Tag: streetmachine

The Continuing Adventures of Johnny Two Bents – Recumbent Test Pilot

Today was test ride number 3. After a false start, I skipped doing laps in my neighborhood and headed straight out to the main road near my house. Unfortunately, my new wireless bike computer didn’t get the message so I stopped after a half mile to try to fix it. It started then stopped then stayed on. I have no idea why it worked perfectly for the first two test rides and now was glitchy. Maybe the battery in the sensor is worn out. Time will tell.

I rode over to and across the GW Parkway. No cars were coming so I didn’t get to test my starting skills. They need work as you will see below.

I headed north toward Old Town, Alexandria by way of Fort Hunt Road. This is a 35 mph two-lane road. It features a quarter mile long downhill. I feathered the brakes and kept the top speed to 25 mph (I could easily hit 35 with more confidence.) There was a traffic light at the bottom but I had the green so once again I didn’t get to practice starting from a standstill. Over the next half mile I climbed up two small hills. Another traffic light failed to cooperate so I rode unimpeded all the way to Old Town. I encountered still another traffic light at South Washington Street. This too was green. I was beginning to think my Streetmachine had some sort of traffic light sensor on it.

I rode under the Woodrow Wilson Bridge passing through some bollards without clipping them, up Union Street, and across two sets of railroad tracks without stopping or any other incidents. I picked up the Mount Vernon Trail and rode through a chicane at a decommissioned power plant (every bike trail should have one.) Here I encountered the world’s slowest pedestrian, a young man deep in conversation on his cell phone. I couldn’t pass him because we were approaching a blind curve. (Good thing I didn’t because a bike was coming our way.) I slowed and stopped for Mr. Cellphone. When I stopped I was in the middle of a cloud of midges. Ack. It took a couple of attempts but once Mr. C cleared the blind curve I was underway again and free of the bugs.

I made it to Daingerfield Island, a convenient turn around point. Before the ride, my friend Charmaine had invited me to have lunch at a pizza place on busy Duke Street but I told her I needed to do more test riding and Duke Street is a car sewer, unsafe for test riding. She hooked up with Reba, a mutual friend. They both are bicyclists and were interested in seeing the Streetmachine. After hanging out for a bit on the Island’s river side deck, I texted Charmaine that I was heading back south.

After a couple more false starts I was underway. The ride back was a piece of cake. No issues at all. I stopped a few times to drink water and got underway with just a wobble or two each time. I crossed the GW Parkway again. I made it halfway across and had to stop at the traffic island in the middle. I made it across the second half of the highway with nary a wobble at the start.

My route took me mostly on the relatively narrow Mount Vernon Trail. I managed the width much more confidently than yesterday.

I shifted to neighborhood streets with little traffic. As I approached Fort Hunt Park I heard someone call my name. Charmaine and Reba had tracked me down by borrowing my wife’s cell phone which has a tracking app. Clever.

We had a nice chat. Then they wanted me to show off my skills. I started to push off with my right foot and lost my balance to the right. I pulled my foot off the pedal to arrest my tilt. To my surprise. my right shoelace had somehow wrapped around the pedal. When I pulled my foot off, it yanked the bike sideways and down I went. Hard, bearing most of the impact on my upper right arm. Ow.

After the appropriate interval of cussing and pain assessment, I stood up and righted the bike. The bike didn’t have a scratch on it. Me not so much. I had a nasty straight line cut above my left ankle (from either a pedal or the big cog on my chainring). I also had some road rash near my right knee. Reba, being a nurse, insisted that I clean my wounds and even provided some unopened bottle water and clean paper towels.

Once I cleaned up I got going and did a few turns for my audience. Then we parted ways and I rode into the park. Oddly, my front derailer stopped working. The shifter kept slipping into my (easiest) granny gear. I stopped and checked the cable. All good. I tried riding holding the shifter in place but found this annoying and let the chain drop onto the granny gear for the last three miles of my ride.

There is a silver lining in these clouds. Since I was stuck in my small chainring, I discovered that starting in the granny gear is quite a bit easier than using the middle or large chainrings.

Interestingly, the distractions of the computer and the shifter meant that I wasn’t paying much attention to my riding technique. I was riding on automatic pilot and the last couple of miles went by very smoothly.

I called Tim Fricker for advice about the shifter. He explained a simple adjustment was all that was needed.

As for the bike computer, I’ll probably put a new battery in. If that doesn’t work, I’ll take it back to the shop.

Another 31 miles in the books. Tomorrow, another nice weather day, will be the final test ride. Hopefully, I will keep the rubber side down for this one.

A Better Ride

Today’s weather was good enough for another test ride of the Streetmachine. To be honest, after Saturday’s 31-mile ride, I had very low expectations. In fact, I had all but decided to take the bike back to Bikes at Vienna, tip my helmet to Tim Fricker for letting me try it out for a week, and moving on.

