A Plan, and a Confession

I thought I should explain a bit better some of my ideas for this blog. I started 2007 with a desire to get out on the bike more, and for me that means getting better at climbing hills on the recumbent. I went to recumbents 7 or 8 years ago when I bought a used Infinity (LWB, USS) from a friend. I wasn't able to ride a standard road bike comfortably any longer, mostly due to wrist problems (and of course those bikes can literally be a pain in the butt).

I thoroughly enjoyed the Infinity, but couldn't make it go up hills worth a darn. While I still owned that bike, I also got a long term loan of an older V-Rex. I got up hills better on it, but I'm not a lightweight and struggle to keep up on hills on any bike. At about the time I started to go on more club rides I discovered Rivendell and Sheldon Brown on the web and was able to use some of their ideas to get fairly comfortable on a wedgie again (tall stem, laid back seat tube angle, wide bars, Brooks saddle). I had a couple great years on the uprights and did keep up much better on hills, but wrist pain has steered me back to recumbents.

Everybody has different needs. If you are commuting, then total time is really what matters. Racers often have that same goal, but mine is a little different. I want to ride with my buddies and that means keeping up better on hills, but even hills and hilly rides come in lots of flavors. My usual rides range from rail trails like the Deckers Creek Trail (less than 1000 feet elevation gain over about 10 miles) to Mt. Davis, with a fair bit of climbing, some of it fairly steep. so a lot of different types of riding to explore.

I realize that it is the person spinning the pedals that makes the bike go up the hill, and that is one of the things I am working on. Weight loss and training will certainly help, but I think bike fit, position, and technique come into play on recumbents even more than on uprights. Then, of course, there's everyones favorite-equipment. All gain with no pain, well, except in the wallet. High racers, low racers, Easy Racers, trick cranks, oval rings, fairings, and general bike layout. I'm interested in all of that and hope to explore as many things as possible here and to bring in opinions from folks in the know.

You may live where it is flatter or hillier but I hope you'll find something useful or interesting here.

Oh, the confession. If all of this leads to a new recumbent in the garage, well I'll just have to live with that ;-)