Recumbent News

Tatu Lund and Timo Sairi spent some time with Kick Network to highlight the new MirageBikes Nomad.

MetaBikes has posted two renders to its Facebook page to announce the arrival of a carbon frame in 2013.

MetaBikes provided the following information:

Thanks for your messages and questions about this new frame. We share with you some more info of what is going on :-)

This is a render image of course, but is a little more than that, is the exact shape that will soon start to be CNC milled to make the mould to produce the frames. 

The carbon frame fits in the MetaBikes line of recumbents. That means that an owner of any MetaBike can go into carbon only getting the new frame piece. 

It will be offered as an upgrade option from the current aluminium models, also as a separate piece for the reason mentioned above. So, the frame is strong enough for touring or unpaved roads.

The geometry and overal look is based in the aluminium frame. With the use of carbon the frame will improve in the following aspects:

• Weight: not only the material itself weights less, also the ability to get a piece made of one continue surface from front to back eliminates any redundant material. When working with aluminium basically the frame is made if many tubes welded together, so there is an overlap of material at the unions. The carbon piece will weight half of the aluminium. Weight reduction will be somewhere between 800g and 1000g
• Aero: the tubes' sections have been sharpen to reduce aero drag. The front stiffener triangle now acts also as a splitter plate. The main tube is oval (aluminium frame is round.) Chain stays have teardrop section.
• Comfort: Carbon softens the small vibrations from the road.

Availability is expected by mid-2013, the exact date will be known as the work progresses. Mind that there is needed some time to test and abuse of the pre-production frames.

There is a lot of hand labour working with carbon. To know the pricing is needed first to optimize the production, so we have to wait a bit until the first models are born. The material itself has a cost, as also the experts work with it, but we don't want that it ends with a crazy high price, so expect it to be no more expensive than any other recumbent carbon frame. We want to see it on the road and not in our warehouse. :-)

The MetaBikes platform has already been taken to the high 19, low 20 pound weight range in performance builds, so it will be interesting to see how low one can go with the upcoming carbon frame.

Once again this year, we have talked to a few owners of recumbent shops to get a feel for what is happening on the mean bike paths of America.

I have talked to seven shops in total, on both coasts and in the middle. I would have spoken to more, but my first finding is that a number of shops don't answer the phone in January. I guess people need to get outside sometime.

My second finding is that Marilyn Hayward of Coventry Cycles in Portland is back at work. Their corner of the world was shaken when she had her accident a few months ago. The shop is back in action and doing well.

Among the shops I spoke to, the consensus is that trike sales are still growing. The best selling brand is whatever that shop carries. I tried to pin people down a bit, to no avail. Customers who like folding trikes buy those. Customers who like suspension buy the trikes that have it. Mickey O'Brien at Laid Back Cycles sells about four tandem trikes per year. He said the buyers generally had experience with upright tandems. When infirmities strike one of the pair, they come in looking specifically for tandems.

Other non-standard offerings were small, simple children's trikes and big sturdy trikes for heavier adults. In the frozen wastes of Pennsylvania, Rob Gentry at RBR reported selling trikes in January, an unprecedented phenomenon. Mark Power in Tennessee is actively modifying trikes for disabled riders. He travels up to 700 miles to reach VA centers where he works with riders and therapists to design modifications for each client.

A note of caution came into proprietors voices when I asked about bikes. It seems the finite number of recumbent riders have about all the bikes they want. Sales have flattened for high, low, long, short and medium wheeled bikes. That might not be true everywhere. Robert Matson in New York thinks Cruzbikes have the potential to feed the interest in fast cruisers (Hurricane Sandy missed him).

A useful development, if you can arrange it, is to have bike trails in the city and preferably near the shop. Those shops able to arrange demos and group rides on trails reported a good response in good weather. PBW in California is sponsoring bike maintenance workshops that bring people into the shop when they aren't riding. One owner thinks TerraTrikes' actively marketing in seniors' magazines has stimulated sales.

Which brings us to demographics. Are you pondering what I'm pondering? The baby boomers carried the development of recumbent bikes and what sells them. Bikes became faster, lighter and better equipped. Their riders have become slower, heavier and more damaged. There was a step toward trikes, then faster trikes, then sturdier trikes, then faired, then electrified, then velomobiled and now solar powered. The final step will be to just buy the next damn car. What this country needs is more people wearing kilts (or skirts) because trousers can't contain their massive thighs.

I'm sorry. Where was I?

Where do we stand? The trend seems to be toward stable comfort. It may be touring and commuter bikes will step in for a saturated racing market. Could we get sparkly vampires to lip sync while riding a Tour Easy and capture the youth market? Perhaps the trike trend will seep into velomobiles. I don't know. I'm a sucker for all of them. I can only repeat the advice that came in over the phone: "Get the word out there!"

