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Archives for June 2012

A Change of Biking Pace — The Catrike

06.05.2012 by Ray Niekamp // 11 Comments

In the last post, I mentioned that my friend Don Bynum doesn’t ride a conventional bike — he rides a three-wheeled recumbent, a Catrike. I first saw one of these years ago, when a guy rode one on the first century ride I did. I was impressed by its quickness.

Don likes to tweak those of us who still ride our “prostate crushers” and proselytizes for the three-wheeler. It bears a closer look, methinks.

Recumbent bikes come in two- and three-wheeled versions. The three-wheelers can have either two wheels in the rear — a “delta” — or two wheels in front — a “tadpole.” I think it’s safe to say, without any empirical corroboration, that the “tadpole” trike is the favored variety. A seat (and it’s properly called a “seat” and not a saddle, because you sit in it like a chair) is slung in the middle. The pedals are mounted on a boom that sticks out in front. The resulting balance is excellent — and you don’t have to be moving forward to stay upright.

The Catrike “Road” (Click to enlarge.)

Don tells a familiar story about adopting a recumbent. Conventional upright bike saddles hurt too much. He says he spent about $1500 over a five or six-year period on “anatomically correct” saddles, but “a 10-mile ride would leave me completely without feeling in my ‘tender parts’ for a couple of days.”

He rode a two-wheeled recumbent, but when he decided to move to the Hill Country of Texas, he got the Catrike. “Since I was obviously going to be riding in hilly terrain and getting clipped back in if I needed to pause to keep my heart from exploding, or to enjoy some sight, getting back going was going to be very difficult [on a 2-wheeler],” he said. “There is a great benefit in this area, where hills of 18%+ grade are not uncommon, to being able to simply put on the brakes, relax for a minute, then just start up with no ‘clip-in drama.'”

Don on (in?) the Catrike Road.

During our ride, Don often pulled out into the traffic lane and sailed by the rest of us, even when we were motoring along at a nice clip. On downhills, the thing simply takes off. Don says he’s comfortable hitting speeds above 45 mph, even on curvy roads. He’s posted several videos of him flying down grades.

Its downhill speed is obviously helped by its weight. Don says the Catrike Road weighs about 32 pounds, and he loads it up with other equipment. “I purposely carry more water than I need and often ‘bail out’ my fellow riders who go off into the hills with only two half-liter bottles on board, where no 7-11 can be found,” he said.  “I often carry six 700mL bottles and can add three more in a bag on the luggage rack if needed.”

That extra weight is also a big disadvantage. Whenever we hit even a slight upgrade, Don fell behind. The Catrike is geared low enough that he can climb most any hill he encounters, and often pedals up hills his diamond frame friends are forced to walk. “It needs lots of gears and the low end needs to be really low,” Don said.  “I think my rear cassette has a 32 tooth low gear.” But he says he’s getting better at keeping up with other riders, and on our ride, he would pull in to rest stops less than a minute after we arrived. And he admits it does have a harsh ride on rough pavement.

What about safety issues?

The Catrike is low to the ground, no doubt about it. That means it can be hard to see. Don says the big problem there is riding alongside parked cars. Where a road biker is perched high enough to be seen in a rear-view mirror (and theoretically avoid being doored), the Catrike is down out of sight. But he contends that most of the time, that odd appearance works to his benefit.

You won’t be able to catch much of a draft when following a trike.

“The thing looks so weird that it seems to register on drivers’ addled brains when even a large Harley, much less a Cannondale road bike does not,” he said.  “My big traffic problem has, so far, been people stopping me to inquire about what the heck it is, how much it cost and where to get one — most turn pale at the response to the cost question.” (MSRP on a Catrike Road is $2,950, according to the Catrike website.)

Another important safety consideration — always wear cleats. “There is a natural tendency to, in a moment of crisis, try to put one’s feet down to help stop,” Don said.”  The result is very likely to be running over your own feet and legs, pinning them under the front axles so badly that another person must lift one front wheel off the ground, help get one leg out, then go to the other side and repeat the process.” With cleats, the rider just focuses on braking.

But you’re not likely to fall off a Catrike (Don cautions that delta-style recumbents have a higher center of gravity and are more susceptible to rolling). And even mossy low-water crossings are not a problem. “You get wet,” Don said, “but a steady hand and just coasting through seems very safe.  And if you hit the water at 25-30mph it is very cooling as well.”

Don says trike owners are probably going to have to become their own mechanics, because of the very long chains found on recumbent bikes. Even though the drive train components are the same as you find on an upright bike, bike shops generally aren’t good at setting up recumbents, Don says.

Finally, Don urges trike owners to get out there and ride: “I regret that most Catrike riders seem to be absolutely freaked at the idea of a hill bigger than a freeway overpass in Houston or a ride longer than 10-15 miles.  But that is their loss.”