The ride started with yet another precarious bike mounting. I then rode the 3/4 of a mile circuit around my neighborhood. I made it a point to consciously keep my shoulders against the seat back, something I didn’t do on Saturday. Within a couple hundred yards I could tell the bike was handling much better. I suppose the change in position had put more weight on the big, fixed rear wheel and less on the underseat handlebars and the small front wheel underneath the seat.

After one lap, I stopped. Instead of planting my left foot, I slid off the front of the seat and popped up to a standing position, just as I had seen in a YouTube video and just as I do on my Tour Easy recumbent. Bingo. I dismounted surprisingly smoothly. After an awkward re-mounting, I slid back on the seat, pushed my shoulders into the seat back, and pedaled. I wobbled a bit but I was underway more or less in a straight line.

As I did another lap I tried to focus on technique. Shoulders back, arms relaxed. Find a comfortable gear. Head up. Success. This time the pop stop worked better. As I slowed to about three miles per hour I slid forward and let the momentum of the bike push me into a standing position.

Now it was time to leave the cozy home loop and try some other skills. I rode to a nearby neighborhood and went down about eight different cul de sacs. Initially, I tried to consciously steer the bike with the handlebars. Nope. After a few 180s I learned the secret. Pedal, lean, relax. Let the bike do the work instead of my arms. Success. After a few left handed 180s, I did a few right handed ones. No problem.

I rode over to Fort Hunt Park and took the bike on less-than-perfect road conditions: asphalt with some gravel, slick spots, and tight squeezes through orange traffic barrels. After a couple of 1.75 mile laps I had things down. I also learned that after the pop stop I could easily reach my water bottles. While I’d prefer to drink while riding, I don’t think that’s a skill I am ready for just yet.

I left the park headed into two more neighborhoods, each with a circuit and a small hill. As I rode and gained confidence, each passing mile was a bit faster. I did notice that if I was distracted I tended to drift a bit. A few times I seemed to be headed for a curb. Relax. Lean. Recover.

Next up was a bigger downhill and uphill. The downhill was a little sketchy (I tensed up) but the uphill was straightforward using the granny gear.

The last challenge of the day was crossing the George Washington Parkway. I was in a too-high gear and my bike was pointed up about one degree making the initial push of the pedal difficult. After a couple of false starts, I made it across easily.

The last mile or so my form deteriorated. I can’t say I was tired physically but my mental focus was pretty much gone. I turned onto my street, rode past my house and did a low-speed u-ey. I didn’t quite have the room to complete the turn and ended up pivoting on my left foot. Bad idea. My knee did not like it one bit and is barking a few hours later but I am sure it’s fine.

So lessons learned: (1) the pop stop means that my left hip doesn’t bear nearly as much stress as on my first rides. (2) The bigger stress to my left hip comes from my awkward mounting of the bike, not the dismounts. (3) The more I ride, the better my technique becomes. After Sunday’s ride, I was exhausted from mental stress and my upper body was spent from trying to physically control the bike. After today’s ride, I finished feeling very good both mentally and physically. My upper body was not the least bit tense.

Another thing that is working well is my choice of pedals. I took the Catalyst pedals off The Mule and put them on the Streetmachine. These pedals are extra long and have grippy studs. My feet are pretty happy.

So, tomorrow afternoon, I do another test ride. This one likely will feature bigger hills and more starts at road crossings.

Stay tuned.

Hip Don’t Lie

This week I was planning on test riding the HP Velotechnik Streetmachine I have on loan from Bikes at Vienna. Since I do not own the bike, I am being careful not to ride it in rainy weather. I did manage to ride it in gusty conditions during my 31-mile test ride the other day. The bike handled just fine. The weather forecast for the last two days has called for intermittent rain so I haven’t ridden it since.

Yesterday I decided to ride the Tank, my Surly CrossCheck instead. The reason was twofold. First, I don’t much care if the Tank gets messed up with rain. Second, I needed to test out a problem I had after my Streetmachine test ride. It involved sharp pain in my left hip.

Back in 2019, I rode The Mule 3,000 miles from Indiana to San Francisco. My left knee and hip were screaming at me the entire way. When I returned home I had a series of cortisone shots that put things right. An MRI revealed that my left knee has very little cartilage in it. I suspect that several crashes on my bikes which nearly always involve a fall to the left have damaged my hip as well. As long as I am careful and refrain from mashing big gears, both the hip and the knee behave themselves.

After riding the Streetmachine, the sharp pain in my left hip returned. Aside from my decrepit anatomy, the cause could come from a number of factors.

