Use the Force, Luke

Yesterday I brought the Streetmachine home on a garage sale, trunk bike rack. I had concerns that it might end up falling off the car on the Beltway but all went splendidly. At home, I made a few adjustments to the mirror, bell, and bike computer and rode around the block a few times. With each lap, I mounted and dismounted the bike. I am proud to say that I didn’t fall once.

I used the YouTuber’s mounting technique which worked well. Take hold of the seatback and stand up tall. Tilt the bike a wee bit toward you then lift your foot over the boom and plop it on the opposite side. Done. For dismounts both the YouTuber and Melissa use a spin move that takes the right foot over the cranks and ends up with you facing backward. It’s actually easier than getting on.

I had heard that stopping would be a problem because the seat is somewhat higher than most recumbents. That extra inch or so before the left foot hits the ground will take some getting used to but it’s not a big deal.

Starting the bike is another matter. You push forward with the right foot then quickly lift your left foot off the ground so that it can complete the pedal stroke and send you merrily on your way. If you don’t succeed, gravity may send you not so merrily onto your left side. This sort of thing happens with all bikes but the twicthy underseat steering adds a bit of excitement to the process. If you fail and put you foot back down you can start again, of course, unless the procedure leaves you in the middle of an intersection with an Amazon van bearing down on you.

To start the ride today, I rolled down the front lawn and over a half dozen tree roots. The suspension made easy work of the bumps. I rode what I call the perimeter ride, a circuit around the Mount Vernon neighborhood. It features plenty of curves and a few very gentle inclines.

In Fort Hunt Park I encountered a couple of short stretches where the asphalt was torn up. The Streetmachine handled the gravel and bumps without trouble.

During the entire ride, I had flashbacks to when I first rode a bike without training wheels. I kept feeling like I was going to fall over. I could feel my shoulders rising up whenever some normally innocuous situation arose. Sit back, relax, and trust the physics!

One cool feature of this bike’s design is that you can pedal through turns because the pedals are high up and half a leg length in front of the front wheel. Once I realized this, turns became much less scary. And more fun.

The ride did highlight some other interesting aspects of the bike. Most bikes have the front wheel in front of the rider. The Streetmachine’s front wheel is beneath the seat. This means that the wheel encounters bumps a split second after it normally would. Tim Fricker, the Bikes at Vienna owner who is letting me do a week-long test ride, mentioned that one odd thing about underseat steering is that people are used to steering cars and bikes with their hands in front of them.

It’s ironic that today’s entire ride was stressful. I don’t have the muscle memory for this kind of bike so I have to think about every little thing. I have to keep reminding myself, sometimes out loud, to relax. Use the force, Luke.

You can carry pretty much anything you need on this bike. Unlike all my other bikes, everything you need is behind the seat. There’s nowhere to put stuff in front of you. In a way this is a good thing since you will be fully immersed in the riding experience. This came in handy when the driver of a humongous SUV back up into the road in front of me without looking.

About 20 miles into the ride, I tried out the Mount Vernon Trail. It is substantially narrower than the road so this was not a trivial exercise for the wobbly newbie. Along the way I stopped to help Jonathan and Shareen (sp?) fix a flat on Jonathan’s bike. It turns out the pump that I bought and don’t like is pretty useful on skinny tires.