Berserker Cycle Design, founded by CalPoly professer Adam Stephens, announced on its site that they have ceased operations.

It may come as little surprise that Berserker has closed its doors, especially since not much had been heard from the company since the 2010 announcement of a BionX rack option. On January 3rd, their site was updated to share this most recent development:

After over four years of fun and excitement the Berserker tricycle will no longer be offered for sale.

We would like to thank our many loyal customers and followers.

Thanks to reader Dominick for passing this development along.

Euro Tour 2013, the European equivalent of 2011's Roll Over America, has been canceled.

Ride organizer Sean Havins recently announced the cancellation on the Logical Vehicles forum. Havins cited unresolved issues with the routes and French law:

It is the middle of January 2013 and we still do not have routes defined for Belgium, much of France or Switzerland. This makes it impossible to know many basic things that we must know to make the tour happen. It is too late.

Also, we must have help in France to register with the local districts if we are to ride together as a tour. Several ideas have been put forward to try and circumvent the French laws. I will not do this. Several ideas have been put forward to split the tour or skip France entirely. If this was the only major problem, I would consider one of these ideas and continue the tour.

In a separate post, Havins announced he was also stepping down as the tour coordinator.

Since the tour is in Europe, it needs leadership who is familiar with the countries involved and can communicate well. I have never been to Europe and I only speak one language.

I am not a manager. I am a technician. The management skills that are needed for a project of this type do not come naturally to me. I had hoped I could learn by doing and become the manager this tour needed. I did not.

For these reasons, I must step down and hand control to someone more qualified. If no one volunteers to take the role of organizational leader, this tour will not happen.

It is my hope that someone will pick this up and make it happen in 2014. Much of the work has been done and much still needs doing. I believe this tour can happen and and that when it does, it will be wonderful.

Things have been quiet for Evolve Trikes since their public debut at Recumbent Cycle-Con in 2011, but quite out of the blue, we've received an update from them...

We are pleased to announce that our folding technology has been recognised as being truly unique by the granting in full of our US patent. The notification from the USPTO indicates it should be published soon. We eagerly await the granting of our other patent applications in the US and elsewhere.

We have now settled on the core design with the initial models being kept as simple as possible whilst maximizing adaptability for individual needs. The trikes will be compatible with a wide range of different options and many after market upgrades, including a full gamut of drivetrain systems. This process has been time consuming but worthwhile as we want to deliver a product that customers remain happy with for many years.

Since you last heard from us we have developed:

• Updated geometry delivering improved handling
• Adjustable seat for rider comfort
• Modularity for 16” and 20” wheels with disc or drum brakes.
• Larger cross-members and headset bearing kingpins for improved ride and response
• Improved handlebar positioning
• An automatic chain length adjuster option that stays on with the fold
• And a number of smaller improvements for things like folding

All this has been achieved without adversely affecting folding ease or speed, or the folded size of the trikes. The 16in still folds into a standard suitcase – and is now even quicker.

We have successfully completed significant fatigue testing on the trikes, further verifying the reliability of our unique folding mechanisms and they remain unchanged. Through extensive trials we’ve optimized the trike geometry for best handling. Test riders are finding the trikes have very comfortable handling even over 50mph. We have eliminated all brake steer from the 20in, and on the 16in we have kept just a little edge to allow higher skilled riders to use the brakes to assist fast cornering.

We’ve also increased overall frame stiffness. More than one highly experienced trike rider has commented that our compact folding frame is stiffer than the frames of some upmarket trikes.

We have continued to improve the design as we make the trikes production ready. All input was considered during this stage of the trike's development. The preferences and suggestions submitted have been very useful. Submitters have been split fairly evenly on wheel size, so our aim to release both. We expect to release either a 16in or 20in, quickly followed by the other size. The manufacturing process may decide production order.

With the development stage complete, our focus is now on production. Ensuring everything will be made right is a long process, and we will be refining the production details over the next few months. Although we've had some interesting discussions, we are yet to seal an agreement with a suitable business partner. So we are currently proceeding independently as fast as our resources will allow. Regardless of having a partner or not, we are gaining confidence we should be able to release the first trikes in the latter half of 2013.

The input we’ve received has given us the message that a trike like ours is clearly needed. Thank you for your encouragement and your patience.

So that you can see some of what we’ve been up to, our availability page http://www.evolvetrikes.com/availability.html includes a sneek peek of a few images of a workhorse test trike with some of the improvements we've made.

Happy New Year and good triking ahead!
Eric Ball, Alan Ball

www.evolvetrikes.com