Riding a Bacchetta recumbent bicycle in a club ride of upright cyclists

I ride my Bacchetta Corsa A70 with the Vernon Wheelers, a club of older but strong riders. I've ridden with them for years, and recently moved to a recumbent due to back issues. I really like it, and it has some interesting strengths and weaknesses, requiring adjustments to riding in a group of upright cyclists that I describe in this video.

[@peterpurcell128]

First time I've seen a recumbent riding with a road pack and talking about it.well done.

[@WardBStrong]

Wow, thank you! I had looked for a long time for something to help guide me, and there's almost nothing out there. As I learn more, I'll make more videos.

[@BHman841]

I love my Bachetta Corsa V60. I climb at the same pace as the upright bikes until about 5% grade. Then I am markedly slower. Like you, I re-join on the downhill. Nice video!

[@WardBStrong]

Thanks for sharing! I find the break-even point is about 3%. But then, I've never been much of a climber anyway. I think a naturally good climber would have a higher break-even point, much like you. Good job!

[@mongofan1]

Nice ride and video. Beautiful area. I'm always the only recumbent rider in group rides, here, too (Santa Fe). Never groups that large, though, and I'm currently riding with the C level riders, so we don't form true pace lines. I ride a 2004 Bacchetta Ti Aero Basso. Alex

[@samj1185]

You make it look really easy. Took my first ride on my 'new to me' Bacchatta Strada yesterday. Lots to get used to. Twitchy balance, different pedal power, etc. Tough to keep a narrow, straight line but I hope to improve. Not as fast as I thought I'd be but that should change as I improve technique. Thanks for the vid.

[@WardBStrong]

Riding a bent is not the same as an upright. Balance is almost entirely achieved by steering, while uprights can use a lot of body weight. It takes practice; you'll get there. Also your muscles are used differently, so it might be several months before you're as fast as you were on an upright.

[@samj1185]

@@WardBStrong hope to. After my first couple of rides I realized that by the time I get fast on my bent I'll be way stronger all around

[@binarumah]

Thanks for sharing buddy. keep the video coming. I subscribed!

[@truth-Hurts375]

I met guys touring on these bicycles...they all told me its the most comfortable ride tjey can think of...

[@donaldblankenship8057]

The racers could have 110 gears so that they could stand on their pedals and get one more crouton out of their French bike. High climbs, they had to walk too or destroy their leg and arm muscles. At 55, I dogged the 38 year olds. If you pass them, they turned off on any right. Dog em. Level cruise on my recumbent was 32 mph for 30 mile no sweat, really, no exhaustion. Ready to go another 30 miles in cold rain which is what I did the first night I owned it. Not many horses could have ever said that on pedal power.

[@theretiredfatguy]

That's what I'm talking about. I just want 20.. 24 mph but 30.... Nice!

[@simplemann556]

I much prefer my Bacchetta Giro 26 over any DF. Ive sold all my DF bikes and have nothing but Bacchetta's now. I wished I started riding recumbents years ago.

[@rickym2881]

I know the feeling. After my first ‘bent bike, never look back

[@WardBStrong]

Well, living in quite hilly country (like, lots of climbs >5%), I often pine for the climbing ability of a DF bike. I know of only one other local cyclist who rode a 'bent, he stuck with it for 7 years and finally switched back, because he was sick of being dropped on the climbs.

[@simplemann556]

@@WardBStrong I'm a flatlander and have no problem climbing the little hills and overpasses we have here but I could imagine riding up some steep hills would be challenging. I'm not a racer and at my age prefer comfort over speed.

