My recumbent - Long Wheel Base, Under Seat Steering ( LWB - USS)

My BlueCloud Recumbent

"Cyclists are open-minded. Cyclists are egalitarian. Cyclists share a fellowhip of the wheel that can overcome all political, social, racial and economic barriers. Except for recumbents."
- Ted Costantino, cycling journalist

bluecloud recumbent This bike was built in the late 1980's by Seattle's Dave Cloud for his wife. In 1995 the BlueCloud went to Nick Hein, then of Seattle and lately of Morgantown, WV.

In 2005 I was try to figure out whether to choose USS (under seat steering) or OSS (over seat steering), and I found the MonBent Yahoo Group. I asked advice on how to choose USS/OSS, and the response was to spend time riding them. One of the Monbent Group riders had an older 'bent for sale with USS, so I purchased it from him for a reasonable price and figured I'd spend some time with it to get some experience and see how the USS 'sits' with me.

For the sake of other neophytes, I'll repeat the briefing I got for my first recumbent ride. We were on a level, low-traffic street. The briefing was to place the left foot down on the street and lock the hand brakes. Then rotate the pedals so that the right shoe/pedal are at the top, about to deliver a power stroke down.

Point the steering wheel forward, look up at the horizon. Push the right foot forward on the pedal, releasing the brakes as the bike strains forward. Pick your left foot off the street and onto the pedal. Continue pedaling.

This was a lot like flying in a few respects. You need to get your head up and look at the horizon for your visual cues, rather than looking down at what you're doing. (As I've heard JT say, in basketball you can't learn to dribble while you're looking down at the ball.)

Another thing that's similar to flying is that having speed on the bike makes it more manueverable; it's smoother and more tolerant with speed on it. It might be worthwhile to try your first rides on a gently descending street.

The final similarity to flying is there's a damn lot of things going on the first few seconds.

This bike is a lot of fun to ride. I love the under-seat steering. As you sit there and pedal your view is of the road before you, and you really don't see the bike, you just see where you're going. It's a joy to ride it. OTOH, it really doesn't want to climb the hills that we have in Western PA - this is a rails-to-trails or flatlands bike, but it's not a climbing machine.

Some specs: 48 pounds, front & rear sidepull brakes, friction (ie, non-index) shifting on the back cassette. Here's some photos:

Closeup showing right-side hand rest, brake lever, friction shifter for rear cassette.

Closeup showing front chain ring (two rings, no on-the-fly shifting providing), and a bungee-powered chain tension device.

Closeup of front fork - note how the wheels are offset forward to avoid pedal strikes. The stem and handlebar stub is there for headlight/ computer/ accessory mounting and to avoid getting rain in the tube.