'Hi' from Bath

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   Hi all,

Hope I post this in the right section. I recently joined the club and the forum, and I thought I'd quickly introduce myself. I started riding recumbents in my native the Netherlands about 25 years ago (on a bike I built myself from recycled parts), and I currently have six (and about thirty other bikes of all kinds). I live in Bath (and in Dublin, and I have a workshop in NL), and anyone who knows Bath will agree that recumbents are perhaps not the the most practical bikes around here due to the hills. I've been living here for about 8 years, but I only recently discovered the brilliant Odd Down cycle circuit. I brought my M5 Low Racer over from NL last month, as the track gives me the opportunity to finally ride a recumbent on a more regular basis again. I like going fast, but I'm not a competitive rider, so if anyone wants to join me for some social riding on the track, give me a shout.

Below is my Optima Stinger, a fully kitted out commuter bike. Bought brand new in NL 20-odd years ago, and used 5-6 days a week for a 27 mile round trip until I moved abroad in 2009. I've also done a fair few long distance trips (> 150 miles) on it. All in all a very capable and versatile machine. I've only sporadically ridden recumbents since I moved abroad, until I got stuck in NL early 2021 when the borders temporarily closed due to covid lockdowns, and I had a chance to dig 
this bike out of storage. Riding it again made me realise how much I'd missed it, but also that I wanted something a bit faster (that quickly turned into two of the faster things!).

This is my Baron; it's a very early pre-Optima one with a welded frame. Only got this last summer, and I love it. It's pretty fast on the long and straight Dutch polder roads (without any training, I managed close to 19mph on a 100 mile trip), but it's terrible in city traffic. I now have a carbon seat for it, and I'll fit narrow handlebars and get rid of the current gear shifters/ brake levers when I have time.

This is the M5 Low Racer I recently brought over to the UK. Also bought last summer, and I haven't ridden it more than once on the track yet because it needed a fair chunk of work done first. I'm not the tallest and I have comparatively short legs, so it needed 155 cranks and a more forward positioned and smaller seat for me to be able to ride it. It also got a completely new drive train. I may fit a tail fairing at some point, the bike is fast enough for it to make sense.

In the photos, the front caliper sits at the rear of the forks; this turned out not to work very well for me as it resulted in a nasty leg wound after a few laps on the track. I'll swap it to the front, and if that doesn't work either I'll see about fitting a centre pull caliper from an aero/ time trial bike if there's enough space for the cable under the frame. This is when I got it:

And this is how it currently sits. I found that the corners on the track are too tight to run the chain along the front wheel, so will unfortunately have to revert to using pulleys as the current set-up is slowing me down too much when cornering.

My other recumbents are two Challenge Hurricanes, and an Escape Thjes (no, me neither). They all need work, and I've never ridden any of them. This is one of the Hurris, which I got with a mishmash of incompatible drive train parts and I haven't got round to sorting, and the Escape, which has clearly lived outside for a while, but deserves recommissioning. I may bring a Hurri over to Bath this summer, do it up, attempt to ride it up the hills, regret it, and put it up for sale, we'll see.

Edited by melle - 16 March 2023 at 7:27pm