[@mongofan1]

I first discovered bents in 2017 and immediately wished I'd been riding them my whole life. With poor eyesight corrected by glasses, I spent nearly fifty years bent forward trying to see over, under, or through the top frame of my glasses. Sitting back and looking straight at the horizon through the center of my lenses, arms relaxed at my sides (first bent was a Vision R-40 with underseat steering) was a revelation. I now have two Visions, a long Rans Stratus XP, an HP Velotechnik Street Machine Gte, and a Bacchetta Ti Aero Basso; all purchased used. I'm planning to sell the Rans ... too awkward and not fast enough for a bike that is only effective on the road. The Basso is by far the fastest. I have wide tires on one Vision and the Street Machine and use them on trails and gravel. Very fun! Alex

[@ameranadianveteran860]

Hi Alex. I’m curious. What tires do you run on trails and gravel? I have a series of good gravel bike trails nearby. I’m older and my shoulders hurt on longer rides (despite tweaks to my position). Which recumbent bike is your favorite on gravel of the two? What model is the vision? Thanks.

[@MJQuintana]

Nice ride!

[@sieve5]

Nice video!!!

[@donaldblankenship8057]

Been there done that. Was great!

[@davidransom4476]

On club rides on a trail along a creek on my RANS Stratus LE I'd hang back to go under bridges, down and then back up. I'd try to gain speed going down to help going back up, but someone would always slow down to check on me and block me from whipping up the short incline. I could never make them understand.

[@WardBStrong]

If you can work to the front of the pack before the downhill, you've got it licked, but if there's a climb before the downhill that's hard! There's a long, winding 6 km downhill on one of our routes, and I can't ever make it to the front before the down begins. So I pick off the uprights one by one until I'm out front, then put as much distance as I can between me and the group. The faster ones will catch me by the top of the following climb, but I'm still at the front of the pack by the next downhill. So much strategizing!

[@theretiredfatguy]

That bike can move well. Nice

[@DemiGod..]

Was under the impression that the cruz bikes were good climbers because you could pull on the handlebars to help climb.

[@blotto3204]

Thanks for sharing!

[@SuperTechnicalman]

nice

[@Cesarhernandez-wv3do]

Great video. New sub.

[@sarajounger3123]

We have a bike group in south florida and today a gentleman showed up with a recumbent bike Can you give us some advice on how to have him in our group ride. Seems folks are nervous being behind him in a group. Should he always be infront or in the back or can he be in the mix with other riders on regular bikes? would love some feedback

[@WardBStrong]

Sorry Sara, I just saw this! Don't check in too often. When I first started, I rode either out front or in the back, or if there's room on the road, beside the paceline. As we all got used to each other, I started integrating more. Of course, I'm riding with folks I've ridden upright bikes with for years, so they were quite accommodating. I learned that in the paceline, if there's a big guy behind me he hardly gets any draft, so I represent a break in the line. I avoid that. They learned that to draft me, they have to really tuck and stay right on my wheel. After a couple years riding with them, it just isn't an issue any more. Though to be honest, I'm usually still either in the front (or near it) or in the back, being that we live in rolling country. When the group is big, like >10 riders, it's hard for me to jump quickly from the back to the front, so I tend to stay in the back more. If we are on a long flatish stretch (we do not have any Florida-flat roads) I will move to the front of a long lineup.

[@brucewmclaughlin9072]

So what is your cadence normally? I wish the roads in Vancouver were as car free as yours.

[@WardBStrong]

Hi Bruce, my son lives in Vancouver and I was riding there just a few weeks ago. Lots of cars, but with all the "new" (to me) bicycle infrastructure it's pretty fun! My normal cadence depends on how hard i'm going... around 80 for easy cruising, up to 100 for hard pushes. My cadence is higher on the 'bent than on an upright bike, even with the same crank length.

[@markfeldman6509]

Great video and group ride. What were your approximate stats…..speed, cadence etc?

[@WardBStrong]

Hi, average speed was 28.8 kph. I don't have cadence or heartrate, but my average cadence is usually about 90. Thanks for your interest!

[@bhelpurii]

What shorts do you use please. I find normal riding shorts a waste of time as the chamois is a waste of time as the contact point are different to an upright bike. Thanks for sharing

[@WardBStrong]

I hear you! I tried just Lycra gym shorts but they aren't long enough, and with your upper legs slipping up, the hem slides down towards the crotch, not exactly flattering. I tried sewing some gripper rubber in the hems, which helped but they're still too short. Ended up carefully taking the chamois out of my old riding shorts... labor intensive but free. the easy but expensive way is commercial recumbent shorts, but I think they are dramatically overpriced.

