Gear Talk / Recumbent advice?
« on: March 03, 2006, 01:11:34 pm »Use of the upper body /arms to aid in propulsion is counter-productive on a recumbent -- the only thing it does is send you all over the road. To those who (like me) have an long-ingrained habit of using DF handlebars to aid in aggressive acceleration (especially up hills or from a start), you will have to work at it a while to break the old habits. I recommend restricting yourself to wide-shouldered roads with minimal traffic initially.
You will also have to learn to use low gears and spin at higher RPMs if you are not in the habit of doing so already. I'm using a Blackburn trainer while watching the evening news for just that purpose and it is helping. But I am finding that the greatly increased leg speed on a trainer doesn't fully translate to the road so I am having to concentrate on it there too.
The other big change is in the effects of the recumbent position on vision. I knew that being lower would affect my ability to see somewhat but the degree to which vehicles block my line of sight still surprised me. Much more attention is required to "hidden" hazards and I was fairly attentive to start.
A second visibility problem is that the 'bent position increases the incidence of "sun-blindness". I purchased a Bell mtn. bike helmet with the largest visor I could find (locally) and always wear sunglasses but still find myself squinting and looking away from the sun a lot in the 2 hours after sunrise or before sunset. If anyone has a source for a better visor (or other solution), I'd love to hear it.
Smooth roads to all!