, BentRider Online, Recumbent UK magazine, Challenge, HPVelotechnik, and Velovision.

The rest as they say is history. I bought a Windcheetah, then discovered another recumbent rider in Edinburgh (David, pre-Laid Back Bikes), spent hours at Kinetics, eventually acquired a Speedmachine...and the slippery slope of recumbency beckoned.

Becky

Arellcat.... the slippery slope of recumbency beckoned...

Add to that wet cobbles and tram tracks in Edinburgh city centre and it gets really exciting...


Factors that decided to make me not buy another DF (apart from my Daughter's Dawes Duchess)

? Seeing Arellcat on her Windcheetah at an early Spokesfest (Edinburgh's bike fest on the Meadows run by Cathy Scott). I had a Thorn Voyager childback tandem which of course was a non-standard bike. I thought everyone would think this was a smarter idea than owning a car but no. Car sales in Edinburgh rocketed!

? Seeing 'Gandalf' leading the Spokesfest ride round town on his home built recumbent in 1997. This was cycling circus and caused a stir amongst shoppers in Princes St. 'Standard' bikes are generally ignored by general public so I enjoyed the theatre aspect of 'custom' designs. The festival had live music and races. My daughter loved it. Later ones had a recumbent race and we actually had four entries (remember this event was pre-web). Riding on wet grass made cornering interesting.

? Visiting Bike Trax and seeing two M5 recumbents hung up in window 1998. One was an M5 Blue Glide with suspension (Rubber block) and rack. The other was an M5 Citymate. I had a shot on the Citymate and concluded it was ok but probably dangerous (you see... I was quite 'normal' back then!)

? Internet connection to my then new PowerMac 8500. I realised that there were lots of designs that I couldn't afford. Visited Kinetics of course and tried a Burley Canto.

? Did some graphic work for TwoPLusTwo and got a Voss Bevo in part exchange. Main interest at time was becoming a bike trainer and improving things for cyclists generally

? Read some paper issues of Bike Culture. Then Velo Vision started (hurrah!). Read about Seamus's exploits on his Challenge. Plus his Bike Kulture Never site.

? Spoke to Gerhard at Ligfietwinkel in Amsterdam and wondered about doing tours and try outs... I knew ny business would be much less in Edinburgh but if it let people try out more then it could work. Some early clients liked my recumbents so much they bought two Streetmachines from Kinetics... !

? Arellcat reappeared on a Speedmachine which seemed pretty neat. Most bikes I've sold have been semi-low racers so her choice must have been ahead of its time.

That's enough for now... haven't even properly mentioned Kiwi John on his Streetmachine or Kevin on his Fujin or Stuart and Seona modelling on a Focus and Mistral for George Ferguson - freelance photographer for the Edinburgh Bike Co-operative ....

Oh plus the tour to Rannoch..... the Trossachs Ton etc

Basically the people locally and on VV have kept me going and the fact that I can give away (ie sell with tour) copies of the mag is a nice thing. Visiting York a couple of times has been nice too. Of course I should go to Spezi but it's often at time I can do tours and sell bikes.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 18/07/2010 06:52PM by LaidBack.

I was looking for a comfortable touring bike and bought a Pashley PDQ from a shop in Glasgow. It was great to ride on the open road but was a bit twitchy round town. That got me interested in the three wheeled recumbents so next up was an ICE Explorer custom trike. It was beautifully built if somewhat awkward for transportation as it wasn't able to fold as so many do nowadays. The third bent was back to two wheels, an HPVelotechnik Spirit. It was quite a high seating position for a bent and after awhile I longed for the three wheeled bent again. The fourth and present bent is an HPVelotechnik Scorpion FX, FX stands for folding, a very useful function for storage and transportation. It has rear suspension, 81 gears, racks for four panniers and a comfortable mesh seat.
I don't think I'll be buying any more bents for awhile, they're too expensive for starters and in this age of austerity I'll just have to make do with five ordinary bikes and one recumbent.

For me, it was a Company of Cyclists roadshow - wonderful events. I was also snared by that Thorax Sinus, a short spin and I realized what had been missing from my life.

Eventually got a Thorax from Mike West at Specialbikes (who was a complete pleasure to deal with). Wonderful machine.

And of course Mike put me on to Velovision...!

Richard Ballantine's magazine

Bicycle Action

where he got poeple interdest ? in recumbent and mountain bike.



( Velovion 2 where richard very dull write about it)
it was good at the time.

Back in '92 I was a student nurse in Colchester. Met a young lady, wot eventually comed to be my wife, snd on weekend we went to her parents house in Little Thetford. Walking up from the house to the local club with Girlfriends 12 year old sister and passed a bloke with a wierd looking 2 wheeled object. Young sister type says "Hi Kevin, Can I have a go?" to which he gives an affirmative. She wanders confidently up and down the road and then says "You have a go!" to me.
I did and didn't actually fall off but was vaguley interested. Few years later, having forgotten about recumbents, brother tells me he is havibg trouble riding a bike he has so I purchase it and it is a Recumbent. I ride it and grow to love it. Since then I have spent over 3/4 of my total income on bikes and trikes.

[z10.invisionfree.com]

At the pace of sailing ships and bicycles.

Way back in the early 70's, we used to get bike parts from the dump and build a sort of cross between a MTB, a BMX and a Raleigh Chopper - bear in mind that BMX and MTBs had not really been invented at that time. We used them for off road racing, ramp jumps - the sort of things kids do.

Several years later, I saw the same Open University film that Arellcat mentioned. I started buying New Cyclist magazine, and borrowed Richard Balentine's book from the library. I welded up a couple of recumbents and raced with the BHPC, but was always more interested in the unusual bikes.

If it wasn't for Hilldodger, Simon Sprocketbender & the Spokesfest events, I would probably be devoting my time to something more sensible by now.

Wobbly John Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If it wasn't for Hilldodger, Simon Sprocketbender
> & the Spokesfest events, I would probably be
> devoting my time to something more sensible by
> now.


:-)

Well,
I still have the copy of Bicycle Magazine from 1984 featuring Andy Pegg on a Wincheetah and then I saw Mike Burrows on a Professor Heinz programme about HPV's in the 1980's.
However it was the late Steve Donaldson of the BHPC and clubmate of Deeside Thistle who gave me shotties of his Windcheetah and Kingcycle. I was hooked from there on.

A work colleague (Ian Fardoe) kept appearing on a series of recumbents of his own and on review, this initially aroused my interest. Unfortunately, I am a good deal shorter than Ian , so I was rarely able to have a test ride.
Some years ago a leaflet inside a walking magazine that my wife subscribed to offered an introductory subscription to various other magazines - we chose Velovision - there was no going back after that.
Eventually I bought a Catrike Trail.

I blame Tim Kirk. He introduced me to recumbents, and lent me a trike for a few weeks (Greenspeed). I started reading Velovision, and visited Sinner in Holland, where I rode most of their models when they had an open day. Decided at the time that two-wheelers were more fun than trikes (not sure anymore), and certainly a lot more affordable. I bought a Sinner Demon (ex demo model direct from Sinner). I now also own a (the?!) tandem trike, which is a huge amount of fun! But also still use a Dawes upright touring bike quite a bit.