[@sauronthegreat5799]

In the end, your much more comfortable and less pain after a ride. I think of recumbent as cruisers and not racing bikes.

[@WardBStrong]

Yeah, except bents were outlawed for racing in the 30's because they were winning all the races. They are good cruisers, but they are also fast.

[@babblesp1367]

I’ve had back surgery. I don’t have one of these, but I am thinking of getting one. I have a regular comfort bike now, but it’s still not comfortable enough for me with my back. I’m thinking this is what I need as long as I don’t recline too much, which will also bother my back. It’s like I can’t win.

[@AdamBiking]

Would you say you’re putting out the same power on a recumbent, and just disadvantaged by weight, or does the breathing and other issues really limit FTP?

[@WardBStrong]

There's been lots of online discussion about whether and why recumbents climb slower than uprights. Most people agree that there is a disadvantage on the climbs, but there's no consensus on why. My thoughts are that it's partly weight: bents are heavier than uprights. Ideas that you can't stand up to pedal, or that the body position is less efficient, don't seem to stand up to scrutiny. My thoughts now are that it has to do with breathing. I was an asthmatic as a kid, and whenever I had an asthma attack, the most comfortable position to breathe was on my hands and knees (similar to an upright), And the worst position was lying on my back (similar to a recumbent). I also noticed about a 10% improvement in climbing when I installed a headrest, because my neck muscles relaxed and stopped affecting my breathing. Just my opinion, for what it's worth

[@drewswitzer7574]

@@WardBStrongYears ago, I came across a rather compelling video about why recumbents don't climb as well as deltas. In the video, the author was running some tests to see if he could narrow it down. He used three bikes, a standard hardtail mountain bike, and two recumbents, a single aluminum straight tube like most short wheelbase setups and an older, sorta odd chromoly trellis frame long wheelbase that looked like a stretched out delta frame with two seat tubes spread out over the longer distance. He adjusted the seats on the recumbents so they had more or less the same hip angle but the SWB was a little more leaned back because its pedals were higher up. What he found was that the LWB climbed much better than his SWB even though the SWB was substantially lighter. The delta won, obviously, but he did note something interesting by jumping back and forth between them all day, which led to his theory of frame stiffness. His LWB, with its trellis frame, had a stiffer pedal feel than his SWB, and they were both softer than the hardtail. He figured that because the Delta frame's bottom bracket was connected to four tubes (down tube, seat tube and the two chain stays) in the middle of the frame, that the frame there just couldn't flex at all. The LWB's bottom bracket was wedged into the angle between the top tube and the down tube just behind where they connected to the head tube, so it was connected to two (three if you count the head tube I guess) tubes, but near the far-flung front end of the bike and the SWB's bottom bracket *was* the front end of the bike and had just the one big telescoping tube that seemed to flex almost imperceptibly and wiggle a tiny bit where the clamp held the BB boom from moving in or out of the frame tube but couldn't quite stop it from twisting just a smidge under really heavy pedalling. He figured that if you could make a recumbent frame as stiff as a delta frame it would climb just as well, accounting for the extra weight of course, but then most use could lose that difference if we just laid off the ice cream, eh?

[@fuzzyvibe144]

how much was this bike?

[@WardBStrong]

I'm in Canada, bought the bike in 2019, price with shipping, duties, and taxes was around CDN $3600. I built it myself or that would have been extra

[@Rottingboards]

I always do great in wind compared to uprights.

[@WardBStrong]

Ya the bents have the advantage going into the wind and downhill. I've pulled our whole group for long stretches into strong winds, even up mild grades, because of our aero advantage. Best if a small strong rider is on your wheel, then larger riders stack up behind them.

[@Rottingboards]

I was asked if mine was electric as I zoomed past riders downhill without pedaling. LOL @@WardBStrong

[@enjoyurselfwhileucan4960]

Just skip this video, it turns into a fast forward hell