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Categories // Bikes Tags // Bikes, recumbent, trike

Biking With Another Blogger

06.03.2012 by Ray Niekamp // 6 Comments

On Friday, I treated myself to a ride I’d hoped would happen for several weeks now. I rode with a fellow named Don Bynum, who writes a biking blog about his rides with a group of his buddies in rural Texas. I had stumbled across Don’s blog, with the catchy name, “Don Bynum’s Blog,” some months ago, and was attracted to it because he does the kind of biking I’ve come to enjoy: Low-key rides in the country with leisurely stops for lunch. I managed to invite myself along on one of his rides.

Don lives about 75 miles from my house in Austin, on the shore of Lake Buchanan (Buck-CAN-nan) in Llano County. The nearest city of any size is Kingsland, which is an unincorporated blue-collar retirement community. Because of the distance, we decided to leave rather late — at 10 a.m. Three of his regular biking buddies — Richard, Doug, and John — joined us.

I knew from Don’s blog that we would be an older group, so I wore my “50 Plus” jersey for the occasion. But 50 doesn’t cut it with these guys. At 61, I was by far the youngest. Richard is 65, Don & John 68, and Doug 70. They kidded me about not making them work too hard. It turned out not to be a problem.

Don (right) with John and Richard before we set off. (Click pictures to enlarge.)

Don suggested we head for Inks Lake State Park and one of his favorite routes — Park Road 4. Getting there was a bit of a challenge. We rode Texas 261, a two-lane with no shoulder that was busier than I’d expected, to Texas 29, a four-lane with a decent shoulder, but lots of traffic. The road crossed the bridge over the Colorado River where it flows into Inks Lake, and soon after, we turned off onto Park Road 4. Almost immediately, Richard flatted. We thought it was because of a field of broken glass we’d passed over on Texas 29, but it turned out he had a faulty tube — it split along one of its seams. Don’s wife Peggy sagged Richard out to our lunch stop, while the rest of us continued our ride up the park road.

Our route. We rode in a clockwise direction. (Click here for the Ride With GPS page.)
The undulations on Park Road 4 at the entrance to the state park give a hint of what’s to come.

Don’s ride of choice is a three-wheeled recumbent called a Catrike. It sits low to the ground and can really fly going downhill. Going uphill, he slows drastically. But he can always put it into a 1 x 1 gear and spin up the steepest hill.

Don’s Catrike climbs the hill to a scenic lookout. Inks Lake is in the background.

The hills in the park were entertaining, and not too difficult. But soon we hit a straight, flat stretch of road. We were out of the park and into an area called Hoover’s Valley. And that meant it was time to stop for lunch. By this time, Peggy had collected Richard and delivered him to the Hoover’s Valley Store where we had gathered. She also brought Don’s mother and granddaughter, so we filled a large table in the store’s little restaurant. A cheeseburger and a bottomless glass of ice tea hit the spot, but two of the guys went for the meatloaf, mashed potato and green beans special.(!)

More than a store — it’s a nice little restaurant, too.
Bike Noob and Doug wait outside the store…
…while John tries to fix Richard’s flat. We decided to let it be and eat first. The flat was fixed after lunch.

Leaving the store, we continued south on the flat road, cruising at about 22 mph, when the advantages of the Catrike showed themselves. Don shot by me easily going about 30. He could have led most of the trip if he’d wanted to, but preferred to stay back in the event traffic came up from behind. The odd form of the trike caused cars to give us a wider than usual berth.

Don swings wide to pass us on a flat stretch of road.

When we reached Kingsland, the group broke up. Don had to get home to clean up, because he had an engagement later in the afternoon. Richard and John opted to go with Don. Doug offered to show me the “Llano Slab,” and we rode through Kingsland until we hit River Oaks Drive, which borders the Llano River. At the end of the drive, we made a short run down to the river itself, and I could see the slab — a formation of pink granite that breaks the river up into a number of rivulets, flowing fast and cold. It looked like the kind of feature you’d see in Utah, rather than Central Texas.

The Llano Slab. It’s much more extensive than can be seen in this picture.
The Llano River downstream from the slab.

Doug led the way back to Don’s house. I was hard pressed to keep up with him. He shifted into the big ring, and pedaled slowly but smoothly in a cadence that put the miles under his wheels. “I just find my comfort zone and go,” he said. I was in my small ring, pedaling at a higher cadence, trying to figure out why I couldn’t catch a 70-year-old.

Back at Don’s place, we unwound with some brews. L to r: Bike Noob, Richard, John, Doug, Don. Partially obscured behind Don, his mother, Ann.

As I said earlier, this is my idea of a great biking day. Some interesting topography, nice scenery, a good, but not too brisk, pace, a nice burger break, and then beers to top it off. Thanks to Don and the guys for showing me a good time.

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