First, when I stop the bike, I have to put my left foot down. I need my right foot ready for the first pedal stroke at start up because my left knee won’t tolerate the initial mashing. Also, the seat is rather high so when I stop, the bike leans hard to the left. The bike (and the engine) are quite heavy. I suspect this weight is part of the problem. When I stop the Tank, also a heavy bike, I only put my left toe down because much of the weight is borne by the wheels. My body weight is mostly on my arms and my right foot which is pushing on the right pedal. On tour, there’s an additional 30 or 40 pounds of gear to add to the equation. Thus, the pain during my 2019 ride.

Another issue with the Streetmachine is the process of getting started. Getting rolling is ungainly to say the least. It usually takes me two or three tries to get rolling. Each time I have to start, I have to re-weight my left hip.

A third possible issue is the shape of the seat. The sides of the seat curve up. When I stop my left hip bumps awkwardly into this curve.

Finally, when I get off the bike, I swing my right foot over the front of the bike, supporting the bike and all my weight on my left foot. I then pivot on my left foot toward the rear of the bike. This spinning motion probably adds stress to the left hip.

My wife took a short video of me riding away from the house the other day. I rode down my front lawn, over some root heaves, and into the street. The bike was quite stable but I noticed in the video that my shoulders and head were leaning forward. All the videos I have seen online show the riders’ shoulders pressed against the seat back. So I might just not be riding the bike properly. Given my lower back issues, this may not be correctible.

The forecast for tomorrow and Wednesday looks pretty good. My plan is to take the Streetmachine to a local park and practice starting and stopping, mounting and dismounting. I will also try to concentrate on committing to the seat with my shoulders more.

I have until Friday to make a final decision. Fingers crossed.

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.

Fixed it!

April 2025 – The Not So Cruel Month

Reading

Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection by John Green. Green is famous for writing several, very good young adult novels, including The Fault in Our Stars. Lately, he has shifted to adult nonfiction. This nonfiction work explains pretty much everything you’d want to know about TB, and then some. TB is very rare in the developed world but continues to kill over 1.2 million people per year worldwide, despite the existence of effective medicines. The causes of this situation are poverty, social stigma, poor medical and non-medical infrastructure, the spread of HIV, and pharmaceutical companies more focused on finances than medical outcomes.

Watching

Daredevil Born Again. Just as Andor is Star Wars for adults, Daredevil Born Again is Marvel for adults. A complex plot that evolves over nine episodes (with nine more to come). It tells how blind lawyer Matt Murdock is sucked back into vigilantism by the murderous corruption of New York City Mayor Wilson Fisk and his sinister wife Vanessa. Shockingly explicit violence and vulgar language make this series utterly inappropriate for kids. Charlie Cox as Murdock and Vincent D’Onofrio as Fisk are exceptional as is the supporting cast.

Andor Season 2: Diego Luna returns as Cassian Andor in this prequel to Rogue One, which tells how Princess Leia obtained the plans for the Empire’s death star in the first Star Wars movie. Over the course of the two seasons, we learn how Andor becomes radicalized in the fight against the Empire. Luna is fantastic as is Stellan Skarsgard (Is he in everything?) and the rest of the cast. Andor and Rogue One are the very best of the Star Wars canon.

Riding

The highlight of the month was my week long van-supported ride up the 444 mile Natchez Trace Parkway with a group of 12 others. The tour itself worked out quite well but was nearly spoiled by some shambolic pre-event administrative by the Adventure Cycling Association.

My back did not handle the tour well, so when I came back home I shifted from The Mule to Big Nellie, my long wheel base recumbent. My back is still messed up but the discomfort that seemed to last all day during the tour is now more intermittent, a welcome development.

On the last day of April, I test rode an HP Velotechik Streetmachine, a short-wheel-base recumbent with under seat steering. It’s quite tricky to ride. I did about ten laps of the parking lot at the bike shop before venturing out on the W&OD bike trail. On the way back to the shop I diverted to a neighborhood street to try my hand at climbing and at riding at speed over speed humps. Climbing was tough (it’s a heavy bike and the pedals were a bit too close for optimal mechanics) but the speed humps were fun thanks to the bike’s suspension system. The seat is higher than my Tour Easy so stopping can be awkward. This seat height also means that getting on and off the bike is challenging and, frankly, a bit scary. I consulted Melissa, a Natchez Trace rider who owns a Streetmachine, for tips. She was very helpful. I am also watching whatever I can on YouTube.

The Streetmachine in one of its seemingly infinite configurations.

Since I have been a regular customer of my local recumbent bike shop for nearly 25 years, the shop owner, Tim, is letting me test ride the bike for a couple of weeks to make sure I can handle the bike’s unusual characteristics. (I can just see Tim having a heart attack yelling “REFUND? REFUND?!” if I bring the bike back.)

I broke 1,000 miles for the month (1,019 to be exact). The Mule, mostly the bike tour, accounted for 631 miles. Big Nellie chipped in 360 miles. For the year I have racked up 3,458 miles. To be honest I am fast approaching burn out and hope the Streetmachine can put some life back into my riding.