Monday, February 7th, 2011 at 9:00 pm
You know bike culture is growing continuously regardless of if slowly when you start to see more and more recumbent bicycles on the streets of a place like NY City, previously one of the most notoriously bicycle-unfriendly places around and still host to irritable drivers and hostile policemen.
It has long been recognized that a reclined rider position, together with the frame geometries unique to that situation, make for much better aerodynamics and quicker speeds so fast, in fact , the land record for speed in a human-powered vehicle is held by a recumbent bicycle.
So fast, in reality that early on bicycle races banned recumbent because of the design’s inherent advantages . After winning a few races, it became quite clear that, all else being kind of equal, a recumbent rider was sure to triumph each time. And so the recumbent quickly faded from popular view and has been banished to usually home-built designs.
But bicycling is quite the rage in Europe, especially the more socially progressive states like Germany and the Netherlands. In Germany, there is even a town which voted to ban all automobile traffic to the edges of the town, while in the Netherlands there are plenty of more bicycles than cars on the road on any particular day! And so it is that in these states the recumbent bicycle has found reasonably established adoption, and the trend looks to be catching on even in a coarse place like NY City.
Recumbents, or bents for short, can be gotten in several different designs, from low-riders that look virtually as if the person is laying down supine to choppers that almost look like classic motorcycle designs. Actually ‘bents’ are a whole lot more sundry than regular bicycles ( also known as uprights ) are, which is one reason why they aren’t yet as widely supported by bike shops in the U. S. .
To discover more interesting articles such as this one visit www.articleblue.com.
Monday, February 7th, 2011 at 8:58 pm
You know bike culture is growing steadily even though slowly when you begin to see more and more recumbent bicycles on the roads of a place like NY City, formerly one of the most notoriously bicycle-unfriendly places around and still host to irritable drivers and hostile policemen.
It has long been recognized that a reclined rider position, together with the frame geometries 100% unique to that situation, make for miles better aerodynamics and quicker speeds so fast, in reality the land record for speed in a human-powered vehicle is held by a recumbent bicycle.
So fast, actually that early on bicycle races banned recumbent thanks to the design’s inherent advantages. After winning a few races, it became quite clear that, all else being kind of equal, a recumbent rider was sure to triumph every time. And so the recumbent quickly faded from popular view and has been banished to mostly home-built designs.
But cycling is reasonably the rage in Europe, especially the more socially progressive nations like Germany and the Netherlands. In Germany, there is even a city which voted to prohibit all automobile traffic to the outskirts of the city, while in the Netherlands there are numerous more bicycles than cars on the road on any given day! And so it is that in these states the recumbent bicycle has found reasonably established adoption, and the trend looks to be catching on even in a coarse place like new york city.
Recumbents, or bents for short, can be found in a few different designs, from low-riders that look almost as if the individual is laying down supine to choppers that almost resemble classic bike designs. In fact , ‘bents’ are a lot more varied than regular bicycles ( also known as uprights ) are, which is one reason why they are not yet as widely supported by bike shops in the U. S. .
To discover more interesting articles such as this one visit www.articleblue.com.