In July 2000 I purchased my first recumbent bike. I say first, because after a half-year of riding around the prairie on this lovely toy, I'm pretty sure I'll buy another one! Here's why I love my recumbent:

Comfort: The big difference between a recumbent and a regular (upright) bike is the geometry of the riding position. On an upright, you have your legs beneath you, your back leaning forward (possibly all the way forward to horizontal, if you're racing), and your arms supporting your upper body. On long rides, that position can get really uncomfortable. Your back gets sore. To look ahead at the road, you have to bend your neck back, a somewhat unnatural position. The pressure of your upper body's weight supported by your arms can even make your hands feel a little numb after a long ride. (Other parts can go numb, too -- see below!)

Here you see my mom Ruth demonstrating how recumbent geometry alleviates those problems. You sit with almost the same posture you would have in a recliner with the footrest raised or riding a Harley (except, of course, that your feet are going in circles!). Your feet are out in front of you -- lower than the hips on my machine, the BikeE, but level with or even higher than the hips on other recumbents. Your back rests against the back of the seat, which offers support all the way up to the shoulders. Your arms, relieved of supporting the weight of your torso, just rest on the handlebars. In this more natural sitting position, your back is better supported, your head is very comfortably upright for an easy view of the road (and the lakes, the trees the fields, the cows...), and your arms are more relaxed.

Butt Comfort: This advantage deserves a section all to itself. A regular bike seat has to be narrow to allow your legs to move freely beneath you. That narrow seat focuses pressure on places where pressure shouldn't be focused. Go for a really long ride on regular seat, and your crotch can go numb! Yikes!
    On a recumbent, since your legs are moving out in front, the seat can be bigger. It can give you more butt coverage! Whoo-hoo! My BikeE has a big cushy granny seat that makes my sit bones and other sensitive parts very happy. I rode to Sioux Falls and back one day last summer (that's about a hundred miles round-trip), and my hind end felt great -- not sore, not numb, nothing!

Rider-Friendliness: I spent almost two months tracking down and test-riding as many recumbents as I could find. I tried out recumbents built by BikeE, Lightning, Trek, Linear, Easy Racer, Rans, Vision, and probably a couple others I've forgotten. The BikeE was the first one I tried, and I did not find another machine that felt as immediately comfortable and rideable. Now any recumbent takes time to get used to (remember that when you go for your first wobbly recumbent spin around the parking lot!). For whatever reason, though, the BikeE just seemed the easiest fit. My mom would agree -- she hopped on that bike two days after I bought, and even though she hadn't ridden a bike for years, she went bouncing around our bumpy yard quite comfortably!

(click on image for enlarged view!)
Design I -- Aesthetics: I'm not an engineer, but the BikeE strikes me as a very well-designed machine. Where some recumbents look like the designers were thinking in terms of upright bikes and simply squashed and stretched that standard design, the BikeE offers a simple and elegant geometry. I can imagine the original designer having a brainstorm: three straight lines -- swoop! swoop! swoop! Straight rectangular aluminum girder for the frame, straight rear fork swing arm, straight bar and stem -- some might consider the design stark or cold, but the technical, almost futuristic look really appeals to me.

Design II -- Structural Integrity:Besides good looks, the design is also very solid and practical. The main frame, that single straight beam, is one piece, minimizing the weak points that bends and joints can be on a regular bike frame. I can't imagine what sort of wreck I would have to get into to bend that frame (I'm sure I wouldn't survive such a wreck!).

Design III -- Adjustability: Some recumbents are difficult to adjust for different riders. On some models, you have to remove the crankset, extend or retract the frame, and add or remove chain links. Now that's no big deal if you're the only person who's going to be riding the machine (and if you're done growing). However, if you'd like your gawking friends to have the chance to try out your new cool toy, you need a little more flexibility.
    The BikeE's straight frame makes adjusting the seat for different-sized riders miraculously easy. The seat clamps onto the top of the main beam around a molded lip that runs the length of the frame. When someone else takes my recumbent for a spin, I have the person sit down on the seat, release the clamp (it's two quick release levers, just like on the wheels), and just slide the seat back or forward on the frame until the rider's legs reach the pedals comfortably. The person doesn't even have to leave the seat; I just lock the levers down, and the rider can pedal right away! I have even adjusted the seat while riding -- try that while riding an upright!

Snowmobility: Now hold on: if the snow is deep, the BikeE isn't going anywhere. With its smaller tires and without the ability to stand up on the pedals, I just can't plow through as much powder as I can on my upright mountain bike. However, on snowpacked streets and country roads, in a couple inches of snow, and even on sheer ice on the lake, I have discovered the BikeE is an awesome winter machine!

Here I am on Lake Herman, December 2000, with my BikeE AT. The AT comes standard with slick road tires. For winter, I put on knobby tires -- nothing fancy, just a couple of Huffy kids' bike tires. I also finally got around to installing the plastic fenders (available from BikeE) before heading out for that rough, wet winter riding. My only other modification was to wrap a plastic grocery sack around the rear air shock (located under the seat) to keep the wet snow and road grit from getting into the shock. BikeE has a neoprene "Shock Sock" available, but my grocery sack and the black electric tape have held up just fine.

   Now what makes the BikeE so great on packed snow and ice? Geometry -- specifically, the seat height. On my GT mountain bike, the seat puts my fanny about 40 inches off the ground. The BikeE seat places my fanny about 26 inches off the ground. That translates into a lower center of gravity, which means a little more stable ride!
    Even so, if you're dumb enough (like me) to go riding on ice or in a snowstorm, you're going to slip and slide. When the BikeE starts to wipe out, since the seat is over a foot closer to the ground, I can easily drop one foot from the pedals and brace it against the ground. Heck, I can even pedal with one foot and keep the other on the ground as an outrigger!
    But hey, no matter how good you are, you ride on ice, you're going to wipe out! I've biffed a couple times on the BikeE on the lake and even on an unexpectedly icy corner in town (not paying attention!), and I've noticed that the wipeouts don't seem to hurt as much. Now maybe I'm just blinded by love for my BikeE, but I think there's an actual advantage in crashing on the BikeE over crashing on my mountain bike. Consider the seat heights again: on the BikeE, my bottom is 2/3 as far from the ground as when I ride my mountain bike. Thus, in a BikeE wipeout, my hip hits the ice (or icy pavement) with only 4/9* the force it endures in a mountain bike wipeout!

Heavy Hauling: I use my bike a lot, not just for recreation, but for going to work and running errands. I haul everything on my bike: books, groceries, whatever. When I was first getting used to the recumbent, I thought I would not feel comfortable balancing a heavy load of groceries on the machine. However, when I made my first grocery run on the BikeE, I was pleasantly surprised by the stability of the ride. You see, BikeE designed a pannier rack that rides right below the seat. A heavy load just lowers my center of gravity and increases my stability.
    Of course, the BikeE can only take two panniers on that underseat rack, so I can't haul as much as I would on my Cannondale touring bike with front and back panniers. The highback seat also precludes wearing a backpack. But for my daily errands, two panniers are plenty.

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[last modified 2001